The Flame system: automating electrical failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA)

It is well known that FMEA is both tedious and time consuming-so much so, that an FMEA analysis on the design of a system is often only completed after a first prototype has been constructed. This situation can lead to time, effort and money being wasted. Automating the FMEA process will improve the speed and consistency with which an FMEA analysis can be performed. The Flame system aims to provide engineers with a knowledge based system (KBS) which is capable of performing automated FMEA. At present, we are concentrating our efforts on electrical design FMEA, however mechanical and software FMEA will be the subjects of future study. The input to the Flame system consists of a physical description of a particular circuit and a description of that circuit's functionality. The output from Flame will be a complete (or near complete) FMEA form which can be checked, annotated and signed off by an engineer. The Flame system demonstrates that it is indeed possible to provide engineers with a means of performing automated electrical FMEA. The application considered is automobile systems.