The function-structure (F-S) Map expresses the high-level structure of a design. It is often used in the early stage of conceptual design and serves as the starting point for a number of design tools like quality function deployment, failure mode and effects analysis, and more. On the other hand, in designing risk products whose failure can result in serious damage to the quality of human health or the society, the designer often uses tools like failure mode and effect analysis or fault tree analysis to detect weaknesses in design before the products are shaped. Failures, nonetheless, take place and cause negative impact to the society. It is then that the designer or other experts review the design to find flaws in the failure analysis tree or find elements or links in the graph that the designer overlooked. In other words, pre-production failure analysis is limited to the designer’s knowledge and insight. This paper proposes a way to make use of failure knowledge with past accident cases by constructing the F-S Map for the failed products and storing the information in a failure database. Designers can then compare the F-S Map for new products with linked representation of past failure cases and realize scenarios of failure he did not recognize or have to design carefully.

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