FAILURE MODE IDENTIFICATION THROUGH CLUSTERING ANALYSIS.pdf

ABSTRACT
Researchhasshownthatnearly80%ofthecostsandproblemsarecreatedinproductdevelopmentand
thatcostandqualityareessentiallydesignedintoproductsintheconceptualstage.Currentlyfailure
identificationprocedures(suchasFMEA,FMECAandFTA)anddesignofexperimentsarebeingusedfor
qualitycontrolandforthedetectionofpotentialfailuremodesduringthedetaildesignstageorpostproduct
launch.Thoughallofthesemethodshavetheirownadvantages,theydonotgiveinformationasto
whatarethepredominantfailuresthatadesignershouldfocusonwhiledesigningaproduct.Thiswork
usesafunctionalapproachtoidentifyfailuremodes,whichhypothesizesthatsimilaritiesexistbetween
differentfailuremodesbasedonthefunctionalityoftheproduct/component.Inthispaper,astatistical
clusteringprocedureisproposedtoretrieveinformationonthesetofpredominantfailuresthatafunction
experiences.Thevariousstagesofthemethodologyareillustratedusingahypotheticaldesignexample.