• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.55-63
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• 2001

This paper describes a methodology of product function deployment for understanding product functions and generating systematic functional relation charts. The product function deployment is based on the designer's understanding of product functions. The method involves following steps: 1) definition of product primary function and flows of energy, material, and information, 2) construction of a product tree using key parts, 3) definition of functions and interactions of the functional units, 4) construction of 'from-to' relation matrices, 5) grouping of the parts, and 6) construction of functional relation charts. With this approach, functional relation charts can be generated such that complex product functions are easily understood. The functional relation chart of a refrigerator is generated as an example.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2001.06c
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• pp.333-338
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• 2001

Fault tree is a widely used methodology for analyzing product reliability. The fault trees are usually constructed using the experiences of expert reliability engineers in top-down approaches and have different structures according to each expert's subjectivity. In this work it is tried to find a general method for the fault tree construction based on the function tree that is the result of product function deployment. Based on the function tree, the method has the advantage of resulting an objective fault tree since the faults are defined as the opposite concept of functions. The fault tree construction of this work consists of the following steps: 1) definition of product primary function with the viewpoints of product operation and configuration, 2) construction of functional relation chart using a grouping algorithm, 3) abstraction of functional block diagram according to operation sequences and configuration of a product, 4) construction of function tree for each viewpoint, and 5) construction of fault tree by matching the function tree and simplification of the result.