Design based on scenario to consider the improvement of reliability in a conceptual design stage

The design of product-behaviors is significant in product development, because the product-behaviors will result in product-functions. If some unforeseen failures in product-behaviors are overlooked, product-functions could be badly affected or ever catastrophically lost in the worst case. Because of the ever increasing product system complexity, few designers may no longer be able to handle all the product behaviors. As such, the product behavior which cause fatal product defect may not be fully identified, causing the loss of reliability or lost the brand in the market. Stepwise product behavior design tools available today mainly focus on the management of software development process. However these tools cannot apply to mechanical design because it is necessary to consider structural restrictions of a product. Reported in this paper are engineering methodologies of stepwise product behavior and structure information generation. The simultaneous product behavior and structure information generation process in each design phase is proposed. Three critical issues of system implementation: product information model integrated behavior and structure, hierarchical design process model, reliability evaluation algorithm, are addressed.