The Function-Human Error Design Method (FHEDM)

Abstract

During the design of products and systems, engineers must quickly and accurately satisfy customer needs while adequately developing the required system functions with the minimum number of failures. Identifying potential failure modes during early design stages is essential to create reliable designs. Different engineering methodologies such as Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA), allows engineers to identify how a set of components could fail. These methods are popular and commonly used in industry. However, such methodologies fail to recognize potential failure modes caused by human-product interaction. During the design of products, there is often a lack of sufficient attention to the human-product interaction. Even though human factors are considered during the design process, most of the design approaches fail to incorporate the human interaction correctly. In this research, we explore the implementation of a novel design methodology named Function-Human Error Design Method (FHEDM), which identifies possible generic human errors while completing a functional decomposition of the product. This method will provide engineers with useful information about potential failure modes caused by human-function interaction during early conceptual design.