Data & Tools Publications Training

What is it?fault_tree

Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) is a “top down” assessment of how a product or system failure (or other “undesired event”) can occur based on the behavior of lower-level functions, assemblies, parts, software, and human behavior. The analysis clearly and logically identifies the fault relationships, allowing the identification of design/process weaknesses and the probability of undesirable top-level events occurring.

What’s the payoff?

The analysis helps determine all potential causes of undesirable top-level events and can quantify the probability of event occurrences. It provides an efficient approach to focus on a selected subset of critical faults from all possible sources that can cause catastrophic failures.

How can we help?

  • Perform a simple or comprehensive FTA on your product or system
  • Determine and tailor the most effective reliability analysis activities for your product line
  • Train your staff in FTA methods and other reliability analysis techniques
  • Provide assistance to your staff in developing fault trees, system models and probability data
  • Provide guidance on appropriate failure characteristics used in support of FTAs
  • Objectively review FTAs performed by third parties and correct any deficiencies

Download PDF Version

Related Data & Tools:

Staff at the RMQSI Knowledge Center have provided many years of value-added consulting and software/tool development experience in the RMQ Engineering disciplines, to both commercial and government clients.  Browse through our website to learn more and contact us to see how we can develop software and tools tailored to the specific RMQ needs of your organization.

Related Publications:

  • Achieving System Reliability Growth Through Robust Design and TestThis book offers new definitions of how failures can be characterized, and how those new definitions can be used to develop metrics that will quantify how effective a Design for Reliability (DFR) process is in (1) identifying failure modes and (2) mitigating their root failure causes.
  • Fault Tree AnalysisA Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) is essentially a logical representation of all the ways a particular fault, or failure, can occur. In this type of analysis, one identifies a particular failure or fault they are trying to analyze (i.e., a top-level undesired event) and then proceeds to evaluate that condition through a set of intermediary fault states that, if present, would result in that failure. Fault states are assumed to exist when certain events happen.

Related Training: