Failure of Engineering Artifacts: A Life Cycle Approach

Abstract

Failure is a central notion both in ethics of engineering and in engineering practice. Engineers devote considerable resources to assure their products will not fail and considerable progress has been made in the development of tools and methods for understanding and avoiding failure. Engineering ethics, on the other hand, is concerned with the moral and social aspects related to the causes and consequences of technological failures. But what is meant by failure, and what does it mean that a failure has occurred? The subject of this paper is how engineers use and define this notion. Although a traditional definition of failure can be identified that is shared by a large part of the engineering community, the literature shows that engineers are willing to consider as failures also events and circumstance that are at odds with this traditional definition. These cases violate one or more of three assumptions made by the traditional approach to failure. An alternative approach, inspired by the notion of product life cycle, is proposed which dispenses with these assumptions. Besides being able to address the traditional cases of failure, it can deal successfully with the problematic cases. The adoption of a life cycle perspective allows the introduction of a clearer notion of failure and allows a classification of failure phenomena that takes into account the roles of stakeholders involved in the various stages of a product life cycle.

Durability as a techno-socio-economic concept

“…This definition is structurally similar to the conventional definition of failure as a form of inability of the product, however, failure is referred to the "goals of the design team" rather than a specific required function. For del Frate (2013) this is a negotiated and agreed set of goals of stakeholders beyond a single organisation; and includes the satisfaction of the users. Projecting this perspective on considerations for the definition of durability, we firstly reflect that the current definitions are unduly centred on the device-centric view, with insufficient and imprecise consideration of the other views.…”

The Role of Education in Fostering Entrepreneurial Spirit in the Young Generation

“…Education also has a significant role to play in mitigating the adverse societal perception associated with failure in the realm of entrepreneurship. The majority of individuals commonly see failure as an indication of vulnerability or inadequacy, despite the fact that it is an essential component of the entrepreneurial process [24]. Education provides young individuals with the opportunity to acquire knowledge on the triumphs that arise from failures, as well as the subsequent development of resilience and wisdom [25].…”

Plant Maintenance Performance Measurements Shortfalls

“…Del Frate [14], [15], [16], [17] Product failure is the inability of an engineering process, product, service or system to meet the design team's goals for which it has been developed.…”