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Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Using STPA and CAST to design for serviceability and diagnostics

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

OEM industries are facing increased challenges providing proactive and reactive equipment support. Increased product complexity and the fast rate of technology change make problems difficult to understand, prevent, and resolve. The cost of machine unavailability is extreme, and reliability-based design methods ignore service time as a key contributor to machine unavailability. Serviceability and diagnostics are an important control to minimize customer losses when problems do occur. Methods are needed that identify serviceability needs early in the product development process while managing product complexity. STAMP (System-Theoretic Accident Model and Processes) is an accident causality model developed as a new engineering approach to system safety. While it was originally created for safety, its foundation in systems theory lends itself to other emergent properties, like serviceability. This research demonstrates that STAMP techniques can be applied to address existing serviceability issues and to guide service-friendly system design in early, conceptual design phases. Two case studies, drawn from industry, are explored to verify the effectiveness of applying STAMP to serviceability. Both case studies successfully generated hardware, software, and operator interface design requirements. They also produced recommendations for the product development and support processes. By using STAMP techniques to understand system interactions and strengthen service control structures, OEMs can address many of the challenges they are currently facing providing serviceability and support.

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
Master
Department dc:contributor.department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Engineering and Management Program
Grantor dc:publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Year dc:date.issued
2020

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Slominski, Hannah M.
Advisor dc:contributor.advisor
  • Nancy G. Leveson.

Subjects

dc:subject × 2

Rights

dc:rights
Statement dc:rights
  • MIT theses may be protected by copyright. Please reuse MIT thesis content according to the MIT Libraries Permissions Policy, which is available through the URL provided.
Language dc:language.iso
eng

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Handle dc:identifier.uri
https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/132868
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/132868

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
MIT
Base URL
dspace.mit.edu/oai/request
Last updated
2026-07-22
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Slominski, Hannah M.. Using STPA and CAST to design for serviceability and diagnostics. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2020. https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/132868