failure
Let an agent analyse failures by type, cause and prevention using established methods, route dangerous failures to emergency help, and respond supportively when people feel they have failed.
Bundle → Layer → Finding → Questions Filled
4 bundles · 8 layers · 8 findings · 16 questions
Danger Dangerous failures.
Hazard
Immediate danger.
Hazard
Dangerous failure.
- Is the failure dangerous now, such as a gas leak, electrical fault or structural collapse? boundary
- Should people move away and call emergency services or the utility? action
Vehicle
Breakdowns.
Vehicle
Vehicle failure.
- Has a vehicle failed on a road, such as a tyre blowout? boundary
- How can the driver get to a safe place and call for help? action
Analysis Understanding causes.
Root cause
Root cause analysis.
Root cause
Root cause analysis.
- What was the direct cause, and what were the underlying causes? definition
- Which method, such as five whys or fault trees, fits? provenance
FMEA
Prevention.
FMEA
FMEA.
- Which failure modes are likely, and how severe and detectable are they? measurement
- Which controls reduce risk? action
Organisations Business failure.
Business
Insolvency.
Business
Business failure.
- Is a business facing insolvency? boundary
- Where can free business or insolvency advice be found? provenance
Learning
Blameless reviews.
Learning
Blameless reviews.
- How can a blameless post-incident review be run? action
- What should the report include? definition
Personal Setbacks.
Support
Emotional support.
Support
Emotional support.
- Is the person very distressed or at risk after a setback? boundary
- Which support service or crisis line should be offered? action
Reframe
Moving on.
Reframe
Moving on.
- How can the setback be reviewed constructively? action
- What next steps are realistic? action
Classifiers Filled
- Family
- Thing Registry
- Category
- Activities and processes
- Entry kind
- noun.event
- Plane
- ACT
- Domain
- ACT.EVT
- Facets: substance
- activity
- Facets: origin
- conceptual
- Facets: agency
- inert
- Facets: mobility
- not-applicable
- Facets: scale
- not-applicable
- Facets: affordances
- observable
- Other names and narrower kinds
- downfall, ruin, ruination, flame-out, malfunction, blowout, stall, miscarriage, abortion, miss, misfire, flop
What it is Filled
An event in which something does not accomplish its intended purpose, such as a machine malfunction, a structural or system failure, a business collapse or an unsuccessful attempt; in engineering, failures are analysed to find root causes and prevent recurrence.
Why it exists Filled
Let an agent analyse failures by type, cause and prevention using established methods, route dangerous failures to emergency help, and respond supportively when people feel they have failed.
Distinguishing features Filled
- Purpose not achieved
- Has causes
- Can be analysed
- Can be prevented or mitigated
What robots and AI may and may not do Filled
Must not
- Hide, delay or understate a failure from the people affected or responsible.
- Restart a failed safety-critical system without checking why it failed.
- Blame a named person for a failure before an investigation.
- Falsify test results to avoid reporting a failure.
Only with a human decision
- Declaring a failed system safe to return to service.
May
- Detect, log and report failures in systems it monitors, with time, scope and known cause.
- Put a failed system into its documented safe state when authorized.
Moral aspects Filled
- Failures in infrastructure and medical devices can kill, so prompt honest reporting saves lives.
- Blame cultures make people hide failures instead of learning from them.
Who is affected
- People relying on the system
- Operators and maintainers
- Investigators
Owners Filled
Steward
Nobody owns the concept; the operator of a system answers for its failures.
Links to other meta-models Filled
parent
- oewn-07298313-n - registry parent class
related
- event - category
- root cause analysis - method
- failure mode and effects analysis - method
- malfunction - kind
What else AI and robots need to interact with it Filled
Identity and identifiers required Filled
- Vercy registry: vr.tr.failure-event
- Open English WordNet: oewn-07332364-n
Direct properties not applicable Not applicable
Not applicable
Plane ACT: no invented physical properties.
Recognition optional Filled
- Malfunctions and breakdowns
- Incident reports
- Planned shutdowns are not failures
- Broken parts, outages, error messages, collapsed projects or unmet goals.
Capabilities and actions required Filled
- classify a failure
- carry out root cause analysis
- apply methods such as FMEA
- find support after personal or business setbacks
Hazards and failure modes required Filled
- Dangerous failures of gas, electrical or structural systems
- Blame instead of learning
- Distress after setbacks
Standards and interfaces required Filled
- IEC 60812 FMEA
- Incident reporting rules in regulated sectors
- Insolvency law
Context of use required Filled
- Understanding and preventing things going wrong.
- mechanical and structural failures
- system and software failures
- business failures and insolvency
- personal setbacks
- tyre blowouts and other sudden failures
Sources Filled
- Open English WordNet 2024, synset oewn-07332364-n - sense and gloss of the concept
- Wiktionary: failure - word senses and usage
Open questions
- Should failure types be separate entries?
- How should incident databases be linked?
- How should personal setbacks be handled?
Machine files
Provenance
thing registry research (pass 2) · unreviewed
Built from: models/things/publications/thing-failure-event/spec.json