Fuzzy Logic Knowledge Base Construction for a Reliability Improvement Expert System

– The new product development (PD) phase of automotive vehicles in particular and of any complex product in general is a process that requires effective use of knowledge and experience generated from the past. It also involves a large amount of uncertainty which is very difficult to incorporate in well established methodologies and techniques such as quality tools without a large number of assumptions. The use of expert systems combined with artificial intelligence methods is the modern approach to incorporate uncertainty into the various estimations necessary for the improvement of the product development process. This paper introduces a new concept for the design of a reliability improvement system for the automotive industry that combines some of the newest approaches in the discipline of knowledge engineering. The methodology presented aims to make the most effective use of, and prevent the loss of, knowledge that organisations generate through their product development processes.