1094 / 1224
Fault Tree Analysis
Developed in 1961 at Bell Laboratories by H. A. Watson
Launch Control Safety Study
for Intercontinental Ballistic Missile
Translation of system failure behavior into visual diagram and logic model
Visual model portrays system relationships and root cause pathways
Logic model provides qualitative & quantitative system evaluation
Utilizes Boolean algebra and probability theory
FTA popularized by US tragedies: Apollo 1 fire (1967), Three Mile Island
nuclear meltdown (1979), Space Shuttle Challenger (1986)
FTA provides top-down risk assessment, FMEA is a bottom-up approach