Role of the behavioural analysis in the product repair and replacement process: the preliminaries

Current product representation schema in any solid modelling system consists of product's geometrical (structural) and topological information only. Unless the functional, behavioural and causal information related to the product, is either explicitly described or derived from knowledge of the structure and topology, the overall behaviours of the product (more importantly, its faulty behaviour which must be recognised before any repair or replacement activity could take place) and their causes are difficult to recognise. The paper discusses the preliminaries of functional and behavioural information models that need to be attached with the currently available product structure at providing foundations for building a complete and comprehensive information model for any product. A case study involving the design of a pendulum clock has been presented to clarify several design analysis points that will be useful in various repair and replacement-related problem-solving activities in the future.