Configuring and Validating Multi-aspect Risk Knowledge for Industry 4.0 Information Systems

Industry 4.0 information systems support production stakeholders in configuring and debugging increasingly flexible Cyber-Physical Production Systems (CPPSs), such as automated car plants. A Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) aims at mitigating production risks by analyzing the main causes of risks in production, such as defective products. However, a FMEA provides limited guidance on (i) validating risk knowledge and (ii) reducing risk knowledge complexity regarding CPPS engineering artifacts. This paper introduces the Multi-aspect FMEA Configuration Management (MFCM) approach (i) to design and validate a multi-aspect CPPS risk knowledge graph and (ii) to focus on required graph parts, adapting conditioned backward program slicing. This small graph serves as a foundation for answering stakeholder questions on production risks and causes with data from validated sources. We evaluated MFCM in a feasibility study on a real-world welding line. Results indicate that MFCM is effective for production process slicing of multi-aspect risk knowledge required to analyze a production condition.