The air bag system: What went wrong with the systems engineering?

✍ Scribed by Dennis M. Buede

• Book ID: 101298102
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1998
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 137 KB
• Volume: 1
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1098-1241
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1520-6858(1998)1:1<90::aid-sys9>3.0.co;2-4

✦ Synopsis

The air bag restraint system in automobiles has received a great deal of attention since the summer of 1996. The purpose of this paper is to review the successes and failures of the air bag from its introduction in 1988-1996 and to relate these successes and failures to the requirements that led to the current air bag design. The issue addressed in this paper is whether the systems engineering development process that led to the first generation air bag system could be considered reasonably successful. This question is not the same as whether the first generation air bag was better than no air bag system for the spectrum of drivers and passengers in automobiles and light trucks. Rather the issue is whether the first generation air bag system addresses the spectrum of requirements one could expect from such a system. Finally suggestions are made about how the requirements development process can be improved for all systems, considering the obvious and not-so-obvious mistakes that were made during the development of the air bag.