1. A method of automatically developing an ontology for product function and failure mode documentation for an apparatus, the method comprising the steps of: identifying the apparatus; generating a function-flow model for the identified apparatus for identifying a composite structure of the apparatus; enumerating functions associated with the identified apparatus; enumerating failure modes for the enumerated apparatus functions; obtaining failure data from a plurality of heterogeneous data sources; applying a semantic similarity module to the enumerated failures by comparing a plurality of documents between heterogeneous data sources, the semantic similarity module bridging a variety of terms used in the heterogeneous data to describe a respective failure; extracting failures associated with the enumerated apparatus functions from the plurality of documents between heterogeneous data sources; generating a composite of related terminology for each identified failure mode; and generating a failure mode information document utilizing the composite of related terminology for each identified failure mode.
1. A method of automatically developing an ontology for product function and failure mode documentation for an apparatus, the method comprising the steps of: identifying the apparatus; generating a function-flow model for the identified apparatus for identifying a composite structure of the apparatus; enumerating functions associated with the identified apparatus; enumerating failure modes for the enumerated apparatus functions; obtaining failure data from a plurality of heterogeneous data sources; applying a semantic similarity module to the enumerated failures by comparing a plurality of documents between heterogeneous data sources, the semantic similarity module bridging a variety of terms used in the heterogeneous data to describe a respective failure; extracting failures associated with the enumerated apparatus functions from the plurality of documents between heterogeneous data sources; generating a composite of related terminology for each identified failure mode; and generating a failure mode information document utilizing the composite of related terminology for each identified failure mode. 14. The method of claim 1 wherein the plurality of failure reporting entities include customer entities that assemble the identified apparatus.