Coupling under-specification in Functional Resonance Analysis Method

A growing body of research has combined the Functional Resonance Analysis Method (FRAM) with network-analytic tools to derive quantitative insights about function importance and variability propagation in socio-technical systems. This article identifies a structural limitation shared by all the FRAM-network representations identified in the present review: the arcs between functions are treated as unspecified conduits through which variability propagates, without declaring the nature of the transmitted object or the mechanism of its distribution. This condition is termed “coupling under-specification”. This omission generates systematic ambiguities. Drawing on Borgatti's theory of network flows, the interpretation of propagation processes and the selection of appropriate network measures require the explicit specification of the nature of the transmitted good, the modality of its distribution, and the trajectory type of transmission processes. The problem is formalised through a PRISMA-compliant review of published studies combining FRAM and network models. An illustrative ontology for FRAM couplings based on three dimensions is proposed: coupling role, output nature, and transmission mechanism. The proposed ontology is illustrated through an industrial dairy packaging plant case study, an inter-rater reliability study examining the reproducibility of its application to a selected set of couplings, and a mapping between coupling classes and appropriate network measures. The results indicate that coupling under-specification is a validity condition of FRAM-derived network analyses rather than a defect of individual models, and that it constrains which network measures can be interpreted at all. The ontology is offered as one candidate means of supplying the missing specification, not as a validated instrument.