on Product Reliability

The effectiveness of “Design for X” (DfX) methodology is often limited by the non-negotiable “freeze” gates in the product development process.  Freezes become points of negotiation instead of directing scheduling and resource decisions.  Design changes continue past “design freeze” commonly resulting in an inefficient multi-iterative process.

A design freeze is the wrong tool for the job.  Design Freeze is a “Put your pencils down” methodology.  This leaves no room for input to the decision to halt activity other than what was available when the freeze gate was set.  Often a good deal of new information about the design and program has been created between the program creation and the freeze. [Read more…]

I find it interesting when high end brands look to maximize profit by going for the money grab of lowering quality while maintaining price point.  It seems so foolishly short sighted. The amountof work that goes into creating a highly reputable brand is extensive and decades in the making.  Brands can be tarnished very quick and very difficult to recover.  So why do this?  A few reasons I have seen:

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We’ll the boat saga continues.  As I shared she has turned out to be a cruel mistress.  Enticing and a thrill at times and then without warnign I get the cold shoulder.   So I am going to take a well known reliability strategy with her.  Hopefully we can just be in love again with all of our interactions being nothing but bliss.  it’s the oldest reliability trick in the book. “Less is More”  The less parts you have the less there is to break.

The more I have gone through this fuel injection system the more amazed I am it has worked this long.  The main power relays on the motor are automotive i.e. not for a very wet and humid application. Then !!!(this is infuriating) they are mounted upside down so the seams for the protective cover are on top. This is a boat motor compartment.  It has water in the bottom that get’s heated up when the motor runs. Then cools off, condensates after use.  Over and over again.  That is basically a humidity cycling chamber.

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I just finished my talk today at the Applied Reliability and Durability Conference in Portland Oregon.  A great conference in a fun city. My topic was “Reliability Test and Analysis with Intent.”  I explain a technique I have developed called “Anchoring” which ensures that reliability tools maintain connectivity to program phases throughout product development. Enjoy!

-Adam

A coach is an external set of eyes and ears.  They will break down the way you do things and assist with building it up better.

In many disciplines our learning curve rolls over to a plateau as the years pass.  Finding ways to continue to improve can be difficult.  The traditional, methods of education, formal training, and self directed improvement take significant time investment.

Coaching is not training.  Training is pre-constructed material.  Coaching is an observation and prescriptive method for improvement.

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It’s early in the boating season.  It’s a beautiful Saturday and wee’re wakeboarding, My wife is driving.  I am getting ready to line up to jump the wake and all of a sudden she cuts the throttle and then guns it again.  I just let go of the rope and wait for her to come around so I can find out if it was the dirty dishes left on the  couch or beard shavings carelessly sprinkled on her face soap.  She said the boat just stuttered without her touching the throttle.  Hmmm  really? As we are talking the boat just stalls. Ughh!, and we are not close to the house.

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Some leaders mistake “customer focus” to mean they have to serve all of the customers needs or respond to every request from the field. There are multiple needs I have for a vehicle. Because of this I have more than one vehicle. Many manufacturers have tried to make a car or truck that does everything. It often just ends up being a vehicle that is great at nothing. (See Pontiac Aztek)

Know your target. Make goals, make compromises. Don’t commit to high reliability without making sacrifices. Something has to move either it be schedule or new technology development. There are no worse words than a leader saying “…and it must be highly reliable” without discussing the cost of pursuing that reliability goal. Know up front if you are willing to trade reliability for growth of technology or time to market.

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Stress Margin is an interesting topic because our gut reaction is “more is better.”  But more isn’t better. The key is figuring out “How much and where?”  this is where the attention should be paid.

Too much stress margin can end the project the same way making material too thick will turn a plane into nothing more than a crappy diner with too much security.  It’s the correct margin that is needed.  How do we select the correct margin?

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When a product has broad usage profiles how do you create one for a test protocol.  Do you select the easiest?  Obviously not because there is risk of a high failure rate from poor evaluation.  Do you select the hardest use-case?  You could but there is the risk you spend too much time and money making the product overly robust for most of your customers.

In these cases where test time is limited and only a single use case can be tested I create a “Composite” use-case.  It captures many of the different types of stresses from the full list of use-cases but keeps an accumulated stress on the design that represents at least 98% of the customers.

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A common progression (stages of awakening) for an organization that has a minimal application of reliability tools to one that is large market holder with the right reliable product is often like this

Stage 1) “Reliability” testing is mostly re-labeled verification and validation testing.  It measures if the design does what it is supposed to do at the end of the program.  Tests are executed with the intent of passing, not learning about the product or it’s performance under variability.  The organization experiences a large field failure surge due a single or multiple issues.  The pain of this experience in dollars, market image, and lost resource through “recovery phase” awakens them to the high ROI of incorporating reliability tools early and throughout the product development process

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Many product development teams use a contract manufacturer (CM) to develop and manufacture their product. It’s the “develop” term that has limitations that may be unforeseen when engaging.  Many companies use the CM to assist or even eventually entirely execute the product development.  This can have great results or be problematic.  But let’s talk about the arrangements that work well.  Troublesome CM’s are a topic for a different time.

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