on Product Reliability

A listing in reverse chronological order of articles by:

Kirk Grey — Accelerated Reliability series

Les Warrington — Achieving the Benefits of Reliability series

Adam Bahret — Apex Ridge series

Michael Pfeifer — Metals Engineering and Product Reliability series

Fred Schenkelberg — Musings on Reliability and Maintenance series

Arthur Hart — Reliability Engineering Insights series

Chris Jackson — Reliability in Emerging Technology series

by Fred Schenkelberg 1 Comment

When to Do FMEA

Failure modes and effect analysis is a tool to identify potential failures and prioritize based on severity, occurrence, and detection. I like to describe FMEA as an organized brainstorm. You probably have some experience with FMEA.

In some industries, there is a high expectation or mandate to do an FMEA study. In some industries FMEA maybe just another tool to consider using during various stages of the product or asset lifecycle.

In my opinion, FMEA should be a part of your project plan when it is likely to add value.

Value in the sense that the organization will receive an adequate benefit based on the investment to conduct the FMEA study. [Read more…]

by Fred Schenkelberg 10 Comments

When to Conduct HALT

HALT (highly accelerated life testing) is a method to reveal product weaknesses. Design prototypes experience the step-stress application of relevant stresses until failures appear.

The intent is to find design or process related weaknesses early in the design process thus providing time to economically address the issue. Using a build-test-fix approach does improve a product’s robustness and reliability.

Being a useful tool, should you conduct HALT on every project? It seems that revealing weaknesses is certainly useful. [Read more…]

by Fred Schenkelberg 2 Comments

How to Assess Your Reliability Program

“How do you know so much about our program?” was a question the quality manager asked after reading the assessment report. The assessment took one day with eight interviews.

The reliability that results is going to happen whether or not the team designing the product or production line deliberately use reliability engineering tools or not. The elements of a product or system will respond to the environment and either work or fail.

While working at Hewlett-Packard I had the opportunity to conduct reliability program assessment of about 50 product divisions. One hypothesis related the number of reliability tasks the team actively used would correlate to their warranty expenses.

That worked to a point. [Read more…]

by Fred Schenkelberg Leave a Comment

Reliability Risk Reduction Tools

The process to create a new product has risk. There are safety, technical, schedule and financial risks
The risk of a product failing more often then deemed acceptable by the customer or the business falls in the realm of reliability engineering to address.

We can provide insight on what is expected to failure and when. Working with the entire team we can influence the design and assembly process to minimize the risk of field failures.

Below is a short list the most common risk reduction tools in our arsenal. [Read more…]

by Fred Schenkelberg Leave a Comment

Big Picture of Reliability Plans

Reliability is an attribute of an item. The item, with its design, assembly, and use, has a finite probability of working over some duration.

We deliberately attempt to create items that meet our and our customer’s expectations concerning that probability and duration. We maintain and operate our equipment with an expectation of successful performance.

We and our customers are let down when a failure occurs. We do not enjoy the benefits of the item’s value. [Read more…]

by Fred Schenkelberg Leave a Comment

Reliability is Not Just Statistics

In a common definition used by engineers reliability is a probability of success. It is the chance of an item operating as expected over some duration in a given environment. In this case, we have probability as part of the definition of reliability.

Reliability in common use definition includes trustworthiness, dependability and similar definitions. It’s more than how many times your friends help you move to a new apartment, it’s a feeling or sense we have concerning our ability to count on our friends for the help.

[Read more…]

by Fred Schenkelberg Leave a Comment

Reliability and Cost Reduction

I do not like procurement organizations.

It is like saying you don’t like lawyers. I don’t know all procurement engineers or managers, so understand my statement is a grand generalization. It’s not the people I don’t like, it’s a common behavior that I’ve witnessed countless times that I do not like.

Procurement organizations tend to look for ways to reduce cost by purchasing less expensive components or materials. This is often done with little regard to the impact on product reliability.

Why is this? And what can we do as reliability professionals to change this behavior? [Read more…]

by Fred Schenkelberg 2 Comments

To Change the Reliability Culture

Have you ever wished your organization would work together to achieve a reliable product? Not just a few individuals and a heavy reliance on the reliability team to focus on highlighting and fixing reliability issues.

Some organizations tend to react to reliability issues. Prototype testing and field returns continue to surprise the team. The worst organization fall into finding someone to blame. Better organizations set to work to understand the problem and quickly resolve the issue. Some have better ‘fire departments’ than others.

Responding quicker is not really the best way to deal with reliability. [Read more…]

by Fred Schenkelberg 4 Comments

Perfect Reliability

Is it possible to foresee all reliability issues before a product launch?

No.

I don’t think so. Can we minimize surprises from field failures?

Yes.

The number of potential failures is often unknown.

[Read more…]

by Fred Schenkelberg Leave a Comment

Reliability Success Stories

Reliability engineering has value. It can improve product reliability, increase uptime, and drive customer satisfaction, for example.

Here are a couple of stories based on real situations that resulted in significant value for the organization.

[Read more…]

by Fred Schenkelberg 2 Comments

Reliability Target Establishment

“The language we use matters.” Wayne Nelson

How we talk about reliability does matter. It sets expectations and influences decisions. We talk about reliability as it is important to our customers and our business. The successful operation of the equipment in a plant permits the production of products. The successful operation of the product satisfies the needs and expectations of our customers.

[Read more…]

by Fred Schenkelberg Leave a Comment

Reliability Testing

Years ago a client asked for help in reducing the amount of reliability testing they did for each project. They had a sense that some of the testing wasn’t useful. What they want to know was how to select the appropriate testing and be sure they wouldn’t miss anything important.

[Read more…]

by Fred Schenkelberg Leave a Comment

Two Approaches to Reliability

There are two basic approaches when addressing product reliability: Reactive or Proactive. Neither is right or wrong.

The reactive approach has the limitation of responding to failures that occur during prototyping, production and customer use.

The proactive approach focuses on preventing product design, assembly, and use issues before they have the opportunity to create a product failure.

[Read more…]

by Fred Schenkelberg Leave a Comment

Can you Delegate Reliability?

A common expectation consumers have concerning products is that the product works. The product provides value by performing one or more functions. Also, implicit with this expectation is the product will function over some duration. A reliable product meets or exceeds this common expectation.

Every product has a finite duration of successful operation before failure occurs.

[Read more…]

by Fred Schenkelberg Leave a Comment

The Music of Data

We are good at collecting data, now use it

In Katmandu, I visited a small pottery factory. There was a young man sitting at a potting wheel making candle stands. He didn’t measure anything and I doubt anyone did.

Based on experience and just looking at a finished item, he could tell if it was acceptable or not. That was good enough.

[Read more…]