Your Reliability Engineering Professional Development Site
A listing in reverse chronological order of articles by:
A life-support-equipment company manager desires to conduct a reliability program assessment. The company is experiencing about a 50% per year failure rate and at least the Director of Quality thought it should do better. One of the findings was related to reliability goal setting and how it was used within the organization.
Nearly everyone knew that the product had a 5,000-h Mean Time Before Failure (MTBF) reliability goal, but [Read more…]
The concept of a maturity model is not new. It provides a means to identify the current state and illuminate the possible improvements to a reliability program. The matrix serves a guide to assist an organization in improving its program.
The matrix has five stages. In general, the higher stages are most cost effective and efficient at achieving higher rates of product reliability performance. These stages—uncertainty, awaking, enlightenment, wisdom, and certainty—are described in today’s post. [Read more…]
An essential element of a successful reliability program is the notion that all reliability activity relates to decisions. If you are performing a HALT because it is listed in the product development guidelines, or because it was carried over from the last program’s plan, and the HALT results are not part of the design improvement decision-making process, then you probably should not be doing so. If the HALT results yield little or no information (e.g., it is just being checked off the list as accomplished) then the HALT itself provides little or no value. [Read more…]
This will be the last of the series, considering the different positions in an organization that deals with product reliability. We’ve moved away from the positions where the focus on reliability is central, but there are important considerations in relation to product reliability for each of these roles still. In this concluding post the subjects are the manufacturing team, and field service and call center staffs. [Read more…]
In this installment of the series dealing with the myriad participants within an organization, we’ll start with failure analysis specialists, before moving to marketing and sales, and finally getting to the finance team. We’re moving away from the positions where the focus on reliability is central, but there are important considerations in relation to product reliability for each of these roles still. The next post in this series will be the final one. [Read more…]
Continuing the series where we examine various roles within an organization and the ways in which each role interacts and affects product reliability, this post will start off with procurement engineers and managers. Since each role hereafter is a bit less involved, multiple roles will be grouped together. After procurement, we’ll take a look at warranty managers. [Read more…]
The last post moved into the role of quality and reliability engineers, and the influence that leadership in design and product development has on the product reliability process. Similarly, this post will move to Q & R managers, again looking at the role of that position in relation to product reliability.
The last post in this series dealt with management in design and the influence that leadership in design and product development has on the product reliability process. This post will turn to quality and reliability (Q & R) engineers, again looking at the role of that position in relation to product reliability. The next post in this series will take a look at the role of quality and reliability managers. [Read more…]
The last post in this series dealt with the design team, and the influence that team has on the product reliability process. This post will turn to product development and design managers, again looking at the role of that position in relation to product reliability. The series of posts on reliability participants will continue after today’s post with the roles of quality and reliability engineers and managers.
An effective product reliability process requires a strong team, at every level. The team of employees within an organization that participate and impact product reliability is a vast and widespread group of people. They include members of the design team, design managers, quality and reliability engineers and managers, procurement engineers and managers, warranty managers, failure analysis specialists, members of the marketing and sales staff, members of the finance and manufacturing teams, and field service and call center staffs. [Read more…]
Last week I discussed how the aspects of the structure of an organization relate to product reliability. Related to that, this week the discussion will remain on the level of a reliability organization but will look at something a bit more intangible – how decision-making policy and practice affects product reliability. [Read more…]
Both organizational structure and decision-making policies have an impact on improving product reliability. The former is more quantifiable whereas the latter involves more intangible subtleties. First, in this post, I’ll discuss the connection between organizational structure and reliability, and in a follow-up post, I’ll address reliability and decision focus, still within the structure of an organization. [Read more…]
Reliability professionals today have a challenge. Engineering and operations staff members are taught to think for themselves, to make decisions, to get things done. The entire staff is highly educated, motivated and willing to lead a team or organization to results. In order to be effective as a reliability profession, we have to engage those independent and fast moving individuals. We have to compel others to listen to and understand reliability predictions, risk assessments and models. If they listen and act on the information we provide, they then may fully consider the impact of decisions on reliability performance. [Read more…]
A product reliability program is a process. Like any process, it has inputs and outputs, generally some form of an objective, and feedback. Furthermore, the process may or may not be controlled, or even a conscious part of the organization. Reliability may just happen, good or bad. Results may or may not be known or understood.
In some organizations, the reliability program may be highly structured with required activities at each stage along the product lifecycle. In other organizations, reliability is considered as a set of tests (e.g. environmental or safety compliance). In some organizations, reliability is effectively a part of everyone’s role. [Read more…]
The target, objective, mission or goal is the statement that provides a design team with focus and direction. A well-stated goal will establish the business connection to the technical decisions, related to product durability expectations. A well-stated goal provides clarity across the organization and permits a common language for discussing design, supply chain, and manufacturing decisions.
Let’s explore the definition of a ‘well-stated reliability goal.’ First, is it not simple MTBF, “as good as or better than…” or ‘a 5-year product’. These are common ‘goals’ found across many industries, yet none permit a clear technical understanding of the durability expectations for the product.
The common definition for reliability is [Read more…]