Your Reliability Engineering Professional Development Site
Well, we are going COTS, so there is no point creating (or demanding) reliability specifications for it.
Really?
I was just speaking to a couple of engineers – from different organizations – who were coincidentally struggling with the reliability of Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) systems. COTS is a funny term. Big contractors, governmental organizations and militaries use the term ‘COTS’ a lot. But they tend to be the only ones who do. [Read more…]
Here’s a question for you: Do you ask your suppliers the right questions concerning reliability?
Probably not.
If you are getting the right information from your suppliers, then you would enjoy few supplier related field issues, or as little downtime or low warranty costs.
Asking the right set of questions will help you gain the understanding you need to improve your reliability performance. [Read more…]
A recent LinkedIn discussion addressed the question of the best strategy for dealing with poor supplier performance.
A lot of the respondents seemed to advocate a punitive approach, either threatening the loss of future business if performance doesn’t improve, or combing through the terms & conditions of the contract for enforcement language.
I’ve always thought that there’s a lot of similarity between managing suppliers and managing subordinates, and I wonder if some of these same people threaten their teams with punitive actions when individual performance doesn’t meet expectations. [Read more…]
Many years ago people would complain about “cheap Japanese” products, but today few people would associate Japanese brands with poor quality.
The turn-around is widely attributed to Deming, and Taguchi, and Juran, and other evangelists who taught not only the tools and processes but also the long-term benefits that can be realized when a company adopts good practices and a culture of quality.
Today I hear people complaining about poor quality in Chinese-made parts and products, and there have been several widely-publicized incidents (see Aston-Martin and counterfeit parts).
Many customers have decided to move their production and seek part suppliers in other locations, including “re-shoring” to North America, in part because they’ve concluded that any cost savings due to cheaper labor are outweighed by the costs of poor quality.
It’s hard to say whether this will have a negative impact on the worldwide consumer perception of Chinese brands such as Lenovo, Haier, and others.
Suppliers often include reliability information along with performance specifications.
We look for reliability statements as one part of the selection process to ascertain if the component is likely to have sufficient reliability.
When the vendor’s data is clearly stated and meaningful, that information saves us from potentially having to conduct our own reliability evaluations. [Read more…]
It was late Friday afternoon and the phone rang. Which is rarely a good thing.
There seems to a significant spike in field failures due to one component. The initial failure analysis work reveals the issue started with a batch of parts received about two months ago and the flaw continues to appear in subsequent batches. [Read more…]
Some days are better than others. We sometimes run into failure when working to create a new product. With a little investigation we suspect the components are not working as expected.
We’ll call the vendor and ask for an explanation. If this is normal production and variability of performance, our product will suffer an higher than expected failure rate. The vendor will assure us with:
Not helpful. [Read more…]
What happens when a product you produce fails? You customer may call and return the product. They may expect you to provide a replacement or refund.
Does it matter if the failure was due to a capacitor or motor that you didn’t design, just purchased?
No.
Does it matter if a supplier’s supplier made an error that directly lead to the failure?
No.
You customer experienced a failure and since the purchase was from you, you are expected to make it right.
It’s Friday afternoon and the phone rings. It is another customer complaining about your product not working. This is the fifth call this afternoon. Something is wrong and you’re responsible for making it right.
The natural failure analysis process starts across your team. Gather information, determine the scope of the issue, work to understand the root causes, and implement an appropriate solution. This may involve stopping production, halting shipments, or even a product recall.
Initially, you just have more irate customer calls than a typical Friday afternoon. [Read more…]