What Is HALTHighly accelerated life testing (HALT) is a technique to expose weaknesses or faults with a product. HALT uses individual or combined stresses in a step-stress approach to quickly apply sufficient stress to reveal defects. Continue reading
Introduction
There’s always a story that explains why an event is a “Black Swan” – after the fact. Where are the “Black Swan” prognosticators before events occur? I see “after the fact” articles and statements, such as, “we knew that was coming” or “we predicted this” – all after the fact. Generally projections and predictions seem never to hold sway until after the fact. Predictions and projections never seem to occur when the prognosticator specifies — is it just that the timing never seems to work out – until after the fact. From Nostradamus to the “Bible Code” we are enamored with predictions – after the fact. Does there seem to be a theme developing here? Continue reading
The President of the US has emphasized:
“the importance of having appropriate risk management processes and systems to identify challenges early, to bring them to the attention of Agency leadership, and to develop solutions.”
The President’s Executive Office (Office of Management and Budget) is updating Circular A – 123 to ensure Federal executives and managers are effectively, efficiently, and economically managing risks that inhibit the agency from achieving its strategic and operational objectives. Continue reading
In a regulated company, quality professionals may be revered or dreaded or downright misunderstood. But there’s no denying their important role. As quality guru Joseph Juran said, all improvement happens project by project and in no other way. To paraphrase Juran, I would say a high-quality product or service happens step by step and process by process. Guess who’s responsible for making sure every step and every process is working effectively? You got that right—quality pros. Continue reading
Reliability or life testing involves estimating the expected durability over time of an item. This may be an entire system, a product, or an individual component. We may also focus on an element of a component, such as a material property. At the end of the testing we want to say something meaningful about the expected performance over time. Continue reading