A Bloomberg articles details the Takata airbag recall series of events. The line that caught my attention is:
…company documents suggesting that Takata executives discounted concerns from their own employees and hid the potential danger… Continue reading
The data analysis course professor tended to focus on the practical application of statistics.
Avoiding statistical theory was fine with me. Learning statistics for me was on how to solve problems, optimize designs, and understanding data. Continue reading
Sigma, σ, is the Greek character we use to represent standard deviation. 6 σ represents the spread of data about the mean. For data with a normal distribution 6 σ includes 99.7% of the data.
The 6 σ design approach incorporates knowledge of the variation that will occur within the design such that the design has is unlikely to fail. Continue reading
If you buy more than one of an item used in your product, you will have to deal with variability. In general, the variability from part to part is minimal and expected. Occasionally, the variability is large and causes reliability problems.
According to O’Connor and Kleyner, “The main cause of production-induced unreliability, as well as rework and scrap, is the variability inherent in production processes.” O’Connor, Patrick D. T. and Andre Kleyner. 2012. Practical Reliability Engineering. Chicester: John Wiley and Sons. Web. Continue reading
Let’s say you run across a lightweight, inexpensive, easy-to-manufacture metal that you are considering for a new bike frame. Beyond the functional considerations of strength, size, and finish options what else do you consider?
Is it durable? If it fails, how does it fail (e.g., a shattering of a bicycle frame would not be good). You may also consider how the bicycle will be used and stored. What stress will the frame experience over its lifetime? Continue reading