The reliability 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, while providing clarity across the organization and enabling a common language for discussing design, supply chain, and manufacturing decisions. Continue reading
In my job as a reliability professional, I often encounter circumstances in which a company sets reliability goals that appear to have been met and yet the fielded product fails to perform as reliably as expected. Such a disconnect can have a number of causes, so let’s look at an example. Continue reading
An essential element of any successful reliability program is the notion that all reliability activity relates to decisions. If you are performing a highly accelerated life test (HALT) only because it is listed on 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. Continue reading
Reliability professionals today face 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. Continue reading
One of the best things about reliability engineering is the never-ending opportunity to learn. As a reliability engineer I work with materials, assembly processes, and people, creating and maintaining products, machines, and systems. Other engineering disciplines tend to focus on one aspect of a design or process. Continue reading