A few years ago, having been invited to evaluate reliability practices within a company, I conducted a series of interviews with various staff members. When asked any question on the reliability techniques used, members of the engineering, procurement, operations, and quality departments all responded with nearly the same comment:
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 exist as a formalized part of the organization. Reliability may just happen—for good or bad. Results may or may not be known or understood. Continue reading
Do you let events happen to you, or do events follow your designs and expectations? Are you a spectator or an actor? Do you wonder about your product’s future or do you control your product’s future? Are you reactive or proactive? Continue reading
Many engineers and managers developing products or maintaining equipment seem to be afflicted with “knowledge apathy” concerning reliability. “They don’t care!” is a posted comment I have seen in Linkedin. Has this happened? Have we lost the ability to care about reliability? Continue reading
As the Danish physicist Niels Bohr once proclaimed “Prediction is very difficult, especially if it’s about the future.” From the general wondering about the enemy’s next move, to the corporate board members estimating the capabilities of the competition’s next product, to the maintenance manager ordering spare parts, we have many uses for knowing the future. Continue reading