Your customers are your best testers for your next product. They will explore the features. Expose the product to use conditions in unconscious ways. And, they will let you what they consider failures without needing the specification document. Continue reading
Failures happen. Sometimes product failures happen quickly.
You just bought a new feature rich computer and discover it doesn’t work. Right out of the box, it will not power up. Conversations with the tech support and it’s a trip back to the store. Continue reading
Mechanical systems wear out and fail eventually. The ability of a structure to support a load, move through the specified range of motion, or spin degrades with use and time. Even our joints eventually wear out.
Accelerated life testing (ALT) has plenty of literature concerning the failure mechanisms unique to electronic components and materials. This is partially due to the limited number of unique electronic components compared to the often custom mechanical designs. ALT also has value as it provides information about a system’s reliability performance in the future. Continue reading
The trite answer is just as many samples as you need and not one more.
A better answer is enough samples to make the right decision. The realistic answer is you will not enough samples.
“How many samples?” is an oft-asked question when planning for quality or reliability testing. Continue reading
Everything varies.
Your vendors provide components with a range of values. Your production process varies, too.
Creating, monitoring, and maintaining process stability enhances your product reliability performance. Continue reading