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How to Assess Your Reliability Program

How to Assess Your Reliability Program

“How do you know so much about our program?” was a question the quality manager asked after reading the assessment report. The assessment took one day with eight interviews.

The reliability that results is going to happen whether or not the team designing the product or production line deliberately use reliability engineering tools or not. The elements of a product or system will respond to the environment and either work or fail.

While working at Hewlett-Packard I had the opportunity to conduct reliability program assessment of about 50 product divisions. One hypothesis related the number of reliability tasks the team actively used would correlate to their warranty expenses.

That worked to a point. [Read more…]

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Reliability Risk Reduction Tools

Reliability Risk Reduction Tools

The process to create a new product has risk. There are safety, technical, schedule and financial risks
The risk of a product failing more often then deemed acceptable by the customer or the business falls in the realm of reliability engineering to address.

We can provide insight on what is expected to failure and when. Working with the entire team we can influence the design and assembly process to minimize the risk of field failures.

Below is a short list the most common risk reduction tools in our arsenal. [Read more…]

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Big Picture of Reliability Plans

Big Picture of Reliability Plans

Reliability is an attribute of an item. The item, with its design, assembly, and use, has a finite probability of working over some duration.

We deliberately attempt to create items that meet our and our customer’s expectations concerning that probability and duration. We maintain and operate our equipment with an expectation of successful performance.

We and our customers are let down when a failure occurs. We do not enjoy the benefits of the item’s value. [Read more…]

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Reliability is Not Just Statistics

Reliability is Not Just Statistics

In a common definition used by engineers reliability is a probability of success. It is the chance of an item operating as expected over some duration in a given environment. In this case, we have probability as part of the definition of reliability.

Reliability in common use definition includes trustworthiness, dependability and similar definitions. It’s more than how many times your friends help you move to a new apartment, it’s a feeling or sense we have concerning our ability to count on our friends for the help.

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Reliability and Cost Reduction

Reliability and Cost Reduction

I do not like procurement organizations.

It is like saying you don’t like lawyers. I don’t know all procurement engineers or managers, so understand my statement is a grand generalization. It’s not the people I don’t like, it’s a common behavior that I’ve witnessed countless times that I do not like.

Procurement organizations tend to look for ways to reduce cost by purchasing less expensive components or materials. This is often done with little regard to the impact on product reliability.

Why is this? And what can we do as reliability professionals to change this behavior? [Read more…]

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To Change the Reliability Culture

To Change the Reliability Culture

Have you ever wished your organization would work together to achieve a reliable product? Not just a few individuals and a heavy reliance on the reliability team to focus on highlighting and fixing reliability issues.

Some organizations tend to react to reliability issues. Prototype testing and field returns continue to surprise the team. The worst organization fall into finding someone to blame. Better organizations set to work to understand the problem and quickly resolve the issue. Some have better ‘fire departments’ than others.

Responding quicker is not really the best way to deal with reliability. [Read more…]

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Reliability Target Establishment

Reliability Target Establishment

“The language we use matters.” Wayne Nelson

How we talk about reliability does matter. It sets expectations and influences decisions. We talk about reliability as it is important to our customers and our business. The successful operation of the equipment in a plant permits the production of products. The successful operation of the product satisfies the needs and expectations of our customers.

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Two Approaches to Reliability

Two Approaches to Reliability

There are two basic approaches when addressing product reliability: Reactive or Proactive. Neither is right or wrong.

The reactive approach has the limitation of responding to failures that occur during prototyping, production and customer use.

The proactive approach focuses on preventing product design, assembly, and use issues before they have the opportunity to create a product failure.

[Read more…]

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Can you Delegate Reliability?

Can you Delegate Reliability?

A common expectation consumers have concerning products is that the product works. The product provides value by performing one or more functions. Also, implicit with this expectation is the product will function over some duration. A reliable product meets or exceeds this common expectation.

Every product has a finite duration of successful operation before failure occurs.

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The Music of Data

The Music of Data

We are good at collecting data, now use it

In Katmandu, I visited a small pottery factory. There was a young man sitting at a potting wheel making candle stands. He didn’t measure anything and I doubt anyone did.

Based on experience and just looking at a finished item, he could tell if it was acceptable or not. That was good enough.

[Read more…]

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How Do You Stay Current?

How Do You Stay Current?

When I first started working in a factory as a shift supervisor, it seemed there was some type of formal training nearly every month. And we were expected to attend a conference once a year. Little did I know that was a great time to start working in industry. We enjoyed a lot of great training.

Later in my career and as the economy changed budgets for training slowly declined. Travel budgets also slipped away. I don’t have hard numbers, yet I suspect there is less company-sponsored professional development than 20 years ago.

As an engineering working in the reliability field, how do you keep up and learn what you need to know to accomplish your work? [Read more…]