Your Reliability Engineering Professional Development Site
A listing in reverse chronological order of articles by:
Dear friends, this is a quick overview of the Design for Relliability (DFR) strategy.
For details of the tools and techniques shown in the video, we are providing links to our videos Links to some related videos:
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Of the many constructive soft skills, active listening is surely one of the most helpful in the design thinking process. More than just listening to collect information, active listening is a mindset that fosters empathy for the speaker. In business and engineering, it’s our customer that’s speaking. Active listening seeks to understand not only the other person’s words, but also their attitudes and motivations.
For many people, even the idea of “being a better listener” seems ludicrous. Once you’re listening, how can you listen better? It’s like swallowing better or breathing better. [But the truth is, you can.] Even the best listeners periodically fall into a handful of traps that obstruct their understanding of their employer’s, customer’s, and loved one’s words.
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Dear friends, we are happy to release our 91st technical video on XOR Gate occasionally used in Fault Tree Analysis (FTA). In this video, Hemant Urdhwareshe, Fellow of ASQ, explains the basic concept of XOR gate, the related probability calculation and an illustrative example.
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An Interview with James Blackwell, CTO and Co-founder of Roost Inc.
James Blackwell is a wireless industry veteran with over 25 years of leadership experience in the design and manufacturing of Bluetooth and Wi-Fi systems, including CSR and Ozmo Devices.
“Always remember, your focus determines your reality” – George Lucas
In this article, I will outline how to evaluate an FMEA against the FMEA Quality Objective for identifying special characteristics. Special characteristics are often not well understood by FMEA teams, and yet have potential to be highly useful in FMEA applications.
Dear friends, we are happy to release our 90th technical video! In this video, Hemant Urdhwareshe, Fellow of American Society for Quality (ASQ), explains the various functions in reliability mathematics. Hemant has explained Probability Density Function (PDF), Cumulative Failure Distribution Function (CDF), Reliability Function and the Hazard Function. Hemant has also briefly explained the mathematical derivations of these functions as well as their relationships. In addition, the video includes an application example of estimating B02 life when the hazard function is known. The video is little long, so viewers are requested to be patient and watch the complete video. This will be very useful in preparing for the Certified Reliability Engineer Exam conducted by ASQ.
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Many companies, especially for high-complexity products such as energy storage and robotics, are moving away from outsourced manufacturing to establish their own internal operations. In fact, Kearney’s 10th Annual Reshoring Index finds that reshoring has substantially increased during the past decade.
This paradigm shift, driven by the need for closer design and production integration, poses opportunities and challenges. This article delves into the essential steps and considerations to set up an effective internal manufacturing facility tailored for the hardware-based product industry.
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Dear friends, we are happy to release our 89th technical video. In this video, Hemant Urdhwareshe explains the basic idea behind Goodness of fit testes and how to perform Goodness of Fit test. Hemant illustrates this with an illustration of Goodness of Fit test for Normal Distribution using Microsoft Excel. Hemant is a Fellow of ASQ and is certified by ASQ as Six Sigma Master Black Belt, Quality Engineer (CQE), Quality Manager (CMQ/OE) and Reliability Engineer (CRE).
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In the fast-paced world of technology and manufacturing, one of the biggest challenges hardware companies face is managing New Product Introduction (NPI) processes. A common misconception is that simply applying an Agile template used in software production to hardware production will solve all problems, but without thoughtful consideration, it’s a recipe for disaster. Whether it’s waiting weeks for a crucial part, revising designs after production has started, or dealing with field failures, these common pitfalls can lead to big delays, increased costs, and, ultimately, unhappy customers. This blog will dive into some of these common challenges, offering insight and strategies to avoid getting caught in a never-ending cycle of fixing and delaying.
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Dear friends, we are pleased to released our 88th technical video on a very important topic in Statistical Quality Control and Six Sigma: Normal Probability Plotting! In this video, Hemant Urdhwareshe explains the concepts and basic procedure of Normal Probability Plotting using probability paper with a simple real life case study! Hemant is a Fellow of ASQ and is certified by ASQ as Six Sigma Master Black Belt (CMBB), Black Belt (CSSBB), Quality Manager (CMQ/OE), Quality Engineer (CQE) and Reliability Engineer (CRE)!
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Imagine product or part lifetime as the service time in a self-service system. Suppose you could observe periodic input and output counts of that self-service system, without identifying individual service times. How would you estimate the service time distribution without following individual products or parts from input to output? The maximum likelihood reliability estimator for an M/G/Infinity self-service-time distribution function from “ships” (inputs) and “returns” (outputs) counts also works for nonstationary arrival process M(t)/G/Infinity self-service systems, under a condition! A constant or increasing arrival (inputs or ships) rate satisfies the condition. If you identify returns by failure mode then you could estimate make nonparametric estimates of field reliability by failure mode and quantify reliability growth, without life data, if the condition is satisfied.
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In the world of hardware new product introduction, a broken process can have severe consequences, jeopardizing the success of a product launch and hurting the reputation of a company. So, it is crucial to understand the warning signs that a process is disfunctional. Whether it’s slipping schedules, exceeding budgets, or missing requirements, recognizing the signs allows teams to intervene in time.
Learn the ten warning signs and understand the potential impacts they can have on your product launch. By familiarizing yourself with these signs, you can take proactive measures to address them before they escalate into more significant problems.
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Dear friends, we are happy to release our 87th video to provide brief guidance on selection of parts, processes and materials for assuring reliability! Hope you find this interesting! You can see our other related video on Miner’s Rule for Fatigue Life.
[Read more…]In an increasingly competitive market, the need to bring superior products to market swiftly, cost-effectively, and with minimal risk is paramount. This article presents a summary of the top ten best practices for managing risk in hardware development.
Read on to gain insights into navigating the maze of financial, operational, and market challenges that accompany hardware development. Based upon over 100 years of collective experience with hardware development, the Product Realization Group has distilled these insights from real-world experience. Learn how to reduce risk in your New Product Development and Introduction (NPDI) process and bring better products to market faster, at lower cost, and with less risk.
[Read more…]“Risk comes from not knowing what you’re doing” – Warren Buffett
In this article, I will outline how to evaluate an FMEA against the FMEA Quality Objective for identifying high-risk failures.
One definition for “risk” is “the possibility of loss or injury;” and “high” means “of a greater degree, amount or cost than expected.” Putting these words together, “high risk” means the anticipated loss or injury is too great. [Read more…]
