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Christopher Jackson — Thought Leader

Author of Reliability in Emerging Technology, multiple books, co-host on Speaking of Reliability, and speaker in the Accendo Reliability Webinar Series.


This author's archive lists contributions of articles and episodes.

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The McNamara Fallacy 

The McNamara Fallacy 

… and why we still make rubbish products that break a lot

Modern militaries don’t win many wars these days. The most dominant, well-funded, highly-trained armies have consistently lost (or at least not won) the Korean War, Vietnam War, Afghanistan War, arguably the Iraq War, and plenty of others. And many dominant, well-funded, highly-trained companies are consistently spitting out unreliable or unimaginative products that smaller and less dogmatic companies have no problem bettering.

To understand why, let’s look at a man called Robert McNamara.

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Software Root Cause Analysis (with Fault Trees)

Software Root Cause Analysis (with Fault Trees)

Software Root Cause Analysis (with Fault Trees)

podcast episode with speaker Chris Jackson

Everyone knows how things fail … right? We know that we often have to deal with defects or design oversights that mean parts rub, crack, or erode quicker than we would like. And then something snaps, breaks or stops conducting, so our product stops working. But then there is software … which never fails. And that is because software only ‘fails’ when a coding error or bug makes it do something we didn’t want it to do. So it’s simple human error … which we can’t model, prevent, or create safeguards to prevent these errors … right? Wrong! And that is because software bugs are so common that we know how most of them happen. Which means we can work out what went wrong to allow that bug to happen. And that means we can quickly and efficiently improve software reliability!
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What is Reliability?

What is Reliability?

What is Reliability?

podcast episode with speaker Chris Jackson

Everyone knows what reliability is. And that’s the problem. We have used the term ‘reliability’ in normal, everyday speech since we were children. So that means we have decades of preconceived ideas about what reliability is (and is not). But that means there are lots of different ideas about what reliability is. Some people think this thing called the ‘MTBF’ is a measure of reliability (it isn’t). And neither is the ‘failure rate.’ Neither are things called the ‘L10’ and ‘B10’ lives. So if you want to find out what reliability actually is (no equations) … this webinar is for you!
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What is Accelerated Life Testing (ALT)?

What is Accelerated Life Testing (ALT)?

What is Accelerated Life Testing (ALT)?

podcast episode with speaker Chris Jackson

Well … it’s all in the name … isn’t it. Or is it? Do you know what the difference is between Highly Accelerated Life Testing or Accelerated Life Testing? Do you know what an ‘acceleration factor’ is? Do you know what a ‘failure mechanism’ is? If the answer is no … this webinar will help. Or perhaps you want to estimate the reliability of something that is supposed to last a long time, but don’t have a lot of time to test. Then this webinar can help. Or perhaps all this is good … but you’re scared of complicated equations. Again … this webinar can help!
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The MTBF Sucks Here’s Why

The MTBF Sucks Here’s Why

The MTBF Sucks. Here’s Why.

podcast episode with speaker Chris Jackson

Ever heard of the MTBF? A lot of people have. But not many people (truly) understand what it is. For example, is it possible for one product with a larger (better) MTBF to have more warranty failures than another product with a smaller (worse) MTBF? A lot of people think not. But it actually is. And not in just some weird, once in a lifetime sort of way. Lots of products with larger (better) MTBFs fail more often than those with smaller (worse) MTBFs. Confused? This webinar will help!
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What is Weibull Probability Plotting?

What is Weibull Probability Plotting?

What is Weibull Probability Plotting?

podcast episode with speaker Chris Jackson

Weibull probability plotting is perhaps the most widespread data analysis tool used in reliability and quality engineering. Some of you might have used it. Some of you might know that it ‘magically’ creates straight lines out of failure data, and the slope and location of that straight line … sort of means something. Good reliability engineers know what these straight lines mean, what it means if the lines aren’t straight, can do things like look at these lines to optimize maintenance regimes, work out if we quality control issues (or not), and lots of other things. And the good news is … if you know how to use Weibull probability plotting – you don’t need to use complex equations!
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