Lifecycle Target Misalignment
Abstract
Dianna and Fred discuss the dangers of lifecycle target misalignment and how they impact product engineering and customer satisfaction.
Key Points
Join Dianna and Fred as they discuss the dangers of lifecycle target misalignment and how they impact product engineering and customer satisfaction.
Topics include:
- The story of a 25-year-old cell phone that still works and what it reveals about the shift from durable engineering to rapid development cycles.
- How conflicting interpretations of reliability goals can lead engineers on the same team to take completely opposite design approaches.
- The trap of measuring only what is easy, such as product weight, while treating reliability as “optional” because it is perceived as difficult to test.
- Understanding the financial trade-offs between engineering time and Bill of Materials (BOM) costs during a product’s development life cycle.
- Why setting a reliability target is ultimately a strategic business decision that determines long-term brand loyalty and market share.
Enjoy an episode of Speaking of Reliability. Where you can join friends as they discuss reliability topics. Join us as we discuss topics ranging from design for reliability techniques to field data analysis approaches.
Show Notes
Reliability and quality engineers face a significant challenge with lifecycle targets. Teams often do not clearly align these targets with engineering practices or customer expectations.
They reflect on a listener’s working 25-year-old cell phone. Modern development cycles have shrunk from years to months, often leading to “band-aid” fixes instead of robust engineering. This misalignment is frequently codified in requirements documents that focus on minimum legal warranty periods. Rather, the team should tie requirements to the actual duration a customer intends to use the product.
When management does not reinforce reliability goals or the team does not tie the goals to testing, it creates a vacuum within team understanding. One engineer may “gold-plate” a design while another uses the cheapest parts available, both believing they are meeting the same target. These disconnects are often rooted in the project management triangle of time, resources, and quality.
While early development might focus on engineering excellence, the priority often shifts toward reducing Bill of Materials (BOM) costs as a product moves toward manufacturing. Furthermore, organizations often fall into the habit of strictly enforcing “easy” metrics, like weight or dimensions, while ignoring reliability simply because they do not know how to measure it.
Reliability is a ultimately a business decision. If a product fails too early, customers will simply move to a competitor. It’s vital for engineers to ask “embarrassing questions”. Getting the right answers ensures the entire team is aligned with the customer’s needs and the company’s brand reputation.
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