Dare to Know
Dare to Know is an interview show introducing you to quality and reliability thought leaders.
Speaking of Reliability
Speaking of Reliability is discussions between friends about your reliability engineering questions. [View episodes…]
Rooted in Reliability
The plant performance podcast
by James Kovacevic [View episodes…]
Rob’s Reliability Project
A podcast for reliability and maintenance people looking to better themselves both at work and at home and be entertained!
by Robert Kalwarowsky [View episodes…]
Reliability Matters
A podcast to discuss the reliability of circuit assemblies.
by Mike Konrad [View episodes…]
Asset Reliability @ Work
Sharing insights and best practices for improving asset performance and reliability, by the folks at Life Cycle Engineering [View episodes…]
Accendo Reliability Webinar Series
Accendo Reliability Webinars are in-depth explorations and tutorials on reliability engineering topics. The podcast episodes are the recordings of the monthly live events. [View episodes…]
So, in my past life, we have performed extensive DVT testing and including reliability testing. However, about a year after launch of or product we were getting some infant mortality that warranted a concern. Now, how can one design a product to avoid such scenarios? What if you have a component/manufacturing issue/design issue that is say 5%, how can your reliability testing flush out such an issue?
Tamer
Hi Tamer, good questions and one that may make sense to talk about on the Speaking of Reliability show. I suspect that no amount of testing will reveal all problems with a design, supply chain, and assembly process. We can not test in quality or reliability. If you suspect a specific failure mechanism you can work out the sample size necessary to detect if the failure rate is at 5% or more. Most would not pay for the level of testing.
Instead, focus on design for reliability. Design in the robustness to the product, the supplied parts and the assembly processes. And be relentless in tracking down and understanding quality and reliability risks.
Cheers,
Fred
Was the warranty due to new or reoccurring failure modes?
If reoccurring failures, then more root cause analysis the failures is required. Then perhaps the failures can be removed with design or process improvements. Make certain that these are real failure modes and not the consequence of misdiagnosis or other service factors. Get the failed parts back and analyze them. If possible talk to customers and service personnel.
New failure modes are tougher but also represent a learning experience. How did they fail? What is the failure mode? Under what conditions? Lots of questions to ask.