A Life Data Analysis Challenge

Here is a Challenge: Life Data Analysis

Some years ago a few colleagues compared notes on results of a Weibull analysis. Interesting we all started with the same data and got different results.

After a recent article on the many ways to accomplish data analysis, Larry mentioned that all one needs is shipments and returns to perform field data analysis.

This got me thinking: What are our common methods and sets of results when we perform life data analysis? [Read more…]

by Adam Bahret Leave a Comment

No excuses…You’re on the same planet

This is the wheel of the Curiosity Rover after millions of rotations on Mars.

This is how I feel after I ask customers about legacy product performance. [Read more…]

by Fred Schenkelberg 8 Comments

Nevada Charts to Gather Data

A common and poor technique to gather field data is to count the number of returns by week or month. This can provide a graph showing the number of returns over time.

It hides information you need to understand your field failures.

Let’s take a look at a way to gather the same field failure data and retain the critical information necessary for time to failure analysis. [Read more…]

by Fred Schenkelberg 2 Comments

Are You Tracking and Reporting Field Failures Well?

Fielded products fail day by day. Customers report these failures generally seeking a way to remedy this issue. Gathering the reported or returned products or confirmed failures is common practice.

Depending on the product a simple replacement or exchange may suffice. For other products, repair or a refund may be appropriate.

In general, and not always, when a product fails in the hands of a customer, the organization designing, manufacturing and distributing the product learns of the failure. [Read more…]

by nomtbf Leave a Comment

Finding the Hidden Field Data in Your Organization

Hiding From Your Field Data Reality?

One of the major dilemmas of reliability engineering is one we really need to solve. Too many times we are trapped by our organizations competing priorities and working with inadequate information.

We generally understand that field failure data provides the best possible representation of our product’s reliability performance. It’s data from our population of products with our customers while they apply all the stresses’ customer will apply to our product. Customer’s report the failures they care about, and not failures of little significance. [Read more…]