An Accendo Reliability recorded webinar event

Any product is a collection of materials that have been engineered, shaped, and modified to become components and joints (e.g., weld and braze joints). The materials can degrade due to exposure to use conditions – steel screws corrode when exposed to water, some plastics become brittle when exposed to sunlight, and coatings on surfaces can wear away.

Components and joints will stop functioning as required if their materials degrade too much. This is a problem if it reduces or loses product performance before the end of a product’s expected life.

Identifying the conditions to which materials are exposed and selecting materials that can withstand the exposure are critical parts of designing products that have good reliability.

During this event, I will discuss identifying the conditions that can cause materials to degrade.

[Read more…]

An Accendo Reliability recorded webinar event

Sounds simple, right? And it is. Reliability growth literally refers to a process where we improve the reliability of a product, system, or service. But sometimes we find ourselves in situations where it is expected that not only do we understand reliability growth … but measure it. And predict how much it will grow in the future. This is sometimes called Reliability Growth Testing (RGT), Reliability Growth Planning (RGP), or Reliability Growth Prediction. And there are lots of equations and models for all these things. But do these models actually model the ‘real world?’ … can they work for you? … SHOULD they work for you? This webinar introduces you to the topic of reliability growth (both qualitative and quantitative) along with key concepts (like the Duane Failure Pattern) to help you work out if there is (or is not) a place for reliability growth in your organization.

[Read more…]

An Accendo Reliability recorded webinar event

Besides building your product inside your customer’s facility, your product will require some form of transportation to move from your factory to your customer. When your product doesn’t work ‘out of the box’, that is considered ‘not good’ for customer satisfaction.

[Read more…]

An Accendo Reliability recorded webinar event

There comes a time in everyone’s reliability ‘journey’ when it is either too hard or too expensive to keep perfecting your product, system, or service. Steel can only be ‘so’ pure. Clearances can only be ‘so’ accurate. Surfaces can only be ‘so’ smooth. And software can only be ‘so’ perfect. In fact, it might turn out to be better and cheaper to have two ‘average’ components, with one acting as a backup to the other. The ‘premium’ component might be too expensive or otherwise not as reliable as the backup system. Welcome to fault tolerance! This is where we design products, systems, or services to be able to handle faults, imperfections, deviations, errors, and lots of other things.

[Read more…]

An Accendo Reliability recorded webinar event

DFR has been a term in and out of fashion for some time—one of the many DFX type programs. DFR, unlike some of the other Design for X programs, has to exist within the overall culture of the organization to be successful. The premise that design occurs at the point of decision implies that each design may have the appropriate information to consider the decision’s impact on reliability performance properly.

[Read more…]

An Accendo Reliability recorded webinar event

Warranty returns are a great place to start for setting targets for new products. But how do you translate that to specific numbers to design to? If you know the strength of a product and the return rate, you can develop stress profiles. If you have multiple similar products, your estimates can be even better. From the profiles, targets can be developed for future products to meet and use them to calculate the expected return rates. You can even use these profiles to estimate the impact of design changes to warranty returns.

[Read more…]

An Accendo Reliability recorded webinar event

There are three approaches to setting tolerance limits for design elements. Each has ramifications for the eventual manufacturability and reliability performance—design for manufacturability and reliability hinges on correctly setting design tolerances.

[Read more…]

An Accendo Reliability recorded webinar event

The local weather affects your products and systems. Knowing the weather helps you plan your wardrobe for the day. Likewise, knowing the weather helps you design a product or system that can thrive in the weather conditions it will experience.

[Read more…]

An Accendo Reliability recorded webinar event

People use your product and assemble, move, and store it. If someone cannot interact with your product, with or without the manual, they may consider your product a failure. Designing in the ability for an individual to use your product properly is the art of considering human factors.

[Read more…]

An Accendo Reliability recorded webinar event

If your product is stronger than the applied stress, it should work. The stress/strength relationship concept is well known, but did you know stress and strength change over time? Let’s use the best information and tools for this analysis.

[Read more…]

An Accendo Reliability recorded webinar event

Product failures may occur due to material or component variability. The steel in a bracket is more brittle than optimal, or the capacitance is on the low side of an acceptable range. Designing a product with variation in mind enables the creation of a reliable product.

[Read more…]

An Accendo Reliability recorded webinar event

One of the more significant challenges for reliability engineering in product development is the complete execution of the planned reliability process in product development. The reliability tools and techniques outlined in the product plan are often skipped or delayed, minimizing the opportunity for outputs to fully impact the program and product.

[Read more…]

An Accendo Reliability recorded webinar event

Early and often during product development, the team needs to know the expected reliability performance of the current design. The values provide information to make decisions.

We can create meaningful estimates. Or not.

[Read more…]

An Accendo Reliability recorded webinar event

A tolerance specification is how we communicate the allowance for part variation.

Variation happens, and when it is within what we expect, great. Otherwise, quality and reliability issues ensue. Let’s explore how to set tolerances to improve reliability properly.

Let’s understand the process data, stability, and design constraints in an attempt to find a balance to create meaningful tolerances.

[Read more…]