Being a Great Reliability Engineer

By Fred Schenkelberg

September 13, 2022 / 9am Pacific Time

What is it that makes the difference between good and great related to reliability engineers? What is the magic element that separates those that can carry out tasks such as facilitating an FMEA or designing and analyzing an ALT from those that impact an organization’s culture? A good impact that improves the organization’s ability to create reliable products.

Let’s explore the various stages of a career in reliability engineering, from getting started, to being competent, to becoming great. Let’s explore the technical and soft skills one must master along the way. If you want to enjoy your work and make a difference in your organization, this webinar may provide a few ideas to help you make that happen.

What is a ‘Fault Tree’?

By Chris Jackson

September 27, 2022 / 8am Pacific Time

If you have spent any amount of time doing reliability engineering stuff, you will probably have heard of this thing called a ‘fault tree.’ You may have even used fault trees a lot. But it is amazing how many different reliability engineers have different ideas about how to best use a fault tree. Some think fault trees are strictly used to work out which combinations of components need to fail in order for the system to fail (system reliability modelling). Others think fault trees are really useful for helping us work out what the causes of failure are (root cause analysis). Both people are right. So why do we get these competing schools of thought? Join us for this webinar to learn more about how fault trees can help you … regardless of what you are trying to achieve.

Reverse FMEAs – What You Need To Know

By Richard Harpster

September 8, 2022 / 9am Pacific Time

On Dec. 7, 2021, Ford Motor Co. updated its IATF 16949—“Customer specific requirements” (CSR), which requires the use of reverse FMEAs (RFMEA) on new equipment (“tooling”). The first sentence of the reverse FMEA requirement reads: “Organizations are required to have a process in place that ensures all new launches complete an RFMEA event once the equipment is installed and running.” The goal of Ford is to reduce tooling risk due to improper new tooling usage.

As one might expect, within weeks of Fords CSR release, FMEA trainers were offering RFMEA training classes for as much as $895 for a two-day class. Many FMEA trainers are presenting webinars that are designed to promote their RFMEA training. If their RFMEA training teaches the concepts presented in the webinars, it will not lead to the results Ford is looking for. Even more importantly, if you have a new tooling quality management system that is compliant with published automotive standards, you are very likely already implementing an “RFMEA” equivalent process that will deliver the results Ford is looking for. You only have to present documentation you already have and identify it as your “Reverse FMEA” process.

This webinar will explain what the Reverse FMEA process is (there is no “Reverse FMEA” form to fill out) and why Nathan Stroud, Ford Global STA Six Sigma, stated, “This is a process that many of you probably already do.”

The Important Connection Between RCA and FMEA

By Mark Galley

September 9, 2022 / 8am Pacific Time

Root cause analysis (RCA) is typically used for investigating why a problem did occur so that specific solutions can be implemented to prevent it from occurring again. Failure modes effect analysis (FMEA) is used to understand how a problem could happen in the future, to identify what actions should be taken to prevent it. Learn how to connect these two approaches to improve the way your organization analyzes, documents, communicates and prevents problems.

Failure Investigation and Root Cause Analysis

By John E Lincoln

September 12, 2022 / 10-11:30am Pacific Time

$150

Closed-loop CAPA mandates a repeatable, systematic Failure Investigation and Root Cause Analysis.

The FDA has faulted companies repeatedly for failure to identify, systematically investigate, resolve, and then verify/validate and monitor for reslution of the key underlying problem basically an inability to define, locate and resolve the basic problem(s) or root cause(s) using a repeatable system. Consequently, the most important area audited by the FDA is CAPA it assures the FDA that company is in compliance without the Agency constantly auditing it. However, one of the most cited 483 observation is failure to resolve the key underlying problem and close out CAPA documents in a timely manner basically an inability to define, locate and resolve the basic problem(s) or root cause(s). FI and RCA also play a major part in sucessful V&V and other CGMP activities. Regular, defined, systematic use of a few simple but powerful tools can contribute greatly to reduction of product liability, cost reduction efforts, less chance of recalls, and an improved bottom line.

World Class Maintenance Attributes

By Ricky Smith

September 12, 2022 / 2pm Pacific Time

No abstract available at this time.

Analyzing ALT Data

By Dr. Rong Pan

September 13, 2022 / 8:30-11:30am Pacific Time

$300

Accelerated life testing (ALT) is a direct approach to obtain product failure time information and is widely employed in the product development and reliability improvement process. Companies may use ALTs for multiple purposes such as quantifying the failure time acceleration factor for specific environmental stress variable, validating a stress-lifetime relationship, and predicting some reliability measures under normal use condition, etc. In this webinar we will first give a thorough presentation of different ALT plans and the varying data forms generated from ALTs. In order to draw valid conclusions from ALT data, proper statistical analysis methods must be chosen. Therefore, we will study both lifetime distribution models and lifetime regression models and demonstrate their usefulness in ALT data analysis. We will show the impact of failure time censoring on distribution parameter estimation and how to select a good regression model from both the physics-of-failure and goodness-of-fit perspectives. This webinar will also provide hands-on exercises using JMP and R. All software codes and step-by-step instructions will be provided to attendees before the webinar.

Failure Analysis

By Terry Munson

September 13, 2022 / 11-3:30 Pacific Time

$150 members / $250 non-members

Course Objective:

Understanding reliability issues of electronic hardware using field returns to assess the root cause of the failures and creating a risk reduction plan.

Topics Covered:

• Review of Mechanical Failures – solder joint, wire bond, innerlayer traces
  Review Chemical Failures – parasitic leakage, dendrite shorting, creep corrosion, arcing
  How the key elements impact reliability performance
  • Design
  • Fabrication
  • Assembly
  • Environment
• Risk reduction Plan – that goes beyond DFM – Critical Parameters
  • Design elements
  • Fabrication critical parameters
  • Assembly critical parameters
  • Environmental impact
• Discussion on No Trouble Found Returns and why are they important

Vibration: A Powerful Diagnostic Tool

By Rich Merhige

September 14, 2022/ 7am Pacific Time

Vibration is a powerful tool that, when measured correctly, can give you a clear picture of the health of your machine—bringing to light any potential problems, like a misalignment, imbalance, or a bad bearing.

How does it do this? When analyzing the data, vibration waves will reveal excessive wear and tear on mechanical components. In industrial settings, it can detect machinery abnormalities such as motors, bearings, compressors, and gearboxes. In this webinar, AME President Rich Merhige will run through vibration-preventing practices to help you identify problems before they become costly and severe failures.

Learning Takeaways

1. Vibration data can put a finger on the root cause of mechanical breakdowns, preventing time-wasting searching and testing and allowing repairs to be implemented faster.
2. Vibration analysis increases machinery uptime, reducing mechanical repairs and maximizing production.
3. Because vibration analysis provides hard data about machinery conditions, operators always know their equipment’s health status.
4. Overcoming mechanical issues requires increased demand for energy. Vibration analysis detects these issues and alerts the maintenance team to make repairs that return machinery back to peak operational performance.

Statistical Process Control

By Ron Lasky and Chrys Shea

September 15, 2022 / 12-2pm Pacific Time

Free for members / $30 non-members

The presentation will cover statistical process control (SPC). SPC is an important tool in controlling SMT assembly processes, especially stencil printing. It will start with a discussion of the 6 Ms of variation and then delineate common cause and special cause variation. The difference between precision and accuracy will then be clarified. After discussing the precision tolerance ratio, the technique to perform a Gage R&R (Repeatability and Reproducibility) analysis will be presented. Process control charts, and their development will then be discussed including the Shewhart Rules. Several sets of SPC Xbar-R and C Chart data will then be plotted and analyzed with commercial statistical software. The webinar will conclude with a discussion and application of the process capability indices C_p and C_px.

The presentation will review the typical variables monitored under SPC on typical SMT assembly lines, with special focus on the solder paste printing process. The print process is arguably the most important to monitor because it is the most easily affected by both Special and Common causes of variation. The presentation will review a fishbone diagram of print process factors as well as a discussion of troubleshooting print problems and specific defect modes.

5-Why DOs and DON’Ts

By Mark Galley

September 16, 2022 / 8am Pacific Time

A widely known tool that is regularly misused. An accurate 5-Why provides a simple way to start a cause-and-effect analysis. This webinar covers some important DOs and DON’Ts that will explain how the technique is confused and how it should be used. Topics will include 5-Why Basics and Benefits, Drawbacks and Misuse of a 5-Why, Does a 5-Why align with a Cause Map™ diagram?

DFM in an EMS World

By By Dale Lee

September 19, 2022 / 11-3:30 Pacific Time

$150 members / $250 non-members

Course Objective:

Understanding reliability issues of electronic hardware using field returns to assess the root cause of the failures and creating a risk reduction plan.

Topics Covered:

• Limitation of industry standards
• Impacts of new component packaging technologies and supplier datasheet issues
• SMT assembly design impacts
• PCB design impacts to assembly: thermal balance, trace routing, via interconnection, Z-axis TCE
• Impacts of component and PCB warpage/flatness on yields and reliability
• Process tooling (assembly/test) impacts
• Impacts of design tolerance analysis on process control issues; paste volume, SMT and PTH thermal shock, reflow warpage, assembly process direction, reflow equipment
• Through hole component (Wave/Selective) solder design impacts
• Design for cleaning issues

Considerations for Testing Synchronous Motors

By Noah Bethel

September 22, 2022  / 11am Pacific Time

Synchronous Motors are often large, expensive, and critical! These critical motors serve a variety of industrial applications and troubleshooting them can be difficult at best. Knowing a few tricks of the trade can be very helpful in trending and troubleshooting these complex motor types.

Learning Takeaways:

1. Better Understand Different Configurations of Synchronous Motors
2. Learn to Apply Various Energized and De-Energized Tests for Synchronous Motors
3. Discuss Analysis Techniques of Test Data for Synchronous Motors

Investigating Voltage Effects in Conductive Anodic Filament (CAF) Failures

By Ling Zou and Martin Wickham

September 27, 2022 / 5:30am Pacific Time

Achieving high reliability in service is a key issue for today’s electronic circuits. Electrochemical reliability becomes more critical, as electronic circuits move to increased packaging densities, and also operated at high voltages and in harsher environments (hotter/damper/ condensation). Electrochemical reliability failures are mainly caused by contaminants and bias under damper conditions, facilitating the electrochemical corrosion process that results in a loss of continuity/short circuits.

Reliability Demonstration: Theory and Practical Applications

By Andre Kleyner

September 28, 2022 / 8:30-11:30am Pacific Time

$300

This webinar covers a number of reliability demonstration techniques including success based testing, test-to failure, degradation analysis, and other tools utilized by reliability engineers in the industry to demonstrate the reliability during a product test and validation process. It also includes the latest developments on converting test reliability into population reliability and cost improvements techniques, such as test sample size reduction utilizing prior product knowledge.Webinar Content:

• Success Based Testing
• Accounting for the failures during Success Based Testing
• Test to Failure and Weibull analysis
• Using Degradation Analysis for reliability demonstration
• “Composite” Techniques:
• The tradeoff between test duration and test sample size using Parametric Binomial
• Continuous testing
• Availability vs. Reliability
• Additional Reliability Demonstration Tools
• Cost reduction by minimizing the test sample size utilizing a prior product knowledge
• Correlation between the reliability demonstrated during a test and field population reliability (demonstrating high reliability with a reasonable sample size)
• Reliability Demonstration Cost Models and Cost reduction recommendations

Design vs Nameplate: Choosing the Proper Test Voltage for Your Motors

By Drew Norman

September 28, 2022 / 9am Pacific Time

Why Motion Amplification Needs to be a Part of Your Vibration Technology Toolkit

By Cory Burns

September 28, 2022 / 10am Pacific Time

Motion Amplification is a camera based full-field motion and vibration technique that detects subtle motion and enhances that motion to a level visible to the naked eye, resolving motions as small as 250 nanometers. By utilizing the millions of pixels in today’s modern cameras and turning those pixels into data points from which to extract motion, the technique allows non-contact visualization and measurement of motion across large fields of view with 100% coverage.

Since its introduction Motion Amplification has rapidly evolved to include a host of other full-field vibration techniques and features that complement and enhance the use of camera-based vibration and motion measurement.

This webinar will provide a comprehensive look at a range of new techniques along with case studies that produce multiple layers of data extracted from video to better understand the motion in the scene.

Using the Process Map to Lead a More Effective RCA Investigation

By Aaron Cross

September 30, 2022 / 8am Pacific Time

High reliability organizations (HRO) rely on highly reliable work processes. When a problem occurs, your investigation reveals opportunities to improve work processes. Unfortunately, many investigations fall short of this important connection with a simple explanation like “procedure needs improvement.” This explanation is NOT specific or effective at revealing actionable solutions to reduce risk. This webinar will show you how an effective investigation must focus on breakdowns in your work processes and how to use the process map as an effective tool to drive this critical discussion.