Why Reliability? Reliability has several definitions, mostly covering some likelihood expression of functionality under certain conditions and a given timeframe. And designers and manufacturers often put significant effort into preventing failure. But this begs the question of “why?” The answer is that reliability is a potential benefit to the user and, through sales and profit, to the supplier. Benefits come in the form of safety, of the product confidently delivering its intent, and of lowered operating costs. However, there are also potential downsides, of a higher up-front cost, changed aesthetics, less performance, etc. And, sales may be driven by these more visible attributes. Hence, benefits to the supplier of maybe increased investment (to deliver assured high reliability) might …
Assessing/Planning for Reliability
Measure Twice, at Least
How often have you cut a board, a piece of material, or even wrapping paper, and guess what? You come up Short Agh! We'll there may be a few factors in not effectively measuring the material. It can be any of the following: 1) Your measurement system or rule is not accurate enough for the material you measuring. 2) You need to measure in Milimeters and not inches. 3) You don't have repeatable measurements, and have too much variance in your system. If number 3 is the case for repeatability, we would suggest a Gage R&R study, and an Ops Ala Carte Consultant can help you here. Per the 2nd cause, in my recent experience with a Supplier Quality Issue, the manufacturing tech. measured a hi-tech German Cable for medical applications, and found that a couple of pigtail lengths wire …
Creating a Qualification Framework can pay-off big as your product matures
We can't under-estimate the power of a well laid-out qualification process. We've all heard about DVT, the Design Verification Process step that puts one's product through several testing requirements; but a comprehensive qualification plan requires more than DVT. My professional experience has shown that a 3 steps qualification process: EVT, DVT and PMT allows a much more thorough qualification. These acronyms can be stated differently in different organizations, but they have about the same meaning: EVT is for the early stages of product development, when the product is still somewhat imature; for example, for an electronic assembly, one can choose to conduct EVT on just the PCBAs before they are mated to the main system. DVT is for a more mature stage of product development, when …
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NPI Seven Best Practices
This article and the subsequent white paper link was written by Mike Keer and the Product Realization Group team. New Product Introduction consists of people, processes and technology, which together provide a formal methodology for a product's transition from engineering design to volume manufacturing. A subset of the product lifecycle process, which covers the entire lifecycle of a product from concept to end of life, NPI's primary focus is on a product's beta, pilot, and general availability (GA) stages. Here are seven best practices for deploying a strong NPI strategy: Use Concurrent Engineering Mitigate Risks Employ Design for Excellence (DFX) Leverage Rapid Prototyping and Accelerated Life Testing Adhere to Agency and Environmental Compliance Requirements Learn from …
Managing Design Risks
Successful new product development (NPD) involves the art of balancing schedules, resources, and costs to enable products that launch on-time, with desired performance and at the right cost. Inevitably, trade-offs and risks must be made along the way. Companies that manage these trade-offs and risks consistently outperform their competitors. On May 17, we created a panel of industry experts to look at how to identify all the risks in development, and shares their knowledge of the latest emerging risks. The panelists offer a variety of perspectives – ranging from Mechanical and Electrical Design, Product Reliability and Parts Fabrication. Practical issues of how upstream design decisions impact downstream performance, quality and costs will be explored. You can download a copy of the …
