Reliability Testing
Practical Reliability Testing
Seminar Overview
• Most reliability testing involves time and money. How do we best use money and resources to develop a reliable product?
• Practical Reliability Testing is about meaningful short term tests which adds to prouduct robustness and to the company bottom line.
&bull Review of actual test programs which yield results for a very limited test costs.
• In most cases, Clients need to know the product MTBF or the failure causes (AFR) of a product in the field
Despite the increased importance of the role that reliability plays in commercial product development, most companies are still unable to produce reliable software. The practice of software reliability is rare with few techniques that are compatible with commercial schedules and staffing capabilities. Should organizations wait for the next generation of tools, programming languages and development processes to improve their software reliability? No, the answer has always been within their reach.
By optimizing best practices for defect removal, development organizations can produce high reliability software. However, most organizations are not aware of the enormous potential for defect prevention that can be achieved before the software is even tested. Upstream improvements in software design for reliability (DfR) will generally produce greater returns than further investments in the test phase. This approach offers the option of implementing software DfR without making large changes to their development processes. Engineering teams must balance cost, schedule, performance and reliability to achieve optimal customer satisfaction.
Figure 1 – The “Big 4” Parameters to Balance Reliability is no longer a separate activity performed by a distinct group within the organization. Product reliability goals, concerns and activities are integrated into nearly every function and process of an organization. The organization must factor reliability into every decision.
Design for Reliability is made up of four key steps:
• assess customer’s situation
• develop goals
• write program plan
• execute program plan
The focus is on developing reliable products and improving customer satisfaction. This is true for the electrical, mechanical, and software portion of the system.