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 …
Quality
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 …
