Speaking Of Reliability: Friends Discussing Reliability Engineering Topics | Warranty | Plant Maintenance

Single Use Product Reliability Abstract Dianna and Fred discussing single use product reliability. For products that are used once and then disposed or recycled, do we need to consider and plan for their reliability? The short answer: yes! They talk about the things to consider with single use products. Key Points Join Dianna and Fred as they discuss single use product reliability. Topics include: Reasons why some might not think of single use products as needing to be considered for reliability. Failures beyond those that happen during use: packaging, storage, transportation, etc. Why we should think differently from, “They will just get another one if that one is broken.” Software, automobiles, medical devices, and syringes. Enjoy an episode of Speaking of Reliability. Where you can join friends as they discuss reliability topics. Join us as we discuss topics ranging from design for reliability techniques to field data analysis approaches. Download Audio RSS Show Notes It may be easier to think of the reliability of an installed product or equipment needing to function for a long time during its use. Moving parts and wear out are the first that may come to mind. We still need to consider reliability if our products don’t have moving parts (like software) or if they’re disposable, single use products. We should include product failures that don’t happen during use: out-of-box or time-zero failures are still failures. If something’s not working, that means that something is wrong. And that may be the cause of consternation and costs to our customers – the things we want to avoid. Related Topics MC 013 Product Reliability and Materials Degradation The post SOR 824 Single Use Product Reliability appeared first on Accendo Reliability.

Stresses and Mechanism Abstract Dianna and Fred discussing a listener question about understanding stresses and mechanism of failures of a new design. Key Points Join Dianna and Fred as they discuss a listener question: Is there a listing of all failure mechanisms and their stresses that I can reference? When I’m looking at a product design and developing reliability test plans, how do I identify which stresses I should pay attention to, that would give me an idea of which set of mechanisms could be involved? Topics include: Talking with the design team to get a sense of stresses and mechanisms that they designed against. Collecting data from other products to inform us about our new design. Consider the “day in the life” of the product to uncover ideas. Looking at listings of tests required by industry as a source of stresses and their failure mechanism. Satellites, HALT tests, keyboard covers, and game controllers. Enjoy an episode of Speaking of Reliability. Where you can join friends as they discuss reliability topics. Join us as we discuss topics ranging from design for reliability techniques to field data analysis approaches. Download Audio RSS Show Notes When developing an environmental test, we pick stresses based on which one is the most important based on the mechanism of failure. Which stresses cause the most damage? We may rely on cumulative knowledge and experience, but that doesn’t help people new to reliability! How do we figure out what stresses matter? Some ideas: Talk with the design team. Which feature is most robust or the weakest? Where did you design with a safety margin? Ask ‘why’ a few times to get to the root of their answer. Also, look at what’s new and unknown. How do other or similar products fail? Do you have a similar product within your company that has field or test data? Or is there a competitor product? Sometimes we can find data on competitor products, depending on the industry. Getting our hands on a competitor product can also be a source of information because it allows us to ask, “Why did they do it that way?” We might uncover an idea about a failure mechanism. What’s the real “day in the life” of the product? Sometimes what we start designing isn’t how customers ultimately use it. Do a beta test with customers or otherwise understand how the product will really be used. Some industries have listings of tests that should or must be performed to meet a standard. These tests can be a source of information about stresses and mechanisms. Finally, know that all of this is to try to uncover the things that we don’t think about or miss. Be prepared to be surprised. Break stuff and have fun! Let us know the unique ways you damage your products. Related Topics SOR 825 Learning about Failures The post SOR 823 Stresses and Mechanism appeared first on Accendo Reliability.

Identify Weak Points Abstract Kirk and Fred discussing how a good reliability development process is to identify the weaknesses to improve a product including a recent fence repair at Kirk’s house. Key Points Join Kirk and Fred as they discuss how a fence repair specialist identify a weakness in a fence and gate support structure Topics include: The improvement in the strength of the fence/gate structure came from adding a new fence support post to add more strength and less displacement of the post supporting the weight of the gate. How do we focus on the points of potential failure and identify what we need to change in a product to make it reliable? Even though Gregg Hobbs, the creator of HALT and HASS, had revolutionary ideas on limit testing he did not know og the separate benefits of thermal HALT and firmware and signal integrity by skewing the speed of electrons slower and faster at hot and cold extremes. Talking with the development team and manufacturing engineers helps identify the potential weaknesses that a design engineer had to not be as strong as he wants due design tradeoffs and manufacturing may identify assembly process concerns. Enjoy an episode of Speaking of Reliability. Where you can join friends as they discuss reliability topics. Join us as we discuss topics ranging from design for reliability techniques to field data analysis approaches. Download Audio RSS Show Notes You can now purchase the recent recording of Kirk Gray’s Hobbs Engineering 8 (two 4 hour sessions) hour Webinar “Rapid and Robust Reliability Development 2022 HALT & HASS Methodologies Online Seminar” from this link. Please click on this link to access a relatively new analysis of traditional reliability prediction methods article from the US ARMY and CALCE titled  “Reliability Prediction – Continued Reliance on a Misleading Approach” For more information on the newest discovery testing methodology here is a link to the book “Next Generation HALT and HASS: Robust design of Electronics and Systems” written by Kirk Gray and John Paschkewitz. Related Topics Break-Even Analysis: To Paint or Not to Paint(Opens article in a new browser tab) The post SOR 822 Identify Weak Points appeared first on Accendo Reliability.

Confirmation Bias Abstract Kirk and Fred discussing the paths they took in Reliability Engineering, how our past experience shaped our view of the best methods for improving the reliability of systems, and how we learn new information on reliability issues. Key Points Join Kirk and Fred as they discuss their paths to their current frame of reference for how to improve the reliability of equipment. Topics include: Kirk came from the path of first installing and servicing high vacuum semiconductor manufacturing systems and then meeting Gregg Hobbs, his mentor in HALT and HASS, who never studied reliability engineering or traditional reliability predictions. Fred came from a physics and statistical approach, yet we both agree on much of the stress to limits that Gregg taught as one of the most useful reliability tools. Since Fred earned a masters in statistics, most of his early work was statistical. The Certified Reliability Engineering (CRE) tests were a breeze for Fred since it is mostly based on statistics and modeling but later saw the value of stress-strength testing (HALT) Fred talks about the first failure analysis of a heating cable and the variation in using different probes and the measured resistance resulted in failures in production. W. Ed Deming had great success with statistical control of manufacturing process variation, and this is one of the best uses of statistics to insure reliability. The number of ways a product might fail is almost infinite as there are so many process and materials that mistakes could be made and technology materials and methods are constantly changing. The blame game and the sensitivity of the cause of failures make it difficult for new reliability engineers to discover the real causes of failures in the field. Enjoy an episode of Speaking of Reliability. Where you can join friends as they discuss reliability topics. Join us as we discuss topics ranging from design for reliability techniques to field data analysis approaches. Download Audio RSS Show Notes You can now purchase the recent recording of Kirk Gray’s Hobbs Engineering 8 (two 4 hour sessions) hour Webinar “Rapid and Robust Reliability Development 2022 HALT & HASS Methodologies Online Seminar” from this link. Please click on this link to access a relatively new analysis of traditional reliability prediction methods article from the US ARMY and CALCE titled  “Reliability Prediction – Continued Reliance on a Misleading Approach” For more information on the newest discovery testing methodology here is a link to the book “Next Generation HALT and HASS: Robust design of Electronics and Systems” written by Kirk Gray and John Paschkewitz. Related Topics SOR 399 Paths to Learning Reliability(Opens podcast in a new browser tab) The post SOR 821 Confirmation Bias appeared first on Accendo Reliability.

Failure to Adjust Abstract Greg and Fred discussing why people have a hard time adjusting and pivoting in times of uncertainty, much like what we all experience today. Key Points Join Greg and Fred as they discuss why people have a difficult time adjusting to change.  Personal change.   Change in weather.  Or, change in anything. Topics include: How people confront change.  Not well! How people adjust to change.  Not often! Why it’s critical to be personally resilient to thrive in change. Enjoy an episode of Speaking of Reliability. Where you can join friends as they discuss reliability topics. Join us as we discuss topics ranging from design for reliability techniques to field data analysis approaches. Download Audio RSS Related Topics SOR 734 Can Organizations Change(Opens podcast in a new browser tab)   The post SOR 820 Failure to Adjust appeared first on Accendo Reliability.

Supply Chain Tradeoffs Abstract Greg and Fred discussing the tradeoffs in reshoring.  Many companies are considering bringing design and manufacturing back to the US or host country. Key Points Join Greg and Fred as they discuss reshoring or bringing manufacturing back to the US.  The challenge is the US has lost much of its engineering and manufacturing capabilities.  In other words, we don’t know how to make the machines that make things and have the people run the machines that make things.  Big problem. Topics include: Manufacturing challenges (risks) of reshoring. Design challenges (risks) of reshoring. People challenges (risks) of reshoring. Possible solutions (risks) to the above. Enjoy an episode of Speaking of Reliability. Where you can join friends as they discuss reliability topics. Join us as we discuss topics ranging from design for reliability techniques to field data analysis approaches. Download Audio RSS Related Topics SOR 861 Reshoring and Talent(Opens podcast in a new browser tab)   The post SOR 819 Supply Chain Tradeoffs appeared first on Accendo Reliability.

Improving or Suing Abstract Chris and Fred discuss whether you want to lay blame (i.e. sue) or improve reliability? Don’t be confused … accountability is important. But that doesn’t replace everyone ‘owning’ the end result. Key Points Join Chris and Fred as they discuss how many organizations treat reliability engineering activities as being able to work out ‘who stuffed up.’ Which ideally … is never me … Topics include: Think about suppliers and root cause analysis. Many root cause analysis activities conclude in finding that the supplier was at fault. And then we stop. Why? Because it was their fault. But so what? What good is that moving forward? How do we stop this from happening again? We don’t care! It is there job to do a better job! A root cause is something you can address. If you can’t … it is an environmental constraint. If you can’t influence the quality of your supplier products (and just allocating blame is not influencing anything in a positive way) then it MUST be an environmental consideration. If your suppliers are ‘rubbish’ then it is up to you to incorporate this reality into your design (for example). Maybe you need to incorporate redundancy. Introduce environmental chambers to keep the part in ‘optimal’ temperature and humidity bands. Otherwise … all you are doing is admiring a problem. But we can’t influence supplier quality … can we? Of course we can! We know (for example) that there are many products and systems manufactured by different organizations which have well-earned reputations for reliability. But … they rely on their supplier networks as much as anyone else. So how can this be? The organizations who do this the best are those that set up collaborative and transparent relationships where issues are identified as early as possible and then addressed by the ‘right’ group of people. Which might be in the supplier or manufacturer’s organization … at the same time. The reality is that the person who ‘created’ the problem might not be the right one to ‘solve’ it. What? Think of a medical device company that is trying to create a wonderful new testing machine that relies on microfluidic behaviour at scales that are too small for us to see. Let’s say one of the suppliers manufactures a plastic insert that is supposed to partition fluids into tiny wells that are nanometres deep. Initial prototype testing shows that for whatever reason, the fluid being examined (which usually includes a sample of blood to test for viruses and things like that) is not ‘staying’ in these wells. Is this the supplier’s fault? Who cares … it should be up to the design, pumping, chemical, manufacturing AND suppliers to work together to see if tweaking flow rates, chemical compositions, and of course well dimensions will solve the problem. A multi-pronged approach is faster, more efficient and will find the cheapest way of solving the problem! Enjoy an episode of Speaking of Reliability. Where you can join friends as they discuss reliability topics. Join us as we discuss topics ranging from design for reliability techniques to field data analysis approaches. Download Audio RSS Related Topics Failure Analysis: The Key to Learning From Failure(Opens article in a new browser tab)   The post SOR 818 Improving or Suing appeared first on Accendo Reliability.

Warranty to Failure Rate Abstract Chris and Fred discuss what (if anything) we can learn from advertised warranty or reliability specifications from vendors. Key Points Join Chris and Fred as they discuss how we can (if possible) learn anything about the reliability of components and systems from their ‘warranty period’ in the absence of reliability specifications. Topics include: Assumption for this to work #1: The vendor actually knows what their optimal warranty actually is. This is not always the case. Some organizations budget a ‘set amount’ of accrual to cover their warranty costs … regardless of any system reliability analysis. Some of these organizations have a single number for all their different products. Some organizations rely on customers who struggle to be able to ratify warranty claims (i.e. demonstrate adherence to a use case). Assumption for this to work #2: There is an effort to calculate a profitable warranty period/reliability goal. Following on from the assumption above … but even if there is a warranty period and reliability goal extracted from the business case … does anyone actually determine if the product actually meets that goal. Assumption for this to work #3: Vendors get to choose their warranty period. The European Union (EU) mandates warranty periods for certain products … so do all those products have the same reliability characteristics? Assumption for this to work #4: Many companies’ profit margin is affected by warranty. Some companies have such a monopoly on a technology that their profit margin is so high that warranty action doesn’t really affect it (too much). So they don’t care. So what can we do? The answer is something you might not like. It is cultural. You need to OWN reliability. That means you think about it from the start. Before you select vendors you tell them that you need to be involved in their reliability analysis efforts. These efforts will inform if that vendor is selected (or not). If the vendor you select still (for whatever reason) can’t give you what you need, then you need to do your own testing, analysis or research to find out its reliability characteristics. And because of your efforts to establish this relationship with all your suppliers, this need for you to conduct analysis should be rare. But … you need to own it (and not think the only thing you can do is ‘lookup’ more failure rates from some book … from the internet … somewhere). Enjoy an episode of Speaking of Reliability. Where you can join friends as they discuss reliability topics. Join us as we discuss topics ranging from design for reliability techniques to field data analysis approaches. Download Audio RSS Related Topics:   SOR 029 Vendor Common Responses to Failures(Opens podcast in a new browser tab) The post SOR 817 Warranty to Failure Rate appeared first on Accendo Reliability.

Uniqueness of Reliability Engineers Abstract Philip and Fred discussing a handful of traits that may be unique to reliability engineers. Key Points Join Philip and Fred as they discuss what makes reliability engineering attract ‘particular’ types of people. Topics include: Curiosity with how things fail The ability to deal with and learn from failures The language of reliability that transcends spoken language or culture Enjoy an episode of Speaking of Reliability. Where you can join friends as they discuss reliability topics. Join us as we discuss topics ranging from design for reliability techniques to field data analysis approaches. Download Audio RSS Related Topics SOR 566 An Effective Start in Reliability Engineering(Opens article in a new browser tab) The post SOR 816 Uniqueness of Reliability Engineers appeared first on Accendo Reliability.

Listing of Failure Mechanisms Abstract Philip and Fred discussing a question about locating a listing of failure mechanisms. Key Points Join Philip and Fred as they discuss a listing of all failure mechanisms that probably doesn’t exist due to sheer magnitude of the number of mechanisms that exist. Topics include: We do not know of a catalog of all failure mechanism The technical literature may be the best current source Connecting life models in a meaningful way Enjoy an episode of Speaking of Reliability. Where you can join friends as they discuss reliability topics. Join us as we discuss topics ranging from design for reliability techniques to field data analysis approaches. Download Audio RSS Related Topic SOR 708 How Well to Know Failure Mechanisms(Opens podcast in a new browser tab) The post SOR 815 Listing of Failure Mechanisms appeared first on Accendo Reliability.