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Product Reliability
Quality improvement has two faces - internal and external. Internal quality
improvements deals with reduction of scrap, rework, inspection costs etc.
External quality improvement means enhancing the performance that the
customers experience throughout the product’s life span.
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Product Reliability
The major gains of external quality come from reduced field repairs, recalls,
warranty, product redesign etc. Another benefit is the increase in future sales
not only for the product in hand, but for the additional product the company
manufactures. For example the improvement in the reliability of motorbikes
can also favorably impact the company’s sale of cars .
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Reliability has been defined as quality over time. It is the ability of the product to
satisfactorily perform its designated function over its customer intended life time.
Examples of unreliable products will include inability of a product to function upon
delivery , failure of a switching devise to perform when called upon, premature
changes in appearance, breakdowns etc.
Reliability improvement is the top priority for all customers.
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As per Henry Ford if you need an equipment to improve the product reliability but
don’t buy it, you pay for it even though you don’t have it. The most important goal
of product life data analysis is proactive reliability improvement preferably before
the product release and at the DESIGN stage itself.
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To improve reliability one must understand why the failure occurred. Once
the process has been established and the machinery has been acquired
and set up, it is extremely important to determine the failure modes and
effects they have on the customer.
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For the design engineers, the data base should include for each
failure:
• Part that failed
• Failure mode
• Root cause of failure
• Period in the life of the product of the failure (infant,
useful, end)
• Severity to customer
• Statistical summaries of the data above
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3. Accelerated Testing.
4. HALT
6. Six Sigma
Six Sigma
➣ Have the non quantitative features of the product been defined in some
manner?
➣ Do the designers know the level of product sophistication suitable for the
user involved?
➣ Are adequate design guidelines, standards, handbooks and catalogues
available?
➣ Do the designers understand the interaction of their part of design with
remainder of the design?
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➣ Do the designers have the means of testing their design with regard to
the following :-
➣ a. Performance & reliability tests
➣ b. Tests for unknown design interaction or effects
➣ c. Pilot run
➣ Is their an independent review of design?
➣ Have the detailed drawings been checked?
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➣ Have the designers been provided with the means of regulating the design
process?
➣ Are they provided with information on new alternative materials or design
approaches?
➣ Have they been given performance information on previous designs?
➣ Are the results of research efforts on new products transmitted to the
designers?
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➣ Are the approvals required from the designers to use products from the
new suppliers?
➣ Do the designers participate in defining the criteria for shipment of the
product?
➣ Can the designers propose changes involving trade-offs between
functional performance, reliability and maintainability?
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