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Reliability improvement techniques

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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 - top priority

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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Techniques of improving product

Reliability

An effective reliability improvement

program involves more than statistics.

Reliability is the key element to quality

improvement, it is often the part of quality

that affects the customers the most. To

achieve reliability improvement it is

essential that management insists on

comprehensive reliability improvement

program at the product design stage itself.

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Reliability should be proactive

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.

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Conducting Failure Mode and effect

analysis

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.

Please see “Failure Mode & Effect Analysis” under “F”

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Accelerated Testing.

Obtaining relevant reliability data early in

the product design process is a critical

element of proactive reliability

improvement. Such accelerated testing may

require increasing the use rate of a product

- this is specially appropriate for products

which is in operational use only a fraction

of the time.

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HALT

Highly accelerated life testing (HALT) is

becoming popular among reliability and

design engineers for faster elimination of

key failure modes before product release.

The objective of HALT application is to

rapidly identify failures, which may require

long time to discover under normal use

conditions. Such testing is typically done

on a few prototype units that are subjected

to combinations of stresses at much higher

levels than encountered in a normal

operation.

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Robust design experiments

Robust design experiments have great

potential for leading to improvements in

products and process design, and thus,

reliability. The key idea behind robust

design methods proposed by Taguchi is to

choose design conditions that make the

product robust to environmental factors.

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Six Sigma

Six sigma is a product reliability

improvement approach that seeks to find

and eliminate causes of mistakes or defects

in business processes by focusing on

outputs that are of critical importance to

customers.

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Six Sigma

The ability to produce products with only

3.4 defects per million is described as Six

sigma. Six sigma is action oriented and

focuses on processes used to serve

customers and defect reduction.

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Aspects of Six Sigma

Human elements

• Bottom line

• Manufacturing leadership

• Sense of urgency

• Customer focus

• Project teams

• Culture Change

Process elements

• Process improvement

• Analysis of variation

• Disciplined approach

• Quantitative measures

• Statistical methods

• Process management

a. Six sigma approach integrates the human and process

elements of improvement to produce breakthrough

results

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b. Clear focus on the bottom line

Six sigma places a clear focus on getting

the bottom line results along with the time

frame . No six sigma project is approved

till the bottom line or the success factors

are clearly spelt out. Each project must be

completed within a given time frame which

is usually 3-6 months

See “DMAIC strategy” under “D”