Accendo Reliability

Your Reliability Engineering Professional Development Site

Fred Schenkelberg — Thought Leader

Author of <a href="/creprep/">CRE Preparation Notes</a>, <a href="/on-product-reliability/musings">Musings</a>, <a href="/articles/nomtbf/">NoMTBF</a>, <a href="/book-author/fred-schenkelberg/">multiple books & ebooks</a>, co-host on <a href="/series/sor/">Speaking of Reliability</a>, and speaker in the <a href="/series/sor/">Accendo Reliability Webinar Series</a>.


This author's archive lists contributions of articles and episodes.

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Intro to Reliability Engineering Management

Intro to Reliability Engineering Management

Introduction to
Reliability Engineering Management

This discussion draws on over 150 reliability program assessments. Let’s discuss the findings, key lessons, and best practices.

Let’s start the discussion on how to think about improving your reliability programs both at the specific project and across the organization.

Thinking about the value of each task and how it will benefit achieving personal, business, and customer objectives are key.
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Reliability and Cost Reduction

Reliability and Cost Reduction

I do not like procurement organizations.

It is like saying you don’t like lawyers. I don’t know all procurement engineers or managers, so understand my statement is a grand generalization. It’s not the people I don’t like, it’s a common behavior that I’ve witnessed countless times that I do not like.

Procurement organizations tend to look for ways to reduce cost by purchasing less expensive components or materials. This is often done with little regard to the impact on product reliability.

Why is this? And what can we do as reliability professionals to change this behavior? [Read more…]

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Field Industry and Public Failure Data

Field Industry and Public Failure Data

Beyond understanding what will fail (failure mechanisms) we need to know when a system will fail. Both kinds of information can be found in a variety of sources.

Unlike the stock market where we are regularly warned that past performance does not indicate future performance; in reliability engineering past performance is the best predictor of future performance. [Read more…]

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Types of Failure Data

Types of Failure Data

The other day a student said they are asking for failure dates, not failure rates. That is a marked improvement when requesting information for the many sources of reliability information. It is not sufficient though.

Also ask for the type of failures expected or encountered during the testing or observation. [Read more…]

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To Change the Reliability Culture

To Change the Reliability Culture

Have you ever wished your organization would work together to achieve a reliable product? Not just a few individuals and a heavy reliance on the reliability team to focus on highlighting and fixing reliability issues.

Some organizations tend to react to reliability issues. Prototype testing and field returns continue to surprise the team. The worst organization fall into finding someone to blame. Better organizations set to work to understand the problem and quickly resolve the issue. Some have better ‘fire departments’ than others.

Responding quicker is not really the best way to deal with reliability. [Read more…]

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Levene’s Test

Levene’s Test

Here’s an overview of the non-parametric test to evaluate if a set of samples have the same variance. If the variances are equal they have homogeneity of variances.

Some statistical tests assume equal variances across samples, such as analysis of variance and many types of hypothesis tests. It is also assumed for statistical process control purposes to determine stability (often done with range (r chart) or standard deviation (s charts). [Read more…]

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Required Case History for Reliability Engineers

One for the (Reliability) Books

Guest post by Kirk Gray

The GM Ignition switch failure case history should be required reading for all reliability engineers.

It is rare to have insight into any internal company history of serious electronic and electromechanical failures. Failure analysis and the causes of electronics or electromechanical systems failure can be a difficult investigation for any manufacturing company. Disclosure of the history and data is rarely if ever published due to the potential liability and litigation costs as well as loss of reputation for reliability and safety.

[Read more…]

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Successful Career in Reliability Engineering

Successful Career in Reliability Engineering

Successful Career in Reliability Engineering

How does one become a reliability engineer?

How does one create a career based on reliability engineering?

In my experience, I have seen several paths and have observed a number of key traits that make for a successful career.

This discussion examines the traits of successful reliability professionals from different industries.

The combination of those profiles and my experience with coaching dozens as they built their careers has provided a unique insight into the key traits that separate a rewarding from an unfulfilling career in reliability engineering.
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Reliability Target Establishment

Reliability Target Establishment

“The language we use matters.” Wayne Nelson

How we talk about reliability does matter. It sets expectations and influences decisions. We talk about reliability as it is important to our customers and our business. The successful operation of the equipment in a plant permits the production of products. The successful operation of the product satisfies the needs and expectations of our customers.

[Read more…]

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Chi-Square Test of Independence

Chi-Square Test of Independence

The chi-square ( $- \chi^2 -$) test provides a means to determine independence between two or more variables. In this case, it works for count data.

Contingency table or row and column (r x c) analysis are other common names for this analysis. It is useful when comparing results from different treatments or processes. [Read more…]