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by Fred Schenkelberg Leave a Comment

The Exciting World of Warranty Terms

The Exciting World of Warranty Terms

Here’s a short list of terms related to warranty management. Often is the words we use that matter and understanding the language of warranties is one step in mastering warranty management.

Warranty

A promise made to the buyer of an item that the manufacturer (seller) will repair or replace the item if necessary within a specific time period. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Articles, CRE Preparation Notes, Reliability Management Tagged With: Warranty Management

by Fred Schenkelberg 1 Comment

Warranty Evolution and Laws

Warranty Evolution and Laws

When making a transaction there is an element of trust.

The buyer is trusting you are providing a product that lives up to the claims provided. Neither party wishes to be duped. Yet, we do enter into transactions. We buy stuff.

A few hundred years ago and prior most purchases were from someone you knew, and most likely knew well. It was in the craftsman’s best interest to maintain honest dealing and create quality products. If not, they would enjoy less business. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Articles, CRE Preparation Notes, Reliability Management Tagged With: Warranty Management

by Fred Schenkelberg Leave a Comment

The Liability Part of Reliability Engineering

The Liability Part of Reliability Engineering

In many parts of the world ‘caveat emptor’ [let the buyer beware] no longer applies.

The producer and distributors of products are liable for their products.

This extends beyond product failures and a warranty claim. Today the company is liable for to make right any loss or damage incurred by the use of the product.

Courts and laws around the world reflect the protection of users of products from adverse consequences due to a negligent design and assembly practices.

The producer of a product must consider the user’s safety and provide reasonable safeguards.

This applies even when the user misuses or abuses a product. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Articles, CRE Preparation Notes, Reliability Management, Risk Management Tagged With: Drivers of reliability requirements and targets, Failure Consequence and Liability Management, Mitigation

by Fred Schenkelberg Leave a Comment

Management Role Concerning Safety, Quality, and Reliability

Management Role Concerning Safety, Quality, and Reliability

Every product and process has built into it elements that impact the safety, quality and reliability performance.

These features will always be present whether deliberately crafted or not. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Articles, CRE Preparation Notes, Reliability Foundations, Reliability Management Tagged With: Interrelationship of safety quality and reliability

by Fred Schenkelberg 5 Comments

Reliability and the Development Phase Gate Process

Reliability and the Development Phase Gate Process

My first major product design review was much less than I thought it would be. This was a new inkjet printer platform and the checkpoint review assessed the teams work and readiness to move to the next stage of development. A team of over 200 engineers and managers meet for 4 hours. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Articles, CRE Preparation Notes, Reliability Management Tagged With: Design Evaluation

by Fred Schenkelberg 2 Comments

Life Cycle Cost Analysis and Reliability

Life Cycle Cost Analysis and Reliability

The purchase price of a product may be the start of the cost of ownership.

Maintenance and repairs may cost many times the initial purchase price. An efficient maintenance process and low-cost spare parts may help minimize cost, yet a design that optimizes the total cost of ownership is the most effective method. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Articles, CRE Preparation Notes, Reliability Management Tagged With: Product lifecycle engineering, Systems engineering and integration

by Fred Schenkelberg Leave a Comment

Elements of a Reliability Manual

Elements of a Reliability Manual

One method to define an organization’s approach to reliability is to create a reliability manual. Many organizations already have a quality manual as required for ISO 9000 or similar certification. Reliability may be a section of the larger quality manual or simply integrated into the same document. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Articles, CRE Preparation Notes, Reliability Foundations, Reliability Management Tagged With: Function of reliability engineering, Role of reliability function in the organization

by Fred Schenkelberg 2 Comments

Benefits of Reliability Engineering

Benefits of Reliability Engineering

We see the terms ‘reliable’ and ‘reliability’ in daily advertising, business names and in casual conversations on a regular basis. Reliability has meaning and importance in our society. Product and brand reputations are made or broken by their product reliability performance.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Articles, CRE Preparation Notes, Reliability Foundations, Reliability Management Tagged With: Benefits of reliability engineering

by Fred Schenkelberg Leave a Comment

Failure Modes and Mechanisms

Failure Modes and Mechanisms

When something fails, what should we do?

A natural question when something fails is

Why did it fail?

The answer is not always obvious or easy to sort out.

One of my favorite examples was on a circuit board that had a small burn mark where a component exploded off the board. The customer didn’t notice that missing part, our engineering team did that. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Articles, CRE Preparation Notes, Probability and Statistics for Reliability, Reliability Management Tagged With: Discrete and continuous probability distributions, Reliability Terminology

by Fred Schenkelberg Leave a Comment

3 Steps NRTL Use for Product Safety

3 Steps NRTL Use for Product Safety

With any product development, there is a risk the features (benefit) come along with inherent dangers (risk). For example, a desktop computer includes the need for electrical power. Done improperly a person exposed to wall current and voltage could be seriously harmed. While unlikely the risk exists. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Articles, CRE Preparation Notes, Reliability Management Tagged With: Safety System

by Fred Schenkelberg Leave a Comment

Role of Reliability in an Organization

Role of Reliability in an Organization

An effective product reliability process requires a strong team, at every level.

The team of employees within an organization that participate and impact product reliability is a vast and widespread group of people. They include members of the design team, design managers, quality and reliability engineers and managers, procurement engineers and managers, warranty managers, failure analysis specialists, members of the marketing and sales staff, members of the finance and manufacturing teams, and field service and call center staffs. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Articles, CRE Preparation Notes, Reliability Foundations, Reliability Management Tagged With: Function of reliability engineering, Role of reliability function in the organization

by Fred Schenkelberg Leave a Comment

Types of Risk

Types of Risk

Creating a product or maintaining equipment is actually about our ability to manage risk. The various risks are outlined below, and there are more to consider. This summary covers the basics related to reliability. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Articles, CRE Preparation Notes, Reliability Management Tagged With: product development, Risk, safety, Types of Risk

by Fred Schenkelberg 2 Comments

Program Elements Part 2

Program Elements Part 2

This is a two part series where I outline the basic elements of creating and supporting a reliability program. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Articles, CRE Preparation Notes, Reliability Management Tagged With: Elements of a Reliability Program

by Fred Schenkelberg Leave a Comment

Program Elements Part 1

Program Elements Part 1

This is a two part series where I outline the basic elements of creating and supporting a reliability program.

Gather Requirements and Set Reliability Goals

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Articles, CRE Preparation Notes, Reliability Management Tagged With: Elements of a Reliability Program, maintenance

by Fred Schenkelberg 1 Comment

Reliability Management Terminology

Reliability Management Terminology

For Reliability Engineers to converse with one another and with non-technical people in an organization, it is necessary for the language of reliability to be widely understood. These terms form the backbone of a working vocabulary and should be well understood by Certified Reliability Engineers.

Availability: Fraction of time that a system is usable. Steady state Availability = MTBF/(MTBF+MTTR) [Read more…]

Filed Under: Articles, CRE Preparation Notes, Reliability Management Tagged With: Failure Rate, Reliability Terminology

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Article by Fred Schenkelberg

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