Your Reliability Engineering Professional Development Site
A quiz:
What statistical concept is used in these design activities?
A key element of reliability engineering is doing the right thing at the right time. When running an experiment or test, conducting an assessment, or performing an analysis, the method we use must fit the situation. Being busy does not add value; getting meaningful results does. [Read more…]
My guest, Eric Camden (Lead Investigator with Foresite) and I discuss electrochemical migration (ECM) and other failure modes caused by residues on circuit assemblies.
Eric Camden’s Contact Information:
ericc@foresiteinc.com
https://www.foresiteinc.com
Chris and Fred discuss how many samples you need to conduct Accelerated Life Testing or ALT … and a little bit about what ALT is.
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Chris and Dianna discuss the ‘sedentary inertia’ that many companies experience when they need to change … but can’t (don’t want to). Especially in the world of quality!
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We all like effective and efficient working meetings.
What do we do to plan them, or how do we improve our recurring ones?
Are we prepared to do things differently? If so, we can collect information so we know what we want to improve and by how much.
We talk about best practices of meeting evaluations for those that we plan and facilitate and those recurring team meetings.
Dianna and Chris discussing their different viewpoints of quality and reliability: how they are really two sides of a coin that are supported by the culture of an organization and by individual contributors.
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Kirk and Fred discussing how to ensure that the quality and reliability of the last units produced from a manufacturing line is the same as the first units produced.
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In this episode I discuss Design for Manufacturability related to component fabrication and joining components by welding, brazing, or soldering. Design for manufacturing is concerned with designing components and assemblies that can be repeatedly produced with consistent good quality without hassles, and at low-cost. DFM applies to primary component fabrication processes, secondary processing (coating, heat treating), and joining. Primary component fabrication processes include casting, extruding, stamping and other cold forming, forging, and machining. Secondary processes include heat treating, machining, and coating by painting, electroplating, anodizing and other processes. And joining includes welding, brazing, soldering, and using adhesives.
In this episode, I speak with Teeshal Bal about what it takes to be a great leader and the challenges engineering professionals face when making the transition to a leadership role. The biggest struggle is understanding the difference between technical leadership and adaptive leadership. We often forget that we cannot look at people simply as numbers, people are highly complex, and understanding the nuances and getting the balance is crucial to creating high-performing teams. Tune in if you want to learn what you need to do in becoming a good to great leader!
You can reach out to Teeshal through LinkedIn.
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How do we even begin a design for the user without getting into engineering prototypes?
Don’t we need to do lots of iterations of prototypes and physical mockups to get design inputs from other people?
While these things can be useful, they’re not always practical or necessary, No, we don’t need to do lots of iterations of different mockups to get design inputs.
In fact, we want to explore the use space with our team before we even start engineering stuff, including the mockups. So how do we get started talking with our team about a design concept without having something to show them?
This episode describes just one way we could do it: how to get design inputs with flowcharts.
If you want more on this topic, register for the workshop! Registration Link
Everyone has heard of the ‘bell curve.’ Sports show hosts, teachers, scientists, and a bunch of other people routinely use the term ‘bell curve’ to describe uncertainty. But do you know where it comes from? It is not just a ‘pretty shape’ that seems to work, It comes from a really cool physical phenomena that we find everywhere. So, the ‘bell curve’ naturally aligns with how our primitive human brain often tries to characterize or visualize uncertainty. The other really cool thing about the bell curve (and lots of other curves that look like bells) is that if we find it in our reliability data, it automatically tells us where to look in order to improve reliability. If you want a basic introduction to one of the most common statistical concepts with NO EQUATIONS … this is the webinar for you!
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On this episode, I speak with Mark Goodwin, COO of Ventec Europe, a supplier of copper clad laminates and prepreg bonding materials for the circuit board fabrication industry about supply chain challenges.
Mark Goodwin’s Contact Information:
mark.goodwin@ventec-europe.com
http://www.ventec-group.com
Kirk and Fred discussing a question from a listener regarding a specific failure mechanism and time to failure for the same, and how most failures are not due to a single stress condition.
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Chris and Fred discuss what you can do to feel good about your job … including when you know it is time to move on.
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