How Does Reliability Engineering Affect (Not Just Assess) Design?

Reliability Engineering isn’t just about assessments. It’s about providing information to make decisions. How does reliability engineering affect design?

We answer all the questions from the classical Kipling Method:

• What kind of design inputs can we expect from a Reliability Engineering working relationship?
• Why is their point of view important?
• When should we get them involved in the product development cycle?
• Who can we generally look to for a reliability engineering viewpoint?
• How can we get them involved?
• Where do we find out more information?

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How to use FMEA for Complaint Investigation

FMEA (Failure Mode and Effects Analysis) is a tool we can use to help us investigate complaints from the field. The FMEA is a matrix of the collective team knowledge about the risks of this product, so it’s a valuable source in our investigation about what’s going on in the field.

We talk through how to go about using FMEA for complaint investigation and what we can do with the information.

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3 Tips for Planning Design Reviews

Many presentation books and guides seem to focus on presentations that we see at conferences, for sales pitches, or for executive meetings about business topics.

They don’t seem applicable to the technical design reviews that engineers host.

But they do relate.

We talk about just 3 ways that we can change how we can plan technical design reviews, using some of the principles of presentations.

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Product Design from a Marketing Viewpoint, with Laura Krick (A Chat with Cross Functional Experts)

This interview focuses on product design from a marketing viewpoint, including sales and commercial operations.

“A Talk with Cross Functional Experts” is a Quality during Design interview series. Our focus is speaking with people that are typically part of a cross-functional team for new product development. We discuss their viewpoints and perspectives regarding new products, the values they bring to new product development, and how they’re involved and work with product design engineering teammates.

Laura Krick

Today we speak with Laura Krick, a VP for a global medical device manufacturer (who has, since our interview, been promoted to Chief Commercial Officer – congratulations!). She’s involved in marketing, sales, and commercial operations for new product development.

We talk about these topics:

• Her background and what led her to her current role.
• Her roles in new product development, including her hands-on commercial operations perspective.
• Developing the user experience through data, iteration, and relationships with early adopters.
• Reasons and methods for product design engineers to get into the field.
• Ways for product design engineers to utilize the knowledge base of sales, marketing, and commercial operations reps in their cross-functional team.
• Having fun being part of a risk management activity (!)
• Her recommended books and authors for engineers.

Listen to a Chat with Laura. Gain a different perspective and get actionable advice.

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UFMEA vs. DFMEA

FMEA (Failure Mode and Effects Analysis) is a super-tool for a team, especially when developing concepts and requirements. Done early, iteratively, and treated as a “living” analysis helps teams throughout development and beyond.

Some people seem to either love it or hate it. I don’t have a strong reaction like that, but I do think it can be a valuable option for teamwork and design – so much so that I’ve dedicated a few episodes to it (including this one). We touch on some of the objections to it, too.

FMEAs can have different focuses and can be built to suit the goals of the team. There are two FMEAs, in particular, that can be done in the early concept stages of development: “use” UFMEA and “systems design” DFMEA.

• What is the difference between these two FMEAs?
• How do they relate to one another?
• Should we do both of them?
• What do we do with the information?

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Design Input & Specs vs. Test & Measure Capability

When defining design inputs and specifications, what does a design engineer need to consider about the test and measure capability? What are the typical ways that we assess the variability that a test or measurement introduces into our result?

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ALT vs. HALT

Reliability engineers may suggest environmental stress tests. There are many types of tests in an RE’s toolbox. We compare two types of commonly known tests that are used for design: ALT vs. HALT. What are the important distinctions between these two methods? What value do they each bring to design engineering? And how do they fit into other reliability test methods?

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Quality as a Strategic Asset vs. Quality as a Control

Viewing Quality as a strategic asset to new product development can help us create those products that others love, for less. We talk about some challenges with new product development, the ideal state, and how we can use quality to get there. Use quality engineering and reliability engineering to P.R.U.N.E. the development process so we can develop the best products that we can.

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Design Specs vs. Process Control, Capability, and SPC

This fourth episode of the “QDD Versus” series focuses on concepts relating to Design for Manufacturability. Understand how design specs fit into process control, process capability, and SPC and where they typically don’t fit at all.

We talk about things to think about when setting limits on design features.
And, when defining controls for potential failures, knowing how processes are controlled can help us decide if the controls we have are good enough or not.

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Internal Customers vs. External Customers

We talk about customers of design information. It takes many people to realize a product design into something that can be sold and used. Those people need design information to ensure that they’re performing their tasks to produce a high-quality product, and to be able to use our product appropriately. We review who our customers are and what type of information they need from design engineers.

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Discrete Data vs. Continuous Data

Once we’ve decided to control something (think of our prevention and detection controls), we then need to decide how to measure it. Different controls may need different measuring requirements, which can give us discrete or continuous data.

We treat these data types differently when collecting it, determining sample sizes, and analyzing it for results. Tune-in to learn more about how to take the next step in defining controls: figuring out how to measure it and considering the data.

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Prevention Controls vs. Detection Controls

Analyzing our design concept for controls can be a great way to stay customer-focused and create products that are easy to use.

There are two basic buckets that we want to think of in terms of controls: prevention controls and detection controls. What are their differences and why do we differentiate between them? We explore this and take a look at risk, too.

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Try this Method to Help with Complex Decisions (DMRCS)

Your team is faced with a complex decision. Maybe it’s complex because you have a lot of options or maybe it’s complex because it’s technically challenging and requires some testing. You may want to consider a structured approach: DMRCS.

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