FICCI

CE

Reliability improvement techniques

FICCI

CE

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 products life span.

FICCI

CE

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 companys sale of cars .

FICCI

CE

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.

FICCI

CE

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.

FICCI

CE

Reliability should be proactive

As per Henry Ford if you need an equipment to improve the product reliability but dont buy it, you pay for it even though you dont have it. The most important goal of product life data analysis is proactive reliability improvement preferably before the product release.

FICCI

CE

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

FICCI

CE

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.

FICCI

CE

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.

FICCI

CE

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.

FICCI

CE

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.

FICCI

CE

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.

FICCI

CE

Aspects of Six Sigma

a. Six sigma approach integrates the human and process elements of improvement to produce breakthrough results

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

FICCI

CE

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