Starting a reliability program: a case study

In small to mid-size manufacturing companies, it is possible, desirable and required to upgrade every Total Quality Management, ISO 9001 and/or Six Sigma program with a product reliability test program. In many companies, individual units are randomly tested for some finite number of hours or cycles. Corrective actions are haphazard, often ineffective. Worse yet, they may never be implemented; without statistical guidelines defining test limits, the results can be ignored. With less of a financial burden, a truncated test plan will improve the quality of information, leading to better corrective actions and fortifying warranty analysis and predictions. This case study describes how one company in southern Minnesota used this type of plan.