Managing toward a reliability-based design approach

The short- and long-term benefits of a reliability-based design philosophy are discussed, along with its effects on overall corporate productivity and profitability. Ways to modify existing technical, managerial, and administrative support functions in order to achieve an effective reliability-based design approach are described. Concepts which are important ingredients to reliability-based design, such as the physics of failure, concurrent engineering, statistically based decision-making, a closed-loop iterative design development method, strong customer awareness, and senior management endorsement, are considered. The relationship between quality and reliability is also described, and the role of each in establishing a productive organization is clarified