The Process of Reliability Engineering: Creating Reliability Plans That Add Value

Achieving high reliability in products and processes is essential for reliability engineering and management. Regardless of your position in the organization, whether you are an engineer or a manager, you have a role to play in achieving high reliability. It is part of your job. Yet, little is written about this important objective.

There are plenty of books and resources on performing the wide variety of reliability methods and techniques. The methods of reliability engineering are well documented. What is missing is when and how to integrate the right set of methods into the product development process, putting it all together so that one is likely to obtain the desired results. The Process of Reliability Engineering is your roadmap to meeting reliability objectives.

No matter where you are on the supply chain, whether part of a Fortune 500 company or a startup, your customers want trouble-free products that work as promised.

Readers will learn:

• The difference between reliability engineering and reliability management and why it matters.
• The underlying philosophy for creating a reliable product.
• The six steps to achieving high reliability with any product or process.
• Why most reliability plans do not work as intended and how to learn from these lessons.
• What is a reliability strategic vision, and how is it created and used.
• What are the missing elements to achieving your organization's reliability vision, and how to use them in creating a reliability plan.
• Why decisions matter and how to support critical reliability-related decisions.
• How to select the vital few reliability methods to close the gaps and support critical decisions.
• The correct procedure for writing and executing reliability tasks.
• Case studies, examples, and lessons learned, focusing on practical application.
• Timeless application tips that apply to any industry.
• Soft skills for building credibility and influence.

Whether your role is product or process engineering or management, we should aim to achieve the highest possible reliability and safety in our products. Join us on a journey to creating effective reliability plans that add value to your organization.

Carl is a consultant and instructor in the areas of Failure Mode and Effects Analysis and other reliability and quality disciplines, supporting clients from a wide cross section of industries. He has 40 years of experience in reliability testing, engineering, and management positions, including as senior manager for advanced reliability at General Motors. He has a Bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Michigan, is a Senior Member of the American Society of Quality, and a Certified Reliability Engineer. His book, Effective FMEAs, was published by John Wiley & Sons in 2012, and he regularly writes and podcasts on AccendoReliability.com.

Fred is an international authority on reliability engineering and founder of Accendo Reliability. He is the reliability expert at FMS Reliability, a reliability engineering and management consulting firm he founded in 2004. Fred left Hewlett Packard's Reliability Team where he helped create a culture of reliability across the corporation to assist other organizations. His passion is working with teams to improve product reliability, customer satisfaction, and efficiencies in product development and to reduce product risk and warranty costs. Fred has a Bachelor of Science in physics from the United States Military Academy and a Master of Science in statistics from Stanford University.