Technical Paper
Reliability Growth Test Management in the Automotive Component Industry
1991-02-01
910354
Reliability growth test management is a feasible method for identifying failure modes, implementing design changes and monitoring reliability progress on an on-going basis during the early phases of a product development program. Implementation of this particular process will provide very useful information on concept selection, product/process reliability, and cost effectiveness without exorbitant time, money and engineering effort being spent on the development of failure suspect parts. Recent experience with the testing of automotive components has led to a practical method for efficiently organizing, initiating, and monitoring a reliability growth test process under a competitive automobile environment. Analysis techniques to be presented address product/process design concerns and validation testing issues by providing 1) timely reliability growth progress, 2) practice tests leading up to validation, and 3) confidence limits with test time.