Process Capability, Tolerance, and Reliability
Product failures occur due to the material or component variability. The steel in a bracket is more brittle then optimal, or the capacitance is on the low side of an acceptable range. Designing a product with variation in mind enables the creation of a reliable product.
If there was no variation in material properties, component performance, or assembly techniques, products would work as designed. There is variation. Everything varies. Designers and engineers know this and have to take into account the expected amount of variation of the elements that make up the product.
In an ideal world, the design team would work with material and components that are well-characterized process capability. In part, this knowledge permits the establishment of design specifications for the various elements that make up a product. The produce of including tolerances with a design is this deliberate accounting for the expected or required maximum variation.
The problems come when a designer establishes tolerances when the supporting processes are not capable of creating items that are within the specified tolerances. The materials and components we use do not read the specifications, they have the variability that they have regardless of wishful thinking or specifications.
The process of creating a truly reliable product requires the design strike a balance between functional performance, manufacturability, and robustness to variation. In this short webinar, let’s talk about how process capability should influence designs such that the resulting product is reliable.
Let’s talk about the reliability engineers role to understand and minimize process variability whilst encouraging the design team to establish a design robust to as much variation as possible. Finding the right balance is essential to the creation of a product that is both producible and durable.
Leave your concerns, questions, and experience with tolerancing.
This Accendo Reliability webinar originally broadcast on 14 August 2018.
To view the recorded video/audio of the event visit the webinar page.