Reliability: The Other Dimension of Quality

• Activity Number: 451
• Type: Invited
• Date/Time: Tuesday, August 11, 2015 : 4:00 PM to 5:50 PM
• Sponsor: ASA
• Author(s): William Meeker*
• Companies: Iowa State University

Abstract

During the past thirty years, manufacturing industries have gone through a revolution in the use of statistical methods for product quality. Quality programs such as "Total Quality Management," "Six Sigma" and "Lean Six Sigma" have had various degrees of implementation and success. One effect of the quality revolution is that statistical methods such as process monitoring and experimental design are much more commonly used today to improve and maintain high quality. A natural extension of the revolution in product quality was to turn focus to product reliability, which can be succinctly defined as "quality over time." This has given rise to programs like "Design for Reliability" and "Design for Six Sigma." In this talk I will discuss the relationship between engineering quality and reliability and outline the role that statistics and statisticians have in the field of reliability. I will explain how improvements in technology are changing the manner in which reliability is practiced and some of the scientific, engineering and statistical challenges that lie ahead.