Forensic Systems Engineering

10Forensic Issues in Product Reliability

CHAPTER MENU

1. 10.1 Background in Product Reliability
2. 10.2 Legal Issues in the Design of Reliability
3. 10.2.1 Good Design Practices
4. 10.2.2 Design Is Intrinsic to Manufacturing and Service
5. 10.2.3 Intended Use
6. 10.2.4 Paper Trail of Evidence
7. 10.2.5 Reliability Is an Implied Design Requirement
8. 10.3 Legal Issues in Measuring Reliability
9. 10.3.1 Failure Modes
10. 10.3.2 Estimation of MTTF
11. 10.3.3 The More Failure Data the Better
12. 10.3.4 The Paper Trail of Reliability Measurement
13. 10.4 Legal Issues in Testing for Reliability
14. 10.4.1 Defined and Documented Life Test Procedures
15. 10.4.2 Life Test Records and Reports
16. 10.4.3 Test Procedures
17. 10.5 When Product Reliability Is not in the Contract
18. 10.5.1 Product Liability
19. 10.5.2 ISO 9001 and FAR
20. 10.6 Warranty and Reliability
21. References

10.1 Background in Product Reliability

Reliability is a property of a product that results from thoughtful consideration and engineering design, and therefore it may be an issue in forensic considerations. Product reliability is defined as the probability that an item will perform a required function without failure under stated conditions for a specified period of time. Because the term “product reliability” is well established in engineering, I use that term, but I ask the reader to understand that the term also applies to service reliability.

Reliability engineering is a profession in itself, with its own methodologies and mathematics. Much of the evidence in discovery concerning ...