Improving Product Reliability and Software Quality, 2nd Edition

1The Need for a New Paradigm for Hardware Reliability and Software Quality

1.1 Rapidly Shifting Challenges for Hardware Reliability and Software Quality

Hardware reliability and software quality, why do you need it? The major US car manufacturers saw their dominance eroded by the Japanese automobile manufacturers during the 1970s because the vehicles produced by the big three had significantly more problems. The slow downward market slide of the US automobile industry was predictable when the defect rate of US automobiles was compared with the Japanese automobile industry. In 1981, a Japanese‐manufactured automobile averaged 240 defects per 100 cars. The US automobile manufacturers, during the same time period, were manufacturing vehicles with 280–360% more defects per 100 vehicles. General Motors averaged 670 defects per 100 cars, Ford averaged 740 defects per 100 cars, and Chrysler was the highest, with 870 defects per 100 cars.

Much has been written about how this came about and how the US manufacturers began implementing total quality management (TQM), quality circles, continuous improvement, and concurrent engineering to improve their products. Now the US automobile industry produces quality vehicles, and the perception that Japanese vehicles are better has eroded significantly. J.D. Powers and Associates reported in its 1997 model year report that cars and trucks averaged about 100 defects per 100 vehicles. This represented a 22% increase from 1996 and a 100% decrease from ...