Improving Product Reliability and Software Quality, 2nd Edition

15Establishing a Reliability Lab

Installing a reliability lab at the company without proper planning and an understanding of the cost considerations can be very expensive. To begin with, the total company sales dollars and the associated warranty costs dictate the magnitude of any plan. This will guide the planner as to the number of personnel involved in the reliability process on a day‐to‐day, full‐time basis. This salary expense is the long‐term driver because the returns on investment, in terms of recovered warranty dollars, will take several years to recover. The current salary budget must be able to absorb these expenses for this time period. This is a minimum.

Then there are the other major expenses:

• Equipment costs
• Reliability lab space
• Lab benches, desks and files, and so on
• Support tools and equipment
• Test equipment
• Mechanical fixturing (between the device under test [DUT] and the chamber)
• Dynamic test devices (to operate the DUT during environmental stress)
• Consumables (power, materials, liquid nitrogen (LN))
• Maintenance overhead

15.1 Staffing for Reliability

The reliability lab will not, in and of itself, deliver all the savings to the bottom line, but it will be a substantial part.

To start with, one person must lead the activity. This person must have either the qualifications based on experience or be willing to hire the expertise needed to establish the reliability program. The latter will take a lot longer, but it is recommended that you seek someone from ...