Improving Product Reliability and Software Quality, 2nd Edition

17Implementing the Reliability Process

Consumers demand products that are reliable, bug free, safe, and secure are changing the way companies develop future products. We saw this happen in the 1970s when US consumers demanded better‐quality autos. Consumer discontent was expressed by an increase in Japanese auto sales at the expense of the big three US auto manufacturers. When the American auto industry realized that its market share was decreasing due to inferior quality, it slowly began implementing quality programs. Change was a matter of survival. For the next several decades there was a continuous evolution of new quality programs many of which were short‐lived. Today, quality is a significant part of most businesses. In fact, it is widely accepted that “Quality is everyone's job.” Experience has shown that it takes many years to fully implement an effective quality program. The same can be said about implementing an effective reliability program. Plan on it taking several years to reach full implementation and effectiveness. We have seen more recently in reliability issues with lithium batteries that can combust, automobiles where control can be taken over through network security vulnerabilities.

17.1 Reliability Is Everyone's Job

The similarities between the need for improved product quality brought on in the 1970s and the need for improved product reliability 50 years later is undeniable. The challenge is in how fast the organization can transform into designing and ...