Improving Product Reliability and Software Quality, 2nd Edition

26Field Service

You do your job well and still there are some failures, both in‐house and in the field. Knowing this, you must make this eventuality as painless as possible. Doing so will reduce cost and customer dissatisfaction. Taking repair and maintenance into consideration is part of the product design requirements. By design, you can provide a product that is easily maintained and quickly returned to service.

26.1 Design for Ease of Access

When subassemblies or component parts fail, easy access makes the repair faster and more reliable. Designing for easy access usually adds little to no cost to the product; that is, as long as this aspect of the product design is kept in mind during the design phase.

Typically, a product will have several subassemblies that make up the whole. Designing the system so that these smaller units can be removed and replaced quickly and easily is an accessibility plus. Designs should allow the service technician the ability to get to any assembly that is likely to fail without the need for loosening or removing other assemblies. When this is not the case, the handling of the other subassemblies, twisting cables, removing pulleys, belts, brackets, and so on can lead to unanticipated failures in the future or can extend the service time.

When a failed assembly can be removed and replaced without removing other parts, the reliability after repair will be higher. This is because in removing other assemblies to service a part, there is a risk of ...