Design for Reliability (DFR)
Design for Reliability (DFR) is a systematic, streamlined, concurrent engineering program in which reliability engineering is woven into the total development cycle in order to meet customer expectations for reliability while maintaining low overall life-cycle costs. From the concept stage through to product obsolescence, DFR describes the overall order of deployment that an organization needs to follow in order to design reliability into its products.
Why should a company commit resources for deploying a DFR process? The answer to this question is simple. In order to be profitable, an organization’s products must be reliable, and reliable products require a formal reliability process. Three important statements summarize the best practice reliability philosophy of successful companies:
- Reliability must be designed into products and processes, using the best available science-based methods.
- Knowing how to calculate reliability is important, but knowing how to achieve reliability is equally, if not more, important.
- Design for Reliability practices must begin early in the design process and be well integrated into the overall product development cycle.
The DFR process attempts to identify and prevent design issues early in the development phase, instead of having these issues found in the hands of the customer. The DFR methodology can bring a reliable product to market using a process focused on designing out or mitigating potential failure modes prior to production release. It can open up many opportunities for companies that want to move beyond securing a basic offering to the marketplace to creating a true competitive advantage in which reliability plays a critical role for customer satisfaction.
ReliaSoft provides many resources that can help your organization to establish an effective Design for Reliability (DFR) program.
- Reliability Training: ReliaSoft offers a comprehensive array of training courses that address many of the techniques that are important in an effective DFR program. This includes a 3-day course that provides an overview of the entire set of tools that support Design for Reliability initiatives: RS 560 - Fundamentals of Design for Reliability.
- Reliability Analysis Software: ReliaSoft offers a complete set of reliability analysis software tools that will enable, automate and streamline key DFR tasks, including but not limited to FMEA, DRBFM, Test Plans, Control Plans, Standards Based Reliability Prediction, Design of Experiments, Test Design, Accelerated Life Test Planning and Data Analysis, Life Data Analysis, Reliability Growth Analysis and Planning, Reliability Block Diagrams, Fault Tree Analysis, Warranty Predictions and FRACAS.
- Free Publications: ReliaSoft publishes many free resources on reliability-related topics, including the following articles focused specifically on Design for Reliability:
