Driving the feedback loop reliability and safety in the full life cycle

Abstract

This paper describes a cohesive, integrated full life cycle product reliability and safety management process and an electronic database tool to facilitate the process. This system a) collects field failure data, b) tracks/drives corrective actions, c) pulls the lessons learned from the corrective actions, d) places those lessons learned in the proactive analysis tools used in product development, e) drives product development to use the proactive analysis tools, f) keeps a library of proactive analyses to act as guides for future development, g) provides the proactive analysis for direct use by a root cause team driving to analyze and correct a field failure h) tracks and drives all activities - allowing instant summary dashboards or scorecards to be created. proactive and reactive records are stored coincidently in a single database system -- allowing real-time feedback. Reactive case resolution teams can tap into the development analyses or development teams can incorporate all relevant lessons learned from reactive case resolutions. All tools are attached to the database - to drive consistent usage and facilitate the integration of analysis libraries. All activities are mapped to a business process with pre-specified milestones and tracked to target dates - making this a real-time product reliability and safety management tool. Each record instantly becomes an ISO 9001 controlled quality record upon closure. A record tree structure allows cases/records to follow the configuration management of the product. The culmination of these features allows the user community to achieve product safety and reliability business management system over the full life cycle of a product. After two years of implementation and continuous improvement, a fundamental truth is proven. The process will only be sustainable and the database tool will only achieve long term success if the users feel their personal workflow facilitated by the system.