Quality and Reliability Assurance During the Production Phase

Abstract

Reliability assurance has to be continued during the production phase, hand in hand with quality assurance activities, in particular concerning the monitoring and control of production processes and item’s configuration, the performance of in-process and final tests, the screening of critical components and assemblies, and the systematic collection, analysis, and correction of defects and failures. The last measure is basic for a learning process, whose aim is to optimize the quality of manufacture, taking into account cost and time schedule limitations. This chapter introduces the general aspects of quality and reliability assurance during production, discusses test and screening procedures for electronic components and assemblies, introduces the concept of a test and screening strategy, and discusses models for reliability growth during production. For specific poblems related to the qualification and monitoring of production processes, one should refer to the literature, e.g. [8.1 to 8.14].