Relation between company and reliability
Reliability must be considered as a long chain with many links. It is a well known saying that a chain is as strong as the weakest link.
This valid for any product one creates. All products may consist out of many components. If one component fails the entire product fails.
This is not always true. Some defective components only have no or marginal influence on the function. Therefore no complaints are received, because the product still works. It is also possible that the product has built-in redundancy. If one part fails another part takes over. Also no complaints apart from a service request. It still works, so we are not talking about this situation
The articles on the website are related to real field defects but not in the area of missing manuals or errors in there. We are concerned on real defects caused by a weak link.
In the next articles the word company is used. However with company is not meant the company you are working for unless explicitly stated with own company. In stead with company is meant all parties involved for the creation and production of a product
- We can outsource the development
- Materials can be bought from external suppliers
- Complete (sub-)units can be bought.
- Service can be outsourced
From a technical reliability point of view all everyone involved in the product creation is considered to belong to one company. Even up to the supplier of wires welded to resistors. It can be a long invisible chain. They all act as belonging together to the same company.
- Therefore purchasing department plays an important role. However reliability is not always taken care of.
- Therefore also the reliability capabilities of the suppliers are important, no matter how many levels they are away from your own company. Usually they are incisible if farther away than one level.
Do we know how bolts and nuts are made and by whom? Of course not. We don't need to. Nevertheless it is a link in the reliability chain. If a weak link breaks, the chain breaks with all the consequences depending of the application
If the supplier of a resistor which is part of a module from another supplier and that again is part of a larger module and so on, then the end effect could be that a failing resistor causes a plane crash, with you being aboard. And what product gets the blame? Correct, it is the plane!
Or your final product with your brand name.