Podcast
Risk Barriers as Swiss Cheese?
There’s a model that can help us visualize and consider the different barriers to harm: The Swiss Cheese Model of Accident Causation. Learn what makes up this model and how ideas are represented. There are also different ways that the model is being used today. How can we design for controls, policies, or actions that are part of the use of our product but outside of our control?
Read More
Environmental Stress Testing for Robust Designs
To help plan future tests and projects, we review qualitative accelerated test models that can be used early in a design process.
Read More
Choosing a Confidence Level for Test using FMEA
We should choose a confidence level for our requirements or their test plans. We can associate that confidence level with the level of risk associated with our product. FMEA is a great tool for us to refer to, to help us choose a relevant confidence level by basing our decision on one or more metrics that the FMEA can provide.
Read MoreGetting Started with FMEA – It All Begins with a Plan
We’re starting to populate an FMEA table with our team. We get it started, but then we get stuck in disagreements. Or we think we finish it and then we don’t know what to do with it.
We can avoid these headaches with a little planning (or maybe a lot of planning – it depends on the project). We talk about risk management planning, as it relates to FMEA.
Read MoreHow can 8D help solve my recurring problem?
We talk about the 8D methodology, describe situations where we could benefit from it, list each of the 8 Disciplines, and compare it to PDSA and DMAIC.
Read More
Mistake-Proofing – The Poka-Yoke of Usability
How do we go about mistake-proofing our product design? As we’re looking at our user process, we can use a quality method that’s well-used in manufacturing production: poka-yoke (mistake-proof).
Read MoreGetting Comfortable with using Reliability Results
We want to engage a reliability engineer in an analysis for our product design. They can help us produce some great information from which we can make decisions. You might be feeling uncomfortable about our team making a design decision based on those results. You don’t quite understand how the reliability engineer came up with…
Read MoreHow to Self-Advocate for More Customer Face Time (and why it’s important)
There are many stories of design successes attributed to the right level of understanding of the customer. Product designers make decisions, daily, about how a product is going to look and perform. So, we need to really understand the customer. And, to really get the customer, engineers need to spend time with them. Sometimes, the business doesn’t want us to interact with…
Read MoreChoosing Quality Tools (Mind Map vs. Flowchart vs. Spaghetti Diagram)
Within our quality toolbox, there are a lot of graphical organizers. Some are better at fulfilling different goals than others. If we have a goal in mind, then we may choose a certain tool. However, we don’t want analysis paralysis about which tool is best to stop us from using any tool at all. I share my 3 general guidelines about choosing a graphical quality tool, how to draw them, and…
Read MoreThe DFE Part of DFX (Design For Environment and eXcellence)
Design for Excellence (DFX) is a concept that includes many initiatives, like design for usability, design for manufacturability and assembly, and design for environment and disassembly. It’s a focus on doing things right, exceeding customer expectations, optimizing what’s needed while minimizing costs, and continuous improvement. Today we take a deep dive on one of those…
Read More