International Applied Reliability Symposium (ARS): An international reliability and maintainability conference event

Tutorial 1
3:45 to 5:30 p.m. Thursday August 18, 2005

Essential Elements of a Reliability Program

Making a quantifiable impact on the reliability of a product or system should not be accidental. A reliability plan that is an integral part of the product development process is absolutely essential to cost effectively supporting and driving design decisions from product concept through full-scale production. This presentation will reflect the essential steps in developing a tailorable reliability engineering process that focuses on the needs of the original equipment manufacturer and the end user. The presentation will include examples of reliability program benefits and pitfalls as seen from a wide variety of companies and government organizations.  

 

 
Patrick Hetherington
Director and Manager of Research
Reliability Analysis Center (RAC)
Rome, New York

Since joining Alion in 1988, Mr. Hetherington has focused on the area of mechanical reliability and maintainability. He has utilized his experience in mechanical systems design to manage several programs involving R&M analyses to reduce product liability while improving availability for commercial and DoD. He has led initiatives to apply advanced reliability techniques to improve output of manufacturing processes. His entrepreneurial skills have revitalized the RAC Program to offer diversity to the customer at competitive rates and he has refocused the product sales operations to increase responsiveness to customer needs. He has instructed over 50 courses in reliability engineering, been successful in marketing Alion's capabilities into long term efforts and is currently the RAC Director.