Abstract:

The rapid pace of technological developments and the globalization of supply chains have made electronics manufacturers dependent upon worldwide suppliers who provide them with parts or subassemblies. Currently, many manufacturers have to wait until they get the products to assess if they are reliable. This can be an expensive iterative process. As an alternative, it is necessary to evolve a methodology that can help manufacturers to assess their potential suppliers and/or suppliers to assess themselves with respect to their ability for developing and supplying reliable products.

This paper presents a set of key practices that can be used as benchmarks to assess whether an organization has the ability to design, develop and manufacture reliable electronic products. It defines this ability as the reliability capability of an organization and discusses the different capability maturity levels. The auditing process for reliability capability assessment is provided and the possible causes for capability limitation are identified.

Complete article is available to CALCE Consortium Members.