A quality process approach to electronic systems reliability

A novel process for electronic equipment reliability assurance combines an integrated approach to defect elimination with requirements for implementing fundamental principles of quality management, tailored to each US DoD acquisition phase. The process requires a pre-award supplier quality assessment using procedures that parallel the Malcolm Baldrige Award criteria. Requirements for benchmarking and training plans have been added as program plan outputs. Measurands, tailored to the acquisition phase, have been defined to supplement traditional metrics. A risk assessment technique has been developed to evaluate the entire process during concept exploration and demonstration validation acquisition. During engineering and manufacturing development, detail stress-based predictions of defect rates and life are supplemented by six sigma design and manufacturing measures. The six sigma metrics are continued during production and operational support phases to supplement test measurements of equipment performance.< >