Testing and Repeat-ability  Repeat-ability of testing results is important to establishing cause and corrective actions. If it is not possible to repeat the sequence of events leading to a failure, it is not possible to replicate and therefore difficult solve the cause of the fault or failure.  The steps that evoked the problem are necessary […]

    Early Reviews Just finished reading Configuration Management: Theory, Practice and Application, and I must say this is the most comprehensive document I have ever read on the subject. It addresses theory, practice, and application, with many real-world examples of what happens when the principles of product/configuration management are not followed! —Bill Dawson, SVP […]

Concurrent engineering problem take many forms From our last blog, we have learned that of an organization that has concurrent engineering difficulty, specifically coordinating the design work.  We will further explore this situation.  One of the subsystem groups decides to improve the coordination effort internal to that specific department. For example, System 1 chooses to […]

Once upon a time There once was a company, with a systemic problem with concurrent engineering and change management.  This was a complex organization, with many functional areas.  Each functional area, had sub-function divisions.  This type of organizational structure is often referred to as a functional organization with the associated hierarchy.  These various functional areas […]

We continue the exploration of the Poka Yoke post.  In the last post we discovered in building the product (late iteration) we have found that building the product has some undue complexity.  Upon further exploration we find that the design engineers suggested spending some time to Poka Yoke these devices.  The project hierarchy decided to […]

There is nothing like a real life story for demonstration.  This is a true story on product design, and a technique called Poka Yoke. In this case, the product is a complicated set of vehicle systems.  There are a number of pressure sensing elements, all the same type of sensor and distributed in a relatively […]

by Jon M. Quigley and Kim L. Robertson Words have specific meanings across all industries sectors which allow us to decode what is said by another and come to some understanding. This is a very important activity, as without effective communication not much will happen in a collaborative setting. Waiver: After it is manufactured it […]

Not a Verification Problem I recently had a flash of a project from the past. The project had a fixed delivery date.  The project was to deliver a system through iterative and incremental deliveries. Sounds pretty good right? An iterative and incremental delivery of sub systems and components to the verification group in a way […]