scientific article; zbMATH DE number 1107642
The field of quality control includes a wide spectrum of engineering disciplines such as robust design, robust construction, manufacturability, reliability, maintainability, destructability, etc., to ensure that customer expectations are met through the whole life cycle of the product. We discuss the use of field failure data in quality engineering. When such data are available, it is natural to measure quality in terms of the mean cumulative number of failures as a function of time. This function may be considered for the equipment as a whole, or for specific component positions. The mean cumulative number of failures may be estimated either by a nonparametric estimate as an average over exposed equipments, or by a parametric estimate, if a model for the lifetimes of the components may be assumed. The nonparametric estimate is a useful graphical tool for exploratory analysis. We review the statistical properties of this estimate. In industrial practice, lack of control is often manifest as a heterogeneity in the distribution of relevant quality parameters. We suggest a simple parametric model to describe heterogeneity in the distribution of the lifetime of the parts, and give a parametric expression for the resulting mean cumulative number of failures as a function of time under this model. The features of this model are reviewed, and in an example we illustrate the use of this model to identify parts with an extraneous variation in part-quality. For the entire collection see [Zbl 0867.00026].
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