RELIABILITY CAPABILITY ASSESSMENT METHODOLOGY
SANJAY TIKU and MICHAEL PECHT
CALCE Electronic Products And Systems Center,
University of Maryland, College Park, MD, 20742, USA.
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 subassemb lies. 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.
