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TESTING 1, 2—Part 1: Enduring Challenges

by George Novacek

Start • A Bit of Background • Hard-Won Experience • What’s the Worst That Can Happen? • Finding a Solution • Sources

PART 1: ENDURING CHALLENGES

Let’s face it, whining about unfair offshore competition paying employees 25ý per hour or politicians demanding protection from imports will not put us back in the electronics-industry driver’s seat. The truth is, the impact of the labor rate on the overall cost of an electronic product is small. Quality makes the difference. Quality engineering, design, and manufacturing are what will give us the edge. If the product we build is returned for any reason, we lose.

Good quality starts with engineering, and in this series of articles, I look at engineering a product to work with the abuse and challenges of the real world. In aerospace, because we’re always under pressure to prove to independent agencies the quality of design and manufacturing, we’ve always worried about safety and reliability. I’ve never considered it an expensive burden foisted on us by government bureaucrats, because North American travelers don’t want the carnage on the runways that 99.99% acceptable quality might bring.

Obviously, not every product needs to be subjected to the formal qualification testing of a safety-critical airborne flight controller. However, every engineer should understand the environment the product may be subjected to and devise appropriate test programs to ensure that the beloved widget will survive. It will be money well spent.

In this series of articles, I discuss the environmental tortures our designs have to endure and then I’ll look at practical solutions.

NEXT

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