Basic Concepts, Quality and Reliability Assurance of Complex Equipment and Systems

Quality and reliability assurance of complex equipment and systems requires from all engineers involved in a project a set of specific activities from the definition to the operating phase, performed concurrently to achieve the best performance, quality, and reliability for given cost and time schedule targets. This includes definition of goals, planning and performing of analyses and tests, selection and qualification of components and materials, management of the configuration, quality and reliability growth during the pilot production, and qualification and control of production processes. Many of these activities are engineering tasks, others are more for coordination and control. This chapter introduces the basic concepts and discusses the main tasks and organizational requirements necessary to assure cost effectively the quality and reliability of complex equipment and systems. A refinement of these management aspects to conform also to TQM is given in the Appendices A1 to A5 (terms, standards, defining and realizing quality and reliability requirements, checklists for design reviews, and requirements for a quality data reporting system).