ABSTRACT
This chapter considers some examples of how Design of Experiments (DoE) can be applied to reliability assurance, and describes its systematic application to the entire product development process, from product definition through shipment to the customer. It presents a structured approach, such as DoE, can be used to integrate reliability analyses and assurance methods into the product development cycle, and examples of that approach. In the simplest form of application of DoE to reliability determination, the environmental or operating stresses are considered as the factors, and the samples tested are all made with the same design and manufacturing parameters. The object of this experiment was to improve the reliability of a helium-neon laser by maximizing the stability of the design, so that it would be less susceptible to the stresses imposed upon it during operation. The goal of the fluorescent lamp reliability experiment was to improve the reliability of a product that was already highly reliable.
