Yes, that happens often. Another example... quite common...was the disgruntled consumer who complained that a brand new set of batteries for his flashlight were no good. We changed a blown bulb for him and hel calmed down.
To be fair to the previous investigators, none of them were trouble shooters...they were parachuted into a situation which was sporadic in nature because of the two sets of tooling which could be installed in a random fashion. In Liaison Engineering, when something goes wrong you have to come up with a fix "toute suite"...management expects fast answers even 'though they look down their noses at the "Quick Fix" crowd (Liaison Engineers).
It's a common assumption; people tend to believe that components are bad. Even when you have evidence to the contrary, it's easier to blame a component than a process or a tool. This issue is magnified when you have a marginal design, one that only works when a component is at its nominal rather than one end of the tolerance. I had an issue with a board that would not come out of Reset because the supervisory chip was holding the part in Reset. Technicians, the Production Manager, even Purchasing all believed that the supervisory chip was at fault because they could replace the chip and the circuit would come to life. A quick look at the spec. sheet showed that the pull-up resistor used for the supervisory chip was far too weak. Even after demonstrating that components once removed as failed were now operating properly, they refused to believe that the problem was not a faulty component, after all, the circuit had worked through two years of production without issue. I guess the cure would have been telling them that the pull-up resistor was a faulty component and needed to be replaced.
John, as Gelnn said, this is a good example of not making assumptions. Your predecessors all assumed that the test harness was fine. That is often where there is a problem. Again, check the whole chain starting from where the failure occured.
John, as Gelnn said, this is a good example of not making assumptions. Your predecessors all assumed that the test harness was fine. That is often where there is a problem. Again, check the whole chain starting from where the failure occured.
John, as Gelnn said, this is a good example of not making assumptions. Your predecessors all assumed that the test harness was fine. That is often where there is a problem. Again, check the whole chain starting from where the failure occured.
It is interesting that none of your predecessors seemed to have taken the time to check to see if the rejected batteries were actually rejects. There is an old saw about 'assuming'. The problem is not 'assuming'. The problem is not recognizing what assumptions you are making, and then not reviewing those assumptions to see if they are valid.
For 3D printing to make the jump from rapid prototyping to manufacturing, engineers will need to find easier ways to move products from their CAD screens to their printers.
Gigabit and PoE are two networking technologies moving ahead in tandem as industrial users power remote Ethernet devices such as IP security cameras at 1,000 Mbps over existing CAT5 cable.
New versions of BASF's Ecovio line are both compostable and designed for either injection molding or thermoforming. These combinations are becoming more common for the single-use bioplastics used in food service and food packaging applications, but are still not widely available.
From Dell / Intel® New Paradigms in Design Work Scott Hamilton, vertical market strategist for Dell Precision workstations, 5/2/2013 5
Early in my career, I worked as a draftsman and remember the days of drawing on vellum with numbered pencils and Mylar with plastic lead. This was a fun experience in the sense that I ...
I've been using workstations for more than 10 years and love finding ways to get more performance from my system. With demanding professional applications that require more power each ...
A lasting memory from my first job as an engineer in an auto assembly plant is standing on hard concrete at six in the morning, vending-machine coffee clutched in hand, listening to ...
For industrial control applications, or even a simple assembly line, that machine can go almost 24/7 without a break. But what happens when the task is a little more complex? That’s where the “smart” machine would come in. The smart machine is one that has some simple (or complex in some cases) processing capability to be able to adapt to changing conditions. Such machines are suited for a host of applications, including automotive, aerospace, defense, medical, computers and electronics, telecommunications, consumer goods, and so on. This radio show will show what’s possible with smart machines, and what tradeoffs need to be made to implement such a solution.
To save this item to your list of favorite Design News content so you can find it later in your Profile page, click the "Save It" button next to the item.
If you found this interesting or useful, please use the links to the services below to share it with other readers. You will need a free account with each service to share an item via that service.
Tweet This
1 
