Reliability program management: today and tomorrow

The authors review reliability program activities, management´s responsibilities in managing reliability, and a reliability program team concept used at AT&T. The program includes reliability activities in all phases of the product life cycle, from product concept to deployment and field use. The authors highlight this discussion with a major example of reliability program management in the AT&T Transmission Systems Business Unit (TSBU). Transmission Systems has established goals to dramatically improve the quality and reliability of transmission products, so that customer needs are met beyond the specified requirements. To achieve this goal, the TSBU established a reliability program that focuses on implementing reliability tasks through the reliability team approach, concurrent engineering, and continuous improvement. The reliability team consists of representatives from all organizations working together to improve the quality and reliability of transmission products. Concurrent engineering and continuous improvement are used to minimize the development and manufacturing cots