436-415 Quality and Reliability

620-370 Statistics for Mechanical Engineers or 620-001 Statistics for Engineers (1995-1998), or equivalent

Upon completion of this subject, students should be able to understand what constitutes a quality system (both generally and with respect to international standards); develop strategies for implementing a quality system and its components; identify quality costs and use them for the economic analysis of quality projects; understand and quantify the relationships between process capability and tolerances; design a 'single' attribute or variables sampling scheme to meet stated requirements, analyse and assess all common types of sampling schemes; design, analyse and interpret 'Shewhart-type' process control charts and CUSUMS for process control; develop a working knowledge of modern approaches to the management of reliability and maintenance, including the vital role of the quality of design; and develop the ability to undertake various analyses associated with reliability, preventative maintenance, and the selection of alternative plant and maintenance strategies.

Topics covered include total quality management, productivity and cost relationships; quality systems and their components, including international standards; interaction between quality and design functions; alternate systems approaches, including leading international concepts; quality control: the control function in quality; theory of sampling; the operating characteristic curve; the use of statistical distributions; sampling scheme design and analysis; quality improvement: process variability - measures and interaction with design; process capability and improvement studies; control charting; state of statistical stability; computerisation of process monitoring; cumulative sum techniques for quality studies; experimental design for quality improvement; reliability: failure determination and measures; failure frequency distributions; maintenance: probabilistic methods in design, analysis for optimal maintenance organisation; and design and organisation for humans to improve availability.

One 3-hour examination (70%), assignments and reports not exceeding 40 pages including appendices, computations, diagrams, tables and computer output (30%). Students will be notified of the weighting of the non-examination assessment components at the beginning of semester.