QUALITY PAPERA new rapid and robust multi-factorial screening for low-percentile use-rate accelerated reliability analysis

Purpose: The study aims to provide a quick-and-robust multifactorial screening technique for early detection of statistically significant effects that could influence a product's life-time performance. Design/methodology/approach: The proposed method takes advantage of saturated fractional factorial designs for organizing the lifetime dataset collection process. Small censored lifetime data are fitted to the Kaplan–Meier model. Low-percentile lifetime behavior that is derived from the fitted model is used to screen for strong effects. A robust surrogate profiler is employed to furnish the predictions. Findings: The methodology is tested on a difficult published case study that involves the eleven-factor screening of an industrial-grade thermostat. The tested thermostat units are use-rate accelerated to expedite the information collection process. The solution that is provided by this new method suggests as many as two active effects at the first decile of the data which improves over a solution provided from more classical methods. Research limitations/implications: To benchmark the predicted solution with other competing approaches, the results showcase the critical first decile part of the dataset. Moreover, prediction capability is demonstrated for the use-rate acceleration condition. Practical implications: The technique might be applicable to projects where the early reliability improvement is studied for complex industrial products. Originality/value: The proposed methodology offers a range of features that aim to make the product reliability profiling process faster and more robust while managing to be less susceptible to assumptions often encountered in classical multi-parameter treatments.