We so often look to save time by jumping into a project unprepared.  It appears that going forward as quickly as possible with what we think is a well-thought-out idea is going to save time. Well, as we all know, hindsight is 20/20. In this episode, I discuss how, in retrospect, we often see that time would have actually been saved by investing time to create a more detailed and research-based plan. These plans are our architectural drawings for action.

Ken Haven is the CEO of Acorn Product Development. Acorn is one of the world leaders in electro-mechanical product design.  As a consulting firm, they see design in practice across all industries and companies of any size imaginable. We get to hear Ken's unique perspective on common pitfalls that result from not designing the product intended.  More on Acorn can be found at https://www.acornpd.com/

My good friend Henry Chidgey joins the show to apply his many decades of experience coaching executives to a role-playing segment centered in product development. More info on Henry can be found at https://henrychidgey.com/

I discuss how organizational reliability assessments work. Key points include: Where did the methodology come from? How are they done? What does the organization do with the assessment results?

Jim McLinn joins us to share wisdom from his 40 years of helping organizations get the most from Design for Reliability (DfR). We focus on the multi-decade transition the industry has undergone from silo-style organizations to integrated organizations. Most importantly, how that change has affected reliability engineering’s ability to influence design early on in development.

I discuss our milestone of reaching the fourth phase of the practice of reliability engineering, Reliability Culture.  Reliability as a discipline in product development started with the simple strategy of "over design." As a refresher, we started with big, heavy, and strong items to accomplish a task. If these weren’t getting the job done, we tried something even bigger and stronger. Phase two was the use of statistics and analysis to predict performance and adjust designs accordingly while Phase three was the Design for Reliability philosophy.  Now in phase four, Reliability Culture, we are applying methods and tools to connect reliability programs to the product market as well as business goals. 

I love continuing to chat and answering questions on these topics. Feel free to reach out to me anytime to discuss further at [email protected] or go to www.apexridge.com