About this episode

The episode explores the gap between laboratory reliability testing and actual field performance, discussing why products may fail despite passing lab tests.

What if passing the test is not enough?In reliability engineering, we often place a great deal of confidence in laboratory validation. We test, measure, analyze, and document. And when the product passes, we naturally assume it is ready for the field.But what happens when a product passes the lab test and still fails in the hands of the customer?Today, we are going to explore the gap between laboratory reliability testing and actual field performance. It is a gap that can be costly, frustrating, and sometimes difficult to explain. Products can perform well under controlled test conditions, yet still experience unexpected failures when exposed to real users, real environments, real service conditions, and real-world variability. Mike Konrad's guest is Dr. Nishith Kumar Reddy Gorla of CORE ITS LLC. Dr. Gorla’s work focuses on system-level reliability testing, field reliability alignment, reliability growth, and test-to-field correlation for complex products.His recent paper, “System-Level Test Case Design for Field Reliability Alignment in Complex Products,” looks at why traditional reliability test methods may miss important field failure modes. More importantly, it proposes a…

People in this episode

Host: Mike Konrad

Guest: Dr. Nishith Kumar Reddy Gorla

Topics covered

• reliability engineering
• laboratory validation
• field performance
• test case design
• failure modes

Keywords

• reliability testing
• field performance
• test design
• failure analysis
• system-level testing

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: CORE ITS LLC

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