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Track 2 Session 8
2:20 to 3:20 p.m. Wednesday June 18, 2008
Reliability Improvement in Golf Car
Development using Applied Reliability Methods
Over the past four years, E-Z-GO
used applied reliability methods in the development of its new golf
car. The methods were far ranging and touched every aspect of the
development process. The goal was to provide customers with world
class reliability, driving experience and value. E-Z-GO started with
the basics with functional analysis, Voice of the Customer (VOC) and Design FMEAs. We
defined our reliability target and then used advanced Weibull and
Bayesian analysis to determine how best to meet these targets. We
had to define the use environment and the design life expectancy and then
design, prototype and validate each system, subsystem and component
in order to prove the reliability of the design. Since there was no
historical failure rate data on a variety of subsystems and
components and many of the designs were entirely new, it was
necessary to develop some assumptions, test those assumptions and
then modify the assumptions as actual failures occurred. Once the
failures were characterized then the tests were reset and rerun. The
validation plan then became easier to confirm the reliability and
have confidence that it was right. These methods also forced us to
use reliability allocation in setting the targets for individual
parts such that the entire vehicle met its target. The end result
was an extremely reliable vehicle with customers demanding to obtain
them even before production began.
Key Words: VOC, Functional
Specifications, DFMEA, DVP&R, Bayesian, Weibull, Reliability Models,
Reliability/Durability Testing
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