What Affects Your Product’s Reliability?

What Affects Your Product’s Reliability?

Product Testing in San DiegoConsumers expect products to work, from a simple pen to a complex computer. When a product fails to function, it can affect sales and profits, and damage your business’s reputation. With defective products that require a recall, the impact could be devastating. Clearly, product reliability is crucial.

But what can cause your product to fail? Does the failure begin at the design stage or during manufacturing? Or is the failure simply about using low-quality materials? Here are some common factors that affect product reliability.

Faulty Product Design

The right product design ensures performance, and for complex products with a number of components, it secures safety for consumers. Implementing sufficient testing of your products at prototype and pre-production stages can save you the cost of reworking the design. It also prevents losses due to a product recall.

Sloppy Manufacturing Process

The manufacturing stage can open up several issues for product reliability.

First, poorly maintained equipment could damage components. In addition to poor maintenance, Q Applied Systems adds that dust and moisture can affect the most delicate manufacturing equipment. Dirty equipment can also endanger employee health when hazardous dust and particles accumulate in the factory.

Second, employees might not have the proper training to handle certain machines. And third, the manufacturing process may leave room for errors.

Outsourcing to Unreliable Manufacturers

To reduce costs, some businesses in the US have outsourced manufacturing abroad. This, unfortunately, tends to happen at the cost of product reliability. Issues with quality controls, compliance with regulations, and oversight can make outsourcing more of a liability than an advantage.

Product reliability maintains customer loyalty and your reputation in the industry. Don’t compromise on design, materials, and the manufacturing process. Give the market products that function over the course of its lifetime. And you’ll always be in business.

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