From The Editor

SRE Int'l Chapter Information

Buffalo Chapter Profile

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As I write this, I am preparing for our upcoming Board of Directors meeting, to be held 18 Jan during the RAM Symposium. I am certainly looking forward to getting together with as many members as possible, to make decisions for improving our Society. I have received a lot of the Ballots and Proxies, and hope to get the rest soon. Our Agenda for the meeting calls for a lot of discussion and action, as we work to take SRE into the next millennia.

Thinking about the upcoming RAM Symposium has brought back memories of the first Symposium I attended. It was January 1986, in Las Vegas. I remember entering one of the conference rooms, and seeing everyone looking stunned. Shortly thereafter, I too had a stunned look on my face, as I watched in horror the replay of the Challenger disaster that had just occurred. As a young RAM intern, I found that terrible incident brought home to me just how important our work in the Reliability field is. Lives can and do depend on our ability to ensure that our products work reliably and safely. Although 13 years have passed since that terrible incident, the critical role Reliability engineering plays has not diminished. In today's environment, it is ever more important to ensure that we can have confidence that our products work as specified for as long as specified. Events such as the Annual Reliability Symposium go a long way to helping us stay current in our field. I hope as many of you as possible will attend this year's Symposium, and our Board of Directors meeting as well.

In the next issue, I will be reporting on some of the major items discussed during the meeting. A complete set of minutes will also be sent to you chapters. Please feel free to contact me, or any of the other Executive officers, to keep us up to date on your chapter's activities, needs, and concerns. As I said in my last message, it is through continual communication and mutual effort that we will grow our Society.

Duane Cook

Here we go again. I'd like to repeat our goal for Lambda Notes.... to continue to develop communication among our chapters and to provide information for the RAMS symposium.

Again, we are featuring one SRE chapter with each issue, Buffalo Chapter with this issue. Feature articles will include chapter meeting descriptions, schedules, membership interests and contacts. A bit of SRE history .... Buffalo Chapter's Ed Banaszak originated this pamphlet format during his term as editor in 1994 .... thanks Ed!!!.

What's new in this issue of Lambda Notes (LN)? ... "Chapter News and Information". I have attempted to call each chapter contact and to compile a summary for all chapters in Lambda Notes. Those missed will be included next issue! Also new... the advertisement section. Thanks to Cambridge University Press for leading the way!

Next issue, we will feature Atlanta Chapter. Other chapters should begin to prepare for following issues by preparing chapter histories, list of upcoming events, current club member information and by maintaining club meeting summaries.

Oops! Thanks to our alert readers, there were several corrections identified on the July issue book review, "Reliability Engineering". The variables"n" and "v" were not capitalized in several places.

This position of LN Editor is an excellent position for learning about our organization. When calling the Chapter contacts I was humbled by the wealth of organizational and professional experiences of our SRE members. It is apparent to me that the strength of SRE is a result of the quality and dedication of our members. This experience is adding a great deal to my professional growth and I am sure will prove an invaluable experience for my career.

Until the next issue
Richard Youngk

Albuquerque Chapter - Ed Masterson - email: masterej@juno.com
The Albuquerque Chapter meets at Kirkland Airforce Base. Members are involved in and interested in defense aerospace issues.

Baton Rouge Chapter - Monty McNutt

Belvoir Chapter - Woody Rabon (703) 806-7827
Formed in 1995, Belvoir Chapter is represented primarily by U.S. Army CECOM personnel. Areas of interest include defense personnel equipment & product quality include such items as night vision scopes, mine countermeasures and decoys. Meetings are held a the Fort Belvoir facility which is on the Potomac River, south of Washington D.C.

Buffalo Chapter - President, Dave Dyrck (716) 439-3177
The Buffalo Chapter is the founding chapter of SRE. Buffalo Chapter meets in the Buffalo, NY area and is represented by many engineering and manufacturing organizations. The Buffalo chapter coordinates their meetings with other reliability organizations and with the Technical Societies Council of the Niagra Frontier. See the feature "Chapter Profile" in this issue for more detail.

College Park Chapter - Dr. Marvin Roush - (301) 405-7299
The College Park Chapter is a newly formed chapter that is planning meetings in the College Park, University of Maryland area.

Huntsville Chapter - (407) 867-7754
The Huntsville Chapter formed about ten years ago. The chapter conducts monthly meetings in the Huntsville area. Membership includes personnel from U.S. Army activities, NASA and many of their support contractors

India Chapter - P.H. Bhave - (022) 8300363

Los Angeles Chapter - John Ingram - (310) 336-1249

Milwaukee Chapter - David Marciniak - (414) 744-3491

Montreal Chapter - Ulrich Hass (514) 855-5001 ext 59338
The Montreal Chapter is centered around the Canadian Airforce industry which is faced with reliability issues with the aging F-18 fleet. Bombardier Aerospace is the primary member representation.

Orlando Chapter
The Orlando Chapter is in the process of rebuilding.

Ottawa Chapter - President, Hans Reiche (613) 745-5034
The Ottawa chapter is the second oldest chapter in SRE, formed in 1970. The founding members were Hans Reiche and Chester Soucie from the Canadian Department of National Defense. This chapter has a strong membership and is represented by NORTEL, Nowbridge, DY4, National Research Council, Lockheed Martin, Fleet, Marconi, Computing Devices and Atomic Energy.

Philadelphia Chapter - Dr. Ajay Agarwala (610) 591-4788
The Philadelphia Chapter has met at the Boeing complex near the international airport and is one of the early SRE chapters. The Philadelphia Chapter was founded by Mr. Ken Eagle. The chapter has been supported by Boeing and Lockheed-Martin employees and is in the process of increasing membership. Speakers are in demand for aerospace topics, specifically software and network reliability analysis.

Rockford Chapter - Kevin Walsh (815) 639-6227
The Rockford Chapter formed in the early 1990's and was founded by Andrea Jang from Sunstrand Corp. The chapter meets in the Rockford, Illinois area and is considering ways to include Chicago members in regular meetings. Meetings have included 15 to 20 people and include a variety of topics. Industries represented include Woodward, Barber Coleman, Sunstrand and Microswitch.

Rocky Mountain Chapter - Pat Larter (719) 556-2571
The Rocky Mountain was founded in 1995 and conducts monthly noontime meetings and semi-annual banquets in the Colorado Springs area. Dr. Pat Larter is the founding member of the Chapter and the current president is John Parr. Meeting attendance is strong and is represented by the local defense Airforce agencies, support contractors and by Colorado Technical University. Dr. Ron Sega, former U.S. astronaut and Dean of College of Engineering at University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, is a well known speaker for the Chapter.

Sacramento Chapter - Tom Wegrzyn - (916) 643-0260

Singapore Chapter - Dr. M. Xie - (65) 874-6536

S.E. Michigan Chapter - Charles Slattery (810) 986-5848
Meetings are held quarterly in the Detroit area with a strong membership 60 plus. The membership is represented by Ford, GM, Daimler-Chrysler, the automobile suppliers, and General Dynamics.

St. Louis Chapter - Charles Schornak (314) 234-5241
The St. Louis Chapter has met in the St. Louis area and is represented by the major aircraft manufacturers and support companies.

Tucson Chapter - Dr. Dimitri Kececioglu - (602) 621-2495
The Tucson Chapter meets at the University of Arizona and is represented by the students of the Reliability Engineering Program at University of Arizona.

Washington Chapter - Richard Youngk - (703) 602-3900 extension 657
The Washington Chapter was organized in the early 1980's and is supported by reliability professionals in the Washington D.C., northern Virginia, and suburban Maryland areas. The Department of Defense, other government organizations and various private corporations are represented. Several founding members of the Chapter continue to be active and provide academic and professional expertise and experinece in support of the chapter. The following founding members are recognized for their contributions over the past two decades: Dr. Pat Hartman, Bill Lohmar, Palmer Luetjen, Dave Mandel, and Reid Willis.

The membership of the Buffalo Chapter is a diverse blend of ages, backgrounds, experiences, education, professional associations, and interests. Employers have included Amherst Systems, Bell Aerospace, Calspan, Delphi Harrison Thermal Systems, EGW Associates, Fisher-Price, General Electric, General Mills, General Motors, Harris RF Communications, Hiross, Mennen Medical, Moog, Motorola, PCB Pietzotronics, Prestolite Electric, Prior Aviation Services, Scott Aviation, Sierra Research, Sylvania, Trico, University at Buffalo, Westinghouse, West Valley Nuclear, Wilson Greatbatch, Xerox, various governmental agencies, and consulting firms.

This diversity affords our members networking opportunities across a broad technical, academic, industrial, and professional base.

PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS

The Buffalo Chapter is a member of the Technical Societies Council of the Niagara Frontier, an organization unifying the professional societies in the Buffalo area. The Chapter supports TSC efforts in stimulating awareness of, and involvement in, the engineering profession. TSC sponsored activities include Engineers Week, joint meetings, Inventor of the Year awards, and student competition in "Future Cities".

Through interlocking memberships and networking, the Buffalo Chapter also exchanges meeting notices, newsletters, and announcements with SAE, the Engineering Society of Buffalo, TSC, ASQ, SME and other local professional societies.

TECHNICAL NOTES

The 1998 Western New York Fall Quality Conference was co-hosted by SRE, Buffalo Chapter; GBACQC (Greater Buffalo Area Community Quality Council); Niagara Quality Council; and ASQ, Buffalo Section.

Buffalo Chapter dues are $25 annually, enabling us to provide services to our membership.

Membership is open to anyone seeking to learn more about the principles, techniques, benefits, and applications of reliability engineering.

BUFFALO CHAPTER PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE

Our Chapter's plans for this operating year are quite aggressive. In addition to our Chapter's monthly programs, an educational offering, an annual membership directory, periodic newsletters, and an Internet presence, we will be co-hosting and exhibiting at the WNY Fall Quality Conference. Overall, this is truly an exercise in Chapter financial management.

I'd like to extend my thanks to Richard Youngk, and the Washington Chapter for spearheading the renewed effort to bring about the publication and distribution of the "Lambda Notes". Our society is on the upswing, and further improvements are anticipated. I encourage other SRE chapters to emulate Buffalo and Washington Chapter's input to this publication and to contribute in the near future.

EDUCATION PROGRAMS

The Buffalo Chapter has offered courses in "Basic Reliability" and "Introduction to Weibull Analysis". Future topics being considered are accelerated testing, ISO/QS 9000, and software reliability.

MEMBERSHIP DIRECTORY

The Buffalo Chapter publishes an annual Chapter membership directory each spring.

BUFFALO CHAPTER NEWSLETTER

The "Buffalo Chapter Newsletter" is published six times each year.

This publication offers information of interest to SRE members and other professionals. Content includes membership information, technical notes, book reviews, upcoming events, new publications, information sources, aphorisms, employment opportunities, internet references, Chapter activities, educational opportunities, updates of standards, etc.

CHAPTER SPEAKERS AWARDS

Speakers at Chapter meetings receive international exposure by having their abstract and biography published in the Lambda Notes.

In addition, a Certificate of Appreciation and $200.00 cash is awarded annually to the best paper delivered at a Chapter meeting. To apply for this award, submit an abstract and biography to the Chapter President and to the Programs chairperson, who will schedule the presentation.

Buffalo Chapter technical meetings are held monthly, September through May, except December. A sampling of past programs is as follows:

Tours: FAA air traffic control tower, US Postal Service, airport fire and rescue operations, National Weather Service, aircraft maintenance, support, and research, earthquake research center, a local sports arena, and a brewery.

Technical meeting topics: Reliability data analysis, FMEA, software reviews, reliability prediction and modeling, patents and invention, reliability test strategies, specifications and standards, accelerated testing, designed experiments, customer satisfaction, failure analysis, and others.

Guest speakers have been from Xerox, Delphi Automotive, Calspan, Ford Motor Company, Boeing, Rel-Tech Inc., Reliability Analysis Center, Prior Aviation, Motorola, Hughes Electronics, University at Buffalo, and a number of consulting firms.

The Buffalo Chapter holds annual joint meetings with the ASQ and ASNT, and has held joint meetings with SAE and AIAA.

ASQ CRE CERTIFICATION

The Buffalo Chapter supports the American Society for Quality Certified Reliability Engineer recognition process. Some members are participating in the CRE exam development process.

Recertification credits can be earned by attending SRE meetings, serving on SRE committees, attending SRE educational programs, delivering a talk at a technical meeting, etc. Documentation is provided by the SRE, upon request.

-- How to relate MTBF, Reliability and Mission Length
-- Sample Size vs. Test Time - Success Testing Non-Constant Failure Rate Items
-- Expected Test Duration for Sudden Death Testing

An overview of technical writing skills and presentations will be given. Emphasis placed on how the CTC works with students and professionals to enhance their technical writing and presentation technique.

We will tour the brewing facilities. We will have the opportunity to learn about the beer brewing process and sample the output. Emphasized will be those factors important to brewing a reliable (good tasting) beer, and how shelf life is determined.

The paper considers the benefits and liabilities of the tailoring and stimulation test philosophies. It introduces a hybrid strategy to link the tailoring and stimulation test philosophies into an integrated philosophy with implementation examples. A methodology to create generic environmental requirements through Weibull analysis of historical databases is presented. The implications in the hybrid philosophy are discussed along with reliability demonstration considerations. Examples of product requirements are provided for vibration and thermal environments.

Dustin Aldridge is an Assistant Staff Engineer with Delphi Energy and Engine Management Systems Test Engineering Department in Rochester, New York. Following graduation from the University of Rochester in 1981, he has worked in the automotive environmental test and reliability fields for General Motors. His technical work has concentrated on engine mounted components, defining qualification test programs based upon knowledge of customer usage and environmental measurements. He is the key technologist responsible for developing CARB bench aging certification requirements for emission components. In the course of his career he has managed test-engineering groups at the component, system and vehicle level, as well as in advanced test technology. He is a leader in the Automotive Issues Working Group of the Institute of Environmental Sciences.

Customer Satisfaction is a common topic and theme, especially in the private business sector. However, the reality of developing a customer satisfaction culture remains an enigma for many, including large and small private businesses and in the public sector (particularly in North America). Once an enterprise realizes the importance of customer satisfaction to their overall bottom line, there are hands on universal strategies that can be utilized to achieve customer satisfaction. These universal strategies can be used by any enterprise, large or small, private or public, profit or non-profit.

Thad Woronowicz is a Senior Staff Scientist with Motorola, Automotive Products Division, and manages a reliability laboratory for Motorola in Elma, NY. He has 25 years of experience with Motorola in engineering and technical capacities, primarily in reliability and quality. Prior to working for Motorola, he taught undergraduate college Physics for 6 years. Thad has BS and MS degrees in Physics and completed additional graduate work in Physics, Nuclear Engineering and Microelectronics.

While working in a technical capacity, Thad has had significant occasion to interface with customers over many years, primarily in the automotive arena, and has developed perspectives concerning issues of customer satisfaction.

An overview of a twelve-step reliability process to accelerate product delivery time and the related technical tools will be presented.

Mr. Thimmiah (Tim) Gurunatha earned his BA in Mechanical Engineering from Bangalore University in Bangalore, India and an MS in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. Tim specializes in the application of statistical methods to practical problems in manufacturing and design.

During his tenure at Xerox, Tim has made many significant contributions. He developed, copyrighted and introduced worldwide his RAINBOW Chart process. He has trained engineers, managers and employees at all levels in statistical problem solving. He has been teaching in industry and community colleges for over 25 years.

Tim is Principal Engineer responsible for Total Quality Management of Global Purchasing at the Xerox Corporation. He is Vice Chairman of the Reliability Division, ASQ and a member of the ASQ CRE Examination Development Committee.

The Reliability Analysis Center is a Department of Defense Information Analysis Center (IAC). RAC serves as a government and industry focal point for reliability, maintainability and quality of components and systems. RAC collects, analyzes, archives in computerized databases, and publishes data concerning the quality and reliability of products and systems and the microcircuit, discrete semi-conductor and electromechanical and mechanical components that comprise them. RAC also evaluates and publishes information on engineering techniques and methods. Public and private training courses and consulting services are also provided.

RAC is located in Rome, NY and is operated by IIT Research Institute (IITRI).

Mr. Patrick T. Hetherington is a Senior Engineer with 11 years experience in the field of mechanical reliability. He routinely serves as Program Manager for projects which strive to optimize maintainability, lower life cycle costs, maintain safety and address design reliability concerns. Mr. Hetherington has managed efforts in support of the DoD, medical, automotive, industrial and transportation industries. He brings this practical project experience coupled with theoretical background to the classroom. Mr. Hetherington is the developer of the RAC's standard mechanical Reliability Training Course as well as many custom training programs. He received his BSME from Clarkson University.

"Statistical Distributions", by Evans, Hastings, and Peacock, second edition, 170 pages, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1993.

A handy reference to thirty-nine discrete and continuous probability distributions, this work is certainly not casual reading. Although the first chapters cover some of the basics of probability and statistics, this work is also not intended for use as a student classroom text.

The work is, however, valuable to those who need to find, in one place, the definitions and properties of probability distributions such as the domain, parameters, pdf, CDF, inverse, moment generating function, survival function, hazard function, mean, variance, skewness, kurtosis, etc. Graphs of the pdf, CDF, and in many cases the hazard function are presented. Variate relationships are provided, along with equations for parameter estimation and random number generation. All of the common (and some of the marginally uncommon) probability distributions are included as well as the Dirichlet, logistic, Pareto, von-Mises, Laplace, and others.

As a technical reference, this work belongs on the bookshelf of anyone engaged in probabilistic analysis.

Note: Reviewed by D. A. Dyrck, Senior Reliability Engineer, Delphi Harrison Thermal Systems, ASQ-Certified Reliability Engineer, SRE, Buffalo Chapter, and holder of the Professional Certificate in Reliability and Quality Engineering from the University of Arizona.

QUOTABLE

"There are comparatively few engineering problems in which the data are known to within, say, 5%, hence it is a sheer waste of time for the engineer in practice to use the long complex methods when simple, close approximations can be used in a fraction of the time." --- John Goodman (Brit.)

An interesting relationship exists between the shape parameter, b and the coefficient of variation, COV, of the two parameter Weibull distribution. Using the method of matching moments, it can be shown that:

This simplification underestimates the true shape by about only 10% at b = 3.5, about 5% at b = 2, and, obviously, 0% at b = 1, given that m and s are known.

Relationships exist between the shape parameters and the coefficients of variation, COV = s/m, of a number of commonly encountered probability distributions. These relationships can be used to assist in selecting candidate distributions for the modeling of data.

For the two parameter Weibull distribution:

Before selecting the normal distribution to model times to failure or times to repair data, (t), note that its domain of definition is -¥ < t < +¥. This means, in theory, that a portion of the left tail of the normal probability distribution enters the negative region of t. Thus, P (t ³ 0) < 1.00, which may not be appropriate for the situation.

The coefficient of variation, COV = s / m, can be used to find the probability of (t) being less than zero, or the reliability at age t = 0.

QUOTABLE

"Reliability is not a matter of applying the latest statistical techniques. It is blood, sweat, and tears engineering to find out what could go wrong with a product or process, to organize that knowledge so it is useful to engineers and managers, and then to act on that knowledge." --- Ralph A. Evans

"Reliability is the science aimed at predicting, analyzing, preventing, and mitigating failures over time." --- John D. Healy, Ph.D.

The late Stan Ofsthun of Sierra Research, was the first prestident of the SRE in 1971 and 1972. As a member of the Buffalo Chapter from its earliest beginnings, he was responsible for initially leading SRE beyond its beginnings in Buffalo to the present organization with more than twenty chapters worldwide.

This award recognizes the best technical paper by an SRE member accepted for presentation at the Annual RAMS. The award consists of a certificate of recognition and $1,000 CASH. The "Call for Papers" appears early each year. Abstracts must be submitted to RAMS and to the SRE by April.

The criteria for the Stan Ofsthun Award are (1) being an active member of SRE, (2) having the paper approved for presentation at the annual Reliability and Maintainability Symposium (RAMS), and (3) being selected by the SRE Paper Awards Committee. SRE members can submit their papers destined to RAMS, through their local chapter president, to the SRE paper Awards Committee. The Chairman is:

SRE Paper Awards Committee
C/O Dr. J. A. Nachlas
250 New Engineering Bldg.
Virginia Tech
Blacksburg, Va. 24061-0118

Lambda Notes will reprint award winning papers in future issues with the permission of RAMS and IEEE.

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Please include a check for $10.00 (US funds) made out to:

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C/O Dr. J. A. Nachlas
250 New Engineering Bldg.
Virginia Tech
Blacksburg, Va. 24061-0118