When designing for reliability while facing increased product complexity and shorter design cycles, less time for testing along with supplier quality and cost are big challenges, according to a survey of system architects and design engineers for hardware (including devices). Despite the challenges, the global reliability and hardware design survey, commissioned by Molex, also finds opportunities related to artificial intelligence, machine learning (ML), simulations and advanced analytics.
The reliability and hardware design survey, conducted by Dimensional Research, polled more than 750 qualified global participants with direct or managerial responsibility for hardware design or system architecture at companies in the U.S., China, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico and the United Kingdom. Industries represented include automotive/transportation, consumer electronics, mobility, data centers, aerospace, energy management, medical devices, industrial, telecommunications and networking.
Survey respondents were asked questions related to the current state of reliability, challenges delivering reliability and the impact of innovation on reliability.
Key findings reveal that end-user experience is driving brand loyalty and product requirements. Fifty-four percent of respondents believe end-user experiences with reliability are driving brand loyalty, and 52% said customers expect devices to perform reliably under any environmental condition, including dust, water and vibration.
Who ensures that their products meet reliability requirements? According to 64% of respondents, most rely on their quality team, followed by test engineering (60%) and product development engineering (54%). But there are some differences, depending on the end market. For example, in the automotive and transportation sector, test engineering ranked highest (71%) in ensuring products meet rigorous reliability requirements.
(Source: Molex)
The survey also reveals a strong correlation between their ability to deliver reliable products and supplier relationships. Ninety-one percent of respondents agreed that reliable products cannot be built without trusted and proven suppliers.
So it is not surprising that the survey finds that supplier relationships are becoming more critical. Ninety-six percent of respondents said they have changed part suppliers due to reliability issues, with more than 25% reporting frequent changes.
They also report that shorter design cycles have an impact on reliability. Seventy-four percent of respondents believe reliability is at risk due to shorter design cycles.
“It’s so critical to pick the right partners, deploy the most effective processes and leverage the latest data insights to accelerate the design and development of the most reliable products possible,” said Scott Whicker, SVP and president of Transportation Innovative Solutions at Molex, in a statement. “Our latest global industry survey offers a snapshot of changing expectations for product reliability and the realities of design tradeoffs, along with growing optimism that AI and data-driven innovations will take product reliability to the next level.”
In terms of their approach to reliability, survey participants from all industries tend to overdesign products nearly twice as often as they search for lower-cost solutions, Molex said. Fifty-one percent report overdesigning their products to ensure reliability is more than what is required.
In addition, many stakeholders (42%) design hardware with a goal to surpass current industry certifications and standards, while 44% strive to meet possible future requirements. Datacom respondents led the way, with 51% working to address both present and potential future requirements.
However, only 18% of engineers develop verification and validation plans before starting product designs, while 44% develop those plans in parallel with their product design effort and 39% do not plan for reliability until after the first phase of product design.
But nearly all respondents use hard data to measure reliability. Topping the list is product verification and validation test results (49%), followed by field failure rate (44%) and manufacturing defects (40%).
Top reliability challenges and tradeoffs
Nearly all respondents report challenges when designing for reliability. The biggest challenge is adequate time for testing (42%), followed by a three-way tie at 37% for supplier quality, cost, and correlating design attributes to their impact on reliability, and then shortened design cycles (36%).
Again, there are some differences among end markets. For example, for consumer electronics respondents, their greatest concerns are shorter design cycles (46%) and the increasing cost of designing for reliability (44%).
When making tradeoffs, engineers prioritized cost (50%), manufacturability (46%) and user experience (35%) over reliability. But they will not compromise reliability in favor of weight (35%), features (26%) and form factor/size (26%).
Looking ahead
Respondents were also asked about their biggest concerns for the reliability of products in the future. Fifty-three percent of respondents believe increasing complexity of products will cause more reliability challenges, followed by customer demands for cost reduction (49%) and higher levels of device interoperability (41%).
While only 33% of the respondents use data-based models today to help evaluate design tradeoffs, there is growing optimism in the role of data to improve reliability, Molex said. The survey finds that the best opportunities for improving the reliability of electronic products within the next five years are data-driven technologies—AI, ML, simulations and data analytics innovations, according to 46% of respondents.
In addition, 83% of respondents are optimistic about AI’s potential to improve product reliability. The biggest use cases: the ability to identify and predict failures (43%), optimize designs for reliability (31%), execute more complete verification and validation simulations (31%) and build better test plans and models (29%).
The survey also highlights workforce concerns. Within five years, 51% predict experience will become more important in understanding product complexity, but 92% expect to lose their experts to retirement. As a result, 83% believe the loss of engineering expertise will create risk across employee satisfaction, brand reputation and revenue loss. However, only 39% have a plan in place to mitigate those risks.
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