Product Maturity, Volume 2

6Confirmation of Maturity

Several data sources can be used for a product maturity confirmation.

6.1. Internal data from equipment manufacturer

Internal data are useful data that can be obtained by the equipment manufacturer during the product manufacturing cycle.

Test cone

The test cone is an illustration of the failure rate for each manufacturing stage, for example:

• – pre-test;
• – burn-in;
• – final acceptance report.

The test cone is a manufacturing indicator that allows the failure rate to be mapped during the manufacturing stage. This representation can be used to locate and detect the manufacturing stages in which efficiency may be improved, and take corrective actions. The idea is to push the failures as far upstream as possible. This type of analysis is illustrated in Figure 6.1.

Figure 6.1. Test cone example

NOTE.– The negative part has no practical meaning; its role is to make the graphical representation clearer.

Looking at Figure 6.1, it may seem surprising that the failure rate does not decrease during the manufacturing stages. Indeed, this result is quite logical, as this failure rate is estimated from one manufacturing stage to another. Let us consider, for example, the burn-in and acceptance stages:

• – The test conducted during the burn-in stage addresses only a small part of the components of the product, which are susceptible to having youth failures. This ...