Design for Reliability/Design for Service 53 likelihood that the cell interconnections will fail over time. The other burgeoning industry that a DFS engineer should take into account is the recycling, second-life and remanufacturer. As this industry begins to take shape it will become even more important to ensure that your energy storage systems can be easily broken down and each of the core components easily identified. So in essence, DFS involves looking at who will be doing work on the battery pack and trying to develop products that ensure the ease of service.
And DFR involves attempting to identify all of the potential manners in which an energy storage system could fail in order to engineer in appropriate mitigation strategies. Quality and Reliability Perhaps at this point we need to make a couple of clarification points. Specifically, what is the difference between reliability and quality and how are they related? Most simply, quality control looks to ensure that the product will work as intended and meets the assembly and manufacturing specifications. So quality is concerned with how the product will work. Reliability on the other hand is concerned with how long the product will work as it was originally designed.
In essence, reliability provides the statistical probability that the product will continue to meet its functional purpose throughout the design life (ReliaSoft, 2014). The following chart demonstrates the differences and the areas of overlap between quality and reliability, showing the different processes and tools used for the quality system from design for six sigma and the reliability programs from DFR ( Figure 1 ).
獅 ŶǀŝƌŽŶŵĞŶƚĂůŽŶĚŝƟŽŶƐ ZĞŐƌĞƐƐŝŽŶŶĂůLJƐŝƐ sŽŝĐĞŽĨ ƵƐƚŽŵĞƌ >ŝĨĞĐLJĐůĞĂƚĂŶĂůLJƐŝƐ hƐĂŐĞDŽĚĞůƐ &ĂŝůƵƌĞDŽĚĞƐ īĞĐƚƐŶĂůLJƐŝƐ ;&DͿ WŚLJƐŝĐƐŽĨ&ĂŝůƵƌĞƐ 'ĞŶĞƌĂů>ŝŶĞĂƌDŽĚĞůƐ ŽŶƚƌŽůWůĂŶƐ ĐĐĞůĞƌĂƚĞĚ>ŝĨĞdĞƐƟŶŐ ^ĞŶƐŝƟǀŝƚLJŶĂůLJƐŝƐ ĞƐŝŐŶŽĨ džƉĞƌŝŵĞŶƚƐ tĂƌƌĂŶƚLJWƌĞĚŝĐƟŽŶƐ ZĞůŝĂďŝůŝƚLJ'ƌŽǁƚŚ dŽůĞƌĂŶĐĞ^ƚĂĐŬhƉƐ DĞĂŶdŝŵĞƚŽ&ĂŝůƵƌĞ ŶĂůLJƐŝƐ ĞƐŝŐŶĨŽƌ^ŝdž^ŝŐŵĂ ĞƐŝŐŶĨŽƌZĞůŝĂďŝůŝƚLJ Figure 1 Overlap of Design for Reliability and Design for Six Sigma. Adapted from ReliaSoft (2014, p. 3).