[capt1014]

Are there any Reliability Engineers on the board?

[daviid]

i believe darral does this line of work. im not 100% sure tho

[Honclfibr]

Originally posted by daviid
i believe darral does this line of work. im not 100% sure tho

Nope. I'm an embedded software engineer. Firmware, drivers, the occasional windows or linux app. I'd like to think the products I design are reliable, but I certainly don't engineer exclusively in reliability. In fact, I'm not even sure that is possible. What *is* a reliability engineer? Do they manufacture schedules? Perhaps they work with the fabric of time. Pretty trick, if so. I bet that pays good money.

[dhuze]

I'm not an engineer but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

[JeffL]

You make it reliable, I bet I could break it.

[Honclfibr]

Originally posted by JeffL
You make it reliable, I bet I could break it.

Everytime you think something has been made "idiot-proof", they go and build a better idiot.

[JeffL]

Originally posted by Honclfibr
Everytime you think something has been made "idiot-proof", they go and build a better idiot.

Reporting for duty.

[Honclfibr]

Originally posted by JeffL
Reporting for duty.

I think we may have just created a new position, the "unreliability engineer". Their job is to find lawsuits *before* they happen, by doing things to your product that no reasonable person would ever think to do.

Microwave? We can put a baby in that.

Hot liquid? OH, you better believe it's going down the pants.

Shiny? We'll become transfixed by it and forget to breathe.

And no matter how soft and squishy you may think you've made the edges, we'll find a way to gouge somebody's eye out with them.

Our dissatisfaction is guaranteed or your money back.

[JeffL]

Whats the job pay? I'm interested.

[Honclfibr]

I suppose it all depends on how good a lawyer you have. Where's sedition? I see real opportunity here.

[JeffL]

I could get a decent one I suppose.

So when do I start?

[Degsy]

Originally posted by Honclfibr
I think we may have just created a new position, the "unreliability engineer". Their job is to find lawsuits *before* they happen, by doing things to your product that no reasonable person would ever think to do.

Microwave? We can put a baby in that.

Hot liquid? OH, you better believe it's going down the pants.

Shiny? We'll become transfixed by it and forget to breathe.

And no matter how soft and squishy you may think you've made the edges, we'll find a way to gouge somebody's eye out with them.

Our dissatisfaction is guaranteed or your money back.

You NEED to write comedy. You fucking crack me up dude.

[wylee]

Originally posted by Degsy
You NEED to write comedy. You fucking crack me up dude.

[TheIglu]

Sorry, Big-D's comedic resources are taken up by racing an EX500 at Louden. That alone hogs most of the available funny for us to survive.

[capt1014]

Jesus, Doesn't take long for a simple question to turn into crap!

I have an interview on Monday for a Reliability Engineering position at a DoD contractor and had a few questions about it.

If I get it I'll be involved with bombs and missles and thing that goes BANG!

Any one with a brain around here, oops wait that was a dumb question.

PS start your own thread, Bitches

[SSearchVT]

If it's along the lines of the questions I get asked for defense applications - you will need to be able to break systems down to the bare components and through a combination of tolerance stack ups, material data, and MTBF data (based on weakest link) figure out if the proposed system will meet the requirements. The main areas I look at are temperature ranges (stored and operational), vibration (use, ship, store), material composition (galvanic responses, etc.), chemical exposure (gas and liquid), power level, and frequency. Hope this helps. Good Luck...

[benVFR]

You a Mechanical Engineer?

It sounds like that kind of position to me, either that or it's one of those "big government military-industrial" jobs, that can only exist at a defense contractor because of the high quality requirements and ludicrous $$ floating around. If it's that I'd be worried that the job consists mostly of pushing Excel and Project documents and sitting in meetings.

Good luck. I think you have to work on Software to qualify as an "Unreliability Engineer". Most other types of products seem to generally work.

[hessogood]

if it's a big goverment military job with lots of time off and a big salary than i can do it.

[joeswamp]

SSearchVT's answer is correct. Basically these guys break systems down into their individual components and use probability models (usually crafted from real failure data) to figure out the chance of the whole system failing. These are the guys that determine why you need redundant hydraulic lines on aircraft controls and stuff like that, it's a big topic in aviation. If I were preparing for an interview I'd read up on the topic, review what a Markov model is, etc.

I'm not a reliability engineer but I work with them sometimes -- usually after a "highly improbable event" just occurred...

[capt1014]

I'm a Quality Engineer, Process Oriented.

So here is the actual job description:

Support technical analysis of logistics life cycle requirements with emphasis on Reliability, Maintainability and Supportability for DOD weapons systems/equipment. Provide logistics support through maintenance and query access of a F.R.A.C.A.S. (Field Reporting and Corrective Action System) and specialized decision support tools; interfacing with depot and field operations as necessary to ensure data system quality and accuracy. Duties include calculation of reliability metrics, e.g., MTBF, MRCT and failure rates encompassing entire supply chain and development of PBL programs. Interpret failure records to ensure proper failure classification and generate technical reports. Review technical documentation (i.e. drawings, specifications, etc.) for assessment of requirements documentation such as data definitions and reliability centered maintenance programs.

In conversation with them they use a lot Wiebull and possion data techniques.

Title is Reliability Engineer.

[hessogood]

Yeah i can do that with my eyes closed. Friday's off and a crapload of a salary?

[capt1014]

Originally posted by hessogood
Yeah i can do that with my eyes closed. Friday's off and a crapload of a salary?

YUP, a grap load of money!

[hessogood]

I want a crap load, not a grap load.

[Honclfibr]

With such sloppy attention to detail, there's no way you'll ever make it as a reliability engineer. The DOD can't afford aimless typos. What happens if you're sitting at your computer, trying to open up outlook express, and your fingers slip so you type "Nuke China" instead? A lot of dead chinese, that's what. That means no egg rolls and crab rangoons ever again. Are you prepared to live in a world without eggrolls? I didn't think so. So let's be a bit more careful next time. For all our sake.

[capt1014]

Grap=crap, whatever.

Even I did type "Nuke China" they would still have egg rolls and crab rangoons in chinatown.

I just don't pay that much attention around here because I know the audience.