Introduction to the Necessity of Design Methodology

This chapter addresses the necessity of a new structured design method such as parametric accelerated life testing (ALT) in the product developing process. To survive in global competition, manufacturers should have products adopted with advanced technologies in compliance with consumer requirements. Engineers in companies thus implement new features into a structure by adapting the proper mechanism. Because the critical designs of products are promptly brought to the marketplace without properly testing them, frequent recall in the marketplace occurs if there are design flaws. It thus is a crucial procedure to assess the design of a new mechanical system through the product development process. However, as the developing time is continually shortened, there are some difficulties in simultaneously satisfying all market requirements—low product cost, high performance and reliability for a given price. Because of that, the product always has design imperfections in the structure. Consequently, a global company necessitates a new reliability assessment methodology, such as Parametric ALT, to reveal and correct them.