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What does a reliability engineer do on a day-to-day basis
A reliability engineer is a person who applies engineering principles to solve complex problems in the maintenance and support of industrial, commercial, or military equipment related to reliability. They are responsible for the development, assessment, design and implementation of comprehensive maintenance programs for products, processes or systems that involve a collection of components or subsystems in direct contact with the environment. It can be said that a reliability engineer is the difference between a compliant system and one that crashes down to failure.
In the simplest of terms, a reliability engineer’s job is to make sure that things work for the customer. This problem solving takes place in a number of different areas:
There are two fundamental questions a Reliability Engineer must ask and answer for themselves when dealing with any given problem.
The skills and experience required to be a reliability engineer
A product reliability engineer must be able to apply and adapt classical reliability engineering principles to new problems. Therefore, the basic knowledge of classical reliability theory is required. Most universities and colleges offer courses in this discipline, which is also widely used in various industries such as electronics, aerospace and mechanical engineering. Depending on the specific duties of the reliability engineer company he or she will be working for, additional training may be required. In any case, a sound knowledge of mathematics and statistics is recommended. The reliability engineer must be able to use these tools to the best of their ability in order to make the most accurate decisions when designing and building a product.
There are several different types of engineers that work on reliability engineering, including electrical, mechanical, software and reliability specialists. Other titles used by these individuals include engineering coordinator or engineer-in-train (EIT). These engineers may take on a wide variety of responsibilities as they work in various teams at the company they work for. Initially, a small company may want one person to take on all these roles; a larger company, however, will likely hire several different engineers to work on different areas of reliability engineering.
The challenges and rewards of the job
The day-to-day challenges of a reliability engineer involve analyzing and predicting failure mechanisms, monitoring the performance of products, components and systems, preparing methods in order to reduce the risk of failures, improving manufacturing processes to reduce raw materials and parts variability or developing testing procedures in order to increase system reliability. The work of a reliability engineer can be exciting and challenging, as they have to deal with issues that must be handled in a timely manner with the aim of reducing their impact on the product or service. The following are some of the ways in which a failure can impact a product or service.
The production of a failure can have an economic impact on the company producing the product by increasing costs and reducing revenues. The production of a failure may affect the customer if they have to pay increased repair costs or if they cannot use the service because it is not reliable. The production of a failure can also affect the other organizations or individuals involved in the supply chain such as manufacturers, distributors, suppliers and customers. The production of a failure can also affect the organization bearing responsibility in order to sustain the product or service.
How to become a reliability engineer
The best way to become a reliability engineer is to obtain a bachelor’s degree in one of the engineering or technology disciplines and then specialize in the field of reliability. There are many universities that offer an advanced degree in reliability engineering (MA, MS or PhD). Qualifications for this type of job vary from one company to another, as well as from one country to another. The various educational requirements are usually based on the kind of responsibilities that a person has during the first years of his or her working life. However, some of the best universities that offer reliable engineering degrees include the following: University of Illinois, Purdue University, Virginia Tech, Michigan State University and Washington State University. [+] A person who works as a reliability engineer must be able to do the following:
1. Take a deep understanding of reliability theory and apply it to technological problems.
2. Design and test equipment that is used in the development and operation of industrial processes or systems.
3. Make things out of available resources.
4. Understand the basic principles and concepts of an industrial process in order to be able to make it as efficient as possible.
5. Analyze, and understand the effects of, the various kinds of failures on an industrial process or system so that they can be minimized or eliminated entirely.
6. Optimize, and improve, the availability of a system or process.
7. Work as part of an engineering team in developing new products and services.
Typical career path for a reliability engineer
A reliability engineer can take various directions and be involved in different tasks within the same company. For example, he or she may work with the test and debug team, which is responsible for identifying product bugs, requiring modification and subsequent re-testing of the product. The products they test and maintain could be machines or computer hardware. On the other hand, he or she may work with production and technical support teams, who are responsible for supporting the end-users of products. This could involve the re-testing of products that have been produced in larger quantities, keeping tabs on performance trends and assisting in product recalls.
In regards to career paths, a reliability engineer works with engineers, production technicians, and marketing specialists. This means that one’s typical career path is going to be different than the average person’s, as he or she will have different responsibilities along with other tasks. With that being said, it also means that a reliability engineer can work with different kinds of people in the same company. This can be a good opportunity for him or her to develop social, professional and problem-solving skills.
The typical career path of a reliability engineer at the entry level may involve working on the assembly line and debugging of products. On the other hand, at higher levels, he or she may be responsible for team management and improvement of production processes.
