PORTLAND, OR—Reliability, design and quality engineers representing Pacific Northwest manufacturers and academics have formed the Northwest Reliability Forum to develop a series of product lifecycle-focused forums.

The purpose of the Northwest Reliability Forum is to facilitate a cross-industry discussion with various manufacturers to discover new approaches, and to explore new and emerging techniques and ideas. The group’s goal is to hold the forums on a regular basis and cover a range of topics focusing on product reliability as it relates to design, theory, analysis and product management.

A sampling of forum topics most requested include real-life examples of new product reliability programs, such as how to measure and quantify lifecycle costs; accelerated testing; effective ways of looking at large amounts of product data; design and cost analysis related to reliability implementation; and how to accurately determine warranty costs.

The forums will be hosted at rotating committee member sites. Members-to-date include representatives from HP, Xerox, Tektronix, NACCO Materials Handling Group, Portland State University, Engineering Design Consultants and NinaTek. The next quarterly forum is scheduled for January.

The committee is currently in the process of lining up speakers. Individuals interested in receiving reliability forum e-mail updates, sharing their expertise as a speaker or in joining the committee may contact Ragan Corliss at NinaTek at (503) 225-9000, ext. 212, or raganc@ninatek.com. Additional information is available at www.ninatek.com.