Validation and Verification

Background
The purpose of design validation is to demonstrate that a product or process will work in the way that the customer expects. It consists of a sequence of trials where the performance is measured at the environmental extremes which have been specified. The environment can include room temperature, the load applied to a power supply, a selection made in a software menu or the type of milk used to make instant mashed potato. For a product the tests are usually the last chance to identify a poor design before it is released for manufacture and sale. For a process they are an important stage in commissioning.

The techniques presented here give a considerable improvement in effectiveness - the ability to identify problems - and in efficiency. The number of trials which needs to be performed can be reduced to a quarter in comparison with conventional approaches.

Course information

Audience
This one day course is aimed at engineers and managers in quality, design and development functions. It is also of value to others who are involved in the acceptance of new products or processes. Delegates do not require any knowledge of statistics, but they should be able to calculate standard deviations with a suitable calculator (just which buttons to press, not necessarily what it means !).

Course content
The course is a blend of teaching and many exercises which are tackled by small teams.
• How design validation links to quality plans, customer use,
statutory and regulatory requirements
• Comparison with design review and verification
• How to select the environmental factors
• Planning and designing the trials
• Super-saturated arrays
• Orthogonal arrays
• Analysis and interpretation of results

Expected results
By the end of the course delegates will know how validation tests fit in with the development or commissioning process. They will be able to plan, execute and analyse the results of a design validation trial.