American Society of Quality Dinner Forum 

Speaker Topic: Designing an Accelerated Life Test

Accelerated Life Testing, ALT, is a technique to estimate the time to failure for an item.  In short, ALT allows us to shorten that time. Done well it provides valuable insights into the future. Done poorly, it is a colossal waste of resources.

In this discussion, let's talk about the various methods available to you for ALT: How to select the right approach given your specific understanding of the failure mechanism involved.  And to discuss the best and a few worst practices when planning and conducting ALT.

As with any testing, ALT is an experiment.  We have a hypothesis and using the test result may verify or disprove the hypothesis.  A well-designed test helps you make decisions and informs you about the nature of the failure mehcanism's time to failure behavior.

Done poorly ALT provides little more than a pass/fail result with an inability to interpret the results or understand how the failure mechanisms behave over time.

Let's discuss ALT, the many options available to you as you plan your next experiment, and why you should keep the focus on understanding the failure mechanism involved. 

Fred Schenkelberg
Past Chair, ASQ Reliability Division 
Producer, Accendo Reliability 

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• 5:00 - 5:30 - Check In & Registration
• 5:30 - 6:10 - Networking
• 6:15 - 6:55 - Dinner
• 6:55 - 7:10 - Section Business: Section Chair
• 7:10 - 8:25 - Presentation  
  
• 8:25 - 8:30 - Door Prize drawing

Registration has changed:

we are pleased to offer a discounted registration fee to registrants and guests if they 1) are members and 2) if they register at least one week before the event.  It is $5 for full, senior, or fellow members and $15 for associate or student members.  They will receive their (PayPal) rebate as soon as membership classification is verified - it will amount to dinner free. 

For all other situations (register within one week of Nov. 15, non member) the usual registration fees apply.  Registration is a three part process:1) having a meal? and 2) select meal if you are having one  3) pay for the meal via PayPal.  Be sure to click the counter to the number of meals of each type (generally, 1)

• Advance $35
• Late/Walk-in $40
• Unemployed $20
• Presentation only and special guests(who receive a discount code) $0

Note: Advance registration ends at midnight Monday, November 13.

Member discounts end at midnight Wednesday, November 8

Cancellation Policy: no refunds will be available unless you notify us before Monday night(11/13) at midnight.

The ASQ Silicon Valley Leadership Team hopes to see you all at our dinner meeting!