The Department of Defense (DoD) is now putting new emphasis on making its systems and equipments more reliable through a series of initiatives where Quanterion Solutions is a key contributor.
Recognizing that its designs were falling short of their reliability goals, the DoD is cooperating with industry to:
- develop a general government/industry reliability standard to replace MIL-STD-785 “Reliability Programs for Systems and Equipment” that was cancelled as part of the Defense Acquisition Reform movement of the mid-1990s,
- institute a Reliability Improvement Working Group (RIWG) to focus Agencies and Services toward more effective implementation of reliability, and
- revise MIL-HDBK-217 “Reliability Prediction of Electronic Equipment” to more accurately reflect the reliability of current technologies.
As part of Quanterion’s role in operating the DoD Reliability Information Analysis Center (RIAC, formerly RAC), its Operations Manager, Mr. David Nicholls, is a key contributor to all three initiatives. As of this release, a Government Electronics and Information Association (GEIA) standard has now been developed to guide the development of systems and equipment, the RIWG has formulated approaches to improve the ability of DoD to “make reliability happen” and the Crane Division of the Naval Surface Warfare Center is leading a quick-reaction project to release a MIL-HDBK-217G revision by December of 2009.
Mr. Nicholls’ outstanding contributions and leadership have been recognized by the DoD. In a recent letter, the Pentagon’s Director of Operational Test and Evaluation, Dr. Charles McQueary, commended Nicholls for his “contributions towards improving system reliability in the Department of Defense” and for being “directly responsible for much of the progress,” and in particular, for his “leadership.”