R&M through avionics/electronics integrity program

Addresses the importance of designing reliability and maintainability (R&M) into electronic equipment in the early stages of its development. The author describes an approach called the avionics/electronics integrity program (AVIP), which emphasizes early attention to design criteria and analysis, and dictates a process which strikes a balance between analysis and test. He outlines some of the problems and limitations that have been observed using the traditional reliability approach (MIL-STD-785 process) and discusses how the AVIP approach will overcome these problems and limitations. AVIP retains and incorporates the proven and useful elements of the traditional reliability approach, such as failure modes; effects and criticality analysis (FMECA); failure reporting analysis and corrective action system (FRACAS); and environmental stress screening (ESS).<>