Using Degradation Data to Improve Fluorescent Lamp Reliability

Abstract

While statistically designed experiments have been employed extensively to improve product or process quality, they have been used infrequently for improving reliability. In this paper, we present a case study which used an experiment to improve the reliability (or lifetime) of fluorescent lamps. The effect of three factors from among many potentially important manufacturing factors was investigated using a fractional factorial design. For fluorescent lamps, failures occur when their luminosity or light intensity falls below a certain level. An interesting feature of this experiment is the periodic monitoring of the luminosity. The paper demonstrates how the luminosity's degradation over time provides a practical way to improve fluorescent lamps which are already highly reliable. Recommendations based on the experiment's results suggest that nearly a 70% improvement can be realized.