Symposium: Design for Excellence (DfX) Symposium
Date: October 11-15, 2010
Location: Austin, TX
About Event: Ops A La Carte and DfR Solutions are teaming up to give this Design for Excellence (DfX) Symposium. We already gave this symposium earlier in the year in San Jose California.

DFX TRACK ONE - DESIGN

Design for Reliability (DfR): Oct 11: Mike Silverman of Ops & Dr. Craig Hillman of DfR
Design for Environment (DfE): Oct 12 by Dr. Randy Schueller of DfR Solutions
Design  for Manufacturability (DfM): Oct 13 by Cheryl Tulkoff of DfR Solutions
Design for Testability (DfT): Oct 14 by Vaughan Carlson, Pres. of Value Engrafting
Software Design for Reliability (SDfR): Oct 15 morning by Bob Mueller of Ops A La Carte
Design for Warranty (DfW): Oct 15 afternoon by Bob Mueller of Ops A La Carte

DFX TRACK TWO - TESTING

Best Accelerated Life Tests: Oct 11-12 by Mike Silverman of Ops A La Carte
Root Cause Analysis (RCA): Oct 13-14: Greg Swartz of Ops & Dr. Craig Hillman of DfR
Design for Mechanical Reliability: Oct 15 by Dr. Kim Parnell of Ops A La Carte

PRICING AND TERMS
Class Prices: Two day=$1195, One day=$695, half day=$395
Group Discounts: Every 5th registrant is FREE
Unemployed/Employees paying themselves=25% off
Full time students=50% off
All are available via webinar for a 25% discount.
Payment: PO, Check, or Credit Card in advance

For more info or to register, please

Course: Certified Quality Engineer (CQE) Preparation Course
Date(s): October 19 - November 30, 2010 (Tuesday nights)
Time: 6pm-10pm one night a week, 7 weeks
Instructor: Greg Swartz and Pat McMahon, Ops A La Carte
Length: 7 weeks
Cost: $1295
Location: San Jose, CA

(for those out of area, course is now offered via internet)

Description: The Certified Quality Engineer is a professional who understands the principles of product and service quality evaluation and control. This body of knowledge and applied technologies include, but are not limited to, development and operation of quality control systems, application and analysis of testing and inspection procedures, the ability to use metrology and statistical methods to diagnose and correct improper quality control practices, an understanding of human factors and motivation, facility with quality cost concepts and techniques, and the knowledge and ability to develop and administer management information systems and to audit quality systems for deficiency identification and correction.

We are offering this Exam Preparation Course. Students have found it very valuable in preparing for the exam. Even if you are not planning on taking the exam but need a good, in-depth course in Quality Engineering, this can benefit you substantially.

Course Webpage: CQE Course by Ops A La Carte

For more info or to register, please

Course: Certified Quality Auditor (CQA) Preparation Course
Date(s): October 23 - November 13, 2010 (Saturdays)
Time: 9am-3:30pm, one day a week, 4 weeks
Instructor: Chandru Idnani, Ops A La Carte
Length: 4 weeks
Cost: $1095
Location: San Jose, CA

(for those out of area, course is now offered via internet)

Description: The Certified Quality Auditor is a professional who understands the standards and principles of auditing and the auditing techniques of examining, questioning, evaluating and reporting to determine a quality system’s adequacy and deficiencies. The Certified Quality Auditor analyzes all elements of a quality system and judges its degree of adherence to the criteria of industrial management and quality evaluation and control systems.

We are offering this Exam Preparation Course. Students have found it very valuable in preparing for the exam. Even if you are not planning on taking the exam but need a good, in-depth course in Quality Auditing, this can benefit you substantially.

For more info or to register, please

Course: Product Realization Group Certification Program
Date: Tuesday, September 14, 2010 to Thursday, January 13, 2011 (dates below)
Time: All classes are 6-8pm
Location: Foothill College, 12345 El Monte Road, Los Altos Hills, CA 94022
About Event: Program consists of 5 subjects, one subject per month for 5 months, each subject is covered in 5 class sessions. The Product Realization Certificate Program provides an opportunity for individuals, group managers and senior management, who are involved in the development and release of high technology products, to obtain a comprehensive understanding of the product realization process.

For more info or to register, please

For information on other course offerings go to: Ops A La Carte Schedule

All our courses are offered as in-house tailored seminars. To view a list of all our seminars, go to Ops A La Carte Course List

Event: Medical Product Validation Seminar
Date: Sept 22, 2010, 10am-2pm
Location: Silicon Valley's TechMart, Santa Clara, CA
About Event: This is part of SMP Tech's "Meet the Experts" series

Ops A La Carte's Mike Silverman will present on "Reliability Challenges in the Medical Industry"

For more info, please

Event: SMTA Medical Electronics Symposium
Date: Sept 22-23, 2010
Location: Arizona State University, Tempe AZ
About Event: Experts from around the world will give various medical presentations. We will be giving one in the reliability track.

Ops A La Carte's Mike Silverman and PRG's Mike Keer will present on "Outsourcing Product Development to a Multidiscipline Team of Specialists: A Success Story"

For more info, please

Event: Accelerated Stress Testing and Reliability (ASTR) Workshop
Date: Oct 6-8, 2010
Location: Denver, CO
About Event: This is the only workshop specifically devoted to accelerated reliabilty testing. This is the 15th year for the event. Ops A La Carte is a sponsor and is on the program committee for the event. We will also be presenting the following topics:

Mike Silverman of Ops A La Carte will present: "What Is HALT and What Is Not HALT?"
Charlie Slayman of Ops A La Carte will present: "Acceleration Factors for Neutron Beam Soft Error Testing"
Martin Shaw of Ops A La Carte will present: "LCD Accelerated Testing - A Case Study"

For more info, please

Event: Austin Central Texas Electronics Association (CTEA) Expo and Tech Forum
Date: Oct 7, 2010
Location: Austin, TX
About Event: The Electronics Event for Hardware and Software Design, Assy, and Test Professionals.

Ops A La Carte's Bob Baker is a local officer of CTEA and is helping to coordinate this event. The event is also being sponsored by local chapters of SMTA and IMAPS.

For more info, please

Event: ASQ Quality Conference
Date: Oct 21-22, 2010
Location: Santa Clara, CA
About Event: Conference specifically focused on the topics of quality and reliability.

Ops A La Carte's Mike Silverman and PRG's Mike Keer will present on "Outsourcing Product Development to a Multidiscipline Team of Specialists: A Success Story"

For more info, please

Event: BIOMedDevice Show
Date: Nov 10-11, 2010
Location: San Jose, CA
About Event: Run by the same group that runs the Medical Design and Manufacturing (MD&M) event, but this BIOMed show is smaller and more focused around medical devices.

Ops A La Carte and two other Product Realization Group's partner's - Voler Systems and Fusion Design - will be teaming up, sharing a booth and delivering a joint presentation on how we successfully collaborate on projects together.

For more info, please

Event: Ops A La Carte Open House - Medical Theme
Date: Nov 12, 2010
Location: Santa Clara, CA
About Event: For the second year in a row, we have decided to piggyback on the BIOMedDevice show and hold our open house the following day so that out of town guests can take advantage of this opportunity.

Ops A La Carte and the Product Realization Group will jointly sponsor this event at Ops A La Carte's headquarters in Santa Clara, CA. It will be very timely not only because of it following the BIOMed show but because we just completed our remodel at our facility, adding lab capacity as well as enlarging our training facility.

For more info, please

Event: Product Realization Group Lunch and Learn Series
Date: Once a month - see below for dates for the rest of 2010
Location: National University, San Jose CA. Also available via webinar
About Event: Discussion topic followed by a lunch.

Bridging the Gap between Marketing and Product Development
Thursday, September 16, 2010 - 11:30am to 1:30pm (event details  | register  | free webinar signup)

How the PRG is helping companies bring new products to market – Case Study
Thursday, October 14, 2010 - 11:30am to 1:30pm (event details  | register  | free webinar signup)

Optimizing the Global Supply Chain (last mile)
Thursday, November 18, 2010 - 11:30am to 1:30pm (event details  | register  | free webinar signup)

Building Quality into the Product Realization Process
Thursday, December 09, 2010 - 11:29am to 1:29pm (event details  | register  | free webinar signup)

For more info, please

Event: IEEE Reliability Society Santa Clara monthly talk series
Dates: See below for upcoming events
Location: HP Cupertino CA Oak Room
About Event: We hold meetings once a month, last Wednesday of the month from 7-9pm. Ops A La Carte's managing partner Mike Silverman is Chair of the society chapter and Ops A La Carte's Fred Schenkelberg is Vice Chair.

Sept 29, 2010: Application of Accelerated Test Methods for CPV Systems, by Mark Spencer, SolFocus

Oct 27, 2010: HCPV Tracker Accelerated Reliability Tests, by Jon Elerath, SolFocus

For more info, please

We are offering FREE Product Assessments. Two to three senior partners of the Product Realization Group will assess your product realization process and provide you with a feedback on your strengths as well as your opportunities for improvement. This is based on our experience working with hundreds of different companies.

Email us via our Special Offers Contact Form

BELOW ARE NEWS HIGHLIGHTS FOR THE PAST QUARTER. MORE DETAILS FOR EACH ITEM CAN BE FOUND AT NEWS.

All presentations that we gave can be found on the technical download section of our website at Technical Papers.

September 1, 2010

Ops adds a new consultant to our company:

Stephen Haytt, PhD, CRE, CQE (San Jose, CA) has 15 years of experience between Manufacturing, New Product Introduction, and Development. All his degrees and background are in materials science and engineering, encompassing solid states physics, mechanics of materials, fatigue and fracture, metallurgy, corrosion of metals, ceramics, glass, and fiber optics, and plasma processing of materials - as in the deposition and etching of materials. Mr. Hyatt earned his doctorate degree from the University of Windsor (Ontario, Canada). Mr. Hyatt has extensive experience working with materials characterization techniques, as the different methods for electron excitation and analysis of the resulting spectrographs, transmission electron microscopy used for high spatial resolution materials analysis, and x-rays topography using synchrotron radiation. Stephen is a CRE and CQE. See the Ops Team for more details.

Also, two Ops consultants have relocated. Gerry Cohen moved from Los Angeles to South Carolina and Edward Smith moved from San Jose to Pennsylvania. Both consultants will begin servicing our clients in their new local areas.

August 20, 2010

Product Realization Group Symposium / Summer Barbeque

The symposium comprised of 4 sessions in 2 tracks - CleanTech, MedTech, NPI, and PRG Certification Overview.

We presented a paper on CleanTech Reliability

Attached also is the slide set describing the PRG Certification Course

Here are a few pictures from the event. Left is John Cooper of Ops A La Carte presenting on the PRG Certificate program. In the center is the Ops booth at the event. On the right is the tasty BBQ area.

August 17, 2010

Certified Reliability Engineer (CRE) Class Started

On Tuesday, August 17th, we began our 7 week CRE training class to help individuals pass the CRE Exam, sponsored by ASQ and IEEE. This was the largest class we have had in over 4 years. About 2/3 of the students are taking the class via webconference and the other 1/3 are attending live. We added a second instructor for the course. The head instructor provides instruction for all the students and also works with the live students on problem solving. The second instructor monitors for questions from the on-line students and works with them on problem solving.

August 1, 2010

Ops A La Carte Web Video

We completed a two minute video of our company, including our consulting, testing, and training options. The video link is in the "Message from the CEO" section of this newsletter as well as on the main page of our site.

July 14, 2010

ASQ Statistics Society talk on Reliability

Ops A La Carte's Mike Silverman was a panelist for the discussion topic on "Trends in Reliability". Also on the panel was Dr. Dave Trindade and Reza Azarkhail. Dr. John Flaig was the moderator.

July 7, 2010

In memory of Gregg Hobbs

Dr. Gregg Hobbs was truly an amazing man - an inventor, a mentor to thousands. He is credited for coining the terms HALT and HASS back in 1988 and since then has evangelized around the world and made HALT and HASS common terms in the world of engineering. Gregg was also a personal friend to Ops A La Carte founder Mike Silverman. Gregg and Mike gave joint seminars around the world together. Gregg passed away on July 7th and the industry will truly miss his ingenuity and his spirit.

June 15, 2010

Applied Reliability Symposium talk

We presented a paper on: From HALT Results To An Accurate Field MTBF Estimate

We also exhibited at this event. See picture below and left. Present were (left to right) Jim McLinn, Mike Silverman, and Doug Farel. Also, congratulations to Taeho Crispin, the winner of our "closest to the pin" putting contest with a putt 3" from the pin. See picture below and right.

June 8, 2010

Green Technology Reliability Seminar

Ops A La Carte's Mike Silverman gave a presentation along with several industry speakers, including Paul Parker from Solar Bridge and Nathan Reddy from Polycom. Event was sponsored by Ops A La Carte, DLI Labs, and DfR Solutions.

To view the slides for the event, go to: Green Reliability Seminar

To view the webinar stream, go to: Green Reliability Webinar Recording

June 4, 2010

Software Reliability Seminar

Ops A La Carte's Bob Mueller and Voler System's Walt Maclay gave a 2 hour presentation on Software Reliability.

To view the slides for the event, go to: Software Reliability Seminar

To view the webinar stream, go to: Software Reliability Webinar Recording (passcode: "swquality")

For more information on news, please visit our News Page or call (408) 654-0499.