DEFINITION
An analytical review of competitors' product reliability and how they achieve their results.

SITUATION
You need to compare your product's performance and reliability with your competitors' products. While this should be an ongoing investigation, you may have a few specific questions to resolve before making major business decisions. You may need to know your product's relative position concerning the customer's perception of product reliability. When introducing a product into a new market, determining the current market players' reliability performance may lead to a competitive advantage. Or, if your competition is using reliability as a marketing lead, does your product match their performance or do they have the advantage?

OBJECTIVES
To determine and compare reliability related metrics for a set of specific products in a specific market.

VALUE TO YOUR ORGANIZATION
Gain a clear understanding of reliability strengths and weaknesses of competitors' products in your market.

RELIABILITY INTEGRATION
An example of Reliability Integration during the Competitive Analysis is as follows:

Competitive Analysis Is Used as Input to the Gap Analysis
Compare your product's reliability performance and goals to competitive products. Also, understanding the methods used may lead to insights on improving your reliability program. The results are used as input to the gap analysis to determine appropriate next steps to improve your organization's reliability program.

METHODOLOGY
Narrow the scope to well-defined metrics, objectives and competitor products. Determine available public domain information, interpret results and refine remaining required information. Depending on the scope and importance of the required information, we can use competitive analyses such as interviews, surveys, tear-down analyses, and comparative reliability testing analysis techniques.

CASE STUDIES/OPTIONS
The following case studies and options provide example approaches. We shall tailor our approach to meet your specific situation.

1) Competitive Tear-Down Analysis
A Semiconductor Manufacturing Equipment company was introducing a new product into a competitive market. The design team used many features of the competitor's products to create the initial design. Most of this analysis focused on how various design elements accomplished performance objectives. During the competitive tear-down analysis, we pointed out key features and hazards to the reliable performance of the competitive products.

2) Competitive HALT
For a Medical Device company, we helped conduct a competitive HALT on the various competing products in their market. HALT provided a rank ordering of products attempting to meet the same functional objectives. This testing also provided insights to critical design features intended to make a product more robust.

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