Engineering out failure in emergency devices (five 9s reliability)

Reliability targets above 99.999% demand more than testing. They require constraint-driven design that builds robustness into the architecture so reliability is proven from the start.

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Meeting FDA’s 5-9 reliability requirement is one of the toughest challenges in drug delivery device development. Traditional tools like DFMEA and FTA are valuable - but without a robust underlying design, they often miss the mark.

The challenge comes down to three realities:
Reliability cannot be bolted on retroactively - it must be designed in from the start.
Testing our way to 99.999% is costly and time consuming. Possibility of re-test and delays doubles down on that.
Overly theoretical analyses can overwhelm teams with failure modes that don’t reflect real performance.

RD8’s engineering approach to achieving FDA 5-9 reliability

Our methodology focuses on analysing, understanding, and optimising the foundation of the design - embedding robustness into the device itself.

Constraint-Based Design Approach

We build strong mechanical architectures by identifying all interfaces, functions and load paths. This preserves critical quality attributes (CQAs) like dose accuracy, activation force, and injection time. By ensuring only intended paths and mechanical interactions occur, they can be optimized to perform under real-world variation. This eliminates redundant or potentially conflicting paths that could compromise reliability.

Tolerance-Aware Engineering

We map and model all core functions to expose sensitive transfer functions early. This allows tight specifications only where sensitivity cannot be designed out - easing manufacturability, improving scalability, and keeping CQAs within specification.

Is 5-9 reliability your next challenge?

We bring industry-leading expertise to your challenge - and we tailor a fit to your team. A short conversation will clarify whether RD8’s approach can help.

Let's explore fit

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Our outside-in approach brings new perspectives to traditional designs and typically results in radically new ideas. Get in contact with a RD8 Robust Design specialist to hear how we help you – either by our consulting or tolerance analysis software.
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