In its rules for 8D reports, Hella, a German supplier of lighting and electronics for cars, sets out how its own suppliers must answer a complaint about a defective part. The 8D report first asks for Sofortmaßnahmen, immediate measures. These apply to the part under complaint, they are temporary, and the supplier must check their effectiveness constantly. Corrective measures come next. They must ensure that a defect does not occur a second time, and the long-term measures should stop the problem permanently and reliably. A final check confirms that the measures were carried out for good. The German verb in Hella’s rule is abstellen, to remove a defect, and here it must be removed dauerhaft und verlässlich, permanently and reliably.
The Analysis of Possible Failures
In the car and aerospace industries, and often elsewhere, a new product or process goes through an FMEA, a Fehlermöglichkeits- und Einflussanalyse, an analysis of possible failures and their effects. A team from different departments lists what could fail, where and how. For each possible failure it describes the consequences and identifies the causes. The aim is to avoid failures from the start rather than to find and correct them later. A general German standard for the method appeared in 1980 as DIN 25448. In 1996 the German Association of the Automotive Industry, the VDA, published an improved version. Since 2019 the car industry has used a common handbook of the VDA and its American counterpart, the AIAG.
The Wheel That Never Came Back
At the end of 1991 the board of the Deutsche Bundesbahn decided to test rubber-sprung wheels under seven dining cars of the ICE high-speed train. Passengers had complained about rattling dishes and wandernde Gläser, wandering glasses. In October 1992 the board was asked to introduce the new wheels across the whole ICE fleet. On 3 June 1998, near Eschede on the line from Hanover to Hamburg, the tire of one of these wheels broke at about 200 kilometers per hour. Metal fatigue set off a chain of events, and 101 people died. Three days later the railway took all ICE 1 trains out of service and ran them again only after ultrasound checks of every wheel. The Federal Railway Authority ordered all of about 2,880 rubber-sprung wheel sets replaced. Two railway officials and an engineer of the tire manufacturer were charged with not testing the wheels enough. German Wikipedia notes that Deutsche Bahn has not reintroduced the rubber-sprung wheels, trotz ihrer technischen Vorteile, despite their technical advantages.
The Moose Test
On 21 October 1997 the new Mercedes A-Class tipped onto its side in an evasive maneuver test by the Swedish magazine Teknikens Värld. Daimler-Benz stopped sales, and production stopped on 11 November 1997. The company then fitted the electronic stability program ESP as standard equipment. It also retrofitted every car already built with ESP and a modified chassis.
The vocabulary of reliability
Zuverlässig — reliable, from sich verlassen auf, to rely upon. The same word is used of a machine and of a person, and it is among the strongest compliments in German for either.
Es läuft — it runs. Said of a machine, a process or a business, and it means everything is as it should be.
Da kann nichts passieren — nothing can happen there. The German assurance, and it is stated absolutely.
Maintenance
Wartung. German equipment comes with a maintenance schedule, and service contracts covering it are normal for machinery, lifts, heating systems and vehicles. Reliability is not treated as a property of the object. It is treated as something maintained.
The rating plate
Das Typenschild. German products carry a rating plate: manufacturer, model, serial number, technical values, standards met. The object identifies itself, permanently, so that it can be traced back long after the paperwork is gone.
The recall
Die Rückrufaktion. German recalls are published by the Federal Motor Transport Authority and by the market surveillance system for consumer products, with the defect named. The failure becomes a public record attached to the manufacturer.
Endurance testing
Dauerprüfung. German manufacturers run endurance testing — doors opened and closed hundreds of thousands of times, engines run for thousands of hours, switches cycled to failure. The failure point is found deliberately, in a laboratory, before a customer finds it.
Product liability
Produkthaftung. German product liability law makes a manufacturer liable for damage caused by a defective product regardless of fault. The obligation runs to the product itself, not to the care taken in making it.