The Navy's Best Practices emphasize design principles and manufacturing processes that have been proven to reduce risk. However, surprisingly little has been published on such principles and processes. For example, design manuals seldom consider the likelihood of failure, whereas reliability textbooks usually deal with probability and statistics, not design principles. And more often than not, technical information is available but a management mandate for low risk is missing. Therefore, this and other guideline documents prepared by acknowledged experts and published by my office, augment the textbooks and manuals. They contain practical design and manufacturing information aimed at reducing risk and improving reliability and Fleet readiness.
As more and more Navy contractors acquire the new electronics packaging technology of leadless components on ceramic circuit boards, I question whether it is necessary that all make the same mistakes and wrong turns that have plagued our programs in the past. Among the players in this field lie the answers to most of these problems. I commissioned an ad hoc committee of the technology's leading experts and this document is the result of this work. The experience they convey herein should be of value to all organizations using leadless components and ceramic circuit board technology. I encourage readers to keep my office informed of developments in this rapidly emerging field which ought to be acknowledged in future revisions.
W. J. WILLOUGHBY, JR.
Director: Reliability, Maintainability and Quality Assurance Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Shipbuilding and Logistics)
