Geographical Methods for Modeling and Understanding Product Usage and Operating Environment

By Graham S. Duthie

Knowledge of the expected operating environment of a product is needed so that credible product validation tests can be created to confirm that new product designs will meet expected field life needs. During the course of product durability test development, geographical methods and geographic information systems ( GIS) can be used to enable understanding of the whole range of product operating locations, and both the customers and en­vironments associated with those locations.

Two examples of how existing data can be analyzed using geographical methods to understand product usage in the presence of a range of environ­mental operating conditions are presented. The first example discusses the utilization of product warranty return information to determine potential worst case operating locations that later can lead to discovery of the specific conditions that may cause reduced product durability.

The second example describes a weighted environmental factor model that was developed to aid in the understanding of automotive air conditioning system operating conditions in the United States. The weighted model method is presented as an example of how the range of operat­ing conditions can be explored using available, geo­graphically referenced data.