Defect level, optimum

Measures to minimize safety problems must be initiated at the start of the life cycle of any product, but too often determinations of criticality are left to production or quality control personnel who may have an incomplete knowledge of which items are safety critical (Hammer, 1980). Any potential non-conformity that occurs with a severity sufficient to cause a product or service not to satisfy intended normal or reasonably foreseeable usage requirements is termed a defect (Kutz, 1986). The optimum defect level will vary according to the application, where the more severe the consequences of failure the higher the quality of conformance needs to be. 

The methods for finding the optimum collector positions for the individual collector will use the author s minimum shadow area strategy. At the higher level of overall solar farm optimization, the herding optimizer algorithms will also be used to identify individual units that might be defective or to correct their position, starting with the collector that is furthest from the optimum. 

Statistically designed experimentation is used to obtain maximum information at a minimum cost of time and resources. Conclusions drawn from experiments determine the best course of action in establishing a process. Therefore, controllable variables of the process can be set at optimum levels in an objective manner — supported by data to produce the desired outcome. Once the process is stable, it should be monitored using statistical process control (SPC). To achieve best-in-class performance, it is vital to monitor the process to prevent defect occurrences. 

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