Opinion ID: 211774
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: EMD's General Design and Testing Procedures

Text: 3 EMD is a division of General Motors Corporation focused on the design and production of locomotives. As part of that business, EMD designs and manufactures component parts for locomotive engines, including the two kinds of bearings at issue in this case. Both types of bearings are embedded in turbochargers, which are in turn embedded in the engines of locomotives that EMD sells. 4 After developing a new bearing, EMD typically initiates a two-phase testing program before releasing the new bearing for commercial production. In the first phase, termed Reliability Growth Testing, EMD tests its new bearings indoors at its engineering facilities on multiple unit turbocharger cells (in-house program). The purpose of the in-house program is to ascertain the durability and reliability of the new bearings. 5 Upon completion of the in-house program, EMD commences the second phase of testing, termed Reliability Verification Testing (field program). This testing occurs outdoors under actual use conditions. That is, after EMD integrates the new bearings into existing orders, the customer railroads use the new bearings in their routine operations. The purpose of this second phase is to verify durability. 6 During the field program, EMD does not engage in ongoing monitoring or periodic inspections of its new bearings because they are buried inside turbochargers and cannot readily be examined by visual inspection. Rather, EMD inspects the new bearings only if a particular turbocharger fails and is sent back to EMD. In such case, EMD disassembles the failed turbocharger to assess whether the failure was caused by the new bearings or some other part. 7