CRE (ASQ) case studies
CRE · Put your knowledge to work in context.
The Certified Reliability Engineer (CRE) is a professional certification offered by ASQ for practitioners who specialize in improving the reliability, maintainability, and safety of products, systems, and processes. According to ASQ, a CRE focuses on identifying potential failures, optimizing performance, and ensuring compliance with quality and reliability standards. The credential is aimed at engineers whose work touches design, test, and sustainment of products and systems, and ASQ notes that experience used to qualify for its quality engineer, quality auditor, software quality engineer, or quality manager certifications often applies toward CRE eligibility. The exam is multiple choice and measures comprehension of the CRE Body of Knowledge; ASQ publishes the Body of Knowledge, a references list, and a fact sheet to guide preparation. The CRE case studies are 5 cases and about 2,757 words.
1Warranty Trend on a Redesigned Power Supply
A 14-month-old production line builds a 300 W switching power supply. Field returns are tracked by ship month.
661 words, about 3 min2RCM Scope Decision for a Boiler Feedwater System
A plant operates three boiler feedwater pump trains (two running, one standby) feeding a continuous process. Historical records over four years show: pump seal leaks (11 events, detected by operator rounds, average 3 days to repair), motor bearing degradation (4 events, vibration-monitored, planned replacement), and one catastrophic coupling failure that caused a 9-hour unplanned outage.
576 words, about 3 min3Availability Target for a Redundant Server Cluster
A service must meet 99.9% availability (about 8.76 hours downtime per year). The architecture is two active servers behind a load balancer, each with MTBF estimated at 4,000 hours from vendor data.
471 words, about 2 min4FMEA on an Infusion Pump Controller
A cross-functional team is doing a design FMEA on an infusion pump controller. The team scores a software failure that could cause over-infusion as severity 10, occurrence 4, and detection 6.
513 words, about 3 min5Accelerated Life Test Plan Under Schedule Pressure
A team must demonstrate a 5,000-hour B10 life for a new bearing in a gearbox. A full-life test at use conditions would take too long, so the team proposes an accelerated test at elevated load and temperature.
536 words, about 3 min