Patrick O'Connor received his engineering training at the Royal Air Force Technical College. He served for 16 years in the RAF Engineer Branch, including tours on aircraft maintenance and in the Reliability and Maintainability office of the Ministry of Defence (Air). He joined British Aerospace Dynamics in 1975, and was appointed Reliability Manager in 1980. In March 1993 he joined British Rail Research as Reliability Manager.

Since 1995 he has worked as an independent consultant on engineering management, reliability, quality and safety.

Mr. O'Connor is the author of "Practical Reliability Engineering", published by John Wiley (4th. edition 2002). He is also the author of the chapter on reliability and quality engineering in the Academic Press Encyclopaedia of Physical Science and Technology, and until 1999 was the UK editor of the Wiley journal "Quality and Reliability Engineering International". He is editor of the Wiley book series in quality and reliability engineering.

He has written many papers and articles on quality and reliability engineering and management, and he lectures at universities and other venues on these subjects. In 1984 he won the Allen Chop Award, presented by the American Society for Quality, for his contribution to reliability science and technology.

He is the author of the book "The Practice of Engineering Management", which describes the modern approaches to managing engineering, based upon the teaching of Peter Drucker. The book was published by John Wiley in 1994.

He is the author of Test Engineering (J. Wiley 2001).

address: 62 Whitney Drive, Stevenage, Herts SG1 4BJ, UK.

tel: ++44 (0)1438 313048 fax: ++44 (0)1438 223443

e-mail: pat@pat-oconnor.co.uk

homepage: http://www.pat-oconnor.co.uk

BIRTH & CITIZENSHIP

7 March 1937. UK citizen.

EDUCATION

Lodge School, Barbados, and Royal Air Force Technical College, Henlow.

QUALIFICATIONS AND MEMBERSHIPS

HND (Mech Eng) 1959.

CEng, MIMechE, MRAes.

Member of IEEE (USA).

EXPERIENCE

1959-1976: RAF Engineer Branch. Work included:

Aircraft and system maintenance: fighter aircraft, main base ground facilities.

R&D: design and manufacture of experimental equipment for RAF Institute of Aviation Medicine, Farnborough.

Reliability and Maintainability office of the Ministry of Defence Operational Requirements (Air). Developed R&M policies, conducted research and studies, and worked on R&M on projects such as Tornado, Hawk, Nimrod, IFF.

1975-1993: British Aerospace (Dynamics). Work included:

Quality engineer: monitoring and reporting on production quality and in-service reliability of Rapier air defence system.

Product Assurance Manager, Tornado ATE sub-system.

Manager, Reliability and Maintainability Engineering for last 13 years. Set up and managed R&M engineering department. Managed R&M programmes on Rapier evolution, anti-tank missiles, ATE, etc. Managed applied research on reliability (electronic components, system analysis methods, test methods, etc.). Developed R&M procedures and training. Worked with MoD on development of Def Stan 00-40 and 00-41. Planned ASRAAM R&M programme.

1993-1995: British Rail Research, Reliability Manager.

Set up R&M team. Developed policies, procedures and training. Managed R&M programmes (Eurostar, diesel locomotives, signalling systems, etc.). Managed research. Contributed to development of UK and European railway R&M and safety standards.

PRESENT POSITION

Consultant in engineering management, quality, reliability, and safety engineering.

COMPUTING SKILLS

WP (Word6), spreadsheet (EXCEL), Powerpoint.

AUTHORSHIP, ETC...

Books:

Practical Reliability Engineering (J. Wiley, 1st edition 1981, 4th. edition 2002).

Reliability Engineering (Hemisphere, 1988) (Editor).

The Practice of Engineering Management (J. Wiley, 1994).

Test Engineering (J. Wiley 2001).

Editorial:

UK Editor of "Quality and Reliability Engineering International" (J. Wiley) (to 1999).

Editor of J. Wiley series in Quality and Reliability Engineering

Encyclopaedia Chapter:

Quality and Reliability Engineering. Encylopaedia of Physical Science and Technology (Academic Press).

Papers:

Reliability Past, Present and Future. IEEE Trans Reliability, 2001.

Standards in reliability and safety engineeringReliability Engineering and System Safety (1998).

ISO9000: help or hoax? Quality World (1991)

Quantifying uncertainty in reliability and safety studies. Society of Reliability Engineers symposium, Arnhem, 1993 (keynote paper)

Quality and reliability: illusions and realities. Quality and Reliability Engineering International, vol. 9 163-168 (1993).

Statistics in quality and reliability: lessons from the past and future opportunities. Reliability Engineering and System Safety, vol. 34 23-33 (1991).

Reliability prediction: help or hoax? Solid State Technology (August 1990).

Reliability prediction: state of the art review. IEE Proc. vol. 133 Part A no. 4 (1986). (With L.N. Harris).

Effectiveness of formal reliability programmes. Quality and Reliability Engineering International, vol. 1 19-22 (1985).

Microelectronic systems reliability prediction. IEEE Trans Reliab. (USA) (April 1983).

Royal Air Force aero-engine logistics model. NATO conference on organisation of logistics systems, Luxembourg, 1972. (With J. Hough).

AWARDS

Allen Chop Award for contribution to reliability science and technology (American Society for Quality Control, 1984).

LECTURESHIPS, ETC...

Visiting lecturer at university of Lancaster (MSc) on quality and reliability engineering and management.

Speaker, chairman and panelist at various conferences.

Presenter of courses on quality and reliability engineering and management for companies, etc...