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The other day I got a question about the difference between ALT and HALT. There was some confusion probably because of the similar words in the acronym. ALT is Accelerated Life Test, and HALT is Highly Accelerated Life Test. [Read more…]
Failure mode and effects analysis, or FMEA, is a tool for the identification and prioritization of possible ways a product or process can fail. The intent is to use that information to make improvements to the product or process.
I think of FMEA (and related processes like FMECA, dFMEA, etc.) as structured brainstorms that provide a means to focus on what’s important. [Read more…]
The reliability goal is a key element across the entire product lifecycle. From product definition to determining warranty to judging performance, knowing the goal in clear terms sets the stage for a successful product.
Reliability in engineering terms is the probability of satisfactory product performance within a defined environment over a stated duration. [Read more…]
The term Bayesian Reliability Analysis is popping up more and more frequently in the reliability and risk world. Most veteran reliability engineers just roll their eyes at the term. Most new reliability engineers dread the thought of having to learn something else new, just when they are getting settled in the job. Regardless, it is a really good idea for all reliability engineers to have a basic understanding of Bayesian Reliability Analysis.
This series explains Bayesian Reliability Analysis and justifies [Read more…]
There a few different ways to sample a lot (or group) of material to determine if it has an acceptably low failure rate (or proportion that are considered ‘bad’). The following is an example of the sequential sampling method, which happens to be rather efficient by generally using the fewest samples for the same risk protection. [Read more…]
First the Question:
Fred,
Early in the FMEA lecture you worked through a homework problem and you mentioned that a cdf may not be linear (hence the reason for giving three points in a reliability goal). Can you give an example of two of things you’ve seen with non-linear cdf’s? I’ve only done limited reliability testing at this point, but everything I’ve done and every example I’ve ever seen have had linear cdf’s.
Thanks,
John
And, my response: [Read more…]
In a recent LinkedIn post a fellow Reliability Engineer is asking the Reliability Engineering community in how to prepare for the CRE exam. Rapidly everyone is recommending books, study groups, and training courses. My recommendation to anyone taking the CRE exam is to be very familiar with your approved ASQ calculator. Here is a link that I found in [Read more…]
EAM & CMMS Systems, 10 times more data in the system or 10 time less done with the data available?.
A nice short article about the problem of data, data, too much data.
The CRE_Errata_9-26-2011_revised document is in pdf format and contains a couple of typos noted by John Cooper in the Indiana Council CRE prep materials – he has taught the CRE Prep course for Ops A La Carte and is a pretty good teacher and a CRE. [Read more…]
Recently a colleague sent me a published copy of the first CRE exam. Scanning through the document suggests that a few things have changed and many have not changed at all. I often comment my enjoyment of the reliability engineering profession, as it doesn’t change too fast and even I can keep up. [Read more…]
A reliability block diagram (RBD) for a product that has no redundancy or complex use profile is often very simple. A series system (reliability wise) implies that any one part or element of the product that fails the entire product fails. One might ask if an RBD is even necessary. [Read more…]
This is provided courtesy of Amanda at
Egerton Consulting Ltd
Visit our website at www.egertonconsulting.co.uk
<They have a great newsletter and worth subscribing. Fred> [Read more…]
Let’s say we have a product that most often fails for one major component. Let’s say a fan (it could be anything, and while I don’t have anything against fans, it’s easy to picture).
Ok, this fan has a data sheet with the classic reliability claim of 50,000 hours MTBF. For those that know about my disdain for MTBF (www.nomtbf.com) rest assured I’m not going to get into it here. The basic approach for estimating the number of failure during any [Read more…]
A part of the preparation for the ASQ CRE is experience and education. These, in my simple way of thinking, means applying what you have learned to solve problems and provide value. Reliability engineering is about two questions: [Read more…]
Hi Fred,
I would take this opportunity to ask the reliability guru about bathtub curve for hardware reliability. I am running 27 units for life test for a million cycles around 555 hours. I have one failure at 300,000 cycles, and the rest of the units are running fine. Would this be classified as an early life failure? Also, how do I make a determination of when the early life failure time interval ends and constant failure rate starts in this example based on failure rate of remaining units? Thanks. [Read more…]