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The Reliability Engineering Glossary

Reliability engineering and related fields use a vocabulary unique to our field of endeavor. For example, the term ‘reliability’ has the meaning of ‘trustworthy’ in everyday English use. For us, ‘reliability’ has a precise engineering definition.

Glossary description and plans

This glossary is meant to help us learn the language of reliability engineering. The category of ‘Terms’ is like a dictionary, including terms and their definitions as used by engineers. The category of ‘Methods’ is a listing of the techniques, tools, approaches, or concepts that may be found within a reliability plan. In the near future, we expect to expand the ‘Methods’ pages to include guidelines on use or application, examples, and additional references.

We also plan to expand the glossary to include formulas and failure mechanisms. Please let us know if there is another list of terms that should be added if you do not find a term that should be included or if you would like to recommend a change to an existing entry.

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Method Categories

  • n

  • A way to organize field return data that captures the time-to-failure and censored data. A Nevada charts uses sales and returns and organizes the count of returns by which month or week of sales it originated and when the return was reported or arrived. This convenient ongoing chart enables(...) Read More

  • o

  • The repetitive sampling of items from production used for a set of experiments to detect changes that impact time-to-failure performance. Read More

  • p

  • A graphical display of count, frequency or percentages of failure modes, mechanisms, or sources of variation ordered from highest to lowest contribution to overall product or system issues. A Pareto analysis provides an simple method for an organization to identify the costliest or most often(...) Read More
  • The analysis of parts and components to predict the rate at which an item fails. In parts count prediction, the expected or known failure rates for all components within an item are tallied to estimate the item’s overall failure rate. (However, this method is proven to be very inaccurate at(...) Read More
  • A framework based on six macro-environmental factors for strategic analysis or market research. The factors are political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental. The analysis uses descriptions of factors that may bound what is feasible when establishing reliability-related(...) Read More
  • An analysis technique that is a general-purpose graphical and mathematical tool for describing relationships between conditions and events. Petri net modeling provides a method to model complex repairable systems. Read More
  • The approach for the design and development of a reliable product to prevent failure. The approach is based on knowledge of root causes of failure mechanisms using failure-mechanism-based models or simulation tools. In PoF, a set of failure-mechanism-specific models useful when designing for(...) Read More
  • Techniques used to estimate the condition of in-service equipment to determine when to perform maintenance, providing a means to optimize preventative maintenance and equipment use while avoiding unwanted downtime. Read More
  • All actions performed in an attempt to retain an item in a specified condition by providing systematic inspection, detection, and prevention of incipient failures. Preventive maintenance provides a means to avoid unwanted downtime or equipment failures. Read More
  • A statistical estimate that describes the process’s ability to fulfill the characteristic’s requirements with a stable, in-control process. It is a measure of an item’s inherent variability as a product of the processes involved and provides a means to assess whether the output of a process is(...) Read More
  • A process to review each stage of the product development process work instructions for integration of appropriate reliability methods and tasks, including who implements the method or task and how and when it is done. Read More
  • Testing performed to measure any degradation in the reliability of a product over the course of production or to assure that products being delivered meet customer’s reliability requirements and/or expectations. Read More
  • An informal or formal process within an organization to encourage, fund, or otherwise support ongoing education for employees, vendors, or customers. Such professional development provides a means to deploy or add reliability-related educational content or classes using an existing company system. Read More

  • r

  • A statistical study of the relationship between two or more variables. Regression analysis is a process used to define the mathematical relationship or model between two or more variables. When analyzing time-to-failure data, this is commonly called Weibull analysis in which one may or may not(...) Read More
  • The process of breaking down system reliability and availability objectives to subsystems and major components. Reliability allocation specifies clearly stated reliability goals for all elements of an item. This information is useful when seeking suitable elements (parts or subsystems). It(...) Read More
  • A drawing with blocks for each element of a system and connecting lines representing the series, parallel, and more complex relationships between elements. Statistically, an RBD contains the probability of success (reliability) information for each block. For a single point in time (e.g., the(...) Read More
  • A logical discipline for developing a scheduled-maintenance program that will realize the inherent reliability levels of complex equipment at minimum cost. RCM provides a framework to organize maintenance activities within an organization. Read More
  • The process of creating a statement that includes the function(s), environment and use conditions, probability of survival, and duration for an item. It is the reliability performance objective for the item under consideration. It provides a detailed statement that is measurable to communicate(...) Read More
  • The improvement in a reliability parameter caused by the successful correction of deficiencies in item design or manufacture. It entails the systematic planning for reliability achievement as a function of time and other resources and controlling the ongoing rate of achievement by reallocation(...) Read More
  • An analysis, based on the reliability maturity matrix, used to ascertain the actual organizational culture around reliability-related decisions. Read More

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