Historically, the reliability growth process has been thought of, and treated as, a reactive approach to growing reliability based on failures "discovered" during testing or, most unfortunately, once a system/product has been delivered to a customer. As a result, many reliability growth models are predicated on starting the reliability growth process at test time "zero", with some initial level of reliability (usually in the context of a time-based measure such as Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF)). Time "zero" represents the start of testing, and the initial reliability of the test item is based on its inherent design. The problem with this approach, still predominant today, is that it ignores opportunities to grow reliability during the design of a system or product, i.e., opportunities to go into reliability growth testing with a higher initial inherent reliability at time zero. In addition to the traditional approaches to reliability growth during test, this book explores the activities and opportunities that can be leveraged to promote and achieve reliability growth during the design phase of the overall system life cycle. The ability to do so as part of an integrated, proactive design environment has significant implications for developing and delivering reliable items quickly, on time and within budget. This book offers new definitions of how failures can be characterized, and how those new definitions can be used to develop metrics that will quantify how effective a Design for Reliability (DFR) process is in (1) identifying failure modes and (2) mitigating their root failure causes. Reliability growth can only occur in the presence of both elements.

This book shows how to build in, evaluate, and demonstrate reliability and availability of components, equipment, systems. It presents the state-of-the-art of reliability engineering, both in theory and practice, and is based on the author's more than 30 years experience in this field, half in industry and half as Professor of Reliability Engineering at the ETH, Zurich. The structure of the book allows rapid access to practical results. This final edition extend and replace all previous editions. New are, in particular, a strategy to mitigate incomplete coverage, a comprehensive introduction to human reliability with design guidelines and new models, and a refinement of reliability allocation, design guidelines for maintainability, and concepts related to regenerative stochastic processes. The set of problems for homework has been extended. Methods & tools are given in a way that they can be tailored to cover different reliability requirement levels and be used for safety analysis. Because of the Appendices A6 - A8, the book is also self contained from a mathematical point of view, and can be used as a text book or as a desktop reference, with a large number of tables (60), figures (190), and examples (210 of which 70 as problems for homework) to support the practical aspects.

A high percentage of defense systems fail to meet their reliability requirements. This is a serious problem for the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), as well as the nation. Those systems are not only less likely to successfully carry out their intended missions, but they also could endanger the lives of the operators. Furthermore, reliability failures discovered after deployment can result in costly and strategic delays and the need for expensive redesign, which often limits the tactical situations in which the system can be used. Finally, systems that fail to meet their reliability requirements are much more likely to need additional scheduled and unscheduled maintenance and to need more spare parts and possibly replacement systems, all of which can substantially increase the life-cycle costs of a system. Beginning in 2008, DOD undertook a concerted effort to raise the priority of reliability through greater use of design for reliability techniques, reliability growth testing, and formal reliability growth modeling, by both the contractors and DOD units. To this end, handbooks, guidances, and formal memoranda were revised or newly issued to reduce the frequency of reliability deficiencies for defense systems in operational testing and the effects of those deficiencies. "Reliability Growth" evaluates these recent changes and, more generally, assesses how current DOD principles and practices could be modified to increase the likelihood that defense systems will satisfy their reliability requirements. This report examines changes to the reliability requirements for proposed systems; defines modern design and testing for reliability; discusses the contractor's role in reliability testing; and summarizes the current state of formal reliability growth modeling. The recommendations of "Reliability Growth" will improve the reliability of defense systems and protect the health of the valuable personnel who operate them.

Exploring the world of oil well drilling reveals an interesting mix of technology, well completion, and engineering prowess. Drilling oil wells, a cornerstone of global energy production, involves a complex series of processes designed to extract hydrocarbons from deep within the Earth’s crust. This book provides a comprehensive overview of the current state of the art in drilling, exploring topics such as nanotechnology use in advanced oil well drilling, oil well completion strategy, drilling fluid chemistry, positive displacement motor design and performance, sonic drilling, and future drilling technology and development.

The theme for the November 2017 conference was Striving for 100% Success Rate. Papers focus on the tools and techniques needed for maximizing the success rate in every aspect of the electronic device failure analysis process.

This book integrates key tools and processes into a comprehensive program for developing more robust and reliable technology-based products. Drawing on their extensive product development experience, the authors present a complete process for ensuring product performance throughout the entire lifecycle, from understanding customers’ needs through manufacturing and post-launch support. The authors begin by presenting broad insights and high-level strategies for improving product quality. Next, they demonstrate how to implement robustness and reliability strategies that complement existing governance and decision processes. A section on tools and methods shows how to institutionalize best practices and apply them consistently. Finally, they tie strategies, decisions, and methods together through a case study project. Product developers will learn how to Understand critical drivers of value in technology products, including reliability and durability Implement a process model and roadmap for improving reliability and robustness Increase robustness early in development, leading to shorter cycle times in later phases Improve the stability of production performance under stress conditions Assess both organizational and process capabilities for delivering robust and reliable products Understand and manage customer-driven requirements Use tools including descriptive and inferential statistics and DOE-based empirical models Managers will understand expectations for Design concepts supported by rigorous analyses of alternatives Products and processes delivering higher value to customers Products with higher reliability and longer useful lives Product processes with lower costs and higher capabilities Development projects having shorter, more predictable cycle times Readers are introduced to many thought leaders whose writings can be sources of further learning. This book is a valuable resource for anyone responsible for delivering reliable, profitable technology products, including general managers, program managers, engineers, scientists, and reliability and quality professionals.

Reliability of Software Intensive Systems

Next Generation HALT and HASS presents a major paradigm shift from reliability prediction-based methods to discovery of electronic systems reliability risks. This is achieved by integrating highly accelerated life test (HALT) and highly accelerated stress screen (HASS) into a physics-of-failure-based robust product and process development methodology. The new methodologies challenge misleading and sometimes costly mis-application of probabilistic failure prediction methods (FPM) and provide a new deterministic map for reliability development. The authors clearly explain the new approach with a logical progression of problem statement and solutions. The book helps engineers employ HALT and HASS by illustrating why the misleading assumptions used for FPM are invalid. Next, the application of HALT and HASS empirical discovery methods to quickly find unreliable elements in electronics systems gives readers practical insight to the techniques. The physics of HALT and HASS methodologies are highlighted, illustrating how they uncover and isolate software failures due to hardware-software interactions in digital systems. The use of empirical operational stress limits for the development of future tools and reliability discriminators is described. Key features: * Provides a clear basis for moving from statistical reliability prediction models to practical methods of insuring and improving reliability. * Challenges existing failure prediction methodologies by highlighting their limitations using real field data. * Explains a practical approach to why and how HALT and HASS are applied to electronics and electromechanical systems. * Presents opportunities to develop reliability test discriminators for prognostics using empirical stress limits. * Guides engineers and managers on the benefits of the deterministic and more efficient methods of HALT and HASS. * Integrates the empirical limit discovery methods of HALT and HASS into a physics of failure based robust product and process development process.