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Which Reliability Tool should I use?

Publisher’s note:  When a person has a hammer - everything looks like a nail.  Once a maintenance engineer learns techniques like Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) or Weibull analysis, it seems like they apply the technique to every potential area of failure they can find - whether RCM or Weibull analysis can add value or not.  Reliability tools must be used in the proper context to create the best result and the more tools we understand the better we can apply them.

We asked our favorite reliability guru, Mr. H. Paul Barringer to help us understand what reliability tools are available to us as maintenance professionals, when we can and should use them and what results we can expect if we apply them correctly.    -  Terrence O’Hanlon, CMRP, Publisher

Reliability Tools
Accelerated Testing Failure Rates

Poisson Distribution

Availability Fault Tree Analysis Probability Plots
Bathtub Curves FMEA QFD
Block Diagram Models FRACAS Systems Reliability
Capability HALT Reliability Audits
Configuration Control HASS RBDs
Contract for Reliability Life Cycle Cost Reliability-Centered Maintenance
Cost of Unreliability Life Units Reliability Engineering
Critical Items List Load-Strength Reliability Growth
Data Lognormal Reliability Policies
Decision Trees Maintainability Reliability Testing
Dependability Maintenance Simultaneous Testing
Design Review Maintenance Engineering Software Reliability
Effectiveness Mean Time Sudden Death Testing
ESS Mechanical Component Interactions TPM
Events/Incidents Monte Carlo Weibayes Estimates
Exponential Distribution Normal Distribution Weibull Analysis
Failure OEE Weibull Database
Failure Forecast Pareto Distribution

The details about these tools will be brief as books are written about each item.  Think of the presentations below as hors d’oeuvres (a little snack food or starters)-not the main course.

The most important reliability tool is a Pareto distribution based on money-specifically based on the cost of unreliability which directs attention to work on the most important money problem first.  No magic bullet exists for reliability issues-don’t waste your time looking for a single magic tool-none exist!

These definitions are written by H. Paul Barringer and are also posted on his web site at www.barringer1.com

Comments (1)

  • Great work.

    A lot of information in concentrated form for quick reference. Considering the amount of terms existing in modern maintenance literature it is a great help to find the tool you need.



    1) Posted 7:11 pm, 26 August 2010 by Dmitry

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