Patrick O'Connor, Stevenage, UK
Since 1995 Patrick O'Connor has worked as an independent consultant on engineering management, reliability, quality and safety. He received his engineering training at the Royal Air Force Technical College and 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 was appointed Reliability Manager of British Aerospace Dynamics in 1980 and joined British Rail Research as Reliability Manager in 1993. 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 has written many papers and articles on quality and reliability engineering and management, and he lectures at universities and other venues on these subjects. He is editor of the Wiley book series in quality and reliability engineering.

Andre Kleyner, Delphi Electronics & Safety, USA
Andre Kleyner has over 25 years of engineering, research, consulting, and managerial experience specializing in reliability of electronic and mechanical systems designed to operate in severe environments. He received the doctorate in Mechanical Engineering from University of Maryland, and Master of Business Administration from Ball State University. Dr. Kleyner is a Global Reliability Engineering Leader with Delphi Electronics & Safety, and an adjunct professor at Purdue University. Andre developed and taught many training courses for reliability, quality, and design professionals. He also holds several US and foreign patents and authored professional publications on reliability, quality, and other engineering topics. Andre has is a senior member of American Society for Quality, Certified Reliability and Quality Engineer and Six-sigma black belt. He holds several US and foreign patents and hs authored many papers on the topics of warranty, lifecycle cost, reliability, and statistics. His areas of expertise are: Design for Reliability (DfR); Reliability of Electronic and Mechanical Systems; Product Test and Validation Planning; Physics of Failure; Warranty Management; Reliability Prediction and Warranty Forecasting; Weibull Analysis; Monte Carlo Simulation; Systems Engineering; Dependability analysis, and testing of energy systems for power electronics and electric/hybrid vehicles, and Training and consulting in these areas.

Preface to the First Edition.

Preface to the Second Edition.

Preface to the Third Edition.

Preface to Third Edition Revised.

Preface to Fourth Edition.

Preface to Fifth Edition.

Acknowledgements.

Notation and Definitions.

1 Introduction to Reliability Engineering.

What is Reliability Engineering?

Why Teach Reliability Engineering?

Why do Engineering Products Fail?

Probabilistic Reliability.

Repairable and Non-repairable Items.

The Pattern of Failures with Time (Non-repairable Items).

The Pattern of Failures with Time (Repairable Items).

The Development of Reliability Engineering.

Courses, Conferences and Literature.

Organizations Involved in Reliability Work.

Reliability as an Effectiveness Parameter.

Reliability Programme Activities.

Reliability Economics and Management.

2 Reliability Mathematics.

Introduction.

Variation.

Probability Concepts.

Rules of Probability.

Continuous Variation.

Continuous Distribution Functions.

Summary of Continuous Statistical Distributions.

Variation in Engineering.

Conclusions.

Discrete variation.

Statistical Confidence.

Statistical Hypothesis Testing.

Non-parametric Inferential Methods.

Goodness of Fit.

Series of Events (Point Processes).

Computer Software for Statistics.

Practical Conclusions.

3 Life Data Analysis and Probability Plotting.

Introduction.

Life Data Classification.

Ranking of Data.

Weibull Distribution.

Computerized Data Analysis and Probability Plotting.

Confidence Bounds for Life Data Analysis.

Choosing the Best Distribution and Assessing the Results.

4 Monte Carlo Simulation.

Introduction.

Monte Carlo Simulation Basics.

Additional Statistical Distributions.

Sampling a Statistical Distribution.

Basic Steps for Performing a Monte Carlo Simulation.

Monte Carlo Method Summary.

5 Load-strength Interference.

Introduction.

Distributed Load and Strength.

Analysis of Load-strength Interference.

Effect of Safety Margin and Loading Roughness on Reliability (Multiple Load Applications).

Practical Aspects.

6 Reliability Prediction and Modelling.

Introduction.

Fundamental Limitations of Reliability Prediction.

Standards Based Reliability Prediction

Other Methods for Reliability Predictions.

Practical Aspects.

Systems Reliability Models.

Availability of Repairable Systems.

Modular Design.

Block Diagram Analysis.

Fault Tree Analysis (FTA).

State-space Analysis (Markov Analysis).

Petri Nets.

Reliability Apportionment.

7 Design for Reliability.

Introduction.

Design for reliability Process.

Identify.

Design.

Analyse.

Verify.

Validate.

Control.

Assessing the DfR Capability of an Organization.

8 Reliability of Mechanical Components and Systems.

Introduction.

Mechanical Stress, Strength and Fracture.

Fatigue.

Creep.

Wear.

Corrosion.

Vibration and Shock.

Temperature Effects.

Materials.

Components.

Processes.

9 Electronic Systems Reliability.

Introduction.

Reliability of Electronic Components.

Component Types and Failure Mechanisms.

Summary of Device Failure Modes.

Circuit and System Aspects.

Electronic System Reliability Prediction.

Reliability in Electronic System Design.

Parameter Variation and Tolerances.

Design for Production, Test and Maintenance.

10 Software Reliability.

Introduction.

Software in Engineering Systems.

Software Errors.

Preventing Errors.

Software Structure and Modularity.

Programming Style.

Fault Tolerance.

Redundancy/Diversity.

Languages.

Data Reliability.

Software Checking.

Software Testing.

Error Reporting.

Software Reliability Prediction and Measurement.

Hardware/Software Interfaces.

11 Design of Experiments and Analysis of Variance.

Introduction.

Statistical Design of Experiments and Analysis of Variance.

Randomizing the Data.

Engineering Interpretation of Results.

The Taguchi Method.

12 Reliability Testing.

Introduction.

Planning Reliability Testing.

Test Environments.

Testing for Reliability and Durability: Accelerated Test

Test Planning

Failure Reporting, Analysis and Corrective Action Systems (FRACAS).

13 Analysing Reliability Data.

Introduction.

Pareto Analysis.

Accelerated Test Data Analysis.

Acceleration Factor.

Acceleration Models.

Field-Test Relationship.

Statistical Analysis of Accelerated Test Data.

Reliability Analysis of Repairable Systems.

CUSUM Charts.

Exploratory Data Analysis and Proportional Hazards Modelling.

Field and Warranty Data Analysis.

14 Reliability Demonstration and Growth.

Introduction.

Reliability Metrics.

Test to Success (Test Run Method).

Test to Failure Method.

Extended Life Test.

Continuous Testing.

Degradation Analysis.

Combining Results Using Bayesian Statistics.

Non-Parametric Methods.

Reliability Demonstration Software.

Practical Aspects of Reliability Demonstration.

Standard Methods for Repairable Equipment.

Reliability Growth Monitoring.

Making Reliability Grow.

15 Reliability in Manufacture.

Introduction.

Control of Production Variability.

Control of Human Variation.

Acceptance Sampling.

Improving the Process.

Quality Control in Electronics Production.

Stress Screening.

Production Failure Reporting Analysis and Corrective Action System (FRACAS).

16 Maintainability, Maintenance and Availability.

Introduction.

Availability Measures.

Maintenance Time Distributions.

Preventive Maintenance Strategy.

FMECA and FTA in Maintenance Planning.

Maintenance Schedules.

Technology Aspects.

Calibration.

Maintainability Prediction.

Maintainability Demonstration.

Design for Maintainability.

Integrated Logistic Support.

17 Reliability Management.

Corporate Policy for Reliability.

Integrated Reliability Programmes.

Reliability and Costs.

Safety and Product Liability.

Standards for Reliability, Quality and Safety.

Specifying Reliability.

Contracting for Reliability Achievement.

Managing Lower-Level Suppliers.

The Reliability Manual.

The Project Reliability Plan.

Use of External Services.

Customer Management of Reliability.

Selecting and Training for Reliability.

Organization for Reliability

Reliability Capability and Maturity of an Organization

Managing Production Quality.

Quality Management Approaches.

Choosing the Methods: Strategy and Tactics.

Appendix 1 The Standard Cumulative Normal Distribution Function.

Appendix 2. Dz(a, n) Distribution Values.

Appendix 3 Kolmogorov-Smirnov Tables.

Appendix 4 Rank Tables (5%, 95%).

Appendix 5 Failure Reporting, Analysis and Corrective Action System (FRACAS).

Appendix 6 Reliability, Maintainability (and Safety) Plan Example.

Appendix 7 Matrix Algebra Revision.

Index.