Applied Reliability

Since the publication of the second edition of Applied Reliability in 1995, the ready availability of inexpensive, powerful statistical software has changed the way statisticians and engineers look at and analyze all kinds of data. Problems in reliability that were once difficult and time consuming even for experts can now be solved with a few well-chosen clicks of a mouse. However, software documentation has had difficulty keeping up with the enhanced functionality added to new releases, especially in specialized areas such as reliability analysis.

Using analysis capabilities in spreadsheet software and two well-maintained, supported, and frequently updated, popular software packages―Minitab and SAS JMP―the third edition of Applied Reliability is an easy-to-use guide to basic descriptive statistics, reliability concepts, and the properties of lifetime distributions such as the exponential, Weibull, and lognormal. The material covers reliability data plotting, acceleration models, life test data analysis, systems models, and much more. The third edition includes a new chapter on Bayesian reliability analysis and expanded, updated coverage of repairable system modeling.

Taking a practical and example-oriented approach to reliability analysis, this book provides detailed illustrations of software implementation throughout and more than 150 worked-out examples done with JMP, Minitab, and several spreadsheet programs. In addition, there are nearly 300 figures, hundreds of exercises, and additional problems at the end of each chapter, and new material throughout.

Software and other files are available for download online

Dr. David C. Trindade is the chief officer of best practices and fellow at Bloom Energy. He was previously a distinguished principal engineer at Sun Microsystems, senior director of software quality at Phoenix Technologies, senior fellow and director of reliability and applied statistics at Advanced Micro Devices, worldwide director of quality and reliability at General Instruments, and advisory engineer at IBM. He has also been an adjunct lecturer at the University of Vermont and Santa Clara University, teaching courses in statistical analysis, reliability, probability, and applied statistics. In 2008, he was the recipient of the IEEE Reliability Society’s Lifetime Achievement Award.