Category Archives: Reliability@Risk™ – Fred Schenkelberg

#246 – INCREASING THE ODDS OF LIVING A LONG AND HEALTHY LIFE – ALLEN TAYLOR

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If you are reasonably healthy and reasonably happy now, without a doubt, you would like the good times to continue rolling. Due to some unforeseen event, such as an unseen pickup truck turning a corner as you step out into the street, you could check out tomorrow. There are all kinds of disasters that could befall you, even if you are obsessively conscientious and careful. However, there is no point in dwelling on those possibilities. Continue reading →

#240 – THE IMPORTANCE OF A RELIABILITY ENGINEERING COMMUNITY – FRED SCHENKELBERG

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Years ago I was a part of a reliability engineering community and I had not met more than two or three members. This was before the internet and was using a new-fangled system called an email list.

At the time, it filled the role of helping me understand the many facets of reliability engineering. It helped me answer questions and allowed me to help others as well. Continue reading →

#238 – CALCULATING THE PROBABILITY OF A SAMPLE CONTAINING BAD PARTS – FRED SCHENKELBERG

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Received a question from a reader this morning that will make a nice tutorial.

A box contains 27 black and 3 red balls.  A random sample of 5 balls is drawn without replacement.  What is the probability that the sample contains one red ball?

So here’s my thinking and two ways to solve this problem. Instead of red and black balls in an urn type problem, which is pretty abstract, let’s say we know 3 bad parts are in a bin of 30 total parts. Continue reading →

#235 – WHAT IS THE RELIABILITY OF THE RELIABILITY FUNCTION? – FRED SCHENKELBERG

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Review: What is the Reliability of the Reliability Function?

Jezdimir Knezevic of the MIRCE Akademy published a paper with the title above and I have a few comments.

In the article, Jezdimir suggests that the statistical approach to describing the world about us is fundamental flaws and not inherently useful for our use. He compares a mathematical/statistical approach to a scientific approach and finds the stats wanting. Continue reading →

#230 – THE WHAT AND, MORE IMPORTANTLY, THE WHY OF THE WEIBULL ANALYSIS – JAMES KOVACEVIC

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Every failure is part of a puzzle. The equipment we are maintaining is trying to communicate with use with each and every failure.
Often the message is not obvious.

There is the immediate failure. And, if we’re paying attention we can sort out the root cause of the failure along with replacing or repairing the damaged parts. Sometimes though the damage is caused by another issue with the system. Continue reading →