#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

#224 – RELIABILITY MODELING USING MONTE CARLO – FRED SCHENKELBERG

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 ABC-Fred-150x150Monte Carlo relies on data that describes the variation of elements within the system.  It also connects the elements such that their result is an estimate of performance.
For reliability modeling, this is easiest to imagine for a series system. For a system with two elements in series, a very simple reliability block diagram multiples the expected reliability for each block to determine the system reliability value. Yet, it is possible to have both elements at the low end of the range of possible reliability values, or the high end or a mix.

Continue reading

#223 – MY RELIABILITY ENGINEERING PASSION – FRED SCHENKELBERG

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ABC-Fred-150x150Welcome to Accendo Reliability – join us and learn the art and craft of reliability engineering.

As I started my career, I focused on mastering the tools. My first accelerated test plan and results used a Wiener diffusion model and non-linear regression techniques. Presenting the methods and results, my boss asked, “What does it mean to our business and customers?” Continue reading