International Applied Reliability Symposium (ARS): An international reliability and maintainability conference event

Session 7
9:00 to 9:55 a.m. Friday August 19, 2005

Different Approaches in the Analysis of Repairable System Data

Systems can be categorized into two basic types: one-time or non-repairable systems and reusable or repairable systems. In the latter case, under continuous operation, the system is repaired but not replaced after each failure. For example, if the system is a vehicle and the water pump fails, then the water pump is replaced and, therefore, the vehicle is repaired. The treatment of data obtained from such systems is different than the case of non-repairable systems. In non-repairable systems, the failure data is collected and a representative distribution is fitted to the data in order to perform reliability estimations. On the other hand, in the repairable systems case, the analysis is not as straightforward since a stochastic process is in place. When considering repairable system data, different approaches are available depending on the data and the objective of the analysis. For example, the engineer can analyze the data “directly” by fitting the NHPP-Power Law model. Another approach is to break down the system into its lowest replaceable units (LRUs) and failure modes, obtain the failure distributions of these LRUs and failure modes, and then create the Reliability Block Diagram of the system and analyze it. Each method and model has its underlying assumptions and it is imperative for the analyst to be aware of them. In this presentation, the different approaches of treating repairable system data are reviewed, and the available models for each approach are explained and demonstrated.

 

 
Hongan Lin
Director
ReliaSoft Asia

 
Hongan Lin currently serves as the Director of ReliaSoft Asia, headquartered in Singapore. Over the last few years, Mr. Lin has been championing and enabling the use of proper reliability practices in the Asia Pacific region. He has also been involved in the development of ReliaSoft’s software and training courses. Before joining ReliaSoft, Mr. Lin worked at the Defense Science Organization of Singapore as a Defense Engineer, and subsequently as a Lecturer at Temasek Polytechnics in Singapore. He holds a B.Eng. in Electrical Engineering.