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| In this
issue: |
Issue
9, November 2001 |
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Reliability HotWire
is a service of ReliaSoft Corporation
To subscribe or update your e-mail preferences, go to http://weibull.com/hotwire/index.htm
To remove yourself from this e-mail list: Send an e-mail with the word "REMOVE" in the
subject line to HotWire@ReliaSoft.com
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| Hot Topics |
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Determining
the Connection Between Test and Field Reliability
One of the most
difficult activities for a reliability engineer is making a quantifiable
connection between reliability results from in-house testing and the
reliability experienced by items in the field. Often, tests will be
performed on products in development in order to make an estimate of the
reliability in the field. The results of these tests, however, may not
match the actual field performance once the product has been released. In
this article, we look at a way of using the proportional hazards model to
help quantify an acceleration factor that can link lab and field
reliability performance.
To read more, see http://www.weibull.com/hotwire/issue9/hottopics9.htm
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| Reliability
Basics |
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| The
purpose of this section is to offer background and advice to the novice
reliability engineer.
Maximum Likelihood Estimation
In last month's Reliability Basics, we looked at the probability plotting method
of parameter estimation. Maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) is another
popular method for estimating distribution parameters for reliability and
life data. This is considered to be one of the most robust parameter
estimation techniques. In this article, we take a basic look at the
methodology behind this powerful estimation technique.
To read more, see http://www.weibull.com/hotwire/issue9/relbasics9.htm
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| Tool
Tips |
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The Tool Tips section addresses helpful hints and frequently asked questions
about ReliaSoft software products.
To read more, see http://www.weibull.com/hotwire/issue9/tooltips9.htm
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| Hot
News |
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ALTA 6 is Making an Impact - With
the release of ALTA 6 and ALTA 6 PRO only three months ago, accelerated testing studies that were
once nearly impossible can now be completed with a few clicks of a
button. For real-life accelerated testing analysis case studies,
including those submitted by ReliaSoft's customers, see http://www.reliasoft.com/alta/a6examples.htm.
If you have an ALTA 6 PRO success story you would like to share, see http://www.reliasoft.com/alta/guest/submit.htm
for submission information. For testimonials from customers who used
ALTA to help their organizations, see http://www.reliasoft.com/alta/custqts.htm.
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Next
Seminar in Tucson, December 10-14
- ReliaSoft's next "Master the Subject, Master the Tools" seminar will be
held in Tucson, Arizona from December 10-14, 2001. Topics for this five-day seminar include life data
analysis, accelerated life testing, and system reliability,
maintainability and availability. For more information on
course content and how to register, see http://Seminars.ReliaSoft.com/121001.htm.
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Integrate
Weibull++ Engines in Your Own Application - Developers
can now use the Weibull++ 6 DE (Developer Edition) software to
integrate Weibull++ and/or Weibull++ calculation and plotting
engines into custom designed software applications. Now, you can create your
own applications with functionality similar to Weibull++, automate
data analysis in applications like Excel or Access and/or create
applications that link to corporate data centers and perform
automated analyses. Weibull++
6 DE provides access to
ReliaSoft’s Weibull++ engines via the use of the RSW6API.OCX and
access to the complete Weibull++ interface through the RSW6I.DLL
library. For more information,
see http://Weibull.ReliaSoft.com/deved.
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ReliaSoft
to Co-sponsor the 39th Annual Reliability Engineering and Management
Institute -
Along with Boeing, Dell, Ford, General Electric, Hewlett-Packard,
IBM, Honeywell, Raytheon (to name a few), ReliaSoft will
once again be co-sponsoring the Annual Reliability and
Maintainability Management Institute. The institute will be held
November 12-15 in Tucson, Arizona. If you will be attending the
institute, we would love to meet you at the ReliaSoft corporate headquarters,
conveniently located nearby. Call 520.886.0410 if you would like
to arrange a meeting to discuss your reliability needs. Also, be sure to attend the overview of
ReliaSoft's reliability engineering software tools, given by
ReliaSoft's President and CEO Pantelis Vassiliou on Tuesday, November
13. |
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| From
the Edge |
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Every
quarter, ReliaSoft publishes Reliability Edge, a printed journal
that includes articles and information related to the field of
reliability engineering. Articles of interest in the upcoming edition,
scheduled for a December 2001 release:
- Limitations of
the Exponential Distribution for Reliability Analysis - The
exponential distribution is widely taught and used as a lifetime
distribution due to its relative mathematical simplicity. However,
assumptions implicit in the use of this distribution may not be
applicable to the data being analyzed. Take a look at this article
to learn when and how to use the exponential distribution - and when
to avoid it.
- Introduction to
Accelerated Testing Types - As product development cycles become
shorter and warranty times become longer, the popularity of
accelerated testing becomes more widespread. However, it is easy to
get confused by capability claims for certain types of accelerated
testing. This article takes a look at different types of accelerated
tests, and what one can reasonably expect to achieve with them.
Reliability Edge is a published quarterly. To obtain a FREE subscription, see http://www.ReliaSoft.com/newsletter/index.htm.
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Put
Yourself on the Hot Seat
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Success Stories
Wanted
Periodically, Reliability HotWire runs a feature called
"On the Hot Seat," where reliability professionals share their
experiences with ReliaSoft software tools and how they have helped solve problems
on their day-to-day job assignments. We are always on the lookout for
more success stories from those reliability professionals willing to put
themselves "on the hot seat." If you are interested, please contact
Crawford Smith by e-mail at Crawford.Smith@ReliaSoft.com,
or by standard mail at 1450 S. Eastside Loop, Tucson, AZ 85710-6703, USA.
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Copyright © 2001 ReliaSoft
Corporation, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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