Citation

Aird RJ. Reliab. Eng. 1984; 7(2): 77-87.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1984, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/0143-8174(84)90018-0

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Most process plant is so complex that it is impractical to keep complete records of the breakdown of all equipment for subsequent reliability analysis. The importance of measuring the reliability characteristics is usually only recognised when the financial penalty of equipment failure, through lost production or maintenance costs, becomes readily apparent. Unfortunately, the limited time and manpower available to collect and process data makes this task extremely difficult. This paper derives some simple methods of obtaining useful engineering estimates under these conditions.