Product Maturity 1

1Reliability Review

In this book, maturity is defined as the ability of a product to achieve the expected level of reliability from the moment it becomes operational for the end user. A review of what reliability means and a definition of the parameters on which it is based is therefore needed.

1.1. Failure rate

Reliability studies the occurrence of failures in time. These instances of failure are random; hence, they cannot be known in advance. This presents a challenge. To model them, we use the concept of random variable, which will be denoted by T throughout this book.

First, it is important to determine the various types of failures. There are three main categories, namely:

• – “youth failures”, which generally occur very early on in the lifecycle of a product. Youth failures are generally the result of manufacturing defects. Therefore, they concern only a small part of the population. They can be partially eradicated by specific tests, such as burn-in;
• – “catastrophic failures”, which are unexpected, sudden and independent of the time previously elapsed. These types of failures can therefore be observed at any point in the lifecycle of a product. They are generally the result of accidental overloads (heat, mechanical, electrical). They typically do not concern the entire product population and can be reduced by robustness tests, derating rules, etc.;
• – “aging” failures, which are observed across all the products in operation. These failures are generally not observed during ...