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Vol. 3 No. 4, July 2004

Reliability Knowledge? Who? What? Where?

This article is the first in a series addressing the availability of reliability knowledge, who has it and how you can take advantage of it to improve products and systems. Despite a broad interest in reliability, there is a general lack of coordination of the efforts of many disparate organizations dealing with reliability issues.

In recent years, industry and academia have taken over the leadership role in reliability research from the Department of Defense. Table 1 identifies many of the international organizations that play a role in reliability (our apologies for leaving anyone out).





Table 1-International Organizations Contributing to Reliability
Organization Specialty Areas Web Site
American Society for Quality Reliability Training & Certification www.asq.org
Applied Research Lab (Penn State University) Condition-based Maintenance, Asset Health Management, Prognostics www.arl.psu.edu
Army Material Systems Analysis Activity (AMSAA) Reliability Analysis Techniques www.amsaa.army.mil
Center for Aviation Systems Reliability (Iowa State University) Aviation Systems Reliability www.cnde.iastate.edu/faa-casr/index.html
Center for Human Reliability Studies (Oak Ridge Institute for Science Education (ORISE)) Human Reliability www.orau.gov/ehsd/chrs.htm
Center for Reliability and Quality Sciences (University of South Carolina) Reliability Statistics www.stat.sc.edu/org/rqs
Center for Reliability and Risk Analysis (Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory) Fault Tree Analysis http://www.inel.gov
Center for Reliable Computing Computer Reliability http://www-crc.stanford.edu
Center for Reliability Engineering (University of Maryland) System Reliability, Human Reliability, Software Reliability, Risk Management, CALCE http://www.enre.umd.edu
Center for Semiconductor Reliability Research Semiconductor Reliability http://ece.clemson.edu/csdrr
Center for System Reliability (Sandia Laboratories) Radiation Hardening, MEMS Reliability, and Dormant Reliability http://reliability.sandia.gov
Centre for Software Reliability (City University of London) Software Reliability http://www.csr.city.ac.uk
Centre for Software Reliability (Newcastle University) Software Reliability http://www.csr.ncl.ac.uk
Data and Analysis Center for Software (DACS) (ITT Industries) Software Quality and Reliability http://iac.dtic.mil/dacs
FAA Center for Aviation Systems Reliability (Iowa State University) Aviation Reliability http://www.cnde.iastate.edu/faa%2Dcasr
Government-Industry Data Exchange Program (GIDEP) Component Reliability http://www.gidep.org
IEEE Reliability Society Training, Standards and Guides http://www.ieee.org/portal/index.jsp?pageID=relsoc_home
International Alliance for Interoperability Interoperability http://www.iai-na.com
Jet Propulsion Lab Spacecraft Reliability http://www.jpl.nasa.gov
Joint Interoperability Test Command Interoperability http://www.disa.mil/main/jitc.html
Machinery Information Management Open Systems Alliance (MIMOSA) Training, Standards and Guides http://www.mimosa.org
Maintenance and Reliability Center (University of Tennessee Knoxville) Maintenance Planning http://www.engr.utk.edu/mrc
Maintenance Engineering (University of Manchester) European Maintenance Planning http://www.eng.man.ac.uk/mech/merg
Mathematics Imagination Reliability Cost Engineering (MIRCE) Academy European Reliability Practices http://www.mirce.com
Monash University Australian Reliability Centered Maintenance www.eng.monash.edu.au/mti
Network Reliability and Interoperability Council Network Reliability http://www.nric.org
North America Electric Reliability Council Electrical Reliability http://www.nerc.com
Reliability Analysis Center (RAC) Failure rate modeling, system reliability http://rac.alionscience.com
Reliability Center (IMEC Research Center) European Reliability Practices http://www.imec.be
Simulation Interoperability Standards Organization Interoperability http://www.sisostds.org
SINTEF Industrial Management, Safety and Reliability European Reliability Practices http://www.sintef.no
SNOINO European Reliability Practices http://www.snoino.com
Society for Maintenance and Reliability Professionals (SMRP) Training, Standards and Guides http://www.smrp.org
Society for Machinery Failure Prevention Technology Condition-based Maintenance http://www.mfpt.org
Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Reliability Division Training, Standards and Guides http://www.sae.org/technicalcommittees/g11.htm
Society of Logistics Engineers (SOLE) Training, Standards and Guides http://www.sole.org
Society of Reliability Engineers (SRE) Training, Standards and Guides http://www.sre.org
Texas Austin Research Institute Nondestructive Evaluation http://www.ntiac.com
University of New Hampshire Interoperability Lab Interoperability http://www.iol.unh.edu
USAMC Logistics Support Activity Supportability http://www.logsa.army.mil
Wyle Laboratories Reliability Testing http://www.wylelabs.com


Another area of reliability knowledge is training. The University of Maryland Center for Reliability Engineering is the international leader in formal R&M education and now offers all of its R&M courses on-line. For those interested in "short term" training there are a number of sources such as those indicated in Table 2.
Table 2-Sources of Short Term R&M Training
Training Source Web Site
Quanterion Solutions Incorporated http://quanterion.com
Reliability Analysis Center http://rac.alionscience.com
ABS Consulting http://www.jbfa.com
Reliability Center, Inc. http://www.reliability.com
Equipment Reliability Institute http://www.equipment-reliability.com


If you need reliability training but can't schedule the time to attend a short-term course, on-line asynchronous (training at the times that are convenient to you) is for you. Quanterion has just released the first on-line training courses of a five part series in all the topics of the American Society for Quality (ASQ) Certified Reliability Engineer (CRE) Body of Knowledge. It's called "REPERTOIRE." You need not be preparing to take the CRE exam to benefit from the courses; the ASQ structure just provides a convenient way the organize the reliability content. What makes these on-line courses more effective is that they're interactive with frequent quizzes that are scored, and they also have selectable audio to accompany the presentations. Click here to take the demo course.

Another way we want to help you access reliability knowledge is to provide a consolidated electronic source for reliability research reports and military standards and handbooks. You no longer have to search around the web for the latest of the reports that can't be found using typical search engines. We've done it for you and have about 4000 of them at our Quanterion "Virtual Bookstore", in most cases ready for easy download. Click here to browse the Bookstore

How about tools for reliability? There are lots of quality suppliers of reliability tools and we're not going to recommend one over the others, but we will list a few that are "significant" in the marketplace.

Table 3-Significant Reliability Software Vendors
Reliability Software Tool Vendor Web Site
Relex Corporation http://www.faulttree.com
Item Software http://www.itemsoft.com
ReliaSoft http://www.reliasoft.com
Isograph Software http://www.isograph.com
Advanced Logistics Developments http://www.aldservice.com
ARINC http://www.arinc.com
Oerlikon Contraves http://www.oerlikon.ca/en


As long as we're talking tools, Quanterion just released its new version of QuART (Quanterion Automated Reliability Toolkit), called QuART PRO. It doubles the number of tools previously available in QuART and includes the first in the REPERTOIRE training course series mentioned above.

How about an entire "environment" of reliability data, information, advisors, and tools? Well, we're working on it for the Army. We're developing a "Product Reliability On-line Tools Collection (PROTOCOL)" environment that will be a web-based environment of all kinds of reliability knowledge that will help you design and build reliable products, and to also track their reliability after release. It will look something like Figure 1. Details will follow in a future edition of Reliability Ques.


Figure 1-PROTOCOL Reliability Environment


Quanterion Automated Reliability Toolkit Quanterion Lunchtime Learning Series
Click here to download a free copy of QuART! Click here to choose from seven free mini courses.

REPERTOIRE - Quanterion on-line training
Click here to view the demo!

Reliability Toolkit:Commercial Practices Edition
Click here to download a free index to the "Reliability Toolkit: Commercial Practices Edition"!
The Rome Laboratory Reliability Engineer's Toolkit
Click here to download a free copy of "The Rome Laboratory Reliability Engineer's Toolkit"!
For more information, contact: qinfo@quanterion.com.