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


Click here to download a free copy of QuART!	Click here to choose from seven free mini courses.


Click here to view the demo!


Click here to download a free index to the "Reliability Toolkit: Commercial Practices Edition"!	Click here to download a free copy of "The Rome Laboratory Reliability Engineer's Toolkit"!

For more information, contact: qinfo@quanterion.com.