Vol. 4 No. 5, August 2005

DoD Chartered Expertise Available at the Reliability Information Analysis Center (RIAC)

Do you need specialized data or information related to reliability, maintainability or quality? If so, the Department of Defense (DoD) Reliability Information Analysis Center (RIAC) may be able to help regardless of whether you're involved in military systems or in developing and marketing commercial products. Formerly known as the Reliability Analysis Center (RAC), the RIAC, under DoD sponsorship, maintains extensive expertise, data, and information related to Reliability, Maintainability, Quality, Supportability, and Interoperability (RMQSI). This article provides answers to some of the most frequently asked questions regarding the RIAC.

What is the Reliability Information Analysis Center?

The Reliability Information Analysis Center (RIAC) is one of thirteen DoD chartered Information Analysis Centers (IAC) sponsored by the Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC), the central facility for the collection and dissemination of scientific and technical information for the U.S. DoD (http://iac.dtic.mil). Each IAC is a formal organization chartered to collect, analyze, and apply scientific and technical information within a specialized technical area (see http://iac.dtic.mil/products_iacs.html for a complete list of all IACs). The RIAC is the only DoD chartered center related to Reliability, Maintainability, Quality, Supportability, and Interoperability (RMQSI).

What are IACs?

IACs are research and analysis organizations chartered by the DoD and administered by DTIC (http://iac.dtic.mil) to help researchers, engineers, scientists, and program managers. The centers apply their expertise to military and commercial systems/products. (http://iac.dtic.mil/about.html). In many cases, the RIAC can provide answers to your questions without charge; more extensive support can be arranged at very competitive rates. (http://iac.dtic.mil/products_ordering.html).

Who operates the RIAC?

On June 21, 2005 a new competitive contract was awarded by the Government to operate the new RIAC. The new team consists of:

Wyle Laboratories, the prime contractor and a major supplier of reliability and environmental testing services (http://www.wylelabs.com).
Quanterion Solutions, a major subcontractor performing most of the RIAC day-to-day core functions (http://quanterion.com).
The University of Maryland Center for Reliability Engineering, the nation's leader in R&M formal education and a university research center focusing on systems and human reliability (http://www.enre.umd.edu) along with component packaging research at the Computer Aided Life Cycle Engineering (CALCE) center http://www.calce.umd.edu).
The Penn State University Applied Research Lab, an applied research organization focusing on mechanical reliability, conditioned based maintenance (CBM), prognostics, and total asset management (http://www.arl.psu.edu).
The State University of New York Institute of Technology (SUNYIT), which hosts the new RIAC facility and is providing significant information technology and knowledge management capability to the Center as well as serving as a gateway to other reliability-related resources among the 64 campus SUNY system. (http://web.sunyit.edu).

What is the difference between RIAC and RAC?

The Reliability Analysis Center (RAC) was a DoD sponsored center for the collection,

analysis and dissemination of RMQ related data and information for the past 37 years. With the award of the RIAC contract, the DoD has decided to put the word "Information" in the name to ensure that the center is recognized as one of the 13 DTIC sponsored Information Analysis Centers (IACs). In other words the RAC is now the RIAC.

What RIAC Products and Services are available to help you?

RIAC services include:

	-	Open registration and on-site training courses focusing on a variety of RMQSI related subject areas
	-	Special research and problem solving studies for both military and commercial customers
	-	Data collection and analysis
	-	RIAC products such as guidance publications, software tools, and databases that can help you develop, manufacture, field and support products and systems
	-	Technical inquiry service with answers provided by RMQSI experts.

I have an RMQ related question. How can the RIAC help?

The RIAC can answer many technical inquiries free of charge. More extensive services can be provided on a very cost-effective basis. On average, the RIAC answers over 100 technical inquiries per month on a wide range of questions.

What are some examples of RIAC services?

RIAC services include:

	-	System reliability predictions for both electrical and mechanical systems
	-	Failure Modes, Effects and Criticality Analysis (FMECA)
	-	Fault Tree Analysis (FTA)
	-	Test planning
	-	Availability analysis
	-	Database and software tool development
	-	On-site R&M technical support
	-	Environmental stress screening planning/development
	-	Failure trend analysis
	-	Weibull analysis
	-	Technical manual development
	-	Root cause analysis
	-	Failure analysis
	-	Training course development and presentation
	-	Spares/provisioning analysis and planning
	-	Logistics Management Information (LMI) support
	-	Maintainability analysis
	-	Conditioned based monitoring of equipment


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