SRC Forum - Message Replies

Forum: Reliability & Maintainability Questions and Answers

Topic: Reliability & Maintainability Questions and Answers

Topic Posted by: Reliability & Maintainability Forum (src_forum@alionscience.com )
Organization: System Reliability Center
Date Posted: Mon Aug 31 12:47:36 US/Eastern 1998

Original Message:

Posted by: Sheila Prather (sheila.prather@ngc.com )
Organization:Northrop Grumman Corp
Date posted: Thu Apr 19 16:23:16 US/Eastern 2007
Subject: Mean Time Between Event vs. MTBF
Message:
I have a requirement to compute MTBE and Eavg. MTBE is the system prediction of the Mean Time Between Event, and Eavg is the predicted mean time to correct an Event. An Event is defined as either a Failure, a Maintenance Jam or and Operator Jam. Mean Time to Correct an Event (Eavg) is the average down time associated with an Event, including maintenance personnel or operator response time, time to diagnose the problem, repair or jam clearing time, and restart time. Can you recommend a methodology to get from predicted MTBF to MTBE? I would assume I would have to apply some factor to account for jams that might occur on the equipment, but not aware of any recommended factors.

Reply:

Subject: Mean Time Between Event vs. MTBF
Reply Posted by: David Dylis (ddylis@alionscience.com )
Organization: Alion SRC
Date Posted: Thu Jun 7 11:30:06 US/Eastern 2007
Message:
There is no methodology that I am aware of that would be able to directly convert a Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF) to a Mean Time Between Event (MTBE). The MTBF could be used to estimate the failure portion of the MTBE. Other portions of the MTBE such as a Maintenance Jam or Operator Jam could be assessed from available test or historical field data for this or a similar product.

If you have any additional questions or require consulting assistance in developing tests that could be used to establish estimates for MTBE feel free to contact me.