There are Alternatives to using MTBF

Just a quick note this week to pass along a message from Michael. He’s conducted a bit of research on Mean Cumulative Function and found a few papers. And, according to Michael’s request I’m working on a short introductory tutorial for those new to MCF.

Michael’s message

Fred, as we began to look at alternatives, you might want to publish on your NoMTBF site a very detailed post about the use of the Mean Cumulative Function (MCF). There are models that employ an intensity function that quantify the adaqueacy of repair. I’ve found a couple of very well written papers on this. See the links below.

http://www.trindade.com/MCFAvail-JSM.pdf

http://www.trindade.com/2006RM-035_draft.pdf

For a more scholarly read with discussions about varying degrees of repair (i.e as good as new etc.) see this link:

http://www.geniemeca.fpms.ac.be/Recherche/Articles/basi2004.pdf

Also see this paper wherein the USAF has determined that the MTBF is not a viable means of measuring reliability.

http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a565532.pdf

/r

Michael