The Reliability Engineering Glossary
Reliability engineering and related fields use a vocabulary unique to our field of endeavor. For example, the term ‘reliability’ has the meaning of ‘trustworthy’ in everyday English use. For us, ‘reliability’ has a precise engineering definition.
Glossary description and plans
This glossary is meant to help us learn the language of reliability engineering. The category of ‘Terms’ is like a dictionary, including terms and their definitions as used by engineers. The category of ‘Methods’ is a listing of the techniques, tools, approaches, or concepts that may be found within a reliability plan. In the near future, we expect to expand the ‘Methods’ pages to include guidelines on use or application, examples, and additional references.
We also plan to expand the glossary to include formulas and failure mechanisms. Please let us know if there is another list of terms that should be added if you do not find a term that should be included or if you would like to recommend a change to an existing entry.
c
- ContrastIn statistics, a linear function of response variables that have coefficients summing to zero, when not all coefficients equal zero. Read More
- Contrast analysisA technique to estimate model parameters or conducting hypothesis tests on preselected linear combinations of treatments (contrasts). Read More
- Control1) an evaluation to check, text, or verify. 2) The act of guiding, directing, or overseeing. 3) in process control terms it is a stable or consistent process experiencing only chance causes of variability. Read More
- Control chartA graph of a process characteristic, based on sample measurements in time order, used to display the behavior of a process, identify patterns of process variation, assess stability, and indicate process direction. Read More
- Control chart, attributeA Shewhart control chart plotting countable or categorized data. Read More
- Control chart, averageA variables control chart used to evaluate the process level in terms of subgroup averages. Read More
- Control chart, countAn attribute control chart for the number of incidences, where the opportunity for occurrence is fixed. Read More
- Control chart, count per unitAn attribute control chart for the number of incidences, where the opportunity for occurrence is variable. Read More
- Control chart, cumulative sum (CUSUM)A control chart plotting the cumulative sum of deviations of successive sample values used to detect shifts in the level of the measured characteristic. Read More
- Control chart, demeritA multiple characteristic control chart using different weights to apportion event values depending on their perceived significance. Also known as a quality score chart. Read More
- Control chart, exponentially weighted moving averageA control chart used to evaluate the process level in terms of an exponentially smoothed moving average. Read More
- Control chart factorA numerical value, typically varying with sample size, is used to convert specific statistics or parameters to control chart center lines or control limits. Read More
- Control chart, individualsA variables control chart used to evaluate the process level in terms of the individual observations in the sample. Read More
- Control chart, medianA variables control chart used to evaluate the process level in terms of subgroup medians. Read More
- Control chart methodA technique to determine if a process is stable or not. Read More
- Control chart, moving averageA control chart used to evaluate the process level in terms of the arithmetic average of each successive n observations. Read More
- Control chart, moving rangeA variables control chart used to evaluate variation within the range of each successive n observations. Read More
- Control chart, multiple characteristicsAn attribute control chart plotting more than one characteristic. Read More
- Control chart, multivariateA control chart plotting the responses of two or more mutually correlated variates for each subgroup combined as a single sample statistic. Read More
- Control chart, number of categorized unitsAn attribute control chart for number of units of a given classification where the sample size is constant. Read More
Leave a Reply