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.
Method Categories
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- DeratingDesigning the use of or selecting an item in such a way that applied stresses are below rated values. Derating supplies a means to create a system that is robust over a range of applied stress values. Thus minimizing failures. Read More
- Design and developmentPart of a product lifecycle including a set of processes that transform requirement for an object into a set of detailed requirements for that object. Read More
- Design FMEA (DFMEA)A systematic method to assess the risks of a product or process design along with interactions in terms of product or process functional specifications. Read More
- Design for assembly (DFA)Methods that use fundamental design principles and related design analysis methods, focusing on production manufacturing and assembly. They seek to optimize product design, manufacturing, and ease of assembly. Read More
- Design for manufacturing (DFM)Methods that use fundamental design principles and related design analysis methods, focusing on production manufacturing and assembly. They seek to optimize product design, manufacturing, and ease of assembly. Read More
- Design for reliability (DFR)The deliberate creation of an item considering and facilitating its capability to meet reliability goals. DFR provides a set of tools and expectations to enable design decisions that address reliability performance objectives. Read More
- Design for Serviceability (DFS)The deliberate creation of an item considering and facilitating the ability to service the item. Read More
- Design for six sigma (DFSS)A set of techniques and tools for process improvement. Six sigma is characterized by five steps: define, measure, analyze, improve, and control (DMAIC). Design for six sigma expands on six sigma to include a focus on customer expectations or requirements to inform design decisions. It is also(...) Read More
- Design for X (DFX)The deliberate creation of an item by considering and facilitating its capability to meet X business and customer expectations. X may be manufacturing, reliability, serviceability, environment, sustainability, or some other category. Design for X provides a framework for and an intentional(...) Read More
- Design MarginA ratio of an item’s absolute strength to the actual applied load. It expresses how much stronger a system is than it needs to be for an intended load. Also known as Factor of Safety or Safety Factor. Read More
- Design margin analysisThe engineering evaluation of the ratio of an item’s absolute strength to the expected or actual applied load. It expresses how much stronger the system is than it needs to be for an intended load. Read More
- Design matrixIn design of experiments, a matrix where the rows represent individual experimental treatments. Depending on the designed experiment, it may be possible to extend the matrix using deduced levels of other functions of the factor levels (such as interaction, quadratic terms, etc. Read More
- Design of experiments (DOE)The arrangement in which an experimental program is to be conducted and selection of the levels of one or more factors or factor combinations to be included in the experiment. It is also known as statistical design of experiment, as it entails a versatile statistical approach to screen for(...) Read More
- Design regionIn design of experiments and models, the set of allowable values for predictor variables. Also known as the design space. Read More
- Design resolutionIn design of experiment when using factional factorials, it is the length of the shortest word in the defining relation. It is a measure of the aliasing among the main effects and the two-way and higher interactions. Read More
- Design reviewA milestone or periodic activity within a product development process whereby a design is evaluated against its requirements to verify the outcomes of previous activities and identify issues before committing to (and if need be reprioritizing) further work. Read More
- Design rulesA set of basic rules, regulations, or guidelines for specific applications or use conditions. Read More
- Designed Experiment" A planned study involving statistical analysis of a series tests in which purposeful changes are made to process factors, and the effects observed, in order to determine the relationship of process variables and improve the process." Read More
- Detectable FailureFailures at the component, equipment, subsystem, or system (product) level that can be identified through periodic testing or revealed by an alarm or an indication of an anomaly. Read More
- Detection accuracyThe number of detected failure cases accomplished correctly often expresses as a ration of correct detections cases over all cases. Read More
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