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.
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- Analysis of means (ANOM)A statistical procedure for troubleshooting industrial processes and analyzing the results of experimental designs with factors at fixed levels. It provides a graphical display of data. Read More
- Analysis of variance (ANOVA)A basic statistical technique for determining the proportion of influence a factor or set of factors has on total variation. It subdivides the total variation of a data set into meaningful component parts associated with specific sources of variation to test a hypothesis on the parameters of(...) Read More
- Analysis of variance, fixed effectsAn analysis of variance using preselected factor’s levels from the range of values of the factors. Read More
- Analysis of variance, mixed modelAn analysis of variance using preselected factor’s levels from the range of values of some factors, and some factors have randomly selected levels from the corresponding factor’s assumed distribution. Read More
- Analysis of variance, random effectsAn analysis of variance using randomly selected factor levels from the assumed distribution of each factor. Read More
- Analytical studyA theory and model based research that either predicts future outcomes or suggests appropriate changes to garner desired outcomes. Read More
- Andon boardA visual control device in a production area; it is typically a lit overhead display, indicating the current system status and emerging problems. Read More
- AnthropogenicInduced or altered by the presence of humans. Read More
- AnthropometricsQuantitative descriptions and measurements of the physical body variations in people. These are useful in human factors design. Read More
- AnthropometryThe science of measuring the human body and its parts and functional capabilities. Includes lengths, circumferences, body mass, etc. Read More
- Antistatic materialA material (packaging, paper, polymer, coating, flooring, etc.) that inhibits triboelectric charging. Useful to protect electrostatic discharge damage to electronic or other items. Read More
The size of the least increment on the measurement instrument. Often used in advertisements to classify the measurement instrument. Read More
- Applicability criteriaThe specific set of conditions that must characterize the failure behavior of an item for a given type of maintenance task to be capable of improving its reliability. Read More
- Application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC)An integrated circuit (IC) that is custom-designed for a particular task or application. Read More
- ApportionmentThe breakdown or allocation of reliability goals or objectives to elements within the product. Read More
- Appraisal costThe cost of ensuring an organization conforms to customers’ quality requirements. Includes the costs of incoming inspection and test, in-process inspection and test, final inspection and test, document review, balancing (review of internal accounts to assure consistency), product quality(...) Read More
- Appraiser variationThe variation in average measurements of the same part (measurand) between different appraisers (operators) using the same measuring instrument and method in a stable environment. Read More
- Approved vendor list (AVL)A list of vendors of components, subsystems, or systems that meet specified criteria and/or have an acceptable performance record when used in the organization’s products or systems. This subset of potential vendors is used to minimize selecting unacceptable vendor products and to minimize(...) Read More
- Area array packageAn electronics package type that has terminations in a grid arrangement on the bottom of the package and within the package outline. Read More
- Arrhenius equationAn equation useful to calculate thermal stress acceleration factors for specific failure mechanisms. Read More
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