Applied Life Data Analysis (Wiley Series in Probability and Statistics) [Hardcover]

Wayne B. Nelson (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0471094587 | ISBN-13: 978-0471094586 | Publication Date: February 1982 | Edition: 1

WILEY-INTERSCIENCE PAPERBACK SERIES

The Wiley-Interscience Paperback Series consists of selected books that have been made more accessible to consumers in an effort to increase global appeal and general circulation. With these new unabridged softcover volumes, Wiley hopes to extend the lives of these works by making them available to future generations of statisticians, mathematicians, and scientists.

"Many examples drawn from the author’s experience of engineering applications are used to illustrate the theoretical results, which are presented in a cookbook fashion...it provides an excellent practical guide to the analysis of product-life data."
–T.M.M. Farley
Special Programme of Research in Human Reproduction
World Health Organization
Geneva, Switzerland
Review in Biometrics, September 1983

Now a classic, Applied Life Data Analysis has been widely used by thousands of engineers and industrial statisticians to obtain information from life data on consumer, industrial, and military products. Organized to serve practitioners, this book starts with basic models and simple informative probability plots of life data. Then it progresses through advanced analytical methods, including maximum likelihood fitting of advanced models to life data. All data analysis methods are illustrated with numerous clients' applications from the author's consulting experience.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"…a significant and comprehensive resource...available in an attractive and reasonably priced format." (Technometrics, August 2005)

"...an excellent addition to a six-sigma program...as well as a useful resource for the reliability engineer or student in statistics. The book is also applicable to many other fields..." (IEEE Electrical Insulation Magazine, July/August 2005)

“…extremely useful for courses on life data analysis, statistical quality control and product marketing.” (Zentralblatt Math, Vol.1054, No.05, 2005) --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From the Publisher

A practical guide to statistical methods for predicting product life and reliability, and comparing improvements in product manufacturing, design, and application. Describes the use of graphical methods, the method of maximum likelihood, censored data analysis, linear estimation, prediction methods, and methods for complete, singly censored, multiply censored, interval, and quantalresponse data. Techniques are illustrated with step-by-step, real-data numerical examples.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 656 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (February 1982)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471094587
• ISBN-13: 978-0471094586
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #868,937 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nelson's first book, February 16, 2008

By 

Michael R. Chernick "statman31147" (Holland PA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Applied Life Data Analysis (Wiley Series in Probability and Statistics) (Paperback)

At the time this book was written Dr. Wayne Nelson was a research statistician for General Electric as well as a private consultant. Through his work at GE he became very familiar with the application of censored "life data" in practical reliability applications and this was one of the first well-presented applied books in reliability similar to other statistics books written on survival and reliability. Wayne never revised this book but he did go on to write books on accelerated testing and recurrent events and was a major contributor to the research in reliability both from the theoretical and practical sides. Wayne has said that one reason that he never revised it was that at a time when a revision might have been appropriate the book by Meeker and Escobar came out and that text was very close in content to what Wayne would have written. Although the book is outdated, it does rightfully belong in the Wiley Classic series and is affordable in its current paperback form. It is still a valuable resource and has historical significance.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Excellent Coverage At All Levels, October 15, 2007

By 

S. Dent - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Applied Life Data Analysis (Wiley Series in Probability and Statistics) (Paperback)

This book has an excellent coverage of the topic of survival analysis from the basics through to far more advanced techniques. As both a practitioner using practical survival analysis, and as a student I find this book particularly useful.

Of particualr use is the focus on real situations, which may differ from the simplest forms that are often used in other texts.

4.0 out of 5 stars Applied Life Data Analysis, January 6, 2009

By 

K. J. Christopoulos (Redondo Beach, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Applied Life Data Analysis (Wiley Series in Probability and Statistics) (Paperback)

I don't own many dedicated volumes on this specific topic, but I have used several and this compares very well. The Weibull sections are explained vary well. There is enough information for a novice and yet will still be a good reference for someone with experience. Modern software tools have made the tedious tasks more automated, however this volume covers the theory and has reference material and good examples.