Practical Reliability Engineering [Hardcover]

Patrick O'Connor (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0470844620 | ISBN-13: 978-0470844625 | Publication Date: July 8, 2002 | Edition: 4

THE classic text on reliability engineering and management has now been fully revised and updated.
Practical Reliability Engineering provides a comprehensive, up-to-date description of all the important methods for the design, development, manufacture and maintenance of reliable engineering products and systems. Students, engineers and managers alike will find this a valuable reference source.
With emphasis firmly placed on the practical aspects of reliability engineering, the fourth edition provides extended coverage of mechanical, electronic and software failure mechanisms, design and testing. New sections include Petri nets for system reliability modelling, accelerated test and the M(t) data analysis method. Recent developments in international standardisation are discussed and guidance is provided on essential management issues. The inclusion of a draft Project Reliability Plan enhances the value to those involved in systems engineering and project management.
Practical Reliability Engineering fulfils the requirements of the qualifying examination in reliability engineering of the American Society for Quality (USA). The updated end of chapter questions make this a key text for students undertaking courses in quality assurance or reliability.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...Every engineer should read this book, as it is a subject often neglected..." (Quality World, January 2003)

"...I highly recommend the book...it is one of the best books in its class..." (Quality & Reliability Engineering International, Vol 21 (8), December 2005)

From the Back Cover

THE classic text on reliability engineering and management has now been fully revised and updated.

Practical Reliability Engineering provides a comprehensive, up-to-date description of all the important methods for the design, development, manufacture and maintenance of reliable engineering products and systems. Students, engineers and managers alike will find this a valuable reference source.

With emphasis firmly placed on the practical aspects of reliability engineering, the fourth edition provides extended coverage of mechanical, electronic and software failure mechanisms, design and testing. New sections include Petri nets for system reliability modelling, accelerated test and the M(t) data analysis method. Recent developments in international standardisation are discussed and guidance is provided on essential management issues. The inclusion of a draft Project Reliability Plan enhances the value to those involved in systems engineering and project management.

Practical Reliability Engineering fulfils the requirements of the qualifying examination in reliability engineering of the American Society for Quality (USA). The updated end of chapter questions make this a key text for students undertaking courses in quality assurance or reliability.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 540 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 4 edition (July 8, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470844620
• ISBN-13: 978-0470844625
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 7.5 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #774,811 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Reliability Book., June 11, 2003

By 

John P. Rooney "John" (Massachusetts) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Practical Reliability Engineering (Paperback)

"Practical Reliability Engineering" by Patrick D.T. O'Connor, (with David Newton and Richard Bromley), John Wiley & sons, Chichester & New York, 1996. Third Edition Revised.

Back in the 1980s, I used the first edition of this book, and it was very helpful then. The third edition has been expanded to add a few chapters, including what I would call a "motivational" first chapter, entitled, "Introduction To Reliability Engineering", pages 1 to 16. This first chapter answers many of the questions that management used to ask, and to whom the final reply was, "We do Reliability because it is a contract item". Now, you can refer the managers to the first chapter.

The original edition once began with Chapter 2, "Reliability Mathematics", fundamental needed to understand Reliability; that chapter has been expanded in this edition, so much so that some has overflowed into Chapter 3, "Probability Plotting". Chapter 3 is a very complete chapter, being a compendium of the different kinds of probability paper, along with a short explanation of how to use the paper.

Interestingly enough, Chapter 5, "Reliability Prediction and Modeling" had a shipboard missile system reliability problem (pages 129-132) which was an explicit example of what we were attempting to portray on one contract. When the Naval Officers saw O' Connor's example, it made it so much easier for us as our work paralleled expert's work in the book's example. This alone was worth the price of the book. Chapter 10, "Software Reliability" is greatly expanded over the previous editions and is up-to-date with current best practices in the field. This new edition of the book is highly recommended as it provides a concise collection of reliability fundamentals. John Peter Rooney, ASQ Certified Reliability Engineer #2425.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Another Opinion, May 1, 2000

By 

John W. Mountjoy, Jr. (DC, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Practical Reliability Engineering, 3rd Edition, Revised (Hardcover)

I disagree fairly strongly with the previous reviewer. I'veused a number of texts in the study of systems reliability andreliability engineering and Mr. O'Connor's is the most user-friendly and real-world one that I have yet found. It is impossible to study this field without some involvement of mathematics and probabilistic and statistical functions. However, Mr. O'Connor makes these elements of the field both accessible and intuitively understandable. I rate this text as a very good introduction for those new to the field, and a good solid reference for those already practicing.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book is a table of contents for further reading., January 30, 2005

By 

Ted Kalal (Thousand Oaks CA.) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Practical Reliability Engineering (Paperback)

This is a great first book on the subject of reliability. Every reliability engineer should have a copy as well as engineering managers concerned about warranty costs. But the other reviewers wrote much the same. I have used this book even further.

I often refer to this book to get grounded on a point. It is a work that takes me to the answers I need quickly and then points to other experts via the many references at the end of each chapter. I have several copies and use the fourth edition now. I have reliability engineers who report to me and this book, among a few others, are what I require each staff member to obtain and become familiar with as part of their overall knowledge base.

A few years ago I wrote a book on improving product reliability with a colleague and we used the references a great deal to do our research work. This is not just a reliability book; it is a table of contents of the world of reliability.