Handbook of Reliability Engineering and Management (Hardcover)

~ W. Ireson (Author), Clyde Coombs (Author), Richard Moss (Author) "This section of the handbook describes in broad terms the entire process by which the quality characteristic known as reliability is developed in a product..." (more)
Key Phrases: concurrent engineering capability, derating guide, mechanical stress analysis, New York, Department of Defense, John Wiley (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Responsible For Reliability? Look No Further! Finally, a working tool that delivers expert guidance on all aspects of product reliability. W. Grant Ireson and Clyde F Coombs, Jr.'s new Second Edition of Handbook of Reliability Engineering and Management gives you the specific engineering, management, and mathematics data you need to design and manufacture more reliable electronic and mechanical devices as well as complete systems. You'll find proven industry practices for defining and achieving reliability goals--real how-to information, not theoretical generalities. You also get new methods for determining overall product reliability. . .the latest design techniques for extending a product's life cycle. . .tested strategies for incorporating reliability into new product development. . .and more.

From the Back Cover

The completely updated second edition of this classic reference offers you unsurpassed coverage of all aspects of reliability engineering and management, including reliability issues in electronic components and systems, software, and mechanical devices. It now includes specific information on how to design a product for reliabilit; it adds the concept of process and the tools of total qualilt control (TQC) to the reliability function. Filled with applications ranging from consumer products to high-tech systems, this indispensable handbook clearly demonstrates how reliability is a process that can be characterized, controlled, and improved. It provides you with a wealth of new material on the reliability function, as well as highly effective methods and mathematics used to predict and determine the reliability of a product. You'll find practical information on proven industry proactices to define and achieve reliability goals, as well as the traditional mathematics of reliability. Also included are basic tables for determining reliability, and standards and specifications used b the U.S. Department of Defense. Essential for all reliability engineers, product designers, quality engineers, and engineering mathematics, this edition of the world-renowned handbook will give you the expertise needed to define and attain optimum reliability goals for your company's products.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 816 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Professional; 2 edition (December 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0070127506
• ISBN-13: 978-0070127500
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 7.6 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #689,187 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #9 in

  Books > Professional & Technical > Engineering > Management

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Wait for the NEXT Edition., November 9, 2000

By	John P. Rooney "John" (Plymouth, MA USA-America's Hometown) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

"Handbook of Reliability Engineering and Management", Second Edition, Edited by W. Grant Ireson, Clyde F. Coombs, Jr. and Richard Y. Moss, McGraw Hill, 1996.

This is the second edition of the Handbook, which first appeared in 1988. There are individual contributing authors for each of the 27 chapters; the resultant is already out of date. The current "Limbo" status of military documents, such as Military Standard 105 and Military Handbook 217F, makes this present edition of the Handbook out of date in 2000. Will Military Handbook 217F ever be revised to provide up-to-date models for the failure rates of modern electronic components?

This Handbook would benefit from better editing. For example, as a Handbook, it is expected that the index in the back of the physical book would contain page references to pertinent reliability terms and techniques. Today's technology emphasizes Environmental Stress Screening, ESS. The term, ESS, has been around for at least 15 years (or so: I recall doing an IEEE paper on ESS in 1988). It is expected that ESS and related terms such as HALT (Highly Accelerated Life Testing) and HASS, would be readily found in the Handbook's index. They are not.

Same thing holds true for Software Reliability, where the chapter's author uses the cute term, "SMERFS Model" (p. 22.15), but this term will not be found in the index. (SMERFS = Statistical Modeling and estimation of reliability functions for software.) By the way, from a technical point of view, this chapter's half page on the various models for software reliability is very skimpy. For example, Dr. Michael Elbert has written an entire IEEE paper on the selection of the proper model for software reliability. It would be expected that a Handbook would be more complete than just a small portion of a page. In Chapter 22, on Software Reliability, the author references a paper on the Rayleigh curve by "Gaffney" (p. 22.13). The reference at the back of Chapter 22 gives the reference's name as "John Gafney". This is a discrepancy that should have been caught by the editors. I suspect that the correct spelling is "Gaffney", but both can not be correct.

There are other editorial lapses: on page 16.24, Bellcore failure rates are compared to MIL-HDBK-217, and it is state that Bellcore "... provides generally better failure rates than does MIL-HDBK-217F, which is supposedly based on field experience in communications equipment." The way this sentence is presented implies that MIL-HDBK-217F is based upon experience in communications equipment, when, as most reliability practitioners know, MIL-HDBK-217F failure rates are based on environments from Ground, Fixed, to Ground, Benign, to Naval Sheltered and Airborne, etc, and on equipment from radios to radars to sonars, air data computers and fire control units. This inconsistency in the use of the language ought to have been caught by the editors.

On page 16.6, there is a nice comparison of FITs to failures per million hours to %failure per 1000 hours. The Editors should make the reader aware that a billion in American usage (1 with nine zeroes after it) is not the same as European usage. Chapter 6, on FMEAs is totally into the Risk Priority Number method where "gray beards" sit around and use the "Delphi" approach to ascertain the probability of an event, the severity of that failure and whether or not the failure can be detected. This is a very subjective method, and, in my humble opinion, RPN is being superceded by more objective, quantitative methods (see IEC 61508).

In summary, prudent purchasers should await the next edition of this Handbook, if that edition considers all the changes taking place in the availability of military standards and the new leadership role of international standards in the reliability arena. For example, IEC 300, on "Dependability" is not even mentioned.

John Peter Rooney, ASQ Certified Reliability Engineer #2425.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Helpful and useful one for my daily life, April 12, 2009

By	Wiseman "bokholic" (San Diego, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Handbook of Reliability Engineering and Management (Hardcover)

I was recomended by somebody and find out it's very useful in my daily work.