Reliability

Toolkit:
Commercial
Practices Edition
A Practical Guide for Commercial Products
and Military Systems Under Acquisition Reform

Reliability Analysis Center

FOREWORD
The reliability world is changing; no longer are the commercial and military
industrial approaches distinct. For years the military has had its advocates
for the use of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) equipment and
nondevelopmental items (NDI), but now the military use of commercial
designs is required. The June 1994 Secretary of Defense William Perry
memorandum officially changed the way the military develops and acquires
systems. Military standards and specifications are out (except with a waiver)
and commercial practices are in.

The "Reliability Toolkit: Commercial Practices Edition" is intended to help

both the commercial and military sectors deal with developing and
manufacturing reliable products in today's competitive world.

In 1988 Rome Laboratory used the benefit of over 30 years in the reliability
discipline to publish its RADC "Reliability Engineer's Toolkit" and in 1993 a
revision, "The Rome Laboratory Reliability Engineer's Toolkit," (Rome Air
Development Center was renamed Rome Laboratory between the two
versions). While intended for the military, these documents were best sellers
and are currently in wide use by both the commercial and military
communities. Over the last 25 years, the Reliability Analysis Center, along
with serving as a centralized reliability data and information center, has
worked on hundreds of reliability projects for commercial and military
customers. Because of the vast experience base of these two organizations,
it was only natural that we collaborate on a new Toolkit that now stresses
commercial reliability practices.

The new Toolkit concentrates on activities that have payoff, not necessarily
extensive paper outputs. The Toolkit recognizes that reliability is everyone's
business, so the term "reliability engineer" doesn't appear in our title. Almost
every topic of the previous Toolkit has been significantly revised and
numerous new subjects have been added to better represent every aspect of
a product's reliability over it's life cycle.

Whether you deal with commercial or military products, we hope that you'll
find this document useful in planning and carrying-out those activities most
beneficial to your products' reliability. If you have any comments or
criticisms, please let us know.

Preston R. MacDiarmid JWin J. Bart

Director Chief Scientist for Reliability Sciences
Reliability Analysis Center Rome Laboratory

RELIABILITY TOOLKIT: COMMERCIAL PRACTICES EDITION i

PREFACE
This document represents a joint effort of the Rome Laboratory and the Reliability
Analysis Center. The following individuals were the primary authors:

Rome Laboratory Reliability Analysis Center

Seymour Morris Preston MacDiarmid

Bruce Dudley David Nicholls
Joseph Caroli Anthony Coppola
Ned Criscimagna
John Farrell

The following personnel provided additional technical expertise and support:

Borne Laboratory Reliability AnalysiaJSgnter

Frank Born D. David Dylis

Michael Seifert Robert Borgovini
Edward DePalma Patrick Hetherington
Kenneth Siarkiewicz Richard Sadlon
-.eonard Popyack Francois Chopard (Aerospatiale French
Barry McKinney Exchange Engineer)
Anthony Pesta
Richard Hyle
Peter Tabbagh (Australian AF Exchange Engineer)
E. Paul Ratazzi
William Bocchi
Mark McCallum

The Reliability Analysis Center's Jeanne Crowe 11 performed her usual magic in
typing the Toolkit and preparing all graphic material.

Comments and/or questions relative to any of the information provided can be

addressed to:

Seymour Morris David Nicholls

Rome Laboratory/ERSR Reliability Analysis Center
525 Brooks Rd. 201 Mill St.
Snffiss AFB, NY 13441-4505 Rome, NY 13440-6916
315) 330-2951 (315) 339-7089
a-mail: [email protected] e-mail: [email protected]

RELIABILITY TOOLKIT: COMMERCIAL PRACTICES EDITION iii

 NOTE TO TOOLKIT READERS
At the time of authoring this Toolkit, the reliability and maintainability
discipline is undergoing tremendous change. Many of the military standards
and handbooks that have provided the framework and methodologies for the
last 30 years are being abandoned or transitioned to dual-use documents.
While these military documents have been widely used as the basis of
commercial approaches as well, the discipline will now look to non-
government and international documents.

The authors of this Toolkit recognize that the military standards and
handbooks no longer carry the contractual weight that they did in the
past; but because, in most cases, they contain valuable engineering
information, references to them will be included for the benefit of those
practitioners still able to obtain copies.

iv RELIABILITY TOOLKIT: COMMERCIAL PRACTICES EDITION iv

T A B L E OF CONTENTS
Page
Section 1: The Need for Reliability
1.1 Customer Expectations. 3
1.2 Market Competition.. 6
1.3 Availability 11
1.4 Life Cycle Costs... 14
1.5 Liability 21
1.6 Military Needs 25

Section 2: Reliability and Maintainability Basics

2.1 Reliability and Maintainability Definitions 35
2.2 Bathtub Curve. 38
2.3 Statistical Distributions 39
2.4 Reliability and Maintainability Figures-of-Merit 41

Section 3: R&M Requirements and Programs

3.1 Customer R&M Requirements
3.1.1 Performance Based Requirements 47
3.1.2 Quantitative Reliability Requirements 51
3.1.3 Quantitative Maintainability Requirements 55
3.1.4 Quantitative Testability/Diagnostic Requirements 56
3.1.5 R&M Information for Proposals 59
3.2 R&M Program Requirements
3.2.1 Product Development Phase Terminology 60
3.2.2 Reliability Program Elements 61
3.2.3 R&M Activity Priorities 66
3.2.4 Nondevelopmental Item (NDI) Considerations 67

Section 4: Source Selection

4.1 Evaluation Criteria for Supplier Reliability and Maintainability 73

Section 5: Design
5.1 Part Reliability Concerns
5.1.1 Parts Selection, Application and Control 79
5.1.2 Special Part Considerations . 88
5.1.3 Part Stress Derating 95
5.1.4 Part Failure Mode/Mechanisms 98
5.2 Assembly Reliability Concerns
5.2.1 Thermal Management 103
5.2.2 Interconnection Techniques.... 105
5.2.3 Power Supply Design Checklist 110
5.2.4 Testability Criteria (Assembly Level) 112
5.3 Equipment/System Reliability Concerns
5.3.1 System Fault Tolerance 115
5.3.2 Environmental Characterization 118
5.3.3 Critical Item Reliability 123

RELIABILITY TOOLKIT: COMMERCIAL PRACTICES EDITION v

 5.3.4 Software Reliability 125
5.3.5 Testability Criteria (System Level) 132
5.3.6 System Electromagnetic Guidelines 134
5.3.7 Mechanical Systems 136
5.3.8 Unique Considerations for Dormancy 142
5.3.9 System Maintainability Concepts.... 145
5.3.10 Product Review Questions 147

Section 6: Analysis
6.1 Types of Reliability Analyses 153
6.2 Reliability Modeling 156
6.3 Reliability Prediction Methods 163
6.3.1 Use of Existing Reliability Data....................................... 168
6.3.2 Weibull Analysis... 169
6.3.3 Reliability Adjustment Factors 175
6.3.4 Reliability Prediction of Dormant Products 177
6.3.5 Reliability Prediction of Mechanical Components 179
6.3.6 Reliability Prediction of Surface Mount
Technology (SMT). 189
6.3.7 Reliability Prediction of Software 195
6.3.8 Reliability Prediction Checklist 197
6.4 Failure Modes, Effects and Criticality Analysis (FMECA).. 198
6.5 Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) 204
6.6 Worst Case Circuit Analysis (WCCA) 211
6.7 Sneak Circuit Analysis 218
6.8 Durability Analysis.... 223
6.9 Maintainability Analysis 228
6.10 Testability Analysis 230
6.11 Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) 231
6.12 Maintainability/Testability Analysis Checklist 235
6.13 Finite Element Analysis 236
6.14 Thermal Analysis 238
6.15 Electromagnetic Analysis .. 243

Section 7: Testing
7.1 Reliability Test Strategies 249
7.2 Design of Experiments 257
7.3 Accelerated Life Testing 263
7.4 Maintainability/Testability Test Strategies 269
7.5 Environmental Stress Screening (ESS) 277
7.6 Electromagnetic Testing 281
7.7 Failure Reporting and Corrective Action System (FRACAS) 284

Section 8: Production/Operation
8.1 Manufacturing Variability 295
8.2 Quality and Reliability Improvement... 301
8.3 Root Cause Failure Analysis 308
8.4 Lifetime Extension Assessment 315

RELIABILITY TOOLKIT: COMMERCIAL PRACTICES EDITION vi

Section 9: Reliability Related Concepts
9.1 Concurrent Engineering 325
9.2 Benchmarking 329
9.3 Total Quality Management 333
9.4 I80-9000 342
9.5 Reliability Physics 345

Appendix A: Operational Parameter Translation 349

Appendix B: Example R&M Requirements for the Supplier

Specification or Statement of Work 355

Appendix C: Warranties 365

Appendix D: Example Electronic Design Guidelines 377

Appendix E: Parts Count Reliability Prediction 391

Appendix F: Reliability Demonstration Testing 407

Appendix G: Reliability Growth Testing 421

Appendix H: Maintainability/Testability
Testing Demonstration 427

Appendix I: Reliability and Maintainability Information

Sources 433

Appendix J: R&M Standardization Documents, Rome

Laboratory Technical Reports, and Reliability
Analysis Center Publications 447

Appendix K: Reliability and Maintainability Education

Sources.... 473

Appendix L: R&M Software Sources 479

Appendix M: Acronyms 485

RELIABILITY TOOLKIT: COMMERCIAL PRACTICES EDITION vii

 This document is available in
hard copy from the System
Reliability Center or as a PDF
file download from the
Reliability Information Analysis
Center.

Information on both sources is

provided on the following two
pages.