• DocumentCode
    1149989
  • Title

    A critical look at the bathtub curve

  • Author

    Klutke, Georgia-Ann ; Kiessler, Peter C. ; Wortman, M.A.

  • Author_Institution
    Dept. of Ind. Eng., Texas A&M Univ., College Station, TX, USA
  • Volume
    52
  • Issue
    1
  • fYear
    2003
  • fDate
    3/1/2003 12:00:00 AM
  • Firstpage
    125
  • Lastpage
    129
  • Abstract
    This paper addresses some of the fundamental assumptions underlying the bathtub curve. It is shown to be unlikely that any practical hazard function is decreasing near zero. Great care should be taken in interpreting the hazard function, particularly in applying quality-control practices, such as burn-in or environmental-stress-screening to manufactured products.
  • Keywords
    environmental stress screening; quality control; reliability theory; bathtub curve; burn-in; distributions mixture; environmental-stress-screening; hazard function; infant mortality; quality-control; reliability theory; Distribution functions; Electronic switching systems; Extraterrestrial measurements; Hazards; Industrial engineering; Manufactured products; Probability density function; Reliability theory; Stress; Time measurement;
  • fLanguage
    English
  • Journal_Title
    Reliability, IEEE Transactions on
  • Publisher
    ieee
  • ISSN
    0018-9529
  • Type

    jour

  • DOI
    10.1109/TR.2002.804492
  • Filename
    1179819