Practical Reliability Engineering

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Reliability Book.
Review: "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.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Reliability Book.
Review: "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.

Rating:
Summary: Great introduction to the subject
Review: For students and engineers starting in the reliability field, this is a really good first book to have on your shelf. It covers most of the basic concepts in way that is easy to read and understand, at a reasonable price.

Rating:
Summary: Another Opinion
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Another Opinion
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Good Book
Review: I have used this book (2nd edition) for about 5 years. I find it extremely practical and useful. Mr. O'Conner concentrates on the background information that a Reliability Engineer uses on a daily basis. There is no way that I can answer all the questions the Engineering Staff asks. I find that almost always, I can look-up a concise and clear answer to a question, it refreshes my memory, and I can hit the ground running. This book lives next to 2 other books: The "Data Analysis Handbook" and "The Theory of Life Distributions". I hate to admit it, but I really can't see the need to know more than in contained in this trilogy about reliability and life statistics.

Rating:
Summary: Good Book
Review: I have used this book (2nd edition) for about 5 years. I find it extremely practical and useful. Mr. O'Conner concentrates on the background information that a Reliability Engineer uses on a daily basis. There is no way that I can answer all the questions the Engineering Staff asks. I find that almost always, I can look-up a concise and clear answer to a question, it refreshes my memory, and I can hit the ground running. This book lives next to 2 other books: The "Data Analysis Handbook" and "The Theory of Life Distributions". I hate to admit it, but I really can't see the need to know more than in contained in this trilogy about reliability and life statistics.

Rating:
Summary: PRACTICAL Reliability Engineering!
Review: PRACTICAL RELIABILITY ENGINEERING

I wrote the first edition in 1981, because, as manager of reliability engineering at British Aerospace Dynamics and with experience of managing reliability programs for the Royal Air Force, I knew that there were no books available that taught reliability in a practical, effective way for engineers and managers. All of the existing books were overwhelmingly about the mathematics of reliability. Some described the methods covered by US Military Standards. My message was: reliability is achieved primarily by good engineering and management; math/stats methods have only limited practical value in reliability, and some of the MIL STD/HDBK methods are misleading and should be avoided.

The book is now in its 3rd. edition, and over 1000 have been sold every year since 1981. It is still the only book on the subject that is practical, up to date, comprehensive and consistent with world class industry practice. It covers the whole engineering cycle including design, test, manufacture and maintenance, the main technology aspects, and management. It describes and provides practical comment on the mathematical and analytical tools, standards, etc. It covers the requirements of the ASQ examination for Certified Reliability Engineer.

Rating:
Summary: This book is a table of contents for further reading.
Review: 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.


Rating:
Summary: This Book is Hardly Practical
Review: While this book professes to be "practical", it hardly lives up to the claim. This is no different than the many other "reliability" books that spew the same impractical probability distributions and theories that only a graduate student could put to use. A practical book would have given at least one example with data collection, manipulation and interpretation.