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MTBF Definition English
MTBF Definition English
Oh ?
Is that the average service life of a product?
Definition:
One criterion that enables a product to get itself noticed ahead of its competition is its quality. One of
the measures for quality in hardware products is the statistical failure time. Two widely-used methods
for calculating failure time are the Siemens standard SN 29500 and MIL-HDBK-218F. The statistical
length of time between 2 failures (MTBF - mean time between failures) and the theoretical number of
9
failures in 10 hours can be calculated. The term 'service life' is used frequently. This is wrong. A
failure is a malfunction of a component (e.g. fluctuations in the value of a resistance beyond the
tolerance), but this does not necessarily lead to any long-term damage. The values are calculated
separately for each component and then totaled to form the overall failure rate for the product.
Database:
MTBF includes the following items:
Calculation example:
100 products have been produced, and have been in use by the customer for 2 years.
In terms of MTBF this equates to a "functional service life" of 100 x 2 years = 200 years.
During this time 10 products failed.
The MTBF for the product at this point is 200/10 (= 20 years or 175,200 hours).
Summary:
A high MTBF merely means that products are of a high quality, and thus also provides an index for
customer satisfaction.
Caution:
MTBF is not the same as service life. An MTBF of 300,000 hrs does not mean that the product has a
service life of 300,000 hrs.
The MTBF evaluation is not standardized. There are two widely-used methods for the calculation
(Siemens standard SN 29500 and MIL-HDBK-217F).
For this reason it is not easy, indeed barely possible, to compare the precise numeric MTBF values
from different companies without a knowledge of how the data has been prepared.
Marketing Motion
Raimund Klingler
Date: 04/03/2003