Glossary

Accelerated life testing – Testing to verify design reliability of machin-

ery/equipment much sooner than if operating typically. This is
intended especially for new technology, design changes, and ongoing
development.
Acceptance test (Qualification test) – A test to determine machin-
ery/equipment conformance to the qualification requirements in its
equipment specifications.
Accessibility – The amount of working space available around a com-
ponent sufficient to diagnose, troubleshoot, and complete maintenance
activities safely and effectively. Provision must be made for move-
ment of necessary tools and equipment with consideration for human
ergonomic limitations.
Allocation – The process by which a top-level quantitative requirement
is assigned to lower hardware items/subsystems in relation to system-
level reliability and maintainability goals.
Assets – The physical resources of a business, such as a plant facility,
fleets, or their parts or components.
Asset management – The systematic planning and control of a physical
resource throughout its economic life.
Availability – The probability that a system or piece of equipment will,
when used under specified conditions, operate satisfactorily and effec-
tively. Also, the percentage of time or number of occurrences for which
a product will operate properly when called upon.
CBM – See condition-based maintenance.
Changeout – Remove a component or part and replace it with a new or
rebuilt one.
CMMS – Computerized maintenance management system.
Component – A constituent part of an asset, usually modular or replace-
able, that is serialized and interchangeable.

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640 Maximizing machinery uptime

Concept – Basic idea or generalization.

Condition-based maintenance – Maintenance based on the measured
condition of an asset.
Confidence limit – An indication of the degree of confidence one can
place in an estimate based on statistical data. Confidence limits are
set by confidence coefficients. A confidence coefficient of 0.95, for
instance, means that a given statement derived from statistical data
will be right 95% of the time on the average.
Configuration – The arrangement and contour of the physical and func-
tional characteristics of systems, equipment, and related items of hard-
ware or software; the shape of a thing at a given time. The specific
parts used to construct a machine.
Corrective maintenance – Unscheduled maintenance or repair actions,
performed as a result of failures or deficiencies, to restore items to a
specific condition. See also Unscheduled maintenance and Repair.
Cost-effectiveness – A measure of system effectiveness versus life-cycle
cost.
Critical – Describes items especially important to product performance
and more vital to operation than non-critical items.
Defect – A condition that causes deviation from design or expected
performance.
Dependability – A measure of the degree to which an item is operable
and capable of performing its required function at any (random) time
during a specified mission profile given item availability at the start
of the mission.
Discounted cash-flow analysis – A method of making investment deci-
sions using the time value of money.
Distributions – See Probability distribution.
Downtime – That portion of calendar time during which an item or piece
of equipment is not able to perform its intended function fully.
Durability life (Expected life) – A measure of useful life, defining the
number of operating hours (or cycles) until overhaul is expected or
required.
EAM – Enterprise Asset Management.
Emergency maintenance – Corrective, unscheduled repairs.
 Glossary 641

Engineering – The profession in which knowledge of the mathematical

and natural sciences is applied with judgment to develop ways to
utilize economically the materials and forces of nature.
Environment – The aggregate of all conditions influencing a product
or service, or nearby equipment, actions of people, conditions of tem-
perature, humidity, salt spray, acceleration, shock, vibration, radiation,
and contaminants in the surrounding area.
Equipment – All items of a durable nature capable of continuing or
repetitive utilization by an individual or organization.
ERP – Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP Software).
Exponential distribution – A statistical distribution in logarithmic form
that often describes the pattern of events over time.
Failure – Inability to perform the basic function, or to perform it within
specified limits; malfunction.
Failure analysis – The logical, systematic examination of an item or
its design, to identify and analyze the probability, causes, and conse-
quences of real or potential malfunction.
Failure effect – The consequence of failure.
Failure mode – The manner by which a failure is observed. Generally
a failure mode describes the way the failure occurs and its impact on
equipment operation.
Failure Mode Effect Analysis (FMEA) – Identification and evaluation
of what items are expected to fail and the resulting consequences of
failure.
Failure rate – The number of failures per unit measure of life (cycles,
time, miles, events, and the like) as applicable for the item.
Fault tree analysis (FTA) – A top–down approach to failure analysis
starting with an undesirable event and determining all the ways it can
happen.
FMEA – See Failure mode effect analysis.
FMECA – Failure mode, effect, and criticality analysis – a logical pro-
gressive method used to understand the causes of failures and their
subsequent effects on production, safety, cost, quality, etc.; see also
failure mode effect analysis.
Function – A separate and distinct action required to achieve a given
objective, to be accomplished by the use of hardware, computer
642 Maximizing machinery uptime

programs, personnel, facilities, procedural data, or a combination

thereof; or an operation a system must perform to fulfill its mission or
reach its objective.
Hardware – A physical object or physical objects, as distinguished from
capability or function. A generic term dealing with physical items
of equipment – tools, instruments, components, parts – as opposed
to funds, personnel, services, programs, and plans, which are termed
“software.”
Hazard function – The instantaneous failure rate at time, t.
Infant mortality – Early failures that exist until debugging eliminates
faulty components, improper assemblies, and other user and manufac-
turer learning problems, and until the failure rate lowers.
Item – A generic term used to identify a specific entity under consid-
eration. Items may be parts, components, assemblies, subassemblies,
accessories, groups, equipment, or attachments.
Life cycle – The series of phases or events that constitute the total
existence of anything. The entire “cradle to grave” scenario of a product
from the time concept planning is started until the product is finally
discarded.
Life-cycle cost – All costs associated with the system life cycle, including
research and development, production, operation, support, and termi-
nation.
Life units – A measure of use duration applicable to the item (e.g.,
operating hours, cycles, distance, lots, coils, pieces, etc.).
Maintainability – The inherent characteristics of a design or installation
that determine the ease, economy, safety, and accuracy with which
maintenance actions can be performed. Also, the ability to restore
a product to service or to perform preventive maintenance within
required limits.
Maintainability testing – Maintainability testing is used to demonstrate
MTTR (mean time to repair). Once MTTR of a critical component is
defined and the appropriate personnel trained in the proper procedure,
we can test to investigate if the function can be performed in the stated
MTTR. It should be stressed that this is not a test of the person’s skills
but rather a test of the procedure and design of the equipment.
Maintenance – Work performed to maintain machinery and equipment
in its original operating condition to the extent possible; includes
 Glossary 643

scheduled and unscheduled maintenance, but does not include minor

construction or change work.
Management – The effective, efficient, economical leadership of people
and use of money, materials, time, and space to achieve predetermined
objectives. It is a process of establishing and attaining objectives and
carrying out responsibilities that include planning, organizing, direct-
ing, staffing, controlling, and evaluating.
Material – All items used or needed in any business, industry, or opera-
tion as distinguished from personnel.
Mean time between failure (MTBF) – The average time/distance/events
a product delivers between breakdowns.
Mean time between maintenance (MTBM) – The average time between
both corrective and preventive actions.
Mean time between replacement (MTBR) – Average use of an item
between replacements due to malfunction or any other reason.
Mean time to repair (MTTR) – The average time it takes to fix a failed
item.
Median – The quantity or value of an item in a series of quantities or
values, so positioned in the series that, when arranged in order of
numerical quantity or value, there are an equal number of values of
greater magnitude and of lesser magnitude.
Mission profile – A time-phased description of the events and environ-
ments an item experiences from initiation to completion of a specified
mission, to include the criteria of mission success or critical failure.
Model – Simulation of an event, process, or product physically, verbally,
or mathematically.
Modification – Change in configuration.
Normal – Statistical distribution commonly described as a “bell curve.”
Mean, mode, and median are the same in the normal distribution.
MTBR – See mean time between repair.
MTTR – See mean time to repair.
On-condition maintenance – Inspection of characteristics which will
warn of pending failure, and performance of preventive maintenance
after the warning threshold but before total failure.
Operating time – Time during which equipment is performing in a
manner acceptable to the operator.
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Overhaul – A comprehensive inspection and restoration of machin-

ery/equipment, or one of its major parts, to an acceptable condition at
a durability time or usage limit.
Predictive and preventive (Scheduled, planned) maintenance – All
actions performed in an attempt to retain a machine in specified con-
dition by providing systematic inspection, detection, and prevention of
incipient failures.
Predictive maintenance – Predictive maintenance is a maintenance
method that involves a minimum of intervention. In its simplest form it
is based on the old adage “don’t touch, just look.” In the context of pro-
cess machinery, predictive maintenance is practiced through machinery
health monitoring methods such as vibration and performance analysis.
Preventive maintenance (PM) – Actions performed in an attempt to
keep an item in a specified operating condition by means of systematic
periodic inspection, detection, and prevention of incipient failure. See
also Scheduled Maintenance.
Proactive – A style of initiative that is anticipatory and planned for.
Probability distribution – Whenever there is an event E which may
have outcomes E1  E2      En , whose probabilities of occurrence are
p1  p2      pn , one speaks of the set of probability numbers as the p.d.
(probability density) associated with the various ways in which the
event may occur. The word “probability distribution” refers therefore
to the way in which the available supply of probability, i.e. unity, is
“distributed” over the various things that may happen.
Production – A term used to designate manufacturing or fabrication in
an organized enterprise.
Random – Any change whose occurrence is not predictable with respect
to time or events.
Re-rating – Alteration of a machine, a system, or a function by redesign
or review for change in performance; mostly, but not always, for
increased capacity, etc.
RCFA – See Root Cause Failure Analysis.
RCM – See reliability-centered maintenance.
Rebuild/recondition – Total teardown and reassembly of a product,
usually to the latest configuration. See also revamp.
Redundance (Redundancy) – Two or more parts, components, or sys-
tems joined functionally so that if one fails, some or all of the remaining
 Glossary 645

components are capable of continuing with function accomplishment;

fail-safe; backup.
Refurbish – Clean and replace worn parts on a selective basis to make
the product usable to a customer. Less involved than rebuild.
Reliability R – The probability that an item will perform its intended
function without failure for a specified time period under specified
conditions.
Reliability-centered maintenance – Optimizing maintenance interven-
tion and tactics to meet predetermined reliability goals.
Reliability growth – Machine reliability improvement as a result of
identifying and eliminating machinery or equipment failure causes
during machine-testing and operation.
Reliability modeling – A model that uses individual component reliabilities
to define reliability of a subsystem. Allows for analysis of parallel versus
series systems, and defines low reliability components of a subsystem.
Reliability testing – Reliability testing is used to demonstrate MTBF
(mean time between failure). Once the MTBF of a critical component
is defined, a test can be performed (with a measure of confidence) to
demonstrate this MTBF. A measure of confidence is built into statisti-
cally designed test plans, guaranteeing that if the MTBF requirement
has not been achieved, there is a low probability that the test will be
passed.
Repair – The restoration or replacement of components of facilities or
equipment as necessitated by wear, tear, damage, or failure. To return
the facility or equipment to efficient operating condition.
Repair parts – Individual parts or assemblies required for the mainte-
nance or repair of equipment, systems, or spares. Such repair parts may
be repairable or non-repairable assemblies or one-piece items. Con-
sumable supplies used in maintenance, such as wiping rags, solvent,
and lubricants, are not considered repair parts.
Repairable item – Durable item determined by application of engi-
neering, economic, and other factors to be restorable to serviceable
condition through regular repair procedures.
Replaceable item – Hardware that is functionally interchangeable with
another item but differs physically from the original part to the extent
that installation of the replacement requires such operations as drilling,
reaming, cutting, filing, or shimming in addition to normal attachment
or installation operations.
646 Maximizing machinery uptime

Return On Capital Employed – ROCE.

Return On Net Assets – RONA.
Revamp – Change as to upgrade or modernize.
ROCE – Return On Capital Employed.
RONA – Return On Net Assets.
Root Cause Failure Analysis – A formalized systematic approach effort
to determine the underlying cause of a failure. This effort is generally
separate from repair activities but should be part of the repair cycle. It
usually entails a detailed technical analysis of the failure mode by a team
of experts.
Safety – Elimination of hazardous conditions that could cause injury.
Protection against failure, breakage, and accident.
Scheduled maintenance – Preplanned actions performed to keep an item
in specified operating condition by means of systematic inspection,
detection, and prevention of incipient failure. Sometimes called pre-
ventive maintenance, but actually a subset of PM.
Scheduled (planned) downtime – The elapsed time that the machine is
down for scheduled maintenance or turned off for other reasons.
Spares – Components, assemblies, and equipment that are completely
interchangeable with like items and can be used to replace items
removed during maintenance.
Specifications – Documents or verbal communication that clearly and
accurately describe the essential technical requirements for materials,
items, equipment, systems, or services, including the procedures by
which it will be determined that the requirements have been met. Doc-
uments may include performance, support, preservation, packaging,
packing, and marking requirements.
Standards – Established or accepted rules, models, or criteria by which
the degree of user satisfaction of a product or an act is determined, or
against which comparisons are made.
Standard deviation – A measure of average dispersion or departure from
the mean of numbers, computed as the square root of the average of
the squares of the differences between the numbers and their arithmetic
mean. It is also a measure of uncertainty when applied to probability
density distribution.
Standard item – An item for common use described accurately by a
standard document or drawing.
 Glossary 647

Standby – Assets installed or available but not in use.

Surveillability – A qualitative factor influencing reliability. It contains
such considerations as accessibility for surveillance and monitoring of
a machine or its function(s), etc.
System – Assembly of correlated hardware, software, methods, proce-
dures, and people, or any combination of these, all arranged or ordered
toward a common objective.
Time – The universal measure of duration.
Time to repair (TTR) – Total clock time from the occurrence of failure
of a component or system to the time when the component or system is
restored to service (i.e., capable of producing good parts or performing
operations within acceptable limits). Typical elements of repair time
are diagnostic time, troubleshooting time, waiting time for spare parts,
replacement/fixing of broken parts, testing time, and restoring.
Total downtime – The elapsed time during which a machine is not
capable of operating to specifications.
Total downtime = scheduled downtime + unscheduled downtime
Total productive maintenance – Company-wide equipment manage-
ment program emphasizing operator involvement in equipment main-
tenance and continuous improvement in equipment effectiveness.
TPM – See total productive maintenance.
Training – The pragmatic approach to supplementing education with
particular knowledge and assistance in developing special skills. Help-
ing people to learn to practice an art, science, trade, profession, or
related activity. Basically more specialized than education and involves
learning what to do rather than why it is done.
Troubleshooting – Locating or isolating and identifying discrepancies
or malfunctions of equipment and determining the corrective action
required.
Unscheduled (unplanned) downtime – The elapsed time that the
machine is incapable of operating to specifications because of unan-
ticipated breakdowns.
Unscheduled maintenance (UM) – Emergency maintenance (EM) or
corrective maintenance (CM) to restore a failed item to usable condi-
tion. Often referred to as breakdown maintenance.
Useful life – The number of life units from manufacture to when the item
has an unrepairable failure or unacceptable failure rate.
648 Maximizing machinery uptime

Up – In a condition suitable for use.

Uptime – The capacity to produce and provide goods and services.
Utilization factor – Use or availability.
Warranty – Guarantee that an item will perform as specified for at least
a specified time.
Wear out – The process that results in an increase of the failure rate or
probability of failure with increasing number of life units.

Note: Some of the definitions in this glossary were selected from MIL-STD-721C and the SAE
publication Reliability and Maintenance Guidelines for Manufacturing Machinery and Equipment.