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MTTR AND MTBF, WHAT ARE

THEY AND WHAT ARE THEIR
DIFFERENCES?
Por: Pedro César Tebaldi Gomes em

18.08.2015

Mean Time Between Failures and Mean Time To

Repair
MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures) and MTTR (Mean Time To Repair) are two very
important indicators when it comes to availability of an application. Despite its
importance in the performance of the processes, most managers do not make full
use of these key performance indicators (KPIs) in their control activities. Find out in
the next few lines the differences between these two metrics and how they can be
used to improve the efficiency of the processes in your company.
What is MTBF and MTTR
MTBF, or Mean Time Between Failures, is a metric that concerns the average time
elapsed between a failure and the next time it occurs. These lapses of time can be
calculated by using a formula.

Whereas the MTTR, or Mean Time To Repair, is the time it takes to run a repair
after the occurrence of the failure. That is, it is the time spent during the
intervention in a given process.

The difference of MTBF and MTTR to MTTF

Remember that we are dealing with systems, facilities, equipment or processes
that can be repaired. If we were talking about something irreparable, the correct
KPI would be the MTTF (Mean Time To Failure). Differentiating these concepts is
essential for businesses of all sectors, especially those working with high-
availability environments where failures can result in large losses with sales
forgone or with loss of confidence in the delivery of services.

The two formulas

Conceptual differences, different formulas! Check the ways to calculate MTBF and
MTTR:

MTBF
total time of correct operation in a period/number of failures

For example: a system should operate correctly for 9 hours During this period, 4
failures occurred. Adding to all failures, we have 60 minutes (1 hour). Calculating
the MTBF, we would have:

MTBF = (9-1)/4 = 2 hours

This index reveals that a failure in the system occurs every 2 hours, leaving it
unavailable and generating losses to the company. The opportunity to spot this
index allows you to plan strategies to reduce this time.

MTTR
total hours of downtime caused by system failures/number of failures
Using the same example, we come to the MTTR, by using the following formula:

MTTR = 60 min/4 failures = 15 minutes

Above, we have the average time of each downtime. Therefore, the company
knows that every 2 hours, the system will be unavailable for 15 minutes. Being
aware of our limitations is the first step to eliminate them.

Uptime calculation
The uptime calculation involves MTTR and MTBF. We can get to the uptime of a
system, for instance, using these 2 KPIs. Let’s check the formula:

uptime = MTBF/(MTBF + MTTR)

To be more clear, nothing better than a practical example. Imagine the following
situation:

A. How long the system should work: 36 hours

B. How long the system was not working: 24 hours
C. How long the system has been available: 12 hours
D. A total of 4 failures occurred.

uptime: (A-B/D) / [(A-B/D) + (B/D)] = (36-24/4) / [(36-24/4) + (24/4)] = 3 / 9 = 33%

Benefits in the use of these performance indicators

MTTR and MTBF are two indicators used for more than 60 years as points of
reference for decision-making. MTBF is a basic measure of the reliability of a
system, while MTTR indicates efficiency on corrective action of a process.
If the MTBF has increased after a preventive maintenance process, this indicates a
clear improvement in the quality of your processes and, probably, in your final
product, which will bring greater credibility to your brand and trust in your
products. The MTBF increase will show that your maintenance or verification
methods are being well run, a true guide to support teams.

In the case of MTTR, the effort should be exactly the opposite: to reduce it as much
as possible to avoid loss of productivity for system unavailability. A lower mean-
time-to-repair indicates that your company has quick answers to problems in their
processes, which demonstrates a high degree of efficiency.

As it can be noticed, MTTR and MTBF are two powerful performance indicators that
should be used to expand the company’s knowledge about processes and reduce
losses in productivity or quality in the products offered.

Have you got any questions on these two indicators? Continue browsing our blog
to learn more about technology issues and don’t forget to share this article with
your co-workers. To learn more about the availability calculation please read our
article about the costs of a downtime.

Software for monitoring MTTR (Mean Time To Respond) and

MTBF (Mean Time Between Failure)
To monitor both MTTR and MTBF, it is necessary to use some kind of solution for
monitoring the infrastructure. From the availability of the environment managed it
is possible to measure the average time between failures and the average time for
repair. All outages are alerted on the platform with the possibility of generating
reports to measure MTTR/MTBF.

As developers of OpMon, a solution for monitoring IT infrastructure and business

processes, we always indicate it if customers want to measure this type of indicator
besides, of course, all its technology park. If you are interested, click the button
below:

GET TO LEARN ABOUT OPMON AND MONITOR YOUR IT

INFRASTRUCTURE

Have you got any questions about these two referentialities? Keep browsing our
blog to learn more about technology topics and be sure to share this article with
your coworkers. To learn more about availability calculations, read our article on
the costs of a downtime.

Compartilhe:
6 Comments Sort by Oldest

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Saloni Kapoor
This is great and wonderful post.
Thanks for sharing.
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Like · Reply · 24w

Kumaravel Thangavelu
well explained
Like · Reply · 18w

Abdelaleem Dowidar
Great post
Like · Reply · 15w

Yohannes Negatie
this is good i know some thing thanks
alot
Like · Reply · 14w

Aman Arora
Effective information. Thank you.
Like · Reply · 14w

Rahul Aggarwal
I like this article.I was searching over
search engines and found your blog
and its really helps thank you very
much…
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nt-total-security.html
Like · Reply · 4w

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