Course Aim

The 32-hour Weibull Analysis Course teaches students how to use reliability failure data to create insightful and meaningful information to make better decisions that range from understanding reliability characteristics through to how your system fails (which means that you know how to IMPROVE reliability and other performance characteristics). Weibull analysis is one of the most widely used and powerful statistical tools to investigate reliability data – especially when there is not a lot of data available (which describes most commercial and operational scenarios).

The course focuses on practical, real-world applications of Weibull analysis. This includes predicting reliability performance (such as warranty reliability), determining key reliability milestones (such as warranty period, service-life or ‘BX’ lives), the nature of failure (wear-in, wear-out and everything in between), if your system has multiple failure modes … and lots of other key inputs to product development decisions.

Students also receive the Acuitas Weibull Plotting Tool which is based on Microsoft Excel ®. Commercial software the provides the same outputs usually involve licenses that cost tens of thousands of license fees each year!

By the end of this course, you will be able to look at a Weibull Plot like the one above and be able to determine key failure and reliability characteristics … without having to rely on lots of equations and theory! You will become masters of the ‘basics’ and the more complex applications of Weibull analysis. In-depth and increasingly challenging worked exercises will ensure that you feel comfortable solving even the most challenging problems in your workplace using Weibull analysis.

Perhaps most importantly, you will be able to interpret and describe what reliability data means to your bosses, your peers (and yourself!).

Course Outline

Improving is better than measuring reliability. Introduction | Why Reliability Engineering | How we describe what random looks like | How do we measure reliability?

How do we describe (random) failure? The exponential distribution | The normal distribution | The lognormal distribution | The Weibull distribution

Plotting data to learn something. Probability Plotting | How to ‘FIT’ a theory to data | Advanced ways to ‘FIT’ a theory to data | Probability Plotting Exercise

The Acuitas Weibull Plotting Tool. Interpreting Weibull Plots | Hidden information in Weibull Plots | Dealing with ‘dirty’ or censored data | Using the Acuitas Weibull Plotting Tool

Sucking information out of your Weibull plot. Choosing the ‘best’ model for your data | Detailed Weibull Analysis | Getting the most out of your data | Confidence in our conclusions

More types of Weibull analysis. Using Weibull analysis to optimize maintenance | Weibayes analysis | Accelerated Life Testing (ALT) with the Weibull Distribution | 3 Parameter Weibull Analysis

Weibull analysis making a difference. Is data from the same process? | Weibull analysis from first principles | Different ways to use Weibull analysis | Making better decisions

Finalizing our Weibull mastery. Let’s practice Weibull plotting | Let’s practice sucking information out of our Weibull plot | Let’s practice making better decisions | Wrap up

Course Material

The following resources will be provided to attendees of this course:

1. An editable PDF course workbook

2. Weibull Plotting Tool (Microsoft Excel) – licensed for student use only