Weibull Analysis

Taught by Jim Breneman

Days :Wednesday, July 29, 2015, 8:00am – 5:00 pm

This 8-hour course answers the questions:

1. What is Weibull Analysis and why is it useful?
2. What type of data do I need for Weibull Analysis?
3. I’ve had a couple failures of a Safety critical part, can Weibull analysis help me?
4. How can I calculate the number of future events with the few failures I have?
5. What should I expect from Managers/Customers when I present my analysis?

We progress from the language of Reliability & Statistics to quickly move into the what, why and usefulness of the Weibull Failure Distribution. Short explanation via analogy:
Weibull analysis generally refers to the process of fitting a Weibull distribution to a set of data, usually time or cycles to failure data, for the same reasons that we fit normal distributions to manufacturing data. The fitted Weibull distribution smoothes out small sample variation and produces a concise description of the data with just two statistics.
Conclusions may be drawn:

• Will 99.5% of the population survive until the next overhaul?
• Is Supplier A’s time-to-failure distribution = Supplier B’s time-to-failure distribution?
• How long do I have to test a new design?
• How fast must we fix the failure mode in the fleet?

In summary, the fitted Weibull distribution is a tool that helps turn raw data into useful information.

Students will receive a CD of all material used(.pdf’s, .xls,.doc) and a certificate for 0.8 RU’s after successful completion.
Student must bring: Attendees are expected to bring their own laptop computers. While the course will concentrate on the content-not any particular software, a software package is necessary to facilitate learning of the material. EXCEL, Minitab will be used. If attendees do not have Minitab installed on their computer, a 30-day free trial can be downloaded from www.minitab.com ; but please make note not to download and install the software more than 30 days prior to the course.

Biography of Speaker

Jim Breneman worked for Pratt & Whitney, a division of United Technologies for almost 35 years before retiring in 2008. At retirement, he was an ACE mentor, as well as the Manager of Engineering Technical Excellence. Jim formed and guided P&W’s Engineering Technical University, and he was responsible for all P&W Research & Development Agreements with Universities, as well as the P&W Information System & Library. Jim is a Pratt &Whitney Fellow in Reliability & Statistics.
Jim has been a member of SAE since 1986 and is an SAE Fellow in Reliability. He also is a former Chair of Sections Board Member and a former Chair of the SAE G-11 Reliability, Maintainability and Supportability Committee. In addition, Jim has been a member of: American Statistical Association since 1977, the Society of Reliability Engineers since 2000, and the American Society for Quality since 2007. He has taught and developed Quality & Statistics curricula in various forms for industry and academia.He received a B.S. in Mathematics from UNC-Chapel Hill and an M.S. in Applied Mathematics from NC State University -with a minor in Statistics and Computer Science.