title: Red (band)

text: Red supported "End of Silence" with a tour that began in 2006 and supported by various acts, including Three Days Grace, Breaking Benjamin, and Candlebox. In November 2007, their transit van and trailer crashed into a guardrail on Interstate 24 and slid sideways across a highway, causing major damage to the vehicles and Lamb suffering injuries to his already injured shoulder that forced him to sit for some of the remaining dates. Lamb returned, but the injury had affected his ability to travel and perform which led to his departure in 2008. He was replaced by his friend Joe Rickard. The incident became a source of inspiration and "fuel" for the band's future songs. In 2009, "Lost" won a GMA Dove Award for Recorded Song of the Year at its 40th ceremony. By 2009, the band had performed over 500 gigs.


title: Red (band)

text: Red started work on their second album, "Innocence & Instinct", shortly after they had completed "End of Silence". In January 2008, they began a six-week period rehearsing and laying down drum tracks so they could continue recording while on tour. Graves joined the group on the road and assembled a studio at the back of their tour bus. They would assemble hotel mattresses in a corner and record vocals in the enclosed space. Recording took place at Little Big Sound, The Graveyard, and Paragon Studios in Tennessee. and Their website issued a statement explaining the album "was forged from a storm of inspiration and catastrophe", and later revealed "Dante's Inferno" and artwork by Gustave Doré as inspirations behind the music. They halted its progress to headline a nationwide club tour in March 2008, their first without a restrictive time slot which allowed them to develop their stage performance.


title: Red (band)

text: Released on February 10, 2009, "Innocence & Instinct" fared better on the charts than their first effort, entering the "Billboard" 200 at No. 15 and selling 39,000 copies in its first week. "Shadows" was co-written by Breaking Benjamin founder and singer Benjamin Burnley. A Deluxe Edition was also released with "Forever", an additional track, and bonus features. The single "Fight Inside" became the first by a Christian rock band to enter the "Radio & Records" charts at No. 1. In 2009, Red unveiled their new website to coincide with the video and single release of "Forever". Soon after, the band confirmed that Lamb had left the band due to the injuries sustained from the car crash along with Rauch, who wished to dedicate time with his family, and Rickard had become a full-time member. Rauch's contract with Red allowed him to continue writing for the band for some time after his departure. "Innocence & Instinct" won Rock Album of the Year at the 2010 GMA Dove Awards.


title: Red (band)

text: Red toured the album from February 2009 through 2010 with Saving Abel, Pop Evil, and Taddy Porter on the Class of 2009 Tour. On their website the band announced that they will be touring with Pillar and The Wedding on their new tour "Nothing and Everything" Tour which started in January 2010. In March, the band toured with Breaking Benjamin, Thousand Foot Krutch and Chevelle, followed by the Awake and Alive Tour with Skillet and The Letter Black.


title: Red (band)

text: Red worked on new material for "Until We Have Faces" during their 2009–2010 tours. They travelled with a portable case that unfolds into a mini recording studio, allowing them to put down ideas in the green room at venues. In a departure from their usual songwriting methods, much of the demo material stemmed from Rauch's rhythms he developed for song ideas on his home kit, leaving the rest of the group to develop their parts from them. Barnes said the band wanted to direct the album towards the idea of someone finding their own identity, and drew inspirations from various sources, including the novel "Till We Have Faces" by C.S. Lewis.


title: Red (band)

text: "Until We Have Faces" was released on February 1, 2011. The band released a teaser video online, featuring the band's name on a sheet of parchment which burns away and revealing the album's title. A picture was posted on Graves's Twitter account showing three guitars with tape on them showing tunings of A#, A, and G#, which hinted that this record may be heavier than the previous two. As part of the preliminary hype for the album, Red asked fans to send photos of their faces to the band. On December 9, codes were given to all fans that sent in pictures of their faces to download an MP3 for the song "Feed the Machine". The fan photos were used to create a mosaic poster. Red promoted the album's release with performances on the network television shows "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" and "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno", their first television appearances. The album also debuted at No. 2 on the "Billboard" 200. "Feed the Machine" started to be added to Active Rock Radio stations in mid-February. "Until We Have Faces" has sold approximately 100,000 copies in the US. "Start Again" won Best Rock Recorded Song of the Year at the 2011 GMA Dove Awards.


title: Red (band)

text: Red was a part of the 2011 WinterJam lineup which started up in January. They joined Union Entertainment label-mates Hinder on their All American Nightmare Tour which kicked off on May 10, 2011. On June 5, 2011, they started their Kill Th3 Machin3 Tour with Oh No Fiasco, Taddy Porter, Red Jumpsuit Apparatus and Evans Blue. In September 2011 they went on the "Rock Allegiance Tour" with Buckcherry, Papa Roach, Puddle of Mudd, P.O.D., Crossfade and Drive A. They hit the road immediately after this to start their second leg of the Kill Th3 Machin3 Tour, with Brian "Head" Welch, Echoes the Fall and Icon for Hire. The tour ended in Atlanta, Georgia on October 26. RED completed the WinterJam 2011 WEST COAST in November and participated in Christmas Rock Night during the holiday season. Red was also the first band to ever enter Loudwire's Cage Match Hall of Fame, beating bands like Skillet, Seether, and Nickelback. In 2011, Red were made Grand Marshalls of a parade in Linesville, Pennsylvania, the town where the Armstrongs and Barnes grew up.


title: Red (band)

text: In February and March 2012 they were on the Redvolution Tour with Thousand Foot Krutch, Manafest, Nine Lashes, and Kiros. Red announced a European tour in April 2012.


title: Red (band)

text: On July 10, 2012, Red announced their fourth album, "Release the Panic", was in progress. For the first time in their career, the band worked with a different producer other than Graves, choosing Howard Benson. He intentionally stripped the band's sound and made it less produced, and Red adopted a more melodic and alternative rock sound than previous releases. They worked one year and a half on writing the music, and around two years recording. The first single, "Release the Panic", was released in November 2012. "Release the Panic" was released on February 5, 2013. The album debuted on the U.S. "Billboard" 200 chart at No. 7, with first week sales of around 41,000. Red coincided the release of "Release the Panic" with their 3-disc anthology album "Who We Are: The Red Anthology", formed of their first three albums.


title: Red (band)

text: Their subsequent tours culminated in Rickard's final performance with the band on January 26, 2014, before he finished the sessions for the Red remix EP "Release the Panic: Re-Calibrated", released on April 29, 2014, and left the group. Debuting at No. 75 on the "Billboard" 200 charts, the release includes six songs from "Release the Panic" with orchestral arrangements and new elements added to the original tracks and one new song. Rickard was replaced by Love and Death drummer Dan Johnson, in time for an eight-city tour with Demon Hunter and Veridia.


title: Red (band)

text: For their fifth studio release, Red resumed their association with Graves and, in January 2014, returned to the ski lodge studio in Maine to develop material for "Of Beauty and Rage". As they prepared new material, they discussed what they had learned while making "Release the Panic" and what they wished to do differently for the new album. A snowstorm occurred during this time, forcing the group inside which, according to Barnes, benefited the writing process. They produced four demos as the result of what they thought Red fans wanted to hear, and aspects in life that passionately drives them. The group experienced "personal heartbreak and loss" while making it, and named the opening and closing instrumental tracks "Descent" and "Ascent" respectively, as they found studio time partnered with their faith uplifting. During the album's recording, Red announced their total career sales had totalled 1.1 million units.


title: Red (band)

text: The album was released on February 24, 2015, and debuted at No. 11 on the "Billboard" 200 charts. A graphic novel, "The Ever", telling the story behind the album, was released in January 2016.


title: Red (band)

text: In June 2016, "End of Silence" was re-released as a deluxe edition to commemorate its tenth anniversary. It contains a new song, "If I Break", a song already cut but left off the original album, an instrumental demo, "Circles", and other bonus content. Red celebrated the release with an anniversary tour which marked the return to performing songs from the album after a long time, playing smaller venues, and using older instruments.


title: Red (band)

text: On September 26, 2017, Gospel Music Association released an article about an upcoming album. The article also stated that Red had sold almost 2 million albums. Material for Red's sixth album, "Gone", was already being worked on in November 2016, with the main rehearsal sessions taking place the month after. Anthony Armstrong expressed a shift in releasing albums in the traditional way due to the decline in physical sales and the popularity of digital music. He also said the group would stray from Christian music markets more on this release, and would focus more efforts into promoting and touring within the general music market, which is where they began. "Gone" was officially announced in September 2017, and released on October 27, debuting at No. 13 on the "Billboard" 200 charts. A 17-track deluxe edition was also released.


title: Red (band)

text: The band posted an update, via a YouTube video on January 21, 2019. They announced that they are no longer signed to Essential/Sony and they will record their next album independently. They also announced that touring drummer Dan Johnson will join the band full-time as their fourth member, thus making a four-piece lineup for the first time since 2014. On June 7, the band released "The Evening Hate", their first new released music since leaving their record label. After announcing a small run of 10th anniversary tour dates for "Innocence & Instinct", the band released another single, "From the Ashes", accompanied by a lyric video, and announced more tour dates. On September 17, they announced a tour with In Flames for 36 dates across North America. On October 11, the band announced a new EP, "The Evening Hate", would be released November 1, in addition to releasing a new single, "Hemorrhage", a cover of the Fuel song of the same name.


title: Red (band)

text: On January 10, 2020, the band announced that their upcoming seventh studio album, "Declaration", is set for release on April 10, 2020. On March 25, the band announced that "Declaration" would be released a week earlier than its original April 10 release date. The album was released on April 3 as planned, and peaked at No. 61 on the "Billboard" 200 charts. On February 9, 2021, the band announced that they had parted ways with Dan Johnson. Shortly after Johnson's departure, the band hired new drummer Brian Medeiros.


title: Red (band)

text: The group's first live album, "Until We Have Faces: Live and Unplugged", was released on December 2, 2022.


title: Red (band)

text: Red's musical style has been described as Christian rock, alternative rock, alternative metal, Christian metal, nu metal, post-grunge and hard rock.


title: Blair Tindall

text: Blair Tindall (born February 2, 1960) is an American oboist, performer, producer, speaker, and journalist.


title: Blair Tindall

text: Tindall was born in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, to historian George Brown Tindall and Blossom Tindall. She started playing the piano at an early age and switched to oboe when joining the junior high school band; because of her surname's place in alphabetical order, she was the last person able to choose an instrument, and the only one available was the oboe. She attended high school at the North Carolina School of the Arts, received bachelor's and master's degrees from the Manhattan School of Music, and a masters in communication from Stanford University, which she attended on a full tuition fellowship. She also attended Columbia University.


title: Blair Tindall

text: Tindall spent 23 years as a professional musician in New York City, playing with such groups as the New York Philharmonic, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and the Orchestra of St. Luke's, presenting a critically acclaimed solo debut at Carnegie Recital Hall, and earning a jazz Grammy nomination. She has also performed on many film soundtracks, including those of the movies "Malcolm X", for which she was lauded in "CD Review Magazine", "Crooklyn," and "Twilight". She has also performed with Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts at the Blue Note Jazz Club.


title: Blair Tindall

text: Tindall taught journalism at Stanford and music at the University of California, Berkeley and Mills College. She has also received residencies at the MacDowell Colony, Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, and the Ucross Foundation.


title: Blair Tindall

text: While studying at Stanford, Tindall supported herself by performing with the San Francisco Symphony and as a soloist with the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players. During this time, she was also a staff business reporter at the "Examiner" (Hearst) and critic-at-large for the "Contra Costa Times" in Walnut Creek. She went on to write for "The New York Times", "Agence France-Presse", the "Los Angeles Times", "Sierra", "The Sydney Morning Herald", and the "International Herald Tribune".


title: Blair Tindall

text: In 2005, she published "Mozart in the Jungle: Sex, Drugs, and Classical Music" (Atlantic Monthly Press), a memoir of her experiences in the classical music world, which National Public Radio named one of the top five arts stories of the year. Her book was also lauded by musicologist Richard Taruskin in "The New Republic" as "the smartest take on [the classical music] situation". In 2014, the book was adapted for an Amazon Studios web video series of the same name. The pilot was written by Roman Coppola, Jason Schwartzman, and Alex Timbers, and directed by Paul Weitz. The series stars Lola Kirke, Malcolm McDowell, Saffron Burrows, Bernadette Peters, and Gael García Bernal.


title: Blair Tindall

text: Tindall married science educator Bill Nye on February 3, 2006. The ceremony was performed by Rick Warren at The Entertainment Gathering at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles. Yo-Yo Ma provided the music. Seven weeks later, the State of California declared the marriage invalid, for reasons that neither Tindall nor Nye have ever revealed. At that point Nye left the relationship, and had the marriage annulled. In 2007, Tindall broke into Nye's house and stole several items including his laptop, which she used to send defamatory emails impersonating him, and damaged his garden with herbicide. In response, Nye obtained a restraining order against her. Tindall acknowledged killing his plants but denied being a threat to him. After violating the order in 2009, Tindall was ordered to pay $57,000 of Nye's legal expenses.


title: Zainab Johnson

text: Zainab Johnson is an American comedian and actress. She is best known as a semi-finalist on NBC's "Last Comic Standing". Johnson is a series regular on Amazon's "Upload".


title: Zainab Johnson

text: Johnson was born and raised in Harlem, New York, one of 13 children. She was raised by her parents as a devout Muslim. She received her bachelor's degree in mathematics with the intention of becoming a teacher.


title: Zainab Johnson

text: Johnson later moved to Los Angeles to become an actress. She took a job as a production assistant for comedy shows and began to cultivate an interest in comedy. She gained wider visibility when she appeared on season 8 of "Last Comic Standing". Johnson advanced as a semi-finalist.


title: Zainab Johnson

text: In 2016, Johnson appeared on the HBO special "All Def Comedy". In 2017, it was announced that a project created and starring Johnson was in development via Wanda Sykes' production company at ABC. That year, she co-starred in the web series "Avant-Guardians", opposite series creator Alesia Etinoff.


title: Zainab Johnson

text: Johnson co-hosts the Netflix series "100 Humans". She also has a recurring role in the 2020 Amazon series, "Upload".


title: Dangun

text: Dangun (; ) or Dangun Wanggeom (; ) was the legendary founder and god-king of Gojoseon, the first Korean kingdom, around present-day Liaoning province in Northeast China and the northern part of the Korean Peninsula. He is said to be the "grandson of heaven" and "son of a bear", and to have founded the kingdom in 2333 BC. The earliest recorded version of the Dangun legend appears in the 13th-century "Samguk Yusa", which cites China's "Book of Wei" and Korea's lost historical record "Gogi (lit. 'Ancient Record')" (고기, ). However, it has been confirmed that there is no relevant record in the China's" Book of Wei". There are around seventeen religious groups that focus on the worship of Dangun.


title: Dangun

text: Koreans regard the day when Dangun founded Gojoseon, Korea's first dynasty, as a national holiday and call it Gaecheonjeol (개천절; 開天節). The Gaecheonjeol is 3 October. It is a religious anniversary started by Daejonggyo (대종교; 大倧教) worshipping Dangun. Gaecheonjeol is a day to commemorate Dangun's founding of Gojoseon, but 3 October is not actually the date when Gojoseon was founded.


title: Dangun

text: Dangun's ancestry legend begins with his grandfather Hwanin (환인/), the "Lord of Heaven". Hwanin had a son, Hwanung (환웅/ Hanja: 桓雄), who yearned to live on the earth among the valleys and the mountains. Hwanin permitted Hwanung and 3,000 followers to descend onto Baekdu Mountain, where Hwanung founded the Sinsi (신시/ Hanja: 神市, "City of God"). Along with his ministers of clouds, rain and wind, he instituted laws and moral codes and taught humans various arts, medicine, and agriculture. Legend attributes the development of acupuncture and moxibustion to Dangun.


title: Dangun

text: A tiger and a bear prayed to Hwanung that they might become human. Upon hearing their prayers, Hwanung gave them twenty cloves of garlic and a bundle of mugwort, ordering them to eat only this sacred food and remain out of the sunlight for 100 days. The tiger gave up after about twenty days and left the cave. However, the bear persevered and was transformed into a woman. The bear and the tiger are said to represent two tribes that sought the favor of the heavenly prince.


title: Dangun

text: The bear-woman, Ungnyeo, (Hangul; 웅녀/ Hanja: ) was grateful and made offerings to Hwanung. However, she lacked a husband, and soon became sad and prayed beneath a "divine birch" tree () to be blessed with a child. Hwanung, moved by her prayers, took her for his wife and soon she gave birth to a son named Dangun Wanggeom.


title: Dangun

text: Dangun ascended to the throne, built the walled city of Asadal situated near Pyongyang (the location is disputed), and called the kingdom Joseon—referred to today as Gojoseon "Old/Ancient Joseon" (고조선, Hanja: 古朝鮮) so as not to be confused with the later kingdom of Joseon (조선, Hanja: 朝鮮) that was established roughly 2000 years later. He then moved his capital to Asadal on Mount Paegak or Mount Gunghol.


title: Dangun

text: Dangun's biography reflected the interest of the people of Dangun Joseon (Gojoseon) at the time in establishing the legitimacy of the kingship of Gojoseon and the dignity of the country. The king of Gojoseon conducted a ritual in honor of his ancestral god every year. Soon, the myth of Dangun was the political ideology of the Gojoseon period, and the ritual had a function of political assembly.


title: Dangun

text: Emperor Dangun's rule is usually calculated to begin in 2333 BCE, based on the description of the "Dongguk Tonggam" (1485) contrary to the 40th year of the reign of the legendary Chinese Emperor Yao. Other sources vary somewhat, but also put it during Yao's reign (traditional dates: 2357 BC-2256 BC). The "Samguk Yusa" states Dangun ascended to the throne in the 50th year of Yao's reign, while "Annals of the Joseon Dynasty" says the first year and "Dongguk Tonggam" says the 25th year.


title: Dangun

text: Until 1961, the official South Korean era (for numbering years) was called the "Dangi" (), which began in 2333 BC. Followers of Daejongism considered 3 October in the Korean calendar as "Gaecheonjeol" ( "Festival of the Opening of Heaven"). This day is now a public holiday in South Korea in the Gregorian calendar called "National Foundation Day". North Korea dates Dangun's founding of Gojoseon to the early 30th century BC.


title: Dangun

text: 15 March in the year 4340 of the Dangun Era is called "Royal Day Festival" (hangul: 어천절 hanja: romaja: "eo-cheon-jeol"), the day that the semi-legendary founder Dangun returned to the heavens.


title: Dangun

text: Dangun began to attract attention during the late Goryeo Dynasty, when Koreans fought wars against the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty. During the Joseon Dynasty they were worshiped as the ancestors of the nation. In the Joseon Dynasty, a shrine dedicated to Dangun of Gojoseon and King Dongmyeong of Goguryeo was built in Pyongyang, and the Samseongdang (삼성당/三聖堂), dedicated to the gods of Hwanin, Hwanung, and Dangun, was built.


title: Dangun

text: In Korea at the end of the 19th century, it was greatly emphasized to highlight the resistance of the Joseon people against Imperialist invasion, and it developed into a religion, Dangunkyo (단군교/檀君敎). Dangun, who emerged as the central figure of nationalism, played a large role in the spiritual foundation of the independence movement during the Japanese colonial period. In addition, the history of the Dangun era was compiled by Daejonggyo (대종교) powers such as 'Daedong Sagang (대동사강)' and 'Gyuwon Sahwa (규원사화)' and the independence movement, emphasizing the history of the Dangun period.


title: Dangun

text: The study of Dangun in South Korea focused on the historical significance of the Gojoseon society. In South Korea, Dangun Wanggeom is regarded as the head of the Gojoseon society, with many characteristics of the role of high priest. Wanggeom has the meaning of an overlord who governs the country.


title: Dangun

text: In North Korea, the Dangun and Dangun myths were previously established as the founding myth to justify the process of establishing the Gojoseon regime. However, after the excavation of the Mausoleum of Tangun in 1994, he changed his position and claimed that the Dangun myth reflects historical facts and that Dangun is a real person. Also, Dangun claims that the first king of Gojoseon, founded by the Korean people, had all of his birth, founding, and tombs in Pyongyang. There is a tomb of Dangun that North Korea excavated and reconstructed near the city directly under Pyongyang.


title: Dangun

text: The earliest recorded version of the Dangun legend appears in the 13th century "Samguk Yusa" (삼국유사/ Hanja: 三國遺事), which cites China's Book of Wei and Korea's lost history text Gogi (고기/ Hanja: ). This is the best known and most studied version, but similar versions are recorded in the "Jewang Un-gi" (제왕운기/ Hanja: 帝王韻紀) by the late Goryeo scholar Yi Seunghyu (이승휴/ Hanja: , 1224-1300), as well as the "Eungje Siju" (응제시주/ Hanja: 應製詩註) and "Sejong Sillok" (세종실록; commonly known as ""Annals of the Joseon Dynasty"", "Sejong Jang-heon Dae-wang Shil-lok" 세종장헌대왕실록/ Hanja: 世宗莊憲大王實錄) of the early Joseon. Dangun is worshipped today as a deity by the followers of Cheondoism and Daejongism.


title: Dangun

text: Dangun is the second pattern or hyeong in the International Taekwon-Do Federation form of the Korean martial art taekwondo. Students learn that the hyeong represents "the holy legendary founder of Korea in the year 2333 BC." Unusually for a hyeong, all the punches in Dan Gun are high section (eye level) symbolising Dangun scaling a mountain ("see Dangun Hyeung)".


title: Dangun

text: North Korea's leader Kim Il-sung insisted that Dangun was not merely a legend but a real historical person. As a consequence, North Korean archaeologists were compelled to locate the purported remains and grave of Dangun.


title: Dangun

text: According to a publication by North Korea, the Mausoleum of Dangun is the alleged burial site of the legendary Dangun. The site occupies about 1.8 km² (0.70 mi²) on the slope of Taebaek Mountain in Kangdong, not to be confused with the Taebaek Mountain in South Korea. Dangun's grave is shaped like a pyramid, about 22 m (72 ft) high and 50 m (164 ft) on each side.


title: Chris Davis (baseball)

text: Christopher Lyn Davis (born March 17, 1986), nicknamed "Crush Davis", is an American former professional baseball first baseman. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Texas Rangers and Baltimore Orioles. He bats left-handed and throws right-handed. While primarily a first baseman throughout his career, Davis has also been a designated hitter, third baseman, and outfielder.


title: Chris Davis (baseball)

text: Davis attended Navarro Junior College and was selected by the Rangers in the fifth round of the 2006 MLB draft. He ascended quickly through the Rangers' minor league system, getting named their Minor League Player of the Year in 2007. He was called up in the middle of 2008 and had a strong start to his major league career. He was the Rangers' starting first baseman for 92 games in 2009 and hit 21 home runs, but a low batting average and his tendency to strike out left the Rangers dissatisfied with him. Because of this, the Rangers sent Davis back and forth between the minors and the majors over the next two years and left him off their playoff roster in 2010. On July 30, 2011, they traded him to the Orioles.


title: Chris Davis (baseball)

text: Davis appeared in 31 games for the Orioles in 2011. In the lineup full-time in 2012, he hit 33 home runs while batting .270 and helping the Orioles reach the playoffs for the first time since 1997. In 2013, his 53 home runs led all MLB players and set a new Orioles single-season franchise record. Davis also had 138 runs batted in (RBIs), was selected to the All-Star Game, and finished third in American League Most Valuable Player Award (MVP) voting. In September 2014, Davis was suspended for 25 games for testing positive for amphetamine; he asserted that he tested positive due to the use of Adderall, for which he previously had a "therapeutic use exemption". Davis missed the Orioles' seven postseason games in 2014 due to his suspension.


title: Chris Davis (baseball)

text: From 2015 through 2018, Davis led all major league players in strikeouts-per-at-bat. In 2018, he set the MLB record for the lowest batting average ever for a qualified player when he batted .168. In 2019, he set the MLB record for the most consecutive at bats by a position player without a hit, going 0-for-54, yet he still managed a run batted in on a bases-loaded walk during that span. Davis announced his retirement on August 12, 2021.


title: Chris Davis (baseball)

text: Davis was born in Longview, Texas. He has an older sister, Jennifer. While he was in high school, his parents divorced. Davis attended Longview High School, playing shortstop on the school's varsity baseball team and pitching as well before graduating in 2004. He was originally chosen by the New York Yankees as the third-to-last pick of the 2004 Major League Baseball (MLB) Draft (1,496th overall in the 50th round). However, he did not sign and opted to attend Navarro Junior College in Texas instead, beginning in 2005. At Navarro, he was used as a third baseman and first baseman. He was once again drafted, by the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, in the 2005 MLB draft, however he did not sign. He was named a preseason JUCO All-American by "Baseball America" in 2006, earning Region XIV East Zone Most Valuable Player honors. That year with Navarro, he hit 17 home runs, one of which hit a retail building 100 feet away beyond the 380 sign on the outfield fence. Davis was then drafted again, this time by the Texas Rangers in the fifth round of the 2006 MLB draft. Davis was inducted to the Navarro College athletic hall of fame in 2021.


title: Chris Davis (baseball)

text: Davis began his minor league career in 2006 with the Spokane Indians of the Single-A short season Northwest League, splitting time between the outfield and first base. In 69 games, he batted .277 with 70 hits, 18 doubles, 15 home runs, 42 runs batted in (RBI), and 65 strikeouts (eighth). Early in his minor league career, Davis struggled with his weight. At one point, he weighed 265 pounds, but he later learned to eat healthier and lost weight.


title: Chris Davis (baseball)

text: In 2007, Davis began the season with the Bakersfield Blaze of the Single-A advanced California League. He tied a California League record by posting a 35-game hitting streak and was selected to the Single-A advanced All-Star Game. On July 30, he was promoted to the Frisco RoughRiders of the Double-A Texas League, where he spent the rest of the season. Despite his call-up, he tied for fourth in the California League with 24 home runs and ranked fourth in the league with a .573 slugging percentage, leading Bakersfield in home runs, RBI, and doubles. With Frisco, he had 11 home runs and 25 RBI in the month of August and was named the Rangers' Minor League Player of the Month. In 129 games combined, used exclusively as a third baseman, Davis batted .297 with 36 home runs and 118 RBI in 2007. After the season, he was named the Rangers' Tom Grieve Minor League Player of the Year.


title: Chris Davis (baseball)

text: Entering 2008, "Baseball America" ranked Davis the number two prospect in the Rangers' organization, behind Elvis Andrus. Davis began the season playing first base for Frisco. He batted .333 with 62 hits, 13 home runs, and 42 RBI in 46 games before earning a promotion to the Triple-A Oklahoma RedHawks of the Pacific Coast League. In 31 games with Oklahoma, he hit .333 with 37 hits, 10 home runs, and 31 RBI. He was named to the All-Star Futures Game but was unable to play in it because he was promoted to the major leagues by the Texas Rangers. Later, during his breakout 2013 season, Davis referred to his time with Round Rock in 2008: "I know nobody really cares about Triple-A, but I put up these numbers up in Triple-A. That was kind of the question, 'Was he going to be able to do it at the big league level?' The thing about it was, I just couldn't do it consistently. I couldn't put the bat on the ball. I was striking out an astronomical amount, and this year it's just been consistency day in and day out."


title: Chris Davis (baseball)

text: On June 26, 2008, the Rangers called up Davis from Oklahoma, and that day he made his major league debut in a 7–2 loss to the Houston Astros, getting a hit in his first Major League at bat, against Óscar Villarreal. Davis started his first Major League game at first base on June 27, 2008, and hit his first Major League home run during the game, against Clay Condrey in an 8–7 win over the Philadelphia Phillies. He also homered the next day, becoming the first Texas Ranger to homer in both of his first two Major League starts. He took over from Frank Catalanotto at first base.


title: Chris Davis (baseball)

text: By virtue of his hot start with the Rangers, and his considerable power as a batter, Davis was dubbed "Crush Davis" by local media and fans (a play on "Crash Davis" from the movie "Bull Durham"). From July 22 through July 26, he had four straight multi-hit games. Davis played well enough that, upon Hank Blalock's return from the disabled list (DL) on August 22, he was moved to third base so he could remain in the lineup. He had four hits on September 26 in a 12–1 victory over the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.


title: Chris Davis (baseball)

text: In 80 games (295 at bats), Davis batted .285 with 84 hits, 23 doubles, 17 home runs, and 55 RBI. He struck out 88 times, which was 30% of his at bats. Defensively, he was much better at first base than third, with a .997 fielding percentage at first as opposed to a .962 percentage at third and a higher range factor as well.


title: Chris Davis (baseball)

text: Davis slumped a bit in 2009 spring training but still began 2009 as the Rangers' first baseman. Rangers manager Ron Washington said, "I'm not worried about Chris. Chris works hard. He had a little spell where he was trying to get himself together. He's going to have bad times, but what he did tonight is what he's capable of and he'll do that enough to make him love you." On May 14, with the Rangers trailing 2–1 in the ninth inning against the Seattle Mariners, he homered against Brandon Morrow to give the Rangers a 3–2 victory. After a 1-for-29 slump, Davis hit two home runs on May 26 in a 7–3 victory over the New York Yankees. He had four hits on June 25, the fourth a 12th-inning two-run home run against Esmerling Vásquez in a 9–8 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks.


title: Chris Davis (baseball)

text: On July 5, Davis was sent back down to make room for Josh Hamilton who was coming off the disabled list. Although he had 15 home runs in 258 at bats, he was leading the American League with 114 strikeouts and had, on June 21, become the quickest player in Major League history to reach 100 strikeouts, requiring only 219 at bats. His batting average was at .202. While talking about the Rangers' handling of another player, Julio Borbon, in 2010, Washington mentioned the decision to send Davis down in 2009: "We gave Chris a good amount of time last year. With young players, they can look bad for 100 at bats and then turn it around the next 100 and look exactly like you want them to." With the RedHawks, Davis played 44 games, batting .327 with six home runs, 12 doubles, and 30 RBI.


title: Chris Davis (baseball)

text: Davis was recalled on August 25 after Andruw Jones went on the DL and Blalock struggled. On September 8, in the second game of a doubleheader, he had three hits and four RBI, including a three-run home run against José Veras in a 10–5 victory over the Cleveland Indians. When Davis returned to the majors, his numbers improved dramatically, as he hit .318 in September and October, with five home runs and 21 RBIs in the two-month span. In 113 games (391 at bats), Davis batted .238 with 93 hits, 15 doubles, 21 home runs, and 59 RBI. However, he ranked seventh in the AL with 150 strikeouts. He did do well defensively; Washington said, when Blalock replaced him at first following his demotion, "We can't expect Hank Blalock to be Chris Davis [defensively], but Hank is a professional. I think he can play first base."


title: Chris Davis (baseball)

text: Davis was once again optioned to Triple-A after starting 2010 batting .188 in 15 games (48 at bats). He was recalled on July 9 to play first base for the Rangers. A roster spot, as well as a position in the Rangers starting lineup, became available when Justin Smoak was involved in a trade with the Seattle Mariners for Cliff Lee. On July 29, he was sent back to the RedHawks to make room for Mitch Moreland. In 103 games (398 at bats) with the RedHawks, he had 130 hits, 31 doubles, 14 home runs, and 80 RBI. He finished second in the league in hitting (.327, behind John Lindsey's .353) and fifth in strikeouts (105). He was recalled for the final time on September 11 but this time was used as a backup corner infielder and pinch-hitter, as Moreland was playing first base. In 45 games (120 at bats) with Texas, Davis hit .192 with 23 hits, one home run, and four RBI. He was left off the postseason roster as the Rangers entered the World Series for the first time ever but ended up losing in five games to the San Francisco Giants.


title: Chris Davis (baseball)

text: Attempting to aid Davis's offense, the Rangers tried to get Davis to widen his batting stance. However, playing in the Dominican Winter League over the offseason, Davis "felt like I fouled a lot of pitches off that I should have driven." He stood more upright and kept his feet closer together and, in 2013, said that this was a defining moment in his career.


title: Chris Davis (baseball)

text: In 2011, Davis began the season in the minors but was called up from Triple-A to play for the Rangers on April 11 when Hamilton suffered a fracture of the humerus bone in his shoulder. However, it was with reluctance that the Rangers recalled Davis; general manager Jon Daniels said, "We talked about another center fielder or a third catcher and think we will address that at some point. But whoever we called up wasn't going to get regular playing time, so we felt Chris was the most deserving." Used in a part-time role, Davis remained with the club until Hamilton came off the DL on May 23. He was also called up for a game on June 8 when Ian Kinsler was placed on paternity leave. His 2011 totals with the Rangers were a .250 batting average with 19 hits, three home runs, and six RBI in 28 games (76 at bats). Davis fared better with the Rangers' Triple-A affiliate, which had become the Round Rock Express in 2011. He had five-RBI games twice and in June batted .361 with 10 home runs and 28 RBI. Despite playing only 48 games with Round Rock in 2011, Davis finished seventh in the Pacific Coast League with 24 home runs.


title: Chris Davis (baseball)

text: On July 30, 2011, Davis was traded with pitcher Tommy Hunter to the Baltimore Orioles for reliever Koji Uehara. Davis became expendable, because the Rangers felt Moreland was a better option at first base. Rangers general manager Jon Daniels said the day of the trade that he knew there was a possibility Davis could turn into a high-impact offensive player, and "If he does, we'll live with it." Opinions differed as to Davis's inability to hold a consistent starting role with the Rangers. While one popular idea was that it was because of his many strikeouts and low batting average, Orioles manager Buck Showalter believed it was due to the presence of Moreland and Adrián Beltré in Texas. Davis said, "I'm glad to get the opportunity to come here", citing his desire to play every day.


title: Chris Davis (baseball)

text: In his second game as an Oriole, on August 2, Davis homered for his first Oriole hit against Everett Teaford in an 8–2 victory over the Kansas City Royals. He received everyday playing time but went on the DL on August 14 with a right shoulder strain, an injury which was initially feared to be season-ending but wound up keeping him out only until September 6. In an 11-inning 5–4 victory over the Yankees on September 7, he struck out five times, the first Oriole to strike out that many times since Phil Bradley did so exactly 22 years before. He had three-hit games on September 8 and 19. On September 14, he had a season-high three RBI with a three-run home run against Wade Davis in a 6–2 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays.


title: Chris Davis (baseball)

text: Davis played 31 games for the Orioles, batting .276/.310/.398 with 34 hits, two home runs, 13 RBIs, and 39 strikeouts in 123 at bats. In a combined 59 games with Texas and Baltimore, he batted .266 with 53 hits, 12 doubles, five home runs, 19 RBI, and 63 strikeouts.


title: Chris Davis (baseball)

text: Davis received everyday playing time in 2012, starting at first base, at designated hitter, and in the outfield throughout the season. On May 6, in a 17-inning, 9–6 victory over the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park, Davis went hitless in eight at bats, but ended up being the winning pitcher. His feat was the first of its kind since Rube Waddell achieved it on July 4, 1905. Davis was the designated hitter until he was pressed into service as a relief pitcher in the 16th inning after Showalter had depleted the Orioles' bullpen. He struck out two batters and did not allow a run in his two innings of mound work. He was the first position player in the American League (AL) to be the winning pitcher in a game since Rocky Colavito on August 25, 1968, and the first to pitch for the Orioles since Manny Alexander on April 19, 1996. He and losing pitcher Darnell McDonald were the first position players on opposing teams in the same contest to each work in relief since Ty Cobb and George Sisler on October 4, 1925, and the first where both earned pitching decisions since Sam Mertes and Jesse Burkett on September 28, 1902.


title: Chris Davis (baseball)

text: On July 31, Davis hit his first career grand slam, off Yankees pitcher Iván Nova in an 11–5 win after the Orioles had faced a five-run deficit. On August 24, Davis had his first career three-homer game in a 6–4 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays. His second home run was his 22nd of the season, setting a new career high, and it marked the first three-homer game by an Oriole since Nick Markakis had one in 2006. After Markakis suffered a season-ending injury on September 8, Davis moved to right field for the remainder of the season and the playoffs.


title: Chris Davis (baseball)

text: Due to a late-season stretch in which he homered six times in the final six games, he finished the regular season with 33 home runs, more than any other Oriole. In 139 games (515 at bats), he batted .270/.326/.501 with 139 hits, 20 doubles, and 85 RBI. His 33 home runs also tied Robinson Canó for eighth in the AL while his 169 strikeouts tied B. J. Upton for fourth.


title: Chris Davis (baseball)

text: The Orioles reached the playoffs for the first time since 1997, claiming one of the AL Wild Card spots and defeating the Rangers in the 2012 AL Wild Card Game. In Game 2 of the 2012 AL Division Series (ALDS) against the Yankees, Davis had a two-run single against Andy Pettitte in the Orioles' 3–2 victory. Those were his only RBI of the series; he had four hits in 20 at bats as the Yankees defeated the Orioles in five games.


title: Chris Davis (baseball)

text: The Orioles decided to put Davis at first base full-time in 2013 and worked on his defense in spring training; later, Oriole coaches and teammates believed this helped Davis succeed at the plate as well. He set a personal home run goal before the season but refused to share it. On April 5, Davis set a new Major League record with 16 RBI in the first four games of a season. He also became the fourth MLB player in history to hit a home run in the first four games of the season (Nelson Cruz, Mark McGwire, Willie Mays), including a grand slam against Tyler Robertson in the fourth game, a 9–5 victory over the Minnesota Twins.


title: Chris Davis (baseball)

text: On June 16, he hit the 100th home run of his career, off Red Sox pitcher Jon Lester in a 6–3 victory. On July 11, he hit his 34th home run of the season, eclipsing his previous season high in a 3–1 victory over the Rangers. He earned his 87th and 88th RBIs of the season with a two-run home run against Mark Buehrle on July 12, setting a new Orioles record for most RBIs before the All-Star break; the previous record was 86 by Boog Powell. He ultimately ended up with 93 RBIs before the All-Star break. On July 14, he hit his 37th home run of the season against Josh Johnson in a 7–4 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays, tying Reggie Jackson for the second most home runs before the All-Star break by any MLB player and the most by an American League player. The home run was also his 500th career hit.


title: Chris Davis (baseball)

text: Davis received a tweet on June 30 from Michael Tran in Michigan asking him if he had ever used steroids. He responded "No", that same day. Davis said later in an interview, "I have not ever taken any PEDs. I'm not sure fans realize, we have the strictest drug testing in all of sports, even more than the Olympics. If anybody was going to try to cheat in our game, they couldn't. It's impossible to try to beat the system. Anyway, I've never taken PEDs, no. I wouldn't. Half the stuff on the list I can't even pronounce." Later, Davis would say that he believed Roger Maris's 61 home run season was the true single-season home run record, due to the steroid scandal surrounding Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, and Mark McGwire.


title: Chris Davis (baseball)

text: On July 6, Davis was elected to start the 2013 All-Star Game, his first ever appearance. He was the leading vote-getter with 8,272,243 votes. Davis was also chosen to participate in the Home Run Derby for the first time, by American League captain Robinson Canó. Davis advanced to the second round and hit a total of 12 home runs. However, a blister broke on his hand, leaving him unable to hit enough homers to advance to the third and final round. At the All-Star Game the next night, July 16, 2013, Davis went 1–3, with a fly out, a single and a strikeout. Davis's single against Patrick Corbin advanced Miguel Cabrera to third, where he would score the game's first run on José Bautista's sacrifice fly.


title: Chris Davis (baseball)

text: Davis's 50th home run of the season, which he hit on September 13, tied him with Brady Anderson for the Orioles record of most home runs in a single season. He also became only the third player in MLB history, after Babe Ruth (New York Yankees, 1921) and Albert Belle (Cleveland Indians, 1995), to hit 50 home runs and 40 doubles in a single season. He hit his 51st home run on September 17, setting a new Orioles single season record. This was also his 92nd extra-base hit of the season, again tying Anderson for a franchise record. He later surpassed that by hitting his first triple of the season against Alex Cobb on September 21 in a 5–1 loss to Tampa Bay. Davis broke another Orioles record on September 27 with his 28th home run of the season hit at his home park of Camden Yards, surpassing Frank Robinson's record of 27 home runs hit at Memorial Stadium in 1966.


title: Chris Davis (baseball)

text: In 2013, Davis led all MLB batters in home runs (53), runs batted in (138), extra-base hits (96), and total bases (370). His 53 home runs, 96 extra-base hits, and 199 strikeouts all set new Orioles single-season records. In AL Most Valuable Player Award (MVP) voting, Davis finished third behind Cabrera and Mike Trout, as the Orioles failed to return to the playoffs.


title: Chris Davis (baseball)

text: Davis's breakout year led to compliments from his peers. Teammate Adam Jones summarized his style: "Most of his home runs are just line drives that get out. Obviously he hits some moonshots too." Cliff Lee, Davis's teammate in Texas in 2010, said, "Watching his highlights, you can totally tell that he's relaxed and just letting it happen. He's not putting anything extra into it. It's just nice and easy, and it's impressive to watch. ... He and Miguel Cabrera are the two best power hitters in the game, in my opinion."


title: Chris Davis (baseball)

text: Davis missed 12 games from April 26, 2014, to May 11, 2014, with a left oblique strain. He hit three home runs and had five RBI on May 20 in a 9–2 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates. On June 17, facing Érik Bédard with the bases loaded, Davis hit a ball to left field that hit off the left field foul pole at Tropicana Field. Initially ruled a double, the umpires changed it to a grand slam after a review. The Orioles went on to defeat the Rays 7–5. After a 4-for-36 slump, Davis was benched on June 23, but he had a pinch-hit walk off three-run home run against Ronald Belisario, giving the Orioles a 6–4 victory over the Chicago White Sox. It was the Orioles' first game-ending pinch hit home run since Larry Sheets had one on August 24, 1988.


title: Chris Davis (baseball)

text: Davis struggled in the first half of 2014, hitting 15 home runs but batting around .200. The slump continued, as he batted .202 in July and saw himself dropped to seventh in the batting order in August. Showalter said, "It's hard to follow that pace. He spoiled us at a very high level. He wants to get back to it." Despite his slump, the Orioles through August 23 had built a seven-game lead in the AL East.


title: Chris Davis (baseball)

text: On September 12, Davis was suspended for 25 games for testing positive for amphetamine. Davis claimed he tested positive due to the use of Adderall, for which he previously had a "therapeutic use exemption", although he did not have that exemption for the 2014 season. Davis' suspension covered the final 17 games of the 2014 regular season and the seven games the Orioles played in the 2014 postseason.


title: Chris Davis (baseball)

text: For the 2014 season, he batted .196 (the lowest batting average among all qualified MLB batters)/.300/.404 with 26 home runs and 173 strikeouts (3rd in the AL) in 450 at bats.


title: Chris Davis (baseball)

text: Davis received a therapeutic use exemption for Vyvanse, a stimulant drug, prior to the 2015 season. He served the final game of his suspension on Opening Day.


title: Chris Davis (baseball)

text: Davis led the majors in home runs with 47 in 2015. He struck out a major-league-leading 31.0% of the time, batting .262/.361/.562. He led the league in strikeouts (with 208) and was 2nd in the AL in RBIs (117).


title: Chris Davis (baseball)

text: On January 21, 2016, Davis signed a seven-year, $161 million contract to stay with the Orioles. The contract was the largest in Orioles history. In 159 games of 2016, Davis finished the year with a .221/.332/.459 batting line. He hit 38 home runs (8th in the American League), 84 RBIs, 88 walks (4th in the AL), and struck out an MLB-leading 219 times and a major-league-leading 32.9% of the time.


title: Chris Davis (baseball)

text: For the 2017 season, Davis batted .215/.309/.423 overall. He had 195 strikeouts (3rd in the American League), striking out a major-league-leading 37.2% of the time, and batted .208/.293/.326 against left-handers while hitting 26 home runs.


title: Chris Davis (baseball)

text: Davis started the 2018 season with a .150 batting average and 86 strikeouts in his first 57 games. On June 15, the Orioles announced that Davis would be benched and that they would call up Corban Joseph. Davis ended his season hitting .168/.243/.296 with 16 home runs with 192 strikeouts (4th in the American League) in 128 games, and struck out in a major-league-leading 36.8% of his at bats. His $23 million salary was the 10th-highest in the league. His .168 batting average, .243 on base percentage, and .296 slugging percentage were each the lowest of all qualified major league batters, and the .168 batting average was the lowest of all-time for qualified MLB hitters.


title: Chris Davis (baseball)

text: At the end of the 2018 season, starting September 14, Davis began a hitless streak that lasted through his last 21 at bats of the season and continued into 2019. On April 8, 2019, Davis's streak set a new Major League record for the most consecutive at bats by a position player without a hit, surpassing Eugenio Vélez who went 0-for-46 in 2010 and 2011, and he ended that game against the Athletics still hitless, at 0-for-49. Davis ended his streak on April 13, after 54 consecutive at bats without a hit, with a two-run single against the Red Sox, and ended the day going 3-for-5 with two doubles, in addition to the single. On August 7, during a loss to the Yankees, Davis had to be physically restrained by players and coaches after attempting to go after manager Brandon Hyde. Davis finished the season with a .179 batting average and 12 home runs in 105 games.


title: Chris Davis (baseball)

text: Davis only played in 16 games for the Orioles in 2020 and hit a meager .115 with no home runs and only one RBI before ending his season early with a knee injury.


title: Chris Davis (baseball)

text: Before the 2021 season started, on March 26, 2021, Davis was placed on the 60-day injured list with a lower back strain. On May 19, it was announced that Davis would miss the entire 2021 season after undergoing arthroscopic surgery on his left hip.


title: Chris Davis (baseball)

text: On August 12, 2021, Davis announced his retirement. Davis's production had declined amidst injury struggles during his last few seasons. During the course of the contract he signed in 2016, Davis batted .196/.291/.379, with 92 home runs. At the time of his retirement, Davis was owed $17 million for the 2022 season, as well as deferred payments extending through the year 2037.


title: Chris Davis (baseball)

text: Davis, his wife, Jill and their three daughters live in Baltimore, Maryland, and Flower Mound, Texas. Before that, they lived in Arlington, Texas. They married in 2011. During the offseason, he enjoys bass fishing.


title: Chris Davis (baseball)

text: Davis is a Christian. Growing up, his parents took him to First Baptist Church in Longview, but Davis said it was not until after his difficult 2010 season that he "finally grasped true faith" and began reading the Bible daily.


title: Chris Davis (baseball)

text: Davis and his wife are supporters of Compassion International. They have sponsored children and have funded several large projects through the charity. During the COVID-19 pandemic, they pledged to give $1 million to the charity.


title: Reliability engineering

text: Reliability engineering is a sub-discipline of systems engineering that emphasizes the ability of equipment to function without failure. Reliability describes the ability of a system or component to function under stated conditions for a specified period of time. Reliability is closely related to availability, which is typically described as the ability of a component or system to function at a specified moment or interval of time.


title: Reliability engineering

text: The reliability function is theoretically defined as the probability of success at time t, which is denoted R(t). This probability is estimated from detailed (physics of failure) analysis, previous data sets or through reliability testing and reliability modelling. Availability, testability, maintainability and maintenance are often defined as a part of "reliability engineering" in reliability programs. Reliability often plays the key role in the cost-effectiveness of systems.


title: Reliability engineering

text: Reliability engineering deals with the prediction, prevention and management of high levels of "lifetime" engineering uncertainty and risks of failure. Although stochastic parameters define and affect reliability, reliability is not only achieved by mathematics and statistics. "Nearly all teaching and literature on the subject emphasize these aspects, and ignore the reality that the ranges of uncertainty involved largely invalidate quantitative methods for prediction and measurement." For example, it is easy to represent "probability of failure" as a symbol or value in an equation, but it is almost impossible to predict its true magnitude in practice, which is massively multivariate, so having the equation for reliability does not begin to equal having an accurate predictive measurement of reliability.


title: Reliability engineering

text: Reliability engineering relates closely to Quality Engineering, safety engineering and system safety, in that they use common methods for their analysis and may require input from each other. It can be said that a system must be reliably safe.


title: Reliability engineering

text: Reliability engineering focuses on costs of failure caused by system downtime, cost of spares, repair equipment, personnel, and cost of warranty claims.


title: Reliability engineering

text: The word "reliability" can be traced back to 1816, and is first attested to the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Before World War II the term was linked mostly to repeatability; a test (in any type of science) was considered "reliable" if the same results would be obtained repeatedly. In the 1920s, product improvement through the use of statistical process control was promoted by Dr. Walter A. Shewhart at Bell Labs, around the time that Waloddi Weibull was working on statistical models for fatigue. The development of reliability engineering was here on a parallel path with quality. The modern use of the word reliability was defined by the U.S. military in the 1940s, characterizing a product that would operate when expected and for a specified period of time.


title: Reliability engineering

text: In World War II, many reliability issues were due to the inherent unreliability of electronic equipment available at the time, and to fatigue issues. In 1945, M.A. Miner published the seminal paper titled "Cumulative Damage in Fatigue" in an ASME journal. A main application for reliability engineering in the military was for the vacuum tube as used in radar systems and other electronics, for which reliability proved to be very problematic and costly. The IEEE formed the Reliability Society in 1948. In 1950, the United States Department of Defense formed a group called the "Advisory Group on the Reliability of Electronic Equipment" (AGREE) to investigate reliability methods for military equipment. This group recommended three main ways of working:


title: Reliability engineering

text: In the 1960s, more emphasis was given to reliability testing on component and system level. The famous military standard MIL-STD-781 was created at that time. Around this period also the much-used predecessor to military handbook 217 was published by RCA and was used for the prediction of failure rates of electronic components. The emphasis on component reliability and empirical research (e.g. Mil Std 217) alone slowly decreased. More pragmatic approaches, as used in the consumer industries, were being used. In the 1980s, televisions were increasingly made up of solid-state semiconductors. Automobiles rapidly increased their use of semiconductors with a variety of microcomputers under the hood and in the dash. Large air conditioning systems developed electronic controllers, as had microwave ovens and a variety of other appliances. Communications systems began to adopt


title: Reliability engineering

text: electronics to replace older mechanical switching systems. Bellcore issued the first consumer prediction methodology for telecommunications, and SAE developed a similar document SAE870050 for automotive applications. The nature of predictions evolved during the decade, and it became apparent that die complexity wasn't the only factor that determined failure rates for integrated circuits (ICs).


title: Reliability engineering

text: Kam Wong published a paper questioning the bathtub curve—see also reliability-centered maintenance. During this decade, the failure rate of many components dropped by a factor of 10. Software became important to the reliability of systems. By the 1990s, the pace of IC development was picking up. Wider use of stand-alone microcomputers was common, and the PC market helped keep IC densities following Moore's law and doubling about every 18 months. Reliability engineering was now changing as it moved towards understanding the physics of failure. Failure rates for components kept dropping, but system-level issues became more prominent. Systems thinking became more and more important. For software, the CMM model (Capability Maturity Model) was developed, which gave a more qualitative approach to reliability. ISO 9000 added reliability measures as part of the design and development portion of certification. The expansion of the World-Wide Web created new challenges of security and trust. The older problem of too little reliability information available had now been replaced by too much information of questionable value. Consumer reliability problems could now be discussed online in real time using data. New technologies such as micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS), handheld GPS, and hand-held devices that combined cell phones and computers all represent challenges to maintain reliability. Product development time continued to shorten through this


title: Reliability engineering

text: decade and what had been done in three years was being done in 18 months. This meant that reliability tools and tasks had to be more closely tied to the development process itself. In many ways, reliability became part of everyday life and consumer expectations.


title: Reliability engineering

text: The reason for the priority emphasis is that it is by far the most effective way of working, in terms of minimizing costs and generating reliable products. The primary skills that are required, therefore, are the ability to understand and anticipate the possible causes of failures, and knowledge of how to prevent them. It is also necessary to have knowledge of the methods that can be used for analysing designs and data.


title: Reliability engineering

text: Reliability engineering for "complex systems" requires a different, more elaborate systems approach than for non-complex systems. Reliability engineering may in that case involve:


title: Reliability engineering

text: Effective reliability engineering requires understanding of the basics of failure mechanisms for which experience, broad engineering skills and good knowledge from many different special fields of engineering are required, for example:


title: Reliability engineering

text: Many engineering techniques are used in reliability risk assessments, such as reliability block diagrams, hazard analysis, failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA), fault tree analysis (FTA), Reliability Centered Maintenance, (probabilistic) load and material stress and wear calculations, (probabilistic) fatigue and creep analysis, human error analysis, manufacturing defect analysis, reliability testing, etc. It is crucial that these analyses are done properly and with much attention to detail to be effective. Because of the large number of reliability techniques, their expense, and the varying degrees of reliability required for different situations, most projects develop a reliability program plan to specify the reliability tasks (statement of work (SoW) requirements) that will be performed for that specific system.


title: Reliability engineering

text: Consistent with the creation of safety cases, for example per ARP4761, the goal of reliability assessments is to provide a robust set of qualitative and quantitative evidence that use of a component or system will not be associated with unacceptable risk. The basic steps to take are to:


title: Reliability engineering

text: Risk here is the combination of probability and severity of the failure incident (scenario) occurring. The severity can be looked at from a system safety or a system availability point of view. Reliability for safety can be thought of as a very different focus from reliability for system availability. Availability and safety can exist in dynamic tension as keeping a system too available can be unsafe. Forcing an engineering system into a safe state too quickly can force false alarms that impede the availability of the system.


title: Reliability engineering

text: In a "de minimis" definition, severity of failures includes the cost of spare parts, man-hours, logistics, damage (secondary failures), and downtime of machines which may cause production loss. A more complete definition of failure also can mean injury, dismemberment, and death of people within the system (witness mine accidents, industrial accidents, space shuttle failures) and the same to innocent bystanders (witness the citizenry of cities like Bhopal, Love Canal, Chernobyl, or Sendai, and other victims of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami)—in this case, reliability engineering becomes system safety. What is acceptable is determined by the managing authority or customers or the affected communities. Residual risk is the risk that is left over after all reliability activities have finished, and includes the unidentified risk—and is therefore not completely quantifiable.


title: Reliability engineering

text: The complexity of the technical systems such as improvements of design and materials, planned inspections, fool-proof design, and backup redundancy decreases risk and increases the cost. The risk can be decreased to ALARA (as low as reasonably achievable) or ALAPA (as low as practically achievable) levels.


title: Reliability engineering

text: Implementing a reliability program is not simply a software purchase; it is not just a checklist of items that must be completed that will ensure one has reliable products and processes. A reliability program is a complex learning and knowledge-based system unique to one's products and processes. It is supported by leadership, built on the skills that one develops within a team, integrated into business processes and executed by following proven standard work practices.


title: Reliability engineering

text: A reliability program plan is used to document exactly what "best practices" (tasks, methods, tools, analysis, and tests) are required for a particular (sub)system, as well as clarify customer requirements for reliability assessment. For large-scale complex systems, the reliability program plan should be a separate document. Resource determination for manpower and budgets for testing and other tasks is critical for a successful program. In general, the amount of work required for an effective program for complex systems is large.


title: Reliability engineering

text: A reliability program plan is essential for achieving high levels of reliability, testability, maintainability, and the resulting system availability, and is developed early during system development and refined over the system's life-cycle. It specifies not only what the reliability engineer does, but also the tasks performed by other stakeholders. An effective reliability program plan must be approved by top program management, which is responsible for allocation of sufficient resources for its implementation.


title: Reliability engineering

text: A reliability program plan may also be used to evaluate and improve the availability of a system by the strategy of focusing on increasing testability & maintainability and not on reliability. Improving maintainability is generally easier than improving reliability. Maintainability estimates (repair rates) are also generally more accurate. However, because the uncertainties in the reliability estimates are in most cases very large, they are likely to dominate the availability calculation (prediction uncertainty problem), even when maintainability levels are very high. When reliability is not under control, more complicated issues may arise, like manpower (maintainers / customer service capability) shortages, spare part availability, logistic delays, lack of repair facilities, extensive retro-fit and complex configuration management costs, and others. The problem of unreliability may be increased also due to the "domino effect" of maintenance-induced failures after repairs. Focusing only on maintainability is therefore not enough. If failures are prevented, none of the other issues are of any importance, and therefore reliability is generally regarded as the most important part of availability. Reliability needs to be evaluated and improved related to both availability and the total cost of ownership (TCO) due to cost of spare parts, maintenance man-hours, transport costs, storage cost, part obsolete risks, etc. But, as GM and Toyota have belatedly discovered, TCO also includes the downstream liability costs when reliability calculations have not sufficiently or accurately addressed customers' personal bodily risks. Often a trade-off is needed between the two. There might be a maximum ratio between availability and cost of ownership. Testability of a system should also be addressed in the plan, as this is the link between reliability and maintainability. The maintenance strategy can influence the reliability of a system (e.g., by preventive and/or predictive maintenance), although it can never bring it above the inherent reliability.


title: Reliability engineering

text: The reliability plan should clearly provide a strategy for availability control. Whether only availability or also cost of ownership is more important depends on the use of the system. For example, a system that is a critical link in a production system—e.g., a big oil platform—is normally allowed to have a very high cost of ownership if that cost translates to even a minor increase in availability, as the unavailability of the platform results in a massive loss of revenue which can easily exceed the high cost of ownership. A proper reliability plan should always address RAMT analysis in its total context. RAMT stands for reliability, availability, maintainability/maintenance, and testability in the context of the customer's needs.


title: Reliability engineering

text: For any system, one of the first tasks of reliability engineering is to adequately specify the reliability and maintainability requirements allocated from the overall availability needs and, more importantly, derived from proper design failure analysis or preliminary prototype test results. Clear requirements (able to designed to) should constrain the designers from designing particular unreliable items / constructions / interfaces / systems. Setting only availability, reliability, testability, or maintainability targets (e.g., max. failure rates) is not appropriate. This is a broad misunderstanding about Reliability Requirements Engineering. Reliability requirements address the system itself, including test and assessment requirements, and associated tasks and documentation. Reliability requirements are included in the appropriate system or subsystem requirements specifications, test plans, and contract statements. Creation of proper lower-level requirements is critical.


title: Reliability engineering

text: Provision of only quantitative minimum targets (e.g., Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF) values or failure rates) is not sufficient for different reasons. One reason is that a full validation (related to correctness and verifiability in time) of a quantitative reliability allocation (requirement spec) on lower levels for complex systems can (often) not be made as a consequence of (1) the fact that the requirements are probabilistic, (2) the extremely high level of uncertainties involved for showing compliance with all these probabilistic requirements, and because (3) reliability is a function of time, and accurate estimates of a (probabilistic) reliability number per item are available only very late in the project, sometimes even after many years of in-service use. Compare this problem with the continuous (re-)balancing of, for example, lower-level-system mass requirements in the development of an aircraft, which is already often a big undertaking. Notice that in this case, masses do only differ in terms of only some %, are not a function of time, the data is non-probabilistic and available already in CAD models. In case of reliability, the levels of unreliability (failure rates) may change with factors of decades (multiples of 10) as result of very minor deviations in design, process, or anything else. The information is often not available without huge uncertainties within the development phase. This makes this allocation problem almost impossible to do in a useful, practical, valid manner that does not result in massive over- or under-specification. A pragmatic approach is therefore needed—for example: the use of general levels / classes of quantitative requirements depending only on severity of failure effects. Also, the validation of results is a far more subjective task than for any other type of requirement. (Quantitative) reliability parameters—in terms of MTBF—are by far the most uncertain design parameters in any design.


title: Reliability engineering

text: Furthermore, reliability design requirements should drive a (system or part) design to incorporate features that prevent failures from occurring, or limit consequences from failure in the first place. Not only would it aid in some predictions, this effort would keep from distracting the engineering effort into a kind of accounting work. A design requirement should be precise enough so that a designer can "design to" it and can also prove—through analysis or testing—that the requirement has been achieved, and, if possible, within some a stated confidence. Any type of reliability requirement should be detailed and could be derived from failure analysis (Finite-Element Stress and Fatigue analysis, Reliability Hazard Analysis, FTA, FMEA, Human Factor Analysis, Functional Hazard Analysis, etc.) or any type of reliability testing. Also, requirements are needed for verification tests (e.g., required overload stresses) and test time needed. To derive these requirements in an effective manner, a systems engineering-based risk assessment and mitigation logic should be used. Robust hazard log systems must be created that contain detailed information on why and how systems could or have failed. Requirements are to be derived and tracked in this way. These practical design requirements shall drive the design and not be used only for verification purposes. These requirements (often design constraints) are in this way derived from failure analysis or preliminary tests. Understanding of this difference compared to only purely quantitative (logistic) requirement specification (e.g., Failure Rate / MTBF target) is paramount in the development of successful (complex) systems.


title: Reliability engineering

text: The maintainability requirements address the costs of repairs as well as repair time. Testability (not to be confused with test requirements) requirements provide the link between reliability and maintainability and should address detectability of failure modes (on a particular system level), isolation levels, and the creation of diagnostics (procedures).


title: Reliability engineering

text: As indicated above, reliability engineers should also address requirements for various reliability tasks and documentation during system development, testing, production, and operation. These requirements are generally specified in the contract statement of work and depend on how much leeway the customer wishes to provide to the contractor. Reliability tasks include various analyses, planning, and failure reporting. Task selection depends on the criticality of the system as well as cost. A safety-critical system may require a formal failure reporting and review process throughout development, whereas a non-critical system may rely on final test reports. The most common reliability program tasks are documented in reliability program standards, such as MIL-STD-785 and IEEE 1332. Failure reporting analysis and corrective action systems are a common approach for product/process reliability monitoring.


title: Reliability engineering

text: However, humans are also very good at detecting such failures, correcting for them, and improvising when abnormal situations occur. Therefore, policies that completely rule out human actions in design and production processes to improve reliability may not be effective. Some tasks are better performed by humans and some are better performed by machines.


title: Reliability engineering

text: Furthermore, human errors in management; the organization of data and information; or the misuse or abuse of items, may also contribute to unreliability. This is the core reason why high levels of reliability for complex systems can only be achieved by following a robust systems engineering process with proper planning and execution of the validation and verification tasks. This also includes careful organization of data and information sharing and creating a "reliability culture", in the same way that having a "safety culture" is paramount in the development of safety critical systems.


title: Reliability engineering

text: For existing systems, it is arguable that any attempt by a responsible program to correct the root cause of discovered failures may render the initial MTBF estimate invalid, as new assumptions (themselves subject to high error levels) of the effect of this correction must be made. Another practical issue is the general unavailability of detailed failure data, with those available often featuring inconsistent filtering of failure (feedback) data, and ignoring statistical errors (which are very high for rare events like reliability related failures). Very clear guidelines must be present to count and compare failures related to different type of root-causes (e.g. manufacturing-, maintenance-, transport-, system-induced or inherent design failures). Comparing different types of causes may lead to incorrect estimations and incorrect business decisions about the focus of improvement.


title: Reliability engineering

text: To perform a proper quantitative reliability prediction for systems may be difficult and very expensive if done by testing. At the individual part-level, reliability results can often be obtained with comparatively high confidence, as testing of many sample parts might be possible using the available testing budget. However, unfortunately these tests may lack validity at a system-level due to assumptions made at part-level testing. These authors emphasized the importance of initial part- or system-level testing until failure, and to learn from such failures to improve the system or part. The general conclusion is drawn that an accurate and absolute prediction – by either field-data comparison or testing – of reliability is in most cases not possible. An exception might be failures due to wear-out problems such as fatigue failures. In the introduction of MIL-STD-785 it is written that reliability prediction should be used with great caution, if not used solely for comparison in trade-off studies.


title: Reliability engineering

text: Design for Reliability (DfR) is a process that encompasses tools and procedures to ensure that a product meets its reliability requirements, under its use environment, for the duration of its lifetime. DfR is implemented in the design stage of a product to proactively improve product reliability. DfR is often used as part of an overall Design for Excellence (DfX) strategy.


title: Reliability engineering

text: Reliability design begins with the development of a (system) model. Reliability and availability models use block diagrams and Fault Tree Analysis to provide a graphical means of evaluating the relationships between different parts of the system. These models may incorporate predictions based on failure rates taken from historical data. While the (input data) predictions are often not accurate in an absolute sense, they are valuable to assess relative differences in design alternatives. Maintainability parameters, for example Mean time to repair (MTTR), can also be used as inputs for such models.


title: Reliability engineering

text: The most important fundamental initiating causes and failure mechanisms are to be identified and analyzed with engineering tools. A diverse set of practical guidance as to performance and reliability should be provided to designers so that they can generate low-stressed designs and products that protect, or are protected against, damage and excessive wear. Proper validation of input loads (requirements) may be needed, in addition to verification for reliability "performance" by testing.


title: Reliability engineering

text: One of the most important design techniques is redundancy. This means that if one part of the system fails, there is an alternate success path, such as a backup system. The reason why this is the ultimate design choice is related to the fact that high-confidence reliability evidence for new parts or systems is often not available, or is extremely expensive to obtain. By combining redundancy, together with a high level of failure monitoring, and the avoidance of common cause failures; even a system with relatively poor single-channel (part) reliability, can be made highly reliable at a system level (up to mission critical reliability). No testing of reliability has to be required for this. In conjunction with redundancy, the use of dissimilar designs or manufacturing processes (e.g. via different suppliers of similar parts) for single independent channels, can provide less sensitivity to quality issues (e.g. early childhood failures at a single supplier), allowing very-high levels of reliability to be achieved at all moments of the development cycle (from early life to long-term). Redundancy can also be applied in systems engineering by double checking requirements, data, designs, calculations, software, and tests to overcome systematic failures.


title: Reliability engineering

text: Another effective way to deal with reliability issues is to perform analysis that predicts degradation, enabling the prevention of unscheduled downtime events / failures. RCM (Reliability Centered Maintenance) programs can be used for this.


title: Reliability engineering

text: For electronic assemblies, there has been an increasing shift towards a different approach called physics of failure. This technique relies on understanding the physical static and dynamic failure mechanisms. It accounts for variation in load, strength, and stress that lead to failure with a high level of detail, made possible with the use of modern finite element method (FEM) software programs that can handle complex geometries and mechanisms such as creep, stress relaxation, fatigue, and probabilistic design (Monte Carlo Methods/DOE). The material or component can be re-designed to reduce the probability of failure and to make it more robust against such variations. Another common design technique is component derating: i.e. selecting components whose specifications significantly exceed the expected stress levels, such as using heavier gauge electrical wire than might normally be specified for the expected electric current.


title: Reliability engineering

text: Many of the tasks, techniques, and analyses used in Reliability Engineering are specific to particular industries and applications, but can commonly include:


title: Reliability engineering

text: Results from these methods are presented during reviews of part or system design, and logistics. Reliability is just one requirement among many for a complex part or system. Engineering trade-off studies are used to determine the optimum balance between reliability requirements and other constraints.


title: Reliability engineering

text: Reliability engineers, whether using quantitative or qualitative methods to describe a failure or hazard, rely on language to pinpoint the risks and enable issues to be solved. The language used must help create an orderly description of the function/item/system and its complex surrounding as it relates to the failure of these functions/items/systems. Systems engineering is very much about finding the correct words to describe the problem (and related risks), so that they can be readily solved via engineering solutions. Jack Ring said that a systems engineer's job is to "language the project." (Ring et al. 2000) For part/system failures, reliability engineers should concentrate more on the "why and how", rather that predicting "when". Understanding "why" a failure has occurred (e.g. due to over-stressed components or manufacturing issues) is far more likely to lead to improvement in the designs and processes used than quantifying "when" a failure is likely to occur (e.g. via determining MTBF). To do this, first the reliability hazards relating to the part/system need to be classified and ordered (based on some form of qualitative and quantitative logic if possible) to allow for more efficient assessment and eventual improvement. This is partly done in pure language and proposition logic, but also based on experience with similar items. This can for example be seen in descriptions of events in fault tree analysis, FMEA analysis, and hazard (tracking) logs. In this sense language and proper grammar (part of qualitative analysis) plays an important role in reliability engineering, just like it does in safety engineering or in-general within systems engineering.


title: Reliability engineering

text: Correct use of language can also be key to identifying or reducing the risks of human error, which are often the root cause of many failures. This can include proper instructions in maintenance manuals, operation manuals, emergency procedures, and others to prevent systematic human errors that may result in system failures. These should be written by trained or experienced technical authors using so-called simplified English or Simplified Technical English, where words and structure are specifically chosen and created so as to reduce ambiguity or risk of confusion (e.g. an "replace the old part" could ambiguously refer to a swapping a worn-out part with a non-worn-out part, or replacing a part with one using a more recent and hopefully improved design).


title: Reliability engineering

text: Reliability modeling is the process of predicting or understanding the reliability of a component or system prior to its implementation. Two types of analysis that are often used to model a complete system's availability behavior including effects from logistics issues like spare part provisioning, transport and manpower are fault tree analysis and reliability block diagrams. At a component level, the same types of analyses can be used together with others. The input for the models can come from many sources including testing; prior operational experience; field data; as well as data handbooks from similar or related industries. Regardless of source, all model input data must be used with great caution, as predictions are only valid in cases where the same product was used in the same context. As such, predictions are often only used to help compare alternatives.


title: Reliability engineering

text: Reliability is defined as the probability that a device will perform its intended function during a specified period of time under stated conditions. Mathematically, this may be expressed as,


title: Reliability engineering

text: where formula_2 is the failure probability density function and formula_3 is the length of the period of time (which is assumed to start from time zero).


title: Reliability engineering

text: Quantitative requirements are specified using reliability parameters. The most common reliability parameter is the mean time to failure (MTTF), which can also be specified as the failure rate (this is expressed as a frequency or conditional probability density function (PDF)) or the number of failures during a given period. These parameters may be useful for higher system levels and systems that are operated frequently (i.e. vehicles, machinery, and electronic equipment). Reliability increases as the MTTF increases. The MTTF is usually specified in hours, but can also be used with other units of measurement, such as miles or cycles. Using MTTF values on lower system levels can be very misleading, especially if they do not specify the associated Failures Modes and Mechanisms (The F in MTTF).


title: Reliability engineering

text: In other cases, reliability is specified as the probability of mission success. For example, reliability of a scheduled aircraft flight can be specified as a dimensionless probability or a percentage, as often used in system safety engineering.


title: Reliability engineering

text: A special case of mission success is the single-shot device or system. These are devices or systems that remain relatively dormant and only operate once. Examples include automobile airbags, thermal batteries and missiles. Single-shot reliability is specified as a probability of one-time success or is subsumed into a related parameter. Single-shot missile reliability may be specified as a requirement for the probability of a hit. For such systems, the probability of failure on demand (PFD) is the reliability measure – this is actually an "unavailability" number. The PFD is derived from failure rate (a frequency of occurrence) and mission time for non-repairable systems.


title: Reliability engineering

text: For repairable systems, it is obtained from failure rate, mean-time-to-repair (MTTR), and test interval. This measure may not be unique for a given system as this measure depends on the kind of demand. In addition to system level requirements, reliability requirements may be specified for critical subsystems. In most cases, reliability parameters are specified with appropriate statistical confidence intervals.


title: Reliability engineering

text: The purpose of reliability testing is to discover potential problems with the design as early as possible and, ultimately, provide confidence that the system meets its reliability requirements.


title: Reliability engineering

text: Reliability testing may be performed at several levels and there are different types of testing. Complex systems may be tested at component, circuit board, unit, assembly, subsystem and system levels.


title: Reliability engineering

text: (The test level nomenclature varies among applications.) For example, performing environmental stress screening tests at lower levels, such as piece parts or small assemblies, catches problems before they cause failures at higher levels. Testing proceeds during each level of integration through full-up system testing, developmental testing, and operational testing, thereby reducing program risk. However, testing does not mitigate unreliability risk.


title: Reliability engineering

text: With each test both a statistical type 1 and type 2 error could be made and depends on sample size, test time, assumptions and the needed discrimination ratio. There is risk of incorrectly accepting a bad design (type 1 error) and the risk of incorrectly rejecting a good design (type 2 error).


title: Reliability engineering

text: It is not always feasible to test all system requirements. Some systems are prohibitively expensive to test; some failure modes may take years to observe; some complex interactions result in a huge number of possible test cases; and some tests require the use of limited test ranges or other resources. In such cases, different approaches to testing can be used, such as (highly) accelerated life testing, design of experiments, and simulations.


title: Reliability engineering

text: The desired level of statistical confidence also plays a role in reliability testing. Statistical confidence is increased by increasing either the test time or the number of items tested. Reliability test plans are designed to achieve the specified reliability at the specified confidence level with the minimum number of test units and test time. Different test plans result in different levels of risk to the producer and consumer. The desired reliability, statistical confidence, and risk levels for each side influence the ultimate test plan. The customer and developer should agree in advance on how reliability requirements will be tested.


title: Reliability engineering

text: A key aspect of reliability testing is to define "failure". Although this may seem obvious, there are many situations where it is not clear whether a failure is really the fault of the system. Variations in test conditions, operator differences, weather and unexpected situations create differences between the customer and the system developer. One strategy to address this issue is to use a scoring conference process. A scoring conference includes representatives from the customer, the developer, the test organization, the reliability organization, and sometimes independent observers. The scoring conference process is defined in the statement of work. Each test case is considered by the group and "scored" as a success or failure. This scoring is the official result used by the reliability engineer.


title: Reliability engineering

text: As part of the requirements phase, the reliability engineer develops a test strategy with the customer. The test strategy makes trade-offs between the needs of the reliability organization, which wants as much data as possible, and constraints such as cost, schedule and available resources. Test plans and procedures are developed for each reliability test, and results are documented.


title: Reliability engineering

text: Reliability testing is common in the Photonics industry. Examples of reliability tests of lasers are life test and burn-in. These tests consist of the highly accelerated aging, under controlled conditions, of a group of lasers. The data collected from these life tests are used to predict laser life expectancy under the intended operating characteristics.


title: Reliability engineering

text: Reliability test requirements can follow from any analysis for which the first estimate of failure probability, failure mode or effect needs to be justified. Evidence can be generated with some level of confidence by testing. With software-based systems, the probability is a mix of software and hardware-based failures. Testing reliability requirements is problematic for several reasons. A single test is in most cases insufficient to generate enough statistical data. Multiple tests or long-duration tests are usually very expensive. Some tests are simply impractical, and environmental conditions can be hard to predict over a systems life-cycle.


title: Reliability engineering

text: Reliability engineering is used to design a realistic and affordable test program that provides empirical evidence that the system meets its reliability requirements. Statistical confidence levels are used to address some of these concerns. A certain parameter is expressed along with a corresponding confidence level: for example, an MTBF of 1000 hours at 90% confidence level. From this specification, the reliability engineer can, for example, design a test with explicit criteria for the number of hours and number of failures until the requirement is met or failed. Different sorts of tests are possible.


title: Reliability engineering

text: The combination of required reliability level and required confidence level greatly affects the development cost and the risk to both the customer and producer. Care is needed to select the best combination of requirements—e.g. cost-effectiveness. Reliability testing may be performed at various levels, such as component, subsystem and system. Also, many factors must be addressed during testing and operation, such as extreme temperature and humidity, shock, vibration, or other environmental factors (like loss of signal, cooling or power; or other catastrophes such as fire, floods, excessive heat, physical or security violations or other myriad forms of damage or degradation). For systems that must last many years, accelerated life tests may be needed.


title: Reliability engineering

text: The purpose of accelerated life testing (ALT test) is to induce field failure in the laboratory at a much faster rate by providing a harsher, but nonetheless representative, environment. In such a test, the product is expected to fail in the lab just as it would have failed in the field—but in much less time.


title: Reliability engineering

text: Software reliability is a special aspect of reliability engineering. It focuses on foundations and techniques to make software more reliable, i.e., resilient to faults. System reliability, by definition, includes all parts of the system, including hardware, software, supporting infrastructure (including critical external interfaces), operators and procedures. Traditionally, reliability engineering focuses on critical hardware parts of the system. Since the widespread use of digital integrated circuit technology, software has become an increasingly critical part of most electronics and, hence, nearly all present day systems. Therefore software reliability has gained prominence within the field of system reliability.


title: Reliability engineering

text: Most hardware unreliability is the result of a component or material failure that results in the system not performing its intended function. Repairing or replacing the hardware component restores the system to its original operating state.


title: Reliability engineering

text: However, software does not fail in the same sense that hardware fails. Instead, software unreliability is the result of unanticipated results of software operations. Even relatively small software programs can have astronomically large combinations of inputs and states that are infeasible to exhaustively test. Restoring software to its original state only works until the same combination of inputs and states results in the same unintended result. Software reliability engineering must take this into account.


title: Reliability engineering

text: Despite this difference in the source of failure between software and hardware, several software reliability models based on statistics have been proposed to quantify what we experience with software: the longer software is run, the higher the probability that it will eventually be used in an untested manner and exhibit a latent defect that results in a failure (Shooman 1987), (Musa 2005), (Denney 2005).


title: Reliability engineering

text: As with hardware, software reliability depends on good requirements, design and implementation. Software reliability engineering relies heavily on a disciplined software engineering process to anticipate and design against unintended consequences. There is more overlap between software quality engineering and software reliability engineering than between hardware quality and reliability. A good software development plan is a key aspect of the software reliability program. The software development plan describes the design and coding standards, peer reviews, unit tests, configuration management, software metrics and software models to be used during software development.