Document for internal use

MTBF (Mean Time Between Failure)

Oh ?
Is that the average service life of a product?

MTBF for people:

A recent study has concluded that people between the ages of 40 and 50 years have an MTBF of 500
years. In my opinion this example demonstrates clearly that MTBF cannot be the same as "service
life".

Definition:
One criterion that enables a product to get itself noticed ahead of its competition is its quality. One of
the measures for quality in hardware products is the statistical failure time. Two widely-used methods
for calculating failure time are the Siemens standard SN 29500 and MIL-HDBK-218F. The statistical
length of time between 2 failures (MTBF - mean time between failures) and the theoretical number of
9
failures in 10 hours can be calculated. The term 'service life' is used frequently. This is wrong. A
failure is a malfunction of a component (e.g. fluctuations in the value of a resistance beyond the
tolerance), but this does not necessarily lead to any long-term damage. The values are calculated
separately for each component and then totaled to form the overall failure rate for the product.

Database:
MTBF includes the following items:

- Complaints of any kind: color deviations,....... (justified / unjustified)

- Warranty services
- Product failures
- ......

Calculation example:
100 products have been produced, and have been in use by the customer for 2 years.
In terms of MTBF this equates to a "functional service life" of 100 x 2 years = 200 years.
During this time 10 products failed.
The MTBF for the product at this point is 200/10 (= 20 years or 175,200 hours).

Summary:
A high MTBF merely means that products are of a high quality, and thus also provides an index for
customer satisfaction.

Caution:
MTBF is not the same as service life. An MTBF of 300,000 hrs does not mean that the product has a
service life of 300,000 hrs.

The MTBF evaluation is not standardized. There are two widely-used methods for the calculation
(Siemens standard SN 29500 and MIL-HDBK-217F).
For this reason it is not easy, indeed barely possible, to compare the precise numeric MTBF values
from different companies without a knowledge of how the data has been prepared.

Marketing Motion
Raimund Klingler
Date: 04/03/2003