IEZS - Dependability

This part of IEC 60300 provides guidelines for the development of failure management policies for equipment and structures using reliability centred maintenance (RCM) analysis techniques. This part serves as an application guide and is an extension of IEC 60300-3-10, IEC 60300-3-12 and IEC 60300-3-14. Maintenance activities recommended in all three standards, which relate to preventive maintenance, may be implemented using this standard. The RCM method can be applied to items such as ground vehicles, ships, power plants, aircraft, and other systems which are made up of equipment and structure, e.g. a building, airframe or ship's hull. Typically, equipment comprises a number of electrical, mechanical, instrumentation or control systems and subsystems which can be further broken down into progressively smaller groupings, as required. This standard is restricted to the application of RCM techniques and does not include aspects of maintenance support, which are covered by the above-mentioned standards or other dependability and safety standards.

This part of IEC 60300 provides guidance for an engineering system's dependability and describes a process for realization of system dependability through the system life cycle. This standard is applicable to new system development and for enhancement of existing systems involving interactions of system functions consisting of hardware, software and human elements. This standard also applies to providers of subsystems and suppliers of products that seek system information and criteria for system integration. Methods and tools are provided for system dependability assessment and verification of results for achievement of dependability objectives.

This International Standard gives guidance for reliability growth during final testing or acceptance testing of unique complex systems. It gives guidance on accelerated test conditions and criteria for stopping these tests. "Unique" means that no information exists on similar systems, and the small number of produced systems means that information deducted from the test has limited use for future production. This standard concerns reliability growth of repairable complex systems consisting of hardware with embedded software. It can be used for describing the procedure for acceptance testing, "running-in", and to ensure that reliability of a delivered system is not compromised by coding errors, workmanship errors or manufacturing errors. It only covers the early failure period of the system life cycle and neither the constant failure period, nor the wear out failure period. It can also be used when a company wants to optimize the duration of internal production testing during manufacturing of prototypes, single systems or small series. It is applicable mainly to large hardware/software systems, but does not cover large networks, for example telecommunications and power networks, since new parts of such systems cannot usually be isolated during the testing. It does not cover software tested alone, but the methods can be used during testing of large embedded software programs in operational hardware, when simulated operating loads are used. It addresses growth testing before or at delivery of a finished system. The testing can therefore take place at the manufacturer's or at the end user's premises. If the user of a system performs reliability growth by a policy of updating hardware and software with improved versions, this standard can be used to guide the growth process. This standard covers a wide field of applications, but is not applicable to health or safety aspects of systems. This standard does not apply to systems that are covered by IEC 62279.

This part of IEC 61163 describes particular methods to apply and optimize reliability stress screening processes for lots of repairable hardware assemblies, in cases where the assemblies have an unacceptably low reliability in the early failure period, and when other methods, such as reliability growth programmes and quality control techniques, are not applicable. The reasons for using reliability stress screening may be time constraints and/or the very nature of the deficiencies that the reliability stress screening is designed to catch. The processes apply to any stage of a series production of repairable assemblies (see Figure 3). The methods for setting up a process can be used during production planning, during pilot-production, as well as during well-established running production. A prerequisite for the application of the methods is that a certain level of flaws remaining in the outgoing assembly can be specified. The processes described are general processes for reliability stress screening in cases where no specific process is described in a product standard. They are also intended for use by IEC committees in connection with preparation of product standards. A reliability stress screening process can form part of an overall reliability programme (see IEC 60300-2).

The purpose of this part of IEC 60706 is to - provide guidance for the early consideration of testability aspects in design and development; - assist in determining effective test procedures as an integral part of operation and maintenance. This International Standard can be applied to all types of products which may include commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) items. In this respect, it does not matter whether the product belongs to mechanical, hydraulic, electrical or some other technology. In addition, this International Standard applies to the development of any products, with the aim of designing the product characteristics so that they are verifiable (testable). The objective of this International standard is to ensure that prerequisites relating to the testability of products are defined in the preliminary phases of development, laid down by the customer, implemented, documented and verified during development. This International Standard also provides methods to implement and assess testability as an integral part of the product design. It recommends that the product testability documentation should be continually updated over the product's life cycle.

This International Standard gives guidance for establishing a framework for obsolescence management and for planning a cost-effective obsolescence management process that is applicable through all phases of the product life cycle, the term 'product' includes: - capital equipment; - infrastructure; - consumer durables; - consumables; - software products. Obsolescence management covers the following areas: a) design of new products; b) new technology insertion into existing products; c) support and maintenance of legacy products.

This International Standard gives guidance on the preparation of system dependability specifications. It provides a process for system evaluation and presents a procedure for determining system dependability requirements. This International Standard is not intended for certification or to perform conformity assessment for contractual purposes. It is not intended to change any rights or obligations provided by applicable statutory or regulatory requirements.

This International Standard describes fault tree analysis and provides guidance on its application as follows: - definition of basic principles;;describing and explaining the associated mathematical modelling;;explaining the relationships of FTA to other reliability modelling techniques; - description of the steps involved in performing the FTA; - identification of appropriate assumptions, events and failure modes; - identification and description of commonly used symbols.