A critical look at the bathtub curve Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • This paper addresses some of the fundamental assumptions underlying the bathtub curve. It is shown to be unlikely that any practical hazard function is decreasing near zero. Great care should be taken in interpreting the hazard function, particularly in applying quality-control practices, such as burn-in or environmental-stress-screeing to manufactured products.

published proceedings

  • IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON RELIABILITY

altmetric score

  • 3

author list (cited authors)

  • Klutke, G. A., Kiessler, P. C., & Wortman, M. A.

citation count

  • 210

complete list of authors

  • Klutke, GA||Kiessler, PC||Wortman, MA

publication date

  • March 2003