Accelerated Testing and Smart Maintenance: History and Future
Haitao Liao
Abstract
Reliability testing and maintenance are essential to the reliable, economical, and safe operation of a system. So far, a variety of reliability testing and statistical methods have been used successfully in reliability analysis and improvement, and maintenance planning and scheduling using different sources of data and mathematical tools continue to improve. Over the past decades, researchers and practitioners have investigated a rich collection of reliability concepts and practiced them almost everywhere involving hardware, software, and humans. Nowadays, more effort is needed to holistically handle complex systems, effectively process big data, and ensure sustainability in product design and actual operation. In this article, we briefly review the history and developments of reliability with focuses on accelerated testing (AT) and maintenance, and discuss opportunities and ongoing efforts to meet increasing customer expectations.