Analysis of contaminated field failure data for repairable systems

A simple model for electronic systems with repair, and a method for analyzing recorded field failure data for such systems are presented. The work performed has resulted in analytical results that may be used for assessing the product reliability. The method was originally developed for use under ideal circumstances, but it has been adapted for use with contaminated data (i.e., data where the failure times are observed embedded by noise). A simple model for the noise that enables an analytical solution for the mean cumulative number of failures is proposed. The method is illustrated by an example of industrial failure data. The effect caused by contamination in this data is investigated under a worst case assumption. The example indicates that the model is robust to contamination