CRE Sample Test #5.

1. A resister is rated at 1 watt. One example of using this register in a derated condition is using
A. The resister in a 1/2 - watt application. B. The resister in a 2-watt application.
C. The resister as a standby unit. D. Two of the resistors in series.

2. It is appropriate to use the homogeneous Poisson process (HPP) when the failure rate of a system is
A. Decrease continuously. B. Increased continuously.
C. Unchanging. D. First decreasing and then increasing.

3. From a company's point of view, which of the following costs would be LEAST appropriate for
determining the cost of reliability ?
A. Warranty cost. B. Reliability training.
C. Life testing. D. Equipment depreciation.

4. In an elevated-temperature test on an electronic system, which of the following models is used to

calculate the acceleration factor ?
A. Arrhenius model. B. Inverse power law model.
C. Lognormal model. D. Exponential model.

5. Which of the following activities prioritizes failure modes based on probability of failure, severity, and
consequences ?
A. FMEA. B. FTA. C. FURPS. D. FRACAS.
6. Fault isolation is BEST facilitated by using
A. Preventive maintenance, built-in test equipment, and design simplification.
B. Interchangeability, redundancy, and corrective maintenance.
C. Trouble reports, corrective action reports, and inspection data.
D. Periodic condition inspections and correction of detected deterioration.

7. Which of the following reliability techniques is commonly used during the design phase ?
A. Worst-case analysis. B. Field-failure analysis.
C. Environmental hazard plotting. D. Supplier reliability rating.

8. A life test was conducted on 10 units of a product. The average failure time of the units is 100 hours,
and the standard deviation is 5 hours. If the failure time follows a normal distribution, what is the 90%
confidence interval of the mean failure time for this product ?
A. (86.87, 113.13) B. (95.85, 104.15) C. (97.10, 102.90) D. (98.42, 101.58)

9. Reliability growth can BEST be achieved by

A. Performing fault tree and criticality analysis.
B. Analyzing failure data and implementing corrective action.
C. Implementing simultaneous engineering and developing robust design.
D. Implementing concurrent engineering and process design improvement.

10. Which of the following is TRUE about hypothesis testing ?

A. Type l ( α) risk is the risk of rejecting a null hypothesis when it is true.
B. Type l ( α) risk is the consumer's risk.
C. Type ll ( β) risk is the risk of rejecting a null hypothesis when the alternative is true.
D. Type ll ( β) risk is the producer's risk.
11. Which of the following graphs represents a product that is undergoing step-stress testing ?

A. B.

C. D.

12. Which of the following is the first step in the establishment of a reliability centered maintenance
(RCM) program ?
A. Determining who is responsible for responding to improvement recommendations.
B. Determining who will perform the analysis.
C. Determining at what level of assembly the analysis will be conducted.
D. Determining the budget and the type of software tools needed.

13. A key distinction between Taguchi designed experiments and classical designed experiments is that
Taguchi designs
A. Do not rely on randomization and classical experiments do.
B. Are not orthogonal and classical designs are.
C. Are full-factorial and classical designs are not.
D. Include 2-level factors and classical design do not.
14. A primary purpose of burn-in testing of parts is to
A. Ensure that parts are safe.
B. Ensure that parts operate at elevated temperatures.
C. Measure the temperature/stress distribution of parts.
D. Eliminate substandard parts.

15. Corrective maintenance is performed in order to

A. Restore a system to acceptable operation after a failure has occurred.
B. Restore a system to acceptable operation during scheduled downtime.
C. Reduce failure occurrence as directed by condition assessments.
D. Correct potential failure on a regular schedule before they occur.

16. A test machine detects 95% of the defective parts in a production line. To improve product quality, a
second test machine (from a different manufacturer) is installed in series with the first machine. The
second machine is capable of detecting 90% of defects that escape the first machine. If defective parts
are removed after detection, what is the incremental improvement of the two machines in series over the
single machine ?
A. 4.5% B. 5% C. 9.5% D. 14.5%

17. Three identical subsystem are connected in an active parallel, non-load-sharing system. At least two
of the tree must work in order for the system to work. The time to failure for each subsystem is
exponential with a common failure rate, λ. The reliability of the system can be expressed as which of
the following ?
- 2 λt - 3 λt - 3 λt - 2 λt
A. 3e - 2e B. 3e - 2e
- 3 λt - 2 λt - 2 λt - 2 λt
C. 1 -2 e - 3e D. 1 -3 e + 2e

18. When life data are analyzed, some units have not failed and their failure time is known only to be
beyond their present running time. Such data are said to be
A. Right-censoring. B. Censored on the left.
C. Interval censoring. D. Weibull censored.
19. A system is made up to several identical parts of varying age. The reliability of each of these parts is
- λt
given by R( t) = e where λ is the failure rate in failures per hour and t is the operating time in
hours. Which of the following is TRUE about the reliability of these parts ?
A. The oldest part is expected to fail first.
B. The failure rate of the system is given by the product of the individual part reliabilities.
C. Each of the parts has the same probability of failing during a given period of time.
D. The failure rate of the system is given by the product of the individual part failure rates.

20. Five motors are run to failure. Failure times are 632 hours, 3450 hours, 816 hours, 928 hours, and
150 hours. What are the 90% symmetrical confidence limits for the mean time to failure? Assume an
exponential distribution of time to failure.
A. 1051 hours θ 1942 hours.
B. 653 hours θ 3033 hours.
C. 847 hours θ 2650 hours.
D. 347 hours θ 2650 hours.

21. A randomly failing component is tested to r failures, and n observations are made. Degrees of
freedom for calculating confidence limits on the mean should be :
A. 2r B. 2r+2 C. n D. n - 1

22. If a company monitors field reliability using both 6 and 12 month MTBF moving average, a
comparison of the average will generally show that the 12 month moving averages
A. Are greater than the 6 month values. B. Are less than the 6 month values.
C. Vary more than the 6 month values. D. Vary less than the 6 month values.
23. Data collection for a failure reporting, analysis, and corrective action system is important. The control
of input data is BEST determined by :
A. The use of a form. B. Possible cause identification.
C. A failure review board. D. Training of data collectors.

24. The following reliability block diagram shows components A, B, C, D and E with reliability Ra, Rb, Rc,
Rd and Re, respectively. A or B are system entry points.

On the basis of this information, what is the reliability of the system ?

A. [1 - (1 - Ra Rb)] Rc [1 - (1 - Rd Re)]
B. Ra Rc [1 - (1 - Rd Re)] + (1 - Ra) Rb Rc [1 - (1 - Rd) (1 - Re)]
C. Ra Rb [1 - (1 - Rd) (1 - Re)] Rc (1 - Ra) Rb [1 - (1 - Rd) (1 - Re)]
D. Ra Rc [1 - (1 - Rd) (1 - Re)] + (1 - Ra) Rb Rc [1 - (1 - Rd) (1 - Re)]

25.

Top probability of the top event is represented by which of the following expressions ?
A. Pr(B1) + Pr(B2) - Pr(B1) Pr(B2) B. Pr(B1) Pr(B2) - [Pr(B1) + Pr(B2)]
C. Pr(B1) Pr(B2) D. Pr(B1) + Pr(B2)
26. Which of the following provides the maximum benefit of parts standardization ?
A. Lower product life cycle costs. B. Fewer warranty claims.
C. Fewer inspection errors. D. More reliable processes.

27. For a corrective action system to be effective, which of the following is MOST important ?
A. Preventing recurrence of the problem. B. Testing the process for robustness.
C. Improving the design maturity. D. Analyzing error data to uncover trends.

28. For single-failure modes, the probability plotting methods used to derive time-to-failure distribution
parameters are applicable only when the data are
A. Gathered for repairable systems. B. Independently and normally distributed.
C. Independently and identically distributed. D. Exponentially distributed.

29. The maintainability for a system is based on the

B. Time to start up a redundant system. B. Operating time.
C. Total preventive-maintenance time. D. Total repair time.

-4
30. A certain light switch fails with a failure rate of 10 . If the switch is used 20 times per week, what is
the probability of the switch failing by the end of 3-year period ?
-5 -1 -1 -1
A. 7.32 × 10 B. 2.68 × 10 C. 3.12 × 10 D. 7.32 × 10

31. In which of the following distribution is the standard deviation equal to the mean ?
A. Negative binomial. B. Binomial. C. Exponential. D. Poisson.
32. The continuous improvement process can be guided by several techniques. Which of the following is
the BEST approach ?
A. Use of the PDCA cycle B. The original seven quality tools
C. The new seven quality management tools D. Multi-vari charts

33. A system has two unequal units that, in reliability terms, are in pure parallel function mode. If the
units have constant failure rates given by  and  , which of the following formula will determine the
mean life for this system ?
 
A.    B.   
 
  
      
C.      D.       
      

34. Which of the following characteristics apply to the Latin Square design ?
. The number of restrictions equals the number of treatments
. Interest is centered on treatments
. Fully randomized design
. Each treatment appears once per row and per column

A. I, II and IV only B. II and III only C. II only D. I, II, III and IV

35. Which factors must be considered to discriminate differences in input parameters when calculating
sample size ?
. Parameter shift sensitivity.
. Population variance.
. Risk size, both alpha and beta.
. Population size.

A. I and III only B. II and III only C. I, II and III only D. I, III and IV only
36. Under a cost of reliability model, which of the following factors is used to determine warranty costs ?
A. Repair costs. B. Environmental costs. C. Product design costs. D. Screening costs.

37. A fractional design is said to be saturated when the design only allow the estimation of which of the
following ?
A. Main effects and two-way interaction, confounded.
B. Main effects, unconfounded.
C. Main effects, confounded, with all interactions.
D. Main effects, unconfounded, and two-way interactions, confounded.

38. The maintenance action rate (MAR) may be mandated by contract. If an extruder is run continuously
and experiences 24 maintenance actions (downtown) in one year, what is the MAR ?
A. 0.0054 actions/hr. B. 0.0417 actions/hr
C. 0.0027 acions/hr. D. 0.00135 actions/hr.

39. The following fault tree diagram was developed by a team.

The probability are as follows :

A1 = 0.90 B1 = 0.90 C1 = 0.80
A2 = 0.80 B3 = 0.80 C2 = 0.70
A4 = 0.70

The likelihood that the system fault will occur is

A. 0.3073 B. 0.3686
C. 0.4977 D. 0.5034
40. Which of the following statement is NOT true about a standard part program ?
A. It reduces the cost of qualifying new parts and suppliers.
B. It reduces the number of new part specifications that must be prepared and maintained.
C. It includes the design group's freedom to select parts that optimize performance.
D. It improves the economy of scale by using large quantities of fewer parts.

41. You are the present ASQ Section Chairperson. Your supervisor, your company's Director of Quality, is
very proud of the company's recent quality efforts which included ISO 9001 registration and the top quality
award from the state. He or she requested you to announce these achievements at the next ASQ Section
meeting. As the ASQ Section Chair, your response should be which of the following ?
A. There is no problem in doing so. B. You must resign as Section Chairperson.
C. If I clarify my position, then I can do so. D. This announcement must be done by another.

42. Which of the following graphs represents a product that is a good candidate for an accelerated
degradation test involving overstress testing ?

A. B.

C. D.
43. Which of the following corporate reliability strategies would be MOST effective for a company that has
multiple product line ?
A. Each product line should have as many reliability plans as possible.
B. Each product line should have only one reliability plan.
C. The reliability department should be responsible for the product reliability for each product line.
D. The reliability plan for each product line should be based on the company's overall reliability goals.

44. Which of the following statements is TRUE nonrepairable items ?

A. Reliability is the survival probability that failure of the items will not occur during the period of
interest when more than one failure can occur.
B. Reliability is survival probability over the expected life of the items when only one failure can occur.
C. Their primary unit of measure is mean time to replace.
D. Their primary unit of measure is failure severity.

45. You are considering the purchase of an air-conditioning unit for your company. Two are available. Unit
A costs $150,000 and has an expected life of 20 years with a MTBF of 5 years. Unit B costs $141,000
and has an expected life of 15 years and a MTBF of 3 years. The expected cost of repair for each unit
is $1000. Assuming that there is no value at the end of the life and the interest rate is 12%, which unit
has the lowest life cycle cost ?
A. Unit A.
B. Unit B.
C. Not enough information available to make a decision.
D. Select either unit since the per year costs are very close.

46. The chi square goodness-of-fit test can be used to determine how well the data fit which of the
following types of distributions ?
A. Exponential only. B. Nornal only. C. Weibull only. D. Any assumed distribution.

47. All of the following information is required to calculate reliability EXCEPT the
A. Appropriate probability distribution. B. Desired time limit.
C. Failure rate. D. Failure mechanism.
48. Derating enhances reliability in all of the following ways EXCEPT by
A. Reducing the effects of parameter variations.
B. Reducing the likelihood that marginal components will fail.
C. Including marginal components to fail.
D. Providing allowance for uncertainty in stress calculation.

49. Monte Carlo simulation is a method than can be used in all of the following situation EXCEPT
A. With non-constant values for failure rates.
B. With constant values for failure rates.
C. For accelerated testing when events are independent.
D. For evaluating queueing for repairs.

50. According to the Arrhenius Model, the expected life of an electronic component should :
A. Decrease exponentially with an increase in temperature.
B. Decrease linearly with an increase in temperature.
D. Increase linearly with an increase in temperature.
D. Increase exponentially with an increase in temperature.

51.        are independent observations from a normal distribution with a hazard rate . In
general, what distribution represents the sum          ?
A. Normal. B. F. C. Chi-square. D. Student t.

52. At the meat time between failure for a non-repairable system with a constant failure rate, what
percentage of the systems are expected to have failed ?
A. 37% B. 50% C. 63% D. 100%
53. What are the Evolutionary Operation (EVOP) experiment characteristics that minimize the possibility of
degrading a process, instead of improving it ?
. EVOP experiments are conducted by the process operators.
. A large number of experiments are conducted, varying factors only slightly.
. Experimental manufacturing runs are part of normal production, thereby causing little additional cost.
. A limited number of factors are varied with each experiment,

A. I, II, III and IV B. II and III only C. II, III and IV only D. I and III only

54. A reliability engineer would expect to see which of the following failure-over-time plots on a software
product that has multiple releases during development ?

A.

B.

C.

D.

55. The results of a designed experiment are to be analyzed using a chi-square test. There are five
treatments under consideration and each treatment falls under two categories (success or failure). The
calculated value of chi-squre is compared to the tabulated chi-square with how many degrees of freedom
?
A. 10 B. 4 C. 5 D. 9
56. If the reliability goal for a 4 - hour mission is 0.9999 for a complex system, what system MTBF is
required ?
A. 55 hours. B. 2,500 hours. C. 10,000 hours. D. 40,000 hours.

57. Which of the following statements is TRUE about human factor points ?
A. They should be incorporated during the design phase.
B. They are not necessary until the product has been designed and field tested.
C. They are most costly to incorporate during the concept phase.
D. They generally cause schedule slippage whenever they are incorporated.

58. To be accurate and easy to use, field-failure reports should have all of the following attributes
EXCEPT
A. Commonly used data points presented in a check-off format.
B. Common failure modes and corrective actions included as a check-off.
C. Adequate space for hand-written comments and explanations.
D. Identification of customer symptoms to explain the cause or problem.

59. Which of the following statement is TRUE about environmental stress screening (ESS) ?
A. It is used to validate a design. B. It involves random sampling.
C. It is a form of accelerated testing. D. It stresses equipment beyond design limits.

60. Which of the following activities is MOST effective in increasing reliability during a product's life cycle ?
A. Improving gage repeatability and reproducibility.
B. Developing an aggressive testing strategy.
C. Developing capable processes.
D. Developing robust design.
61. Which of the following statement is TRUE about maintainability ?
A. It should be initiated during the logistics review.
B. It should be initiated during the design stage.
C. It is primarily a field service issue.
D. It is primarily a contractual requirements.

62. When a bathtub curve is used, one characteristic of the flat center portion of the curve is that during
this period
A. There can be only one type of failure in the system.
B. The reliability of the system can be expressed as an exponential function.
C. The equipment can be considered highly reliable.
D. The time of the next failure is predictable from the time of the last failure.

63. A product - design team is in the material-selection phase for a new product. The following four
treatments need to be considered :
Treatment Number of levels
Material 4
Heat 3
Geometry . 2
Test rig 2

What is the maximum number of treatment combinations ?

A. 4 B. 6 C. 11 D. 48

64. The mean of the normal logarithms of the repair times is 4.3 hours with a standard deviation of 0.7
hours. What is the maintainability for an allowed repair time of 120 hours ?
A. 0.187 B. 0.243 C. 0.757 D. 0.976
65. A fair coin is tossed 10 times. What are the expected mean and variance of the number of heads ?
Mean Variance
A. 0.5 0.025
B. 5.0 2.500
C. 5.0 5.000
D. 10.0 5.000

66. Which of the following factors is NOT used in risk assessment ?

A. Certainty. B. Reliability. C. Probability. D. Statistics.

67. A system is defined by the following reliability block diagram.

Which of the following block diagrams MOST simply represents the system reliability when Unit C is
functioning ?

A.

B.

C.

D.
68. Which of the following is the GREATEST benefit of a fault-tree analysis ?
A. It is easy to perform and does not require a computer program.
B. It is comprehensive and readily converted to a computer program.
C. It is systematic and identifies ways to avoid failures.
D. It is bottom-up and provides detailed accident scenario.

69. When reliability goals are being developed, reliability predictions are initially used to
A. Set goals for all portions of the life cycle of a system.
B. Estimate potential performance of hardware and software with respect to reliability requirements.
C. Measure customer needs and provides a means of defining quantitative reliability goals.
D. Establish competitive position with respect to reliability.

70. Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of testability ?

A. Fault detection capability. B. Fault isolation capability.
C. Fault repair rate. D. False alarm rate.

71. For a corrective action system to be effective, which of the following is MOST important ?
A. Follow - up. B. Robustness testing. C. Design maturity. D. Warranty analysis.

72. Which of the following would NOT normally be used for continuous variable data analysis ?
. Box plots.
. Fault-tree diagrams.
. Average - range control charts.
. Cause and effect diagrams.

A. II and IV only B. I and III only C. I, II and IV only D. I, II, III and IV
73. Reliability prediction is justifiable if :
A. It sets threshold tolerances for quality engineering planning.
B. It helps settle management's concern that a reliable product will be produced.
C. It is a contract requirement.
D. It leads to the development of a more reliable end product.

74. Many actions to correct failure modes do NOT succeed because they have focused on which of the
following?
. A symptom of the problem.
. An apparent cause of the problem.
. The root cause of the problem.
. The immediate cause of the problem.

A. I only B. II and III only C. I, II and IV only D. I, II, III and IV

75. Which of the following failures would probably be considered a chargeable reliability failure ?
A. A nonrelevant failure. B. A repair induced failure.
C. A failure beyond expected life and not replaced. D. An unverified failure.

76. Why is CERT (Combined Environments for Reliability Testing) used ?

. CERT can reduce the time required for testing.
. CERT can more closely match real-life conditions.
. CERT may bring about failure modes not seen in other tests.

A. I B. II C. I and II D. I, II, III

77. Reliability prediction and measurement are primarily useful in :
. Evaluating feasibility.
. Establishing reliability goals.
. Evaluating overall reliability.
. Defining problem areas.

A. I and II only B. I and III only C. II, III and IV only D. I, II, III and IV

78. A failure which prevents the system from performing its mission would be classified as :
A. A critical failure. B. A major failure.
C. A minor failure. D. An independent failure.

79. Which of the following forms of reliability data will BEST provide valuable information on product
usage and reliability ?
A. In-house test results. B. Independent lab results.
C. Field support data. D. Quality control data.

80. The amount and type of data collected is a function of

A. Financial consideration. B. Customer requirements.
C. The reliability of the product. D. The failure mode.

81. What is the MOST important role performed by a failure review board ?
A. To assess failures. B. To monitor corrective action.
C. To monitor reliability growth. D. To ensure that corrective action is effective.

82. If the plating time of a tube increases as the inside diameter decreases, then the correlation
coefficient for the insider diameter versus plating time would be :
A. Between 0 and +1 B. Greater than 1
C. Between 0 and -1 D. Equal to 1
83. Nonrelevant failures include all of the following EXCEPT :
A. Unverified failures. B. Mishandling failures.
C. Operating adjustment failures. D. Human error failures.

84. Which of the following techniques is MOST beneficial in tracking a process to determine whether
corrective action should be taken ?
A. Pareto analysis. B. Control charting.
C. Trend analysis. D. Time series plotting.

85. Which of the following is the key component in continuously providing a reliable product ?
A. Improve supplier acceptance testing. B. Adequately train the work force.
C. Reduce product variability. D. Scheduled equipment maintenance actions.

86. Which of the following is a continuous probability distribution ?

A. Weibull. B. Hypergeometric. C. Binomial. D. Poisson.

87. The strength, X, of mechanical devices produced by a company follow a normal distribution with
unknown mean and known variance = 36. Thirty of these devices were selected at random and tested to
determine their strengths. Their average strength was 120. What is the maximum stress, x, that these
devices should be exposed to so that, from this test data we can be 90% confident that P(X > x) = .95
?
A. 112.30 B. 108.73 C. 137.62 D. 127.71
88. If    and  denote the failure time density function, reliability function, and hazard-rate
function of a device, which one of these expressions is TRUE ?
 
.    

   



.     


.   
 

.     


A. I only B. II only C. III only D. IV only

89. With regard to the reliability bathtub curve, which of the answers does NOT fit with the others ?
A. Useful life B. Exponentially distributed reliability function
C. Wearout D. Constant failure rate

90. 15 rocket booster engines were tested for a total of 5 hours. Three engines failed. What is the
two-sided confidence interval for MTBF using 95% confidence ?
A. 0.57, 8.06 B. 0.69, 8.06 C. 0.75, 9.20 D. 0.80, 9.50

91. What is the reliability of the power switching system schematic on the left after 30,000 hours ? The
electric utility primary power system (A) has a failure rate of 0.00001 failure/hour. The motor generator
backup system (B) has a failure rate of 0.0007 failure/hour. The standby system has an imperfect switch
with 0.90 reliability per operation.

A. 0.63 B. 0.80 C. 0.77 D. 0.75

92. An acceptable form of preventive maintenance is :
. Replacing any item as soon as it is found to be defective.
. Replacing any item as soon as operating personnel complain about it.
. Replacing items known to have operating time limitations on a scheduled basis.

A. I only B. III only C. I and II only D. I, II and III

93. When a bathtub curve is used, one characteristic of the flat center portion of the curve (Period B) is
that during this period :

A. There can be only one type of failure in the system.

B. The reliability of the system can be considered highly reliable.
C. The equipment can be considered highly reliable.
D. The time of the next failure is predictable from the time of the last failure.

94. Design reviews should have sufficient information available to make their meetings worthwhile. Formal
controls (specifications, drawing controls, etc.) should begin with the first design review. This approach is
referred to as :
A. Quality systems documentation. B. Documentation control.
C. Configuration control. D. Standards organization.

95. Which of the following is required to establish a reliability specification ?

A. To usage environment. B. A robust design.
C. The reliability policy. D. A mathematical model.
96. Availability can be defined as :
. A percentage.
. Related to operating time.
. Operable at the start of a mission.

A. III only B. I only C. I and II only D. I, II and III

97. The effectiveness of a maintenance program is affected MOST by :

A. Availability of spare parts.
B. Designed ease of installation and removal of components.
C. Reliability of installed, replaceable items.
D. Skill level of the maintenance personnel.

98. Which of the following is NOT an appropriate element in the definition of availability ?
A. The degree to which the system is in an operable and committable state at the start of a mission.
B. The probability the system will perform its mission when required.
C. The ratio of the actual operating time to the scheduled operating time excluding PM.
D. The measure of the ability of a system to achieve mission objectives given the conditions during
the mission.

99. The ratio of the total operating time to the total number of failures is :
A. Maintenance action rate. B. Maintainability.
C. Failure rate. D. Mean time to failure.

100. Your company has just installed a new computer data entry system and you must determine the
new input error rates. Management requires you to report the error rate within 0.5%, at a 95% confidence
level. What sample size do you need if the population standard deviation is 1.2% ?
A. 15 B. 23 C. 27 D. 37
101. Equipment and machinery do break down and require repairs over time. As plant engineer, which of
the following guidelines should you follow ?
. Keep the repair rate as low as possible.
. Keep the failure rate as low as possible.
. Keep the repair rate as high as possible.
. Keep repair times independent of required production time.

A. I and II only B. II and III only C. II and IV only D. I, II and III only

102. 50 resisters from a lot of 75,000 were tested. The average was 3,306 ohms with a variance of
21,609 ohm2. From this information, we may conclude with 99% confidence, that at least 95% of this lot
will have resistance values in the range of
A. 3,012 - 3,600 ohms. B. 2,865 - 3,747 ohms.
C. 2927 - 3,685 ohms. D. 2,846 - 3,766 ohms.

103. For the ANOVA Table on the left, what is the F table value for α = .01 ?

Source Sum of Squares Degrees of Freedom Mean Squares Fcalc

Between Treatments 27.2 5
Error 45.6 8
Totals 72.8

A. 0.999 B. 5.44 C. 5.70 D. 6.63

104. Which of the following is the MOST valuable in Human Engineering ?

A. FMECA. B. Monte-Carlo analysis. C. ANOVA. D. Full scale model.
105. A mission profile is :
. Time-phased.
. A summary of events and environments.
. All activities from initiation to completion of a mission.

A. I and III only B. II and III only C. III only D. I, II and III

106. Eliminating hazards can be accomplished several ways. Which of the following does NOT eliminate a
hazard ?
A. Contingency analysis. B. FMEA. C. Fault-tree analysis. D. Procedure analysis.

107. Reliability safety would be considered which of the following ?

. A completely automated process.
. The absence of unacceptable hazards.
. Compliance with government regulations.

A. II only B. III only C. I and II only D. I, II and III

108. While testing a new design, you experienced 3 failures in 100 tests. What is the lower confidence
limit for the unit's tested reliability based on a confidence level of 0.90 ?
A. 0.962 B. 0.950 C. 0.925 D. 0.935

109. When a potential hazard is identified, which of the following design strategies can be used ?
. Design for hazard minimization.
. Attach safety devices.
. Provide warning labels.
. Develop special procedures or training.

A. I B. II, III C. I, II, III D. I, II, III, IV

110. Products should be subjected to tests which are designed to :
A. Demonstrate the basic function at a minimum testing cost.
B. Approximate the conditions to be experienced in customer's application.
C. Assure that specifications are met under laboratory conditions.
D. Assure performance under severe environmental conditions.

111. The most important reliability characteristic of a product is that it :

A. Has a higher MTBF than its competitors
B. Has easy maintenance and service features
C. Performs the required functions throughout the product life cycle
D. Demonstrates low warranty costs

112. A prototype lot of a new design suspension spring underwent testing with these results:
Total hours accumulated: 12,000
Number of Failures: 6
Hours to failure: 202, 387, 461, 590, 723, 864
What is the failure rate?

A. 0.0018/hour B. 0.0024/hour C. 0.0005/hour D. 0.0020/hour

113. The reliability of a complex system can BEST be improved by :

A. Selecting system components objectively.
B. Multiple system testing (> 15 systems).
C. Well designed and executed preventive maintenance system.
D. Including redundant concepts in design.

114. As the reliability engineer of a medium sized firm, you have developed a reliability test plan for the
shop. The shop manufactures products on a medium batch size basis. The batches range from 30 to 500
pieces per order. The test plan should include all of the following consideration EXCEPT
A. Discover every failure mode. B. Estimate MTBF values.
C. Inspect the majority of parts produced. D. Provide a safe testing environment.
115. What is the reliability for a device at t = 4 whose hazard function h(t) is on the below ?


  

    


  
    

  ≧ 

 
   
A.  
B.   C.   D.  

116. Failure rates in reliability analysis for the exponential case :

A. Are multiplied together for independent events.
B. Increase to the mean value and then decrease.
C. Are summed to combine independent series elements in reliability analysis.
D. Are used to model the Weibull when β = 2.

117. The reliability expression for three independent components in series with component reliability R is?
A. 3R B. 3R - 3R2 + R3 C. (1 - R)3 D. R3

118. The reliability parameter is one of the system performance parameters with significant influence on :
A. Capability. B. Transfer functions.
C. Availability and dependability. D. Hostile man-made environments.

119. A system is made up of four independent components in series each having a failure rate of .005
failures per hour. If time to failure is exponential, then the reliability of the system at 10 hours is :
A. 0.8187 B. 0.8860 C. 0.9512 D. 0.9802
120. Design reviews should be held :
A. During the design phase. B. After the design in completed.
C. At least once a year. D. At each critical design program milestone.

121. If the FMECA environment consequences are difficult to quantify, which of the following approaches
is best for assigning severity to a failure mode ?
A. Automatically assign the catastrophic classification.
B. Use the critical category until more data is gathered.
C. No assignment can be made due to no existing evidence.
D. Use the Delphi technique.

122. In a FMECA, the potential failure modes are determined in order to improve system reliability. The
effort to assess the severity of failure effects is part of the :
A. Modeling determination. B. Risk analysis.
C. Design potential. D. Criticality analysis.

123. Reliability prediction is justifiable if :

A. It sets threshold tolerances for quality engineering planning.
B. It helps settle management's concern that a reliable product will be produced.
C. It leads to the development of a more reliable end product.
D. It is a contract requirement.

124. The design function which assigns probability of failures between components or subsystems is called :
A. Significance. B. Prediction. C. Qualification. D. Apportionment.
125. Which of the following are valid failure causes used in reliability engineering ?
. Static causes.
. Brittleness.
. Instability.
. Creep.
. Fatigue.

A. II and III only B. II, III and IV only C. II, IV and V only D. I, II, III, IV and V

126. Derating a component to 50 percent of its operating value will generally decrease its failure rate by
a factor of :
A. Greater than 50 percent. B. Greater than 30 percent.
C. Greater than 10 percent but less than 30 percent. D. Less than 10 percent.

127. A redundant system has 5 standby parallel components, with perfect switching. If each of the
components have a reliability of 0.03 failures/hour, what is the system's reliability at 20 hours ?
A. 0.9232 B. 0.9432 C. 0.9997 D. 0.9999

128. A series system whose reliability at 5 hours is 0.80, has three components with these historical
constant failure rates :
λ 1 = failure rate for component 1 = 0.04 failures/hour
λ 2 = failure rate for component 2 = 0.07 failures/hour
λ 3 = failure rate for component 3 = 0.01 failures/hour

Three of the four answers are the three component reliabilities at 5 hours. Which is incorrect ?

A. 0.9123 B. 0.9283 C. 0.8780 D. 0.9816

129. Sequential life testing plans can be based on which of the following distributions ?
. Binomial.
. Weibull.
. Exponential.
. Monte Carlo.

A. I and II only B. I, II and III only C. II and III only D. I, II, III and IV

130. For a critical application, which of the following statements regarding the safety and margin of safety
would be considered FALSE ?
. The safety factor will be less than 1.0.
. The margin of safety will be greater than the safety factor.
. The standard deviation of stress will be less than the standard deviation of strength.

A. I only B. I and III only C. II and III only D. I, II and III

131. A reliability test conducted during the pre-production stage is called

A. Failure analysis. B. Acceptance test.
C. Qualification test. D. Significance test.

132. Which of the following is the most appropriate reason for selecting accelerated life testing for an
expensive product to determine adherence to design requirements?
A. The test time to provide adequate reliability assurance under normal operating conditions is too long.
B. The current sample size and the life distribution show wear-out is likely.
C. The error in the population due to part-to-part variation is too large.
D. The probability density function of the product follows either a log normal or a Weibull distribution.
133. In a manufacturing situation, an engineer has an opportunity to design new machinery. Automated
machinery is BEST applied under which of the following conditions ?
. Those involving continuous repetitive processes.
. Those requiring various degrees of originality.
. Those requiring a very quick reaction to stimuli.
. Those requiring an interpretation of collected data.

A. I and II only B. II and III only C. I and III only D. II, III and IV only

134. What is the probability of failure if the stress on a component is 20,000 psi with a standard
deviation of 1000 psi and the strength is 25,000 psi with a standard deviation of 2000 psi ?
A. 2.24 % B. 1.25 % C. 2.50 % 5.32 %

135. The MOST important reason(s) for performing design reviews is to :

. Identify the anticipated field usage of the system.
. Review referenced specifications to be used during procurement.
. Follow up the outcome of action items discussed during prior meetings.

A. I only B. II only C. I and III only D. I, II and III

136. The purpose of derating parts is to :

. Increase part life.
. Enhance overall system reliability.
. Improve circuit design.

A. I only B. I and II only C. II and III only D. I, II and III

137. Design reviews should have sufficient information available to make their meetings worthwhile. Formal
controls (specifications, drawing controls, etc.) should begin with the first design review. This approach is
referred to as :
A. Configuration control. B. Documentation control.
C. Quality systems documentation. D. Standards organization

138. In a software development project, which of the following elements is NOT essential to ensure a
reliable product ?
A. Specifying the software requirements in complete detail.
B. Ensuring that requirements based testing is performed.
C. Documenting changes made to the software during development.
D. Performing a failure mode, effects, and criticality analysis on the software.

139. Experimental design plans usually call for testing a number of factors and keeping all other
conditions as nearly constant as possible. Taguchi Methods call for similar techniques, but with a twist.
Noise conditions are changes a bit to determine robustness. Where are the noise factors placed ?
A. Outer array. B. Inner array. C. Control array. D. Quadratic array.

140. One method of evaluating the design reliability is to analyze the design assuming the worst case.
Which of the following techniques is NOT applicable for worst case analysis ?
A. Root - sum squared. B. Extreme value. C. Eyring model. D. Monte Carlo.

141. Human reliability is defined as the probability that a human will :

A. Be available to perform a job under adverse conditions.
B. Successfully accomplis a task within a specified time limit.
C. Under ideal conditions fulfill specified human functions.
D. Carry out tasks that result in no damage to products.
142. The primary objectives of a training needs assessment are to
. Determine what training is currently being conducted.
. Evaluate employee certification rating.
. Develop a training plan (either current of future)
. Set new employee performance objectives.

A. B. , , C. , D. , , ,

143. System effectiveness :

. Is a measure of the extent to which a system may be expected to achieve a set of specific mission
requirements.
. Can often be expressed as a function of availability, dependability, and capability.
. Provides a decision criterion for system selection and justification.

A. I, II and III B. I and II only C. I and III only D. I only

144. System and cost effectiveness analysis outputs :

A. Can be used to determine the best balance of system performance, cost and schedule.
B. Do not guide trade-off decisions.
C. In most cases will not identify the degree to which innovations should be pursued.
D. Will not guide preliminary design features.

145. Which of the following terms is defined as the ability of an item to perform its required functions for
the duration of a specified mission profile ?
A. Reliability. B. Mission capability. C. Reliability mission. D. Reliability growth.
146. Which of the following statements is NOT true in regards to X bar control charts ?
A. The limits are usually set at the observed mean plus or minus 3 standard deviations of the process.
B. The width of the limits is inversely proportional to the square root of the sample size.
C. If the process is in control, 2700 points per million will fall outside the control limits.
D. If the process is in control, 1/2 the points will fall below the center line.

147. The MOST important reliability characteristic of a product is that it :

A. Has a higher MTBF than its competitors.
B. Has easy maintenance and service features.
C. Performs the required functions throughout the product life cycle.
D. Demonstrates low warranty costs.

148. Which of the following characteristics are essential for a successful design review team ?
. Multi-disciplined functionality.
. Possess change authority.
. Membership limited to design engineering and reliability engineering.
. Functions as a investigative .research team only.

A. I and II only B. II and III only C. III only D. I, III and IV only

149. The 80% lower confidence limit requirement for a certain go/no-go device is 0.997. How many such
devices need to be tested without any failures to meet this requirement ?
A. 392 B. 460 C. 536 D. 629

150. Which of the following is NOT a primary objective of system burn-in (or run-in) ?
A. Screen infant mortality defects. B. Improve the customer's perception.
C. Identify defective parts. D. Correct design problems.
Solutions :
1 A 16 A 31 C 46 D 61 B 76 D 91 D 106 A 121 D 136 D
2 C 17 A 32 A 47 D 62 B 77 D 92 B 107 A 122 D 137 A
3 D 18 A 33 C 48 C 63 D 78 A 93 B 108 D 123 C 138 D
4 A 19 C 34 A 49 B 64 C 79 C 94 C 109 D 124 D 139 A
5 A 20 B 35 C 50 A 65 B 80 A 95 A 110 B 125 D 140 C
6 A 21 A 36 A 51 A 66 A 81 D 96 D 111 C 126 B 141 D
7 A 22 D 37 C 52 C 67 C 82 C 97 B 112 C 127 D 142 B
8 C 23 D 38 C 53 A 68 C 83 A 98 C 113 D 128 A 143 A
9 B 24 D 39 C 54 C 69 B 84 B 99 D 114 C 129 B 144 A
10 A 25 A 40 C 55 B 70 C 85 C 100 B 115 A 130 D 145 C
11 B 26 A 41 C 56 D 71 A 86 A 101 B 116 C 131 C 146 A
12 C 27 A 42 A 57 A 72 A 87 B 102 C 117 D 132 A 147 C
13 A 28 C 43 D 58 B 73 D 88 A 103 A 118 C 133 C 148 A
14 D 29 D 44 B 59 B 74 C 89 C 104 D 119 A 134 B 149 C
15 A 30 B 45 D 60 D 75 D 90 A 105 D 120 D 135 D 150 D