Advantages of Weibull Analysis
Weibull analysis is extensively used to study mechanical, chemical, electrical, electronic, material and human failures. The primary advantages of Weibull analysis are its ability to:
• Provide moderately accurate failure analysis and failure forecasts with extremely small data samples, making solutions possible at the earliest indications of a problem.
• Provide simple and useful graphical plots for individual failure modes that can be easily interpreted and understood, even when data inadequacies exist.
• Represent a broad range of distribution shapes so that the distribution with the best fit can be selected.
• Provide physics-of-failure clues based on the slope of the Weibull probability
Although the use of the normal or lognormal distribution generally requires at least 20 failures or knowledge from prior experience, Weibull analysis works extremely well when there are as few as 2 or 3 failures, which is critical when the result of a failure involves safety or extreme costs. WeiBayes, a distribution in the Weibull family, can even be used with no failures when prior engineering knowledge is sufficient.