ABSTRACT
For as long as there have been engineered structures and mechanical systems, there have been maintenance issues, uncertainties regarding reliability, and failures. Yet, the impact of such occurrences has significantly changed as manufacturing has moved away from the manual labor of the Industrial Revolution to the machinery of today’s technology-driven society. With an ever-increasing reliance on expensive and complex machines, machinery failures significantly affect company profits, largely due to the loss of equipment availability, the cost of spare componentry, the risk of injury to people, and the possibility of damage to the environment.
