Method for analyzing operation of a machine

A method for analyzing operation of at least one machine, comprising:

• collecting operation data for a machine over a plurality of predetermined time periods, the operation data including the time for cycle events, starve events, blocked events, and down events;
• determining for each of the predetermined time periods whether the machine is in an “ON” state or an “OFF” state based at least in part on the collected operation data;
• removing data for the OFF states from at least a portion of the collected operation data, thereby generating a filtered data set;
• determining a time-to-failure parameter using at least the down events from the filtered data set;
• determining a time-to-repair parameter using at least the down events from the filtered data set;
• choosing a probability density function;
• and
• fitting the determined parameters to the chosen probability density function, thereby generating reliability information for the machine to facilitate predictions of future machine operation.

A method for analyzing operation of at least one machine, comprising:

• collecting operation data for each of a plurality of machines over a plurality of predetermined time periods, the operation data for each machine including the respective time for a plurality of events that together form a set of mutually exclusive events that describe operation of the respective machine;
• determining for each of the predetermined time periods whether each machine is in an ON state or an OFF state based at least in part on the collected operation data for the respective machine;
• removing data for the OFF states from at least a portion of the collected operation data, thereby generating a filtered data set;
• generating reliability information for each machine based at least in part on the filtered data set, thereby facilitating predictions of future operation of each machine;
• and
• using the reliability information to perform a constraint analysis for the machines.