MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures)
The average operating time between failures of a repairable asset — the standard headline measure of reliability.
MTBF is total operating time divided by the number of failures over that period. A conveyor that ran 4,320 hours in six months and failed six times has an MTBF of 720 hours. Rising MTBF means reliability is improving; falling MTBF on a critical asset is an early flag for deeper investigation, whether of the equipment, the operating context, or the quality of prior repairs.
Interpretation requires care. MTBF is an average across a period, not a prediction for the next failure, and it says nothing about failure severity — six two-minute jams and one catastrophic shaft failure can produce the same count. It applies to repairable systems; for non-repairable components the analogous measure is MTTF (mean time to failure). Definitions of what counts as a failure must be written down and held constant, or the trend measures bookkeeping rather than reliability.
Used well, MTBF is a comparison tool: the same asset over time, or sibling assets against each other. The pump whose MTBF is a third of its twins' is a bad actor telling you something — about installation, operating conditions, or maintenance quality.
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