Bathtub curve

In reliability theory, the bathtub curve is the phenomenon that the fraction of products failing in a given timespan is usually high early in the lifecycle, low in the middle, and rising strongly towards the end.

When plotted as a curve, this looks like the profile of a bathtub:

The bathtub curve is frequently applied to computer and other electronic memory devices, especially those in which data integrity is critical. The goal is to try and stagger the curve functions of separate vital data storage units so that the cumulative failure curve is kept to a lower probability.

See also

• failure rate
• infant mortality
• mean time between failures

See also: Bathtub curve, Bathtub, Failure rate, Infant mortality, Mean time between failures, New product development, Reliability theory, Statistics