Topic summary
Mean distance between failures
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Failure rate.
Mean time between failures (MTBF)
MTBF appears frequently in engineering design requirements, and governs the frequency of required system maintenance and inspections. A similar ratio used in the transport industries, especially in railways and trucking, is "mean distance between failures" (MDBF) - allowing maintenance to be scheduled based on distance travelled, rather than at regular time intervals.