Summary
A product's service life is its period of use in service. Several related terms describe more precisely a product's life, from the point of manufacture, storage, and distribution, and eventual use. Service life has been defined as "a product's total life in use from the point of sale to the point of discard" and distinguished from replacement life, "the period after which the initial purchaser returns to the shop for a replacement". Determining a product's expected service life as part of business policy (product life cycle management) involves using tools and calculations from maintainability and reliability analysis. Service life represents a commitment made by the item's manufacturer and is usually specified as a median. It is the time that any manufactured item can be expected to be "serviceable" or supported by its manufacturer. Service life is not to be confused with shelf life, which deals with storage time, or with technical life, which is the maximum period during which it can physically function. Service life also differs from predicted life, in terms of mean time before failure (MTBF) or maintenance-free operating period (MFOP). Predicted life is useful such that a manufacturer may estimate, by hypothetical modeling and calculation, a general rule for which it will honor warranty claims, or planning for mission fulfillment. The difference between service life and predicted life is most clear when considering mission time and reliability in comparison to MTBF and service life. For example, a missile system can have a mission time of less than one minute, service life of 20 years, active MTBF of 20 minutes, dormant MTBF of 50 years, and reliability of 99.9999%. Consumers will have different expectations about service life and longevity based upon factors such as use, cost, and quality. Product lifecycle management Manufacturers will commit to very conservative service life, usually 2 to 5 years for most commercial and consumer products (for example computer peripherals and components).
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Related concepts (8)
Product lifetime
Product lifetime or product lifespan is the time interval from when a product is sold to when it is discarded. Product lifetime is slightly different from service life because the latter considers only the effective time the product is used. It is also different from product economic life which refers to the point where maintaining a product is more expensive than replacing it; from product technical life which refers to the maximum period during which a product has the physical capacity to function; and from the functional life which is the time a product should last regardless of external intervention to increase its lifespan.
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Durability is the ability of a physical product to remain functional, without requiring excessive maintenance or repair, when faced with the challenges of normal operation over its design lifetime. There are several measures of durability in use, including years of life, hours of use, and number of operational cycles. In economics, goods with a long usable life are referred to as durable goods. Product durability is predicated by good repairability and regenerability in conjunction with maintenance.
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