Modelling for failures is important for reliability analysis since failures of products such as automobiles occur as both time and usage progress and the results from the proper analysis of the two-dimensional data can be used for establishing warranty assurance policy. Hence, in this paper general issues which concern modelling failures are discussed, and both one-dimensional approaches and two-dimensional approaches to two-dimensional data are investigated. Finally non-parametric approaches to two-dimensional data are presented as a means of exploratory data analyses.