Self-assessment of survival for a system, subsystem or component is implemented by assessing conditional performance reliability in real-time, which includes modeling and analysis of physical performance data. This paper proposes a time series analysis approach to system self-assessment (prediction) of survival. In the approach, physical performance data are modeled in a time series. The performance forecast is based on the model developed and is converted to the reliability of system survival. In contrast to a standard regression model, a time series model, using on-line data, is suitable for the real-time performance prediction. This paper illustrates an example of time series modeling and survival assessment, regarding an excessive tool edge wear failure mode for a twist drill operation.