strength of the entire tensile support the mean degradation map 100 for a given elevator configuration 104 can be analyzed statistically by varying the estimated elevator traffic data 106 and the data on the degradation rate 102 and data 108 for monitoring the effects of the load at areas where the sheave contacts the tensile support in different load and traffic situations the resulting map of mean degradation 100 provides a statistical distribution of strength degradation for a particular elevator system for a given constant load in other words the map of mean degradation 100 indicates a range of bend cycles in which the tensile support is expected to fail for a type of elevator system to detect remaining strength in the tensile support based on an electrical characteristic such as electrical resistance the information in the map of mean degradation 100 needs to be linked with the electrical characteristics of the tensile support preferably in the form of electrical characteristic maps fig2 is a block diagram illustrating a process 200 according to one embodiment of the invention to determine the relationship between electrical resistance and remaining strength to generate the electrical resistance maps in this embodiment the degradation map 100 is first considered with a degradation rate variance 202 which reflects the uncertainty in the degradation rate reflected by the map 100 although the map of mean degradation 100 provides a range of possible values the range itself reflected in the map 100 may also vary the degradation rate variance 202 takes this into account when determining the resistance maps the amount of variance can be determined empirically evaluating the degradation map 100 with respect to the degradation rate variance 202 generates a range of usage patterns and wear rates of the tensile support and produces a.