RELIABILTY

Reliability Management
Why is it needed?
Reliable operation of critical equipment
Planning of maintenance activities
Improved quality of an item

Reliability Management
Reliability management is concerned with
performance and conformance over the
expected life of the product

the probability that a product or a

piece of
equipment performs its intended function for a
stated period of time under specified operation
conditions

Definition of Reliability
The definition has four important
elements:
Probability
Time
Performance
Operating conditions

Definition of Reliability
Probability
A value between 0 and 1
Precise meaning
e.g. probability of 0.97 means that 97 of 100
items will still be working at stated time
under stated conditions

Definition of Reliability
Performance
Some criterion to define when product
has failed
e.g. bearing clearances in an engine or
amount
of emissions from a car

Definition of Reliability
Operating conditions
These describe the operating conditions
that correspond to the stated product life.
e.g. for a car engine this might mean
Speed
Loading
Effects of an expected amount of
misuse such as over-revving and
stalling.

Reliability Measurement
This is based on the Failure
Rate

i.e.

Items Failed
Failure rate
Total Operating Time

Some products are scrapped when they fail

e.g. hairdryer
Others are repaired e.g. washing machine.

Failure rate over the life of a

product
The failure rate is expected to vary over
the life of a product Bathtub Curve
A

D
B

Bathtub Curve
A-B Early Failure
Infant Mortality Caused by
design/material flaws

B-C Constant Failure

Lower than initial failure rate and more or
less constant until end of life

C-D End of life failure

Failure rate rises again due to components
reaching end of life

Calculating Failure Rate

Simplifying Assumption
Exponential distribution of failure rate is
assumed. This means that the failure
rate remains constant over life of product
Bathtub curve becomes a straight line

Calculating Failure Rate

Failure rate

Items Failed

Total Operating Time

usually expressed by the Greek letter lambda ()

The probability of a product surviving until time

(t) is given by the following function:
Reliability at time (t) =
e is the exponential function

Procedure
To establish reliability of an item:
Conduct a series of tests until a number
of them fail.
Calculate failure rate (Lambda).
Calculate reliability for a given time
using

Reliability at time (t) = e-t

Example
Trial data shows that 105 items failed
during a test with a total operating
time of 1 million hours. (For all items
i.e. both failed and passed).
105
4
The failure rate
1.05 x10
1000000

Example
Find the reliability of the product after
1000 hours i.e. (t) =1000
Reliability at 1000 hours:
e
R(1000)

(1.05 x10 4 x1000 )

= 0.9

Therefore the item has a 90% chance of

surviving for 1000 hours

System Reliability
As products become more complex
(have more components), the
chance that they will not function
increases.
The method of arranging the
components affects the reliability
of the entire system.
Components can be arranged in
series, parallel, or a combination.

Series System
For a series systems, the reliability is

the product of the individual

components.
1
2

RS = R1 R2 ... Rn
As components are added to the

series, the

system reliability decreases.

Parallel System
1
2
n
Rs = 1 - (1 - R1) (1 - R2)... (1 - Rn)
When a component does not function, the

product continues to function, using

another component, until all parallel
components do not function.

Series-Parallel System
C
RA

RB

RC

RD
D

C
RC

Convert to equivalent series

system
RA

RB

RD

RC = 1 (1-RC)(1-RC)

Design
The most important aspect of
reliability is the design.
It should be as simple as possible.
The fewer the number of components,
the greater the reliability.
Another way of achieving reliability is to
have a backup or redundant component
(parallel component

Design
Reliability can be achieved by overdesign.
The use of large factors of safety can
increase the reliability of a product.
When an unreliable product can lead to a
fatality or substantial financial loss, a failsafe type of device should be used.
The maintenance of the system is an
important factor in reliability.

Production
The second most important aspect of
reliability is the production process.
Emphasis should be placed on those
components which are least reliable.
Production personnel.

Additional Statistical Aspects

Distributions Applicable to Reliability:
Exponential distribution.
Normal distribution.
Weibull distribution.
Reliability Curves:
The curves as a function of time.