1 Introduction

1.1 Definition
Most people will have some concept of what reliability is from everyday life, for example,
people may discuss how reliable their washing machine has been over the length of time they
have owned it. Similarly, a car that doesnt need to go to the garage for repairs often, during its
lifetime, would be said to have been reliable. It can be said that reliability is quality over time.
Quality is associated with workmanship and manufacturing and therefore if a product doesnt
work or breaks as soon as you buy it you would consider the product to have poor quality.
However if over time parts of the product wear-out before you expect them to then this would be
termed poor reliability. The difference therefore between quality and reliability is concerned with
time and more specifically product life time.
Reliability engineering has both quantitative and qualitative aspects; measurements of reliability
are necessary for customer requirements compliance. However measuring reliability does not
make a product reliable, only by designing in reliability can a product achieve its reliability
targets. These lecture notes will therefore introduce some of the terminology used in reliability
engineering. It will provide information about measuring reliability as well as designing for
reliability. Moreover it will emphasis the importance of good engineering principles to ensure
product reliability. By identifying possible causes of failure and elimination will obviously help
to improve product reliability.
The formal definition of reliability is as follows: The ability of an item to perform a required
function under stated conditions for a stated period of time.
Another definition concerns the probabilistic nature of measuring reliability, i.e. the probability
of an item to perform a required function under specified conditions for a stated period of time. It
is therefore a measure of engineering uncertainty and to quantify reliability involves the use of
statistics and more specifically probability theory. These notes will also describe some useful
probability distributions that can describe the lifetime behavior of products.

1.2 What is reliability?

Reliability is associated with unexpected failures of products or services and understanding why
these failures occur is key to improving reliability. The main reasons why failures occur include:
The product is not fit for purpose or more specifically the design is inherently incapable.
The item may be overstressed in some way.
Failures can be caused by wear-out
Failures might be caused by variation.
Wrong specifications may cause failures.
Misuse of the item may cause failure.
Items are designed for a specific operating environment and if they are then used outside this
environment then failure can occur.

1.3 Why is Reliability important?

Unreliability has a number of unfortunate consequences and therefore for many products and services
is a serious threat. For example poor reliability can have implications for:
Safety
Competitiveness
Profit margins
Cost of repair and maintenance
Delays further up supply chain
Reputation
Good will