Project & Quality Management

Quality Management

Reliability
 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 apiece 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 C
Failure Rate

Time
 Bathtub Curve
A-B Early Failure
Teething problems. 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

Failure Rate

Time
Calculating Failure Rate

Items Failed
Failure rate
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:

t
Reliability at time (t) = e
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
The failure rate
4
1.05 x10
1000000
 Example
Find the reliability of the product after 1000
hours i.e. (t) =1000

t
Reliability at 1000 hours: e
(1.05 x104 x1000)
R(1000) e = 0.9

Therefore the item has a 90% chance of

surviving for 1000 hours