SUPPLEMENT TO CHAPTER FOUR

RELIABILITY

Chapter 4 Supplement

Reliability

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RELIABILITY
Reliability
• Reliability: The ability of a product, part, or
system to perform its intended function
under a prescribed set of conditions
• Failure: Situation in which a product, part,
or system does not perform as intended
• Normal operating conditions: The set of
conditions under which an item’s reliability
is specified

Irwin/McGraw-Hill ©The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 1999

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RELIABILITY
Example 1: Reliability

Determine the reliability of the system shown

.90 .92

.98 .90 .95

Irwin/McGraw-Hill ©The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 1999

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RELIABILITY
Example 1 Solution
The system can be reduced to a series of three components

.98 .90+.90(1-.90) .95+.92(1-.95)

.98 x .99 x .996 = .966

Irwin/McGraw-Hill ©The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 1999

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Figure 4S-1 RELIABILITY
Failure Rate

Infant Failures due

Few (random) failures
mortality to wear-out
Time, T
Irwin/McGraw-Hill ©The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 1999
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Figure 4S-2 RELIABILITY
Exponential Distribution

Reliability = e -T/MTBF

1- e -T/MTBF

T Time

Irwin/McGraw-Hill ©The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 1999

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Figure 4S-3 RELIABILITY
Normal Distribution

Reliability

0 z

Irwin/McGraw-Hill ©The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 1999

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RELIABILITY
Availability
• The fraction of time a piece of
equipment is expected to be available
for operation

MTBF
Availability 
MTBF  MTR

MTBF = mean time between failures

MTR = mean time to repair
Irwin/McGraw-Hill ©The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 1999
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RELIABILITY
Improving Reliability
• Component design
• Production/assembly techniques
• Testing
• Redundancy
• Preventive maintenance procedures
• User education
• System design
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