Reliability engineering is engineering that emphasizes dependability in the lifecycle management of a product.

Dependability, or reliability, describes the ability of a system or component to function under stated conditions for a specified period of time.[1] Reliability engineering is a subdiscipline within systems engineering. Reliability is theoretically defined as the probability of failure, the frequency of failures, or in terms of a ailability, a probability deri ed from reliability and maintainability. !aintainability and maintenance may be defined as a part of reliability engineering. Reliability plays a "ey role in cost-effecti eness of systems. #lthough reliability is defined and affected by stochastic parameters, according to some ac"nowledged specialists, quality, reliability and safety are $%& achie ed by mathematics and statistics. $early all teaching and literature on the sub'ect emphasizes these aspects, and ignores the reality that the ranges of uncertainty in ol ed largely in alidate quantitati e methods for prediction and measurement.[(] Reliability engineering for comple) systems requires a different, more elaborate systems approach than for non-comple) systems. Reliability engineering may in ol e the creation of proper use studies and requirements specification, hardware * software design, functional +failure, analysis, testing and analyzing manufacturing, maintenance, transport, storage, spare parts stoc"ing, operations research, human factors and technical documentation. #lso data and information acquisition - organisation may be of importance. .ffecti e reliability engineering requires understanding of the basics of failure mechanisms for which e)perience, broad engineering s"ills and good "nowledge from many different special fields of engineering, li"e/ tribology-, stress-, fatigue-, thermal-, shoc"-, electrical- and chemical 0engineering0. Reliability engineering is closely related to safety engineering and system safety, in that they use common methods for their analysis and may require input from each other. Reliability engineering focuses on costs of failure caused by system downtime, cost of spares, repair equipment, personnel and cost of warranty claims. &he focus of safety engineering is normally not on cost, but on preser ing life and nature, and therefore deals only with particular dangerous system failure modes. 1igh reliability +safety, le els are also here the result of good engineering, attention to detail and almost ne er the result of only re-acti e failure management +Reliability #ccounting - 2tatistics,.[3] 0Reliability is, after all, engineering in its most practical form0 as once stated by 4ames R. 2chlesinger, 5ormer 62 2ecretary of Defense.[(]