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 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
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

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
1.05 x10
The failure rate
1000000

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

(1.05 x10 4 x1000 )

= 0.9

Therefore the item has a 90% chance of

surviving for 1000 hours