Business Process Improvement
Reliability Reliability is the ability to continue be fit for the purpose or function Reliability ranks with quality in importance, since it is a key factor in many purchasing decisions where alternatives are being compared. The critical requirement of a) a company policy on reliability, b) top management commitment, cannot be over-emphasized. Clearly, every product will eventually fail, although in some cases the possibility is small enough for it to be effectively immortal. With the current pressures to reduce cost, and with the need for increasing complexity, the probability of a product or service failing within the user’s anticipation of its working life is likely to be finite. As reliability is now an exceedingly important aspect of competitiveness, there is a need to design reliability into products. Unfortunately, the testing of a design to assess its reliability is difficult, sometimes impossible, and the designer must therefore invest in any insurance which is practicable. Some methods of attempting to assure reliability are: (a) use proven designs; (b) use the simplest possible design, the fewer the components and the simpler their designs, the lower the total probability of failure; (c) use components of known or likely high probability of survival. (d) employ redundant parts where there is a likelihood of failure.