MODULE-3:

RELIABILITY

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 SYLLABUS
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➢MODULE-3: RELIABILITY
Definition, failure rate, MTTF, MTBF,
failure pattern, system reliability: Series,
Parallel and Mixed configurations -
Availability and Maintainability concepts,
concept of reliability based design,
Applications

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 Reliability
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Reliability is the ability of a product or system to perform as

intended (i.e., without failure and within specified
performance limits) for a specified time, in its life cycle
conditions.

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 ReLIABILITY
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The Ability to Perform as Intended
When a product is purchased, there is an expectation that it will perform
as intended. The intention is usually stated by the manufacturer of the
product in the form of product specifications, datasheets, and operations
documents.

For a Specified Time

When a product is purchased, it is expected that it will operate for a
certain period of time. Generally, a manufacturer offers a warranty,
which states the amount of time during which the product should not
fail, and if it does fail, the customer is guaranteed a replacement.

Life-Cycle Conditions
The reliability of a product depends on the conditions (environmental
and usage loads) that are imposed on the product. These conditions arise
throughout the life cycle of the product, including in manufacture,
transport, storage, and operational use.
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 Performance VS Quality VS Reliability
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Performance is usually associated with the functionality of

a product—what the product can do and how well it can do
it (How well does a product work?).
1. For example, the functionality of a camera involves taking
pictures. How well it can take pictures and the quality of
the pictures involves performance parameters such as
pixel density, color clarity, contrast, and shutter speed.
2. For a race car, speed and handling are key performance
requirements.
3. For commercial aircraft, the safe transportation of
humans is the primary concern.

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 Performance VS Quality VS Reliability
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Quality is associated with the workmanship of the product

(degree of skill with which a product is made or a job done).
➢ How well does the factory produces parts that match the
specifications?
➢ How often does the manufacturing process produce faulty
parts?

For example, the quality metrics of a camera might include

defects in its appearance or operation, and the camera’s ability
to meet the specified performance parameters when the
customer first receives the product. Quality defects can
result in premature failures of the product.

Quality is the degree of conformance to specification of

the product. It is not concerned about time and
environment factors. 6
 Performance VS Quality VS Reliability
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Reliability is associated with the ability of a product to maintain

its performance over time.
Performance should undergo minimal degradation from
beginning of life (BoL) to End of Life (EOL).

In the case of the camera, the customer expects the camera to

operate properly for some specified period of time beyond its
purchase, which usually depends on the purpose and cost of the
camera.

Racing car: The car will not win a race if its speed is not fast
enough. Of course, the car must finish the race, and needs
sufficiently high reliability to finish the race. After the race, the
car can be maintained and even replaced, but winning is
everything.
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 Performance VS Quality VS Reliability
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For commercial aircraft, the safe transportation of humans is

the primary concern. To achieve the necessary safety, the
airplane must be reliable, even if its speed is not the fastest.
In fact, other than cost, reliability is the driving force for most
commercial aircraft design and maintenance decisions, and is
generally more important than performance parameters, which
may be sacrificed to achieve the required reliability.

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 Quality and reliability inputs and outputs during product development
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Product quality can impact product reliability.

“To measure quality, we make a judgment about a product

today. To measure reliability, we make judgments about what
the product will be like in the future”
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 Summary
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Performance and quality are related to reliability.

Performance parameters typically describe the functional
capabilities of a product.

Quality parameters are commonly used to assess the

manufacturing goodness and the ability of a product to
work when first received by the customer.

Reliability pertains to the ability of a product to perform

without failure within specified performance limits for a
specified time in its life-cycle application conditions.

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 Consequences of Poor Reliability
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CUSTOMER VENDOR
LOSS OF PRODUCT WARRANTY CLAIM
LOSS OF PRODUCT CAPABILITY PRODUCTION DOWNTIME
PRODUCTION DOWNTIME TEST AND REPAIR COST
SPARE PART AND MAINTENENCE DAMAGE TO REPUTATION
LOSS OPPORTUNITIES LOSS OF FUTURE BUSSINESS

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 ReLIABILITY
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Reliability is defined as the probability that a component or

system will continue to perform its intended function under
stated operating condition over a specified period of time.

Reliability Engineering:
Design, production and operation of things to retain their
quality over time.

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 Quantify Reliability
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 Probability Density Function
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If we assume t as continuous, the time to failure random

variable has a probability density function f (t).

The ratio of the number of

product failures in an
interval to the total
number of products gives
an estimate of the
probability density
function corresponding to
the interval.
The probability density function is given by:

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 Failure Density Function
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The Reliability distribution function R(t), is the probability of

no failure in the time interval between 0 to t or equivalently, the
probability of failure after time t, i.e.

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 RELIABILITY Density Function
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The percentage of products that have not failed up to time t

is represented by the area under the curve to the right of t by

Since the total probability of failures must equal 1 at the

end of life for a population,

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 Hazard Rate Function
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The hazard rate, h(t), is the number of failures per unit time
per number of non-failed products remaining at time t.

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 Bath TUB CURVE
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A bathtub curve is a visual representation of the failure
rate of a product or group of products over time. By
plotting the occurrences of failure over time, a bathtub
curve maps out three periods that an asset experiences
within its lifetime:
1.Infant mortality period
2.Normal life period
3.Wear-out period

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 Bath TUB CURVE
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 Bath TUB CURVE
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Infant Mortality Period:

The infant mortality period, also known as the early failure period, begins when
a product is used for the first time. It is an interval characterized by a
decreasing failure rate, and it starts from a high failure occurrence, quickly
decreasing to a lower failure rate.

Failures that occur within this time are usually driven by manufacturing defects
or installation issues. Other causes of failure events in this period could be design
flaws or improper start-up procedures.

These early failures can be minimized by improving the production quality control,
and subjecting the parts to a proof test before their actual service with the
customers.

Useful Life Period: As time passes the system stabilizes and these early failures
leave the system leading to a constant failure rate in the second part, which is
also referred to as random failure zone. Here the failures occur because of
random overloads or random faults having no pattern at all. Mechanical
components usually do not exhibit a region of constant failure rate. 20
 Bath TUB CURVE
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Useful Life Period:

As time passes the system stabilizes and these early failures leave the system
leading to a constant failure rate in the second part, which is also referred to as
random failure zone. The majority of assets will spend most of their operational
life in this state. Here the failures occur because of random overloads or random
faults having no pattern at all. Mechanical components usually do not exhibit a
region of constant failure rate.

Wear-Out Period: Assets naturally deteriorate over time. The number of failure
occurrences that an asset experiences predictably increases after a certain usage
period. The wear-out region in the bathtub curve is characterized by this
increasing failure rate trend. As failure rates increase quickly before the end of
an asset life cycle, the bathtub curve slopes sharply upward. Eventually, this
leads to the total failure of an asset.

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It is important to note the trend of failure rates over time rather than
the exact shape of the curve, as real-world examples might not be as
clean-cut as the model.

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 How to Use the Bathtub Curve
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The bathtub curve sets expectations for how an asset typically

performs over its life cycle. Each period along the curve suggests
specific strategies to teams working to extend an asset’s useful life.

For example, while failure events in the normal period are

primarily due to random events, breakdowns close to the
wear-out period become more predictable.
Based on the age and performance of an asset, certain predictive
maintenance techniques can catch failures before they occur.
This is especially beneficial to teams when assets fall in the
regions of the curve with higher failure rates.

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 Example 1
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 Example 1
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 Example 1
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 Example 2
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 Example 2
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 Example 2
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 Example 3
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 Example 3
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 Percentiles Product Life
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The reliability of a product can be experienced in terms of

percentiles of life. Because this approach was originally used
to specify the life of bearings, the literature often uses the
symbol Bα , where the Bα life is the time by which α percent of
the products fail, or:

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 Example
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 Example
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 Example 4
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 1) Reliability Function
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 2) Failure Density Function
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 3) Hazard Rate Function
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 3) Hazard Rate Function
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 Example 5
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In a reliability test on helmets, 400 helmets were tested and the following
data obtained:

Find the failure density, hazard rate and reliability.

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Solution:

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 failure Rate and MTTF
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Hazard rate/Failure Rate: Rate at which your product failure.

If constant failure rate:

Mean time to failure (MTTF) is the average length of time (in hours) before
failure.

For repairable items, a similar term, mean time between failures (MTBF) , is
usually used.

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 MTTF and Reliability
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 System Reliability
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By a system, we mean assemblages of, say, n identifiable

components that perform some function.

The overall reliability of a typical mechanical or any system will

be governed by the reliability of the individual components.

Techniques of reliability evaluation of a system depend upon the

configuration of its components. In practice, several types of
configurations are used.

Series configuration
Parallel configuration
Mixed configuration

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 Series Configuration
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Suppose a system has n components. From a reliability point of

view, the components of a system are said to be in series
configuration if they are connected in such a way that

(i) for the successful operation of the system all n components

must perform their intended function, and
(ii) only one needs to fail for system failure.

Example
The string of lights (bulbs or LEDs) used in festivals and weddings is a good
example of a series system. The system performs successfully only when all
bulbs/LEDs are working and only one of them needs to fail for the system to fail.

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 RELIABILITY OF A SERIES SYSTEM
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A series system is nothing but a system, all of whose

components are in series configuration.

Rule 1. If two or more events are independent and “success” is defined as

the occurrence of all of the events, then the probability of success P s is
equal to the product of the probabilities of the events occurring, i.e.,
Ps=P1×P2×...

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 RELIABILITY OF A SERIES SYSTEM
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Example. Suppose a room has two lamps, but to have adequate

light, both lamps must work (success) when turned on. Here the
product is the lighting system that has two component lamps.
One lamp has a probability of working of .90, and the other has a
probability of working of .80.

→ Thislighting system can be represented by the following

diagram where the two components are connected in series:

The probability that both will work is .90 × .80 = .72.

Even though the individual components of a series system (product) might
have high reliability, the series system (product) as a whole will have
considerably less reliability because all its components must function (i.e.,
the system is dependent on each of its components). 47
 RELIABILITY OF A SERIES SYSTEM
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One of the main limitations of the series

system is that reliability of the series
system can never be better than the
reliability of the worst component in the
system. The second major limitation of
the series system is that reliability of the
system decreases as the number of
components in the system increases.

Many products have a large number of component parts that must all
operate, and some way to increase overall reliability is needed.
One approach is to overdesign, i.e., enhance the design to avoid a particular
type of failure. For example, use a more durable and higher quality (but more
expensive) material in a product.
Another is design simplification, i.e., reduce the number of components in
the product.
The third approach is to use redundancy in the design. This involves providing
backup components. 48
 Parallel Configuration
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Let a system have n components. From a reliability point of

view, the components of a system are said to be in parallel
configuration if they are connected in such a way that

(i) only one component needs to work for the successful

operation of the system, and
(ii) all components must fail for system failure.

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 RELIABILITY OF A PARALLEL SYSTEM
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A parallel system is nothing

but a system all of whose
components are in parallel
configuration.

Rule 2. If two or more events are independent and “success” is

defined as occurrence of at least one of the events, then the
probability of success P s is equal to 1 - probability that none of
the events will occur, i.e., Ps = 1 - (1 - P 1 )(1 - P 2 )(1 - P 3 )

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 RELIABILITY OF A PARALLEL SYSTEM
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Example. There are two lamps in a room. When turned on,

one has probability of working of .90 and the other has
probability of working of .80. Only a single lamp is needed to
light the room for success (note that the threshold for success
is different in this example). Then, probability of success
P s = 1 - (1 - .90)(1 - .80) = .98.

The reliability of the system is very good compared to the

series system.
Here the reliability of the system is even better than the
reliability of the best component of the system. 51
 RELIABILITY OF A PARALLEL SYSTEM
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The successful operation of the parallel system means only one
component needs to work. So this improvement in the system
reliability comes at the cost of an initial investment of
additional components. Thus, we have to balance the cost
and reliability of a system. Whether to give importance to the
cost or to reliability depends on the severity of consequence of
system failure.

For example,
There should be at least one additional parallel engine in the
aeroplane, whatever be the initial cost that the airline has to
pay. So in this case reliability is more important than cost.
But in the case of a component of, say TV, importance may be
given to cost instead of reliability because failure of a TV has
little consequence compared to the crash of an aeroplane,
which may result in loss of lives of hundreds of people.
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 RELIABILITY OF A MIXED SYSTEM
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A system is said to be a mixed system if the components of the

system are connected both in series and in parallel configurations.

Here components 1, 2, 3 and 4, 5 are separately connected in

series while the two subsystems – one consisting the components
1, 2, 3 and another consisting the components 4, 5 themselves –
are in parallel.
To evaluate the reliability of a mixed system, first break the
reliability block diagram into series or parallel subsystems. Then we
evaluate the reliability of each subsystem. Finally, we evaluate the
reliability of the given mixed system by combining the reliabilities of
the subsystems and applying appropriate probability law(s). 53
 Example 6
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Example 1: Evaluate the reliability of the series system having the reliability block
diagram shown in Fig. for a mission of 500 hours, where the given reliabilities of the
components are for a mission of 500 hours. Assume that the failure of any component
does not affect the functioning of the other components.

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 Example 7
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Evaluate the reliability of the parallel system, which has the

reliability block diagram shown in Fig. for a mission of 90 days.
The reliabilities of the components given in Fig. are for a mission
of 90 days. Assume that the failure of any component does not
affect the functioning of the other components.

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 Example 8
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Evaluate the reliability of the system for which the reliability

block diagram is shown in Fig. 14.10, for a mission of 100
hours. Assume that all components are independent and the
reliability of each component is given for a mission of 100
hours as follows:

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 Example 9
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A system has three components connected in series having

reliabilities 0.40, 0.70, 0.80, respectively, for a mission of 400
hours. What is the percentage increase in the reliability of the
system in each of the following cases?
(i) Reliability of the first component is increased by 0.1 and that
of the second and third components remains the same.
(ii) Reliability of the second component is increased by 0.1 and
that of the first and third components remains the same.
(iii) Reliability of the third component is increased by 0.1 and
that of the first and second components remains the same.

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 Example 10
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A system has three components connected in parallel from a
reliability point of view having reliabilities 0.20, 0.40, 0.50,
respectively, for a mission of 400 hours. What is the percentage
increase in the reliability of the system in each of the following
cases?

(i) Reliability of the first component is increased by 0.1 and

that of the second and third components remains the same.
(ii) Reliability of the second component is increased by 0.1 and
that of the first and third components remains the same.
(iii) Reliability of the third component is increased by 0.1 and
that of the first and second components remains the same.

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 MTTR
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Mean Time to Repair (MTTR): Average length of time consumed in repair

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 Maintainability
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 Availability
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Reliability: probability that item will not fail
Maintainability: Probability that item will be successfully restored after failure

Availability: is the portion of time a system is ready for use and able to carry out its
primary function
Probability that the system is operational at a given time, t (i.e. has not failed or it
has been restored after failure)

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 Example 11
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A manufacturer of a wet grinder tested its product to assess the

various maintenance performance measures. Fifty wet grinders
were each put to test for a running time of 1000 hrs. It was
found that there were totally 60 failures during the testing phase.
Totally 1350 hours were lost on account of identifying the
problem on restoring it back to work condition. Based on this
information, compute:

a) Failure rate of wet grinder

b) MTBF and MTTR
c) Availability of wet grinder

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 Example 12
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A machine tool has a constant failure rate of 0.01 failures

per hour and a constant repair rate of 0.20 repair per
hour. Determine availability of machine tool.

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 Example 13
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An electronic component in a CNC Lathe machine has an

exponential time to failure distribution with a failure rate of
8% per 1000 hours. What is the reliability of the component at
5000 hour? Find the mean time to failure.

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 Why Reliability is important?
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Reputation
A company’s reputation is very closely attached to the reliability
of its products it produces. The more reliable a product is, the
more likely the company is to have a good reputation.

Customer satisfaction
A reliable product may not drastically affect customer
satisfaction in a positive manner. However, an unreliable product
will definitely attract customer dissatisfaction. Thus high
reliability is a quite essential requirement for customer
satisfaction.

Warranty Costs
If a product fails to perform its desired function within the
warranty period, the replacement and repair costs will not only
reduce the profits, but also gain unwanted negative attention. 65
 Why Reliability is important?
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Repeat business
A focused effort towards improved reliability shows existing
customers that a manufacturer is serious about its product, and
committed to customer satisfaction. This type of attitude not only
has a positive impact on future business but also gives a
competitive edge.

Cost Analysis
Companies may take reliability data and combine it with other
cost information to illustrate the cost-effectiveness of their
products. This life-cycle cost analysis can prove that although the
initial cost of a product might be higher than those of its
competitor’s product, the overall lifetime cost is lower than that of
a competitor's because their product requires fewer repairs or
less maintenance.
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 Why Reliability is important?
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Customer requirements
Demand from customers for an effective reliability program is
ever increasing based on the benefits of such programs.

Competitive advantage
Companies often publish the product reliability numbers to
enhance competitiveness.

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 Reliability IMPROVEMENT TECHNIQUE
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 1. USE OF BETTER COMPONENTS
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 1. USE OF BETTER COMPONENTS
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Two important Factor while increasing Reliability:
1) Cost: Cost of component increased when reliability is increased. The
cost function has a exponential relationship to the reliability.
2) Technical or manufacturing feasibility: Further investment also may
not be possible to produce a perfect component. This is due to various
controllable and uncontrollable factors affecting the production process
during various stages of production.

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 1. Cost of Reliability Improvement
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 2. System Simplification
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 3. Derating
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 4. REDUNDANCY
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5. Controlling The Working Environment
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5. Controlling The Working Environment
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 6. Maintenance
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 7. Removing Early Failure Burn-In
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 7. Removing Early Failure Burn-In
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