RELIABILITY ANALYSIS

What Is It

Reliability analysis is a method of determining reliability, or the probability that a system will perform its intended function under specified conditions for a specified period of time. It is generally concerned with failures during the life of the product, the need to understand why and how items fail. A number of tools can be used to analyze system reliability, including a reliability block diagram which represents the functional relationship between components in a system. Reliability block diagram models are developed using various combinations of logic paths to define the success criteria of a system.

When To Use

Use reliability analysis

• To identify potential reliability problems (risks).
• As a project planning tool to analyze and address system risks to produce high system reliability.
• To compare alternative item designs or system configurations.

Benefits

This method

• Helps to answer the question what can go wrong?
• Identifies various success criteria to which low-risk, high-reliability design can be based on.
• Using reliability block diagram tools or other tools, graphically provides the "relationships" or "pathways" that will aid in successful project planning.
• Aids to balance meeting project objectives in relation to project risks.
• Can be applied at the system, subsystem, component, or part levels.