Reliability engineering

Reliability engineering is an evolving discipline focused on developing methods and tools to predict, evaluate, and demonstrate the reliability, maintainability, and availability of components, equipment, and systems. It supports development and production engineers in integrating reliability and maintainability into their work. To be effective, reliability engineering must align with quality assurance activities, adhering to Total Quality Management (TQM) and Concurrent Engineering principles. Early in the development phase, failure rate and failure mode analyses are essential, supported by design guidelines and extensive design reviews. Qualification tests on prototypes are necessary before production to ensure quality and reliability targets are met. During production, processes must be selected and monitored to maintain the required quality level, while also addressing availability requirements through stochastic processes and logistical support. Given the significant role of software, specific quality assurance activities are crucial. This text presents the state-of-the-art in reliability engineering, drawing from over 25 years of the author's experience, split between industry and academia as a Professor at the ETH (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich).