Reliability Engineering

Preface

Humans have come to depend on engineered systems to perform their daily tasks. From homes and offices to cars and cell phones, the context in which we live our lives has been largely constructed by engineers who have designed systems and brought their ideas to the marketplace.

While engineered systems have many benefits, they also present risks. How do we know that a building is safe and reliable? How do we know that a sensor in a train will work? How do we know that airbags and brakes will function in an emergency? No matter how many experts were involved in designing systems, the chance for failure always lingers. Thus, all engineering disciplines need reliability.

Today, reliability engineering is a sophisticated and demanding interdisciplinary field. All engineers must ensure the reliability of their designs and products. Moreover, they must be able to analyze a product and assess which parts of the system might be prone to failure. This requires a wide-ranging body of knowledge in the basic sciences, including physics, chemistry, and biology, and an understanding of broader issues within system integration and engineering, while at the same time considering costs and schedules.

The purpose of this book is to present an integrated approach for the design, engineering, and management of reliability activities throughout the life cycle of a product. This book is for those who are interested in gaining fundamental knowledge of the practical aspects of reliability to design, ...