ME 472/ME672

Reliability Engineering
Reliability Design

By
Dr. Bhupesh Kumar Lad

Indian Institute of Technology Indore (IITI)

 Reliability Design
• Why do we need reliability design ?
 Warranty Costs
 Customer Satisfaction
 Field failures are very costly

In order to be profitable, an organization’s products must be reliable, and reliable products require
a formal reliability process.
Three important statements summarize the best practice reliability philosophy of successful
companies:

1) Reliability must be designed into products and processes using the best available science-based
methods.

2) Knowing how to calculate reliability is important, but knowing how to achieve reliability is
equally, if not more, important.

3) Reliability practices must begin early in the design process and must be well integrated into the
overall product development cycle.
2
• How to design in reliability

3
• How to specify reliability goals:
Explicit ways
- MTTF/MTBF
- R(t)
- Failure distribution parameters
o If MTTF is the only specification….. Constant failure rate assumption
o Two different reliability functions may have same MTTF
o For e.g. 𝑅1 𝑡 = 𝑒 −0.002𝑡 𝑡 ≤ 0 𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑅2 𝑡 =
1000−𝑡
1000
0 ≤ 𝑡 ≤ 1000
o 𝑅1 400 = 0.449 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑅2 400 = 0.6
o Both have same MTTF
∞ 1000 1000−𝑡
o 𝑀𝑇𝑇𝐹1 = ‫׬‬0 𝑒 −0.002𝑡 𝑑𝑡 = 500ℎ𝑟 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑀𝑇𝑇𝐹2 = ‫׬‬0 𝑑𝑡 = 500ℎ𝑟
1000

o Users may not be familiar with TTF distribution

o Users may under specify or over specify R(t)
– Implicit ways
- Derived from system performance and Life cycle costs

4
• How to specify reliability goals:
Implicit ways
- Derived from system performance and Life cycle costs

Maximize
System performance (Reliability. Availability, etc..)
Subject to
Life cycle cost
OR
Minimize
Life cycle cost
Subject to
System performance (Reliability. Availability, etc..)

5
• Elements of Life Cycle costs

• Exact cost models will be required for a specific system

6
Example
Two designs are being considered for a new product operating throughout the year
and having the following characteristics:
Design 1: Cacq=1200, failure rate=0.02/year, salvage value=10

Design 2: Cacq=1300, failure rate=0.01/year, salvage value=15

The design life of both the design=10 years

A failure results in replacement at the unit acquisition cost.

Fixed cost of operating: F01= 80, F02=80

Annual Operating cost: C01=15 years, C02=8 years

Fixed Support Cost: Fs1=10, Fs2=10

Annual support cost: Cs1=5, Cs2=2

If 𝑅 6𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑡ℎ ≥ 0.99 is required

Which design is better?

7
 Design Failure rates(per year) Cacq Fo Co Fs Cs Cf S i Life
1 0.02 1200 80 15 10 5 1200 10 0.05 10
2 0.01 1300 100 15 10 5 1300 10 0.05 10

Year --> 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Design1 1295 44 44 44 44 44 44 44 44 44 34
Design2 1415 33 33 33 33 33 33 33 33 33 23
discounting factor 1 0.952380952 0.907029 0.863838 0.822702 0.783526 0.746215 0.710681 0.676839 0.644609 0.613913
1295 41.9047619 39.9093 38.00885 36.19891 34.47515 32.83348 31.26998 29.78093 28.36279 20.87305
1415 31.42857143 29.93197 28.50664 27.14918 25.85636 24.62511 23.45248 22.3357 21.27209 14.12
NPV1 1628.617204
NPV2 1663.67812

𝑅1 0.5 = 𝑒 −0.02∗0.5 = 0.990

𝑅2 0.5 = 𝑒 −0.01∗0.5 = 0.999

Ref: An introduction to reliability and maintainability engineering, By Charles E. Ebeling, Tata McGraw-Hill Education,