Economics of Reliability Engineering

Abstract

Any manufacturing industry is basically a profit making organization and no organization can survive for long without minimum financial returns for its investments. There is no doubt that the expense connected with reliability procedures increases the initial cost of every device, equipment or system. However, when a manufacturer can lose important customers because his products are not reliable enough, there is no choice other than to incur this expense. How much reliability cost is worth in a particular case depends on the cost of the system and on the importance of the systenr’s failure free operation. If a component or equipment failure can cause the loss of a multimillion dollars’ system or of human lives, the worth of reliability and the corresponding incurred cost must be weighed against these factors. For the producer, it is a matter of remaining in the business. However, his business volume and profit will be substantially increased once his reliability reputation is established.