ABSTRACT
This chapter presents guidelines by which the reliability of a product can be improved while in the design phase. Device or system design is usually done by using single-valued real numbers in the equations comprising the mathematical model. Redundant systems are essentially systems in parallel. The standby technique is clearly different from the parallel or redundant technique. The distribution usually used for more accurate reliability analysis is the Weibull distribution. Whereas the distributions considered so far have fixed shapes, the Weibull distribution can be made to model a wide range of life distribution characteristics. Reliability is improved as the designer accumulates data on the various failure modes that are operative in a given product and makes the necessary changes in materials, manufacturing processes, or in the design to decrease the frequency of such failures. The key to the improvement process is an analysis of the failures that occur during testing so that weaknesses can be identified and eliminated.
