ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the early phases of the product design process, in general, and the evaluation of system reliability from component reliability, in particular. Over the years, statistical concepts and tools have become important elements of a proactively oriented product design process, sometimes known as “Reliability by Design” or “Design for Reliability”. A key to successful product design is to develop and evaluate alternative concepts early on. System reliability evaluations in the early stages of new product development are important in identifying the potential strengths and weaknesses of alternative design concepts. The reliability of a proposed product design may be assessed by viewing the product as a system comprised of sub-systems of assemblies and components, typically arranged in series and/or in parallel. Elementary probability theory lets us compute the reliability of simple systems from the reliability of the components that make up the system. More complex statistical or simulation tools may similarly be used to calculate system reliability for more complex systems. The evaluations at this early stage are important in identifying the potential strengths and weaknesses of alternative design concepts both for the redesign of existing products and for the design of new products.
