ABSTRACT
The history of the eld of reliability goes back to the early years of the 1930s, when probability concepts were applied to problems in the area of electric power generation. However, the real beginning of the eld is normally regarded as World War II, when German scientists applied basic reliability concepts for improving the reliability of their V1 and V2 rockets [1-4]. Today, the eld of reliability has become a well-developed discipline and has branched into specialized areas such as power system reliability, human reliability, software reliability, and mechanical reliability [3,4].
