Quality Assurance

Reliability
Topics:
FR(%)
FR(N)
MTBF
Reliability engineering

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Reliability
Definition
The probability of a product performing without failure a specified function
under given conditions for a specified period of time
In two formats
Probability that system will perform on a given trial
99.999% for telephone system (Five-9 system)
Frequency of successful performances of a system in a given number of
attempts.
10,000 operating hours

Three dimensions
Probability:
frequency of successful uses out of a certain number of attempts
Likelihood of an item lasting a given amount of time
Failure
A situation in which an item does not perform as intended
Operating conditions
How the product should be used?
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Failures
Definition
Very clear in simple system, for example, light bulb
No longer produces light
Not very clear in other systems, for example, automobile tire
Catastrophic failure? Blowout? Useful life?
It is a good idea to use prescribed operating conditions
Some products have different reliability at different condition.
For example, some light bulb designed specially for outdoor!!

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Introduction
Why thing fails?
Design failure
Because a characteristics of demand was overlook and miscalculated
A production line cannot cope with the demands placed upon it
Facilities failure
All the facilities of the operation are liable to break down
Such as machine, equipment, building and fitting
Staff failure
Error - are mistakes in judgment
Violation - contrary to defined procedures
Supplier failure
Delivery, quality of incoming goods and service
Customer failure
Misuse of the products
Misuse of service which the operation has created for
Inattention or incompetence

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Measuring failure
There are 3 ways to measure failure:
Failure rate - how often a failure occur (i.e. FR(%), FR(N))
Reliability - the chance of a failure occur (MTBF)
Availability - the amount of available useful operating time
MTBF / (MTBF+MTTR)

Failure rate (FR)

calculated as the number of failures over a period time
FR (N) = number of failures x 100% / operating time
FR(%) = number of failures x 100% / total number of products
tested

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Measuring failure
Example 1
To compute the value of FR, suppose that 10 units are tested over 100 hours
periods. Four units failed with one unit each failing after 6, 35, 65 and 75
hours, the remaining six units performed satisfactory until the end of the
test.
FR(N) = 4/ 776
= 0.0052 failure per hour

Total operation hours = 6x100+1x6+1x35+1x65+1x75 = 776

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Measuring failure
Example 2
A batch of 50 electronics components is tested for 2000 yours. Four of the
components failed during the test as follows:
Failure 1: occurred at 1200 hours
Failure 2: occurred at 1450 hours
Failure 3: occurred at 1720 hours
Failure 4: occurred at 1905 hours
Answer
FR(%) = no. of failure / number tested = 4/50 = 8%
Alternatively, FR(N) can be calculated
1 component was not operating = 2K-1.2k = 800hrs
1 component was not operating = 2K-1.45k = 550hrs
1 component was not operating = 2K-1.72k = 280hrs
1 component was not operating = 2K-1.905k = 95hrs (total 1725 hours)
FR (N) = number of failure / operating time = 4/98275 = 0.000041 per hour
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MTBF
An alternative measures of failure of a component
system is MTBF
Defined as the average length of time between failures
of a product or component
MTBF is the reciprocal of failure rate (FR(N))
MTBF = operating hours / number of failure (unit hours)
Example 3
In the previous example with electronics components, the FR(N) was
0.000041. What is its MTBF?

MTBF = 1/F(N)) = 1/ 0.000041 = 24390 hours

That is a, a failure can be expected once every 24390 hours on average

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Availability
Availability is the probability that a system is operating satisfactorily at
any point in them when used under stated conditions.
It is the degree to which the operation is ready to work
An operation is unavailable if it has either failed or is being
repaired following failure
Availability = MTBF / (MTBF+MTTR)
MTTR = the mean time to repair, which is the average time taken to
repair the operation, from the time it fails the time it is operation
again

What is the causes of unavailability?

Planned maintenance
Change over

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Example 4
A company which designs and produces display poster for exhibition.
Currently, the MTBF of a printer is 70 hours and its mean time to repair is
6 hours. What is the availability?
Ans:
MTTR=6, MTBF=70
A = 70 / (70 + 6) = 0.92
Next we compute the number of failure per operating hour
FR(N) = No of failure / total operating time
Where: total time = 1000 hours x 20 units
= 20000 units hours
Non-operating time at (1000-200) 1st, (1000-600) 2nd = 800+400=1200 unit hours
Operating time = Total time - non-operating time
= 20x1000 -1200 = 18800 unit hours
FR(N) = 2 / 18800 =0.0011 failure/unit hours

MTBF = 1 = 1 = 9430 hours

FR(N) 0.0011

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Example 5
20 air conditioning systems designed for use by a company
in NASA space shuttles were operated for 1000 hours. Two
of the system failed during the test One after 200 hours
and the other 600 hours. Find the FR(%), FR(N) and MTBF
Solution
FR(%) = No of failure x 100%
No of units tested
= 2/20 = 10%
FR(N) = No of failure / total operation hours
= 2 / (18x1000 + 800+ 400) = 2/19200 = 0.00104 / per hour
MTBF = 9,600 hours
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Reliability Prediction
System of components may be configured in
Series
Parallel
Of mixed combination
Series Systems
All components must function or the system will fail
The reliability of the system is the product of the individual reliabilities, that is
R s= R 1 x R 2 x R 3 x R n

Example
A personal computer is compose of the CPU, modem, and printer
with reliability of 0.997, 0.98 and 0.95 respectively. The overall
reliability of the system is given by
Rs= 0.997 x 0.98 x 0.975 = 0.953

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Example (service industry)

The HSBC Bank processes Loan application through 3
clerks set up in series:
R1 R2 R3
0.9 0.8 0.99 Rs
Rs = R1 x R2 x R3
= 0.8 x 0.9 x 0.94
= 0.713
= 71%

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Reliability Prediction (2)

Parallel system:
The system will operate as long as one component functions
The additional components are redundant
In this kind of system, failure of an individual component is less critical
than in series system;
Redundant is often build into system to improve the reliability
Rs= Rm + Rb (1- Rm ) =R(main) + R(backup)xFail(main)
Where Rs = reliability of the system
Rm = reliability of the main sub-system
Rb = reliability of the stand-by sub-system
(1- Rm ) = probability that the main sub-system will fail
For example:
0.8 + 0.8 (1-0.8) =0.8 + 0.16=0.96=96%
Note the reliability has been increased from 80% to 96%
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Reliability Prediction (3)

Alternatively, the reliability of the system can be written
as :
Rs= 1- (1- Rm )(1- Rb ) = 1 - Fail(main)xFail(backup)
Rs= 1- [1- Rm - Rb + Rm Rb ] = Rm + Rb - Rm Rb = Rm + Rb (1- Rm )
If there are more than one backup components, the
equation can be written as
Rs= 1- (1- R1 )(1- R2 ) ( 1 - R3 ) (1 - Rn )
If all components have identical reliability
Rs= 1 - (1-R)n

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Reliability Prediction (4)

For example
The computers on the space shuttle were designed with built-in
redundancy in case of failure. Five computers were designed in parallel.
Thus, if the reliability of each computer is 0.99. What is the combined
reliability Rs.
Rs = 1- (1-0.99)5
Rs = 0.9999999999

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Reliability Prediction (4)

The HSBC is disturbed that the loan process has a reliability of only
71%. Therefore the bank decides to provide redundancy for first 2 clerks
1st 0.9
2nd 0.8
R1 R2
0.9 0.8

R1 R2 R3 Rs
0.9 0.8 0.99

Rs = [R1 + R1(1-R1)] x [ R2 + R2(1-R2)] x R3

= [0.9 + 0.9x0.1] [ 0.8+0.8x0.2] x 0.99= 0.99 x 0.96 x 0.99 = 0.9409

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Reliability Engineering
Objective: Capability of the system
Good reliability strategy protects both Performance & its Investment
The reliability tactics are:
improving reliability of individual components
The No. of components in a SERIES increase, the reliability of the whole system
decrease very quickly.
Each individual part may have its own unique rate of reliability. Thus, it is very
difficult to use reliability curve to predicts its reliability.
decrease number of individual components
An alternative way is to decrease number of stages. A simple design can always
make the system easier to debug and maintain
providing redundancy
To increase the reliability of the system
The resulting reliability is the Probability of the first component working PLUS
the probability of the back up component working X the probability of needing
the back up component

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Reliability life characteristic concepts

If we were to run a piece of equipment to failure, repair it, and
repeat the process over and over again
recording the failure time for each run, we would have a set of data
that would indicate the failure rate for that equipment
When we plot failure rate against time, we often see a pattern of
failure known as a bathtub curve
Failure rate

time

Early-stage failure Expected normal life of the product End-of-life failure

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Reliability life characteristic concepts (2)

Early-stage failure
Characterized by high failure rates early in the life cycle.
These failures are usually the result of design, manufacture, or use errors and are usually
correctable given a good quality system
Expected normal life of the product
At this stage, there is a constant pattern and relatively low failure rate.
Failures in this stage usually result from design limitations, changes of the environment, and
damage caused by day-to-day use or maintenance.
Training in the proper use and maintenance of the equipment can minimize accidents. To reduce
failure rate in this stage, would generally require redesign of the product
End-of-life failure
Failure occurs when the product exceeds its intended normal life expectancy.
Due to variations, some units fails early and some units fail beyond their life expectancy
Failure are mostly the result of daily wear and stress on equipment.
Many company desire to run equipment to failure
There are risks associated with it
When continue to use these about-to-fail equipment, company may produce products out-of-
specification
An unexpected failure may lead to undesirable and uncontrollable consequence (e.g. stop of production)
Preventive maintenance program will allow controlled replacement of old or worn equipment
before a catastrophic failure occur
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Summary
The basic unit of measure for reliability is the product failure rate FR
The FR measures the percentage of failures among the total No. of products
tested called FR(%)
FR (%) = Number of failure X 100%
No of units tested
OR

The No of failure during a period of time called FR(N)

FR (N) = Number of failure

No of unit hour of operating time
The most common term in reliability analysis is Mean Time Between
Failure(MTBF)
MTBF= _ 1___
FR (N)
Availability = MTBF / (MTBF+MTTR)

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Summary
Two ways to improve overall system reliability
Increase individual components
Decrease number of components
Add redundancy
Rs= Rm + Rb (1- Rm )
Three stages in bathtub curve
Early-stage failure
Expected normal life of the product
End-of-life failure

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