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Reliability, Availability and Maintainability are often discussed together. While closely related in practice, they are not the same thing and the distinctions are not always well understood.
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In Part 2 of Beyond the Numbers, I explored how human reliability principles can be integrated into traditional reliability artefacts such as Reliability Block Diagrams (RBDs), Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) and Failure Modes, Effects and Criticality Analysis (FMECA). Those tools help us understand how systems fail and how different failure paths interact.
But reliability engineering does not end with failure analysis.
In practice, the outputs of FMECA flow directly into the Reliability Centred Maintenance (RCM) process, where failure modes are translated into maintenance strategies such as inspections, condition monitoring, restorations or replacements.
If assumptions about human performance are simplified during reliability analysis, those assumptions do not disappear. They are carried forward, and often amplified, when maintenance requirements are defined.
Maintenance is where reliability modelling becomes an operational commitment.
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Many people associate reliability engineering with metrics, and while they can be helpful when used correctly, they are not the primary benefit of reliability engineering. The real value lies in the thinking and decisions that shape those numbers.
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When people hear the word reliability, it’s often interpreted as meaning “zero failures”. While that’s understandable, it’s not what reliability engineering is really about.
The Certified Reliability Engineer (CRE) Body of Knowledge, produced by the American Society for Quality, defines reliability as:
“The probability that an item will perform a required function without failure under stated conditions for a specified period of time”
Crucially, each part of this definition needs to be clearly understood and agreed from the outset, particularly between customers and suppliers. Many reliability problems arise not because the definition itself is wrong, but because these elements are interpreted differently.
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In Part 1 of Beyond the Numbers, I reflected on why Human Factors matter in reliability engineering and how the human element of the system can be overlooked by traditional hardware-focussed approaches.
This article explores how Human Factors principles can be integrated into traditional reliability analyses such as Reliability Block Diagrams (RBDs), Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) and Failure Mode, Effects and Criticality Analysis (FMECA) and without reinventing the wheel or introducing additional complexity.
The short answer is that we are already doing much of this implicitly. Applying Human Factors principles makes those assumptions explicit and therefore visible, challengeable and open to improvement. [Read more…]
For reliability engineers, numbers can be our comfort zone. Predictions, modelling, analysis and results, work that is rigorous, data-driven, and essential for complex systems – but does it always tell the full story?
Recently completing Level 1 of the CIEHF Cross-Sector Learning Pathway has led me to consider system reliability in a different light. Technical performance alone does not guarantee success and to truly understand reliability, we must also account for the human component – the operators, maintainers, and decision-makers whose actions are inseparable from system outcomes.
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