Reliability engineering - a summary of the past 50 years

the effects of a failure can be, the higher must be the reliability of the system." This also corresponds to the risk-oriented working hypothesis whic h already represents approval strategy in nuclear technology in various cou ntries (e.g. Canada, UK, USA) or is being translated into far-reaching stan dards. Unfortunately, such successes on the part of reliability engineering have not, in the author's opinion, gone so far as to arouse the enthusiasm of young engineers for this field to a great extent, nor have they motivat ed industry to embark on appropriate large investment projects. The author gives several reasons for this - from the tradition of engineering educatio n to German legislation. He is, however, optimistic that the "gurus" of rel iability engineering will in the future, too, not hesitate to overcome thes e In this article, the author examines the various application fields of re liability engineering in the past five decades which, above all, is used in the two central areas of profitability and safety. The author regrets the poor cooperation between the "creators" of various technologies and the "gu rus" of reliability engineering: it is often only with a great deal of diff iculty that the latter could convince the former of the usefulness of their subject, since they first of all cast doubt upon the function of technolog y. Yet there are many examples which show that effective reliability engine ering has resulted in obvious system improvements. Kafka quotes - among oth er examples - the project of the Swedish high speed train X2000, in which, between the prototype test and the delivery of the complete series, a time availability factor of approx. 5 was gained. Even in complex systems of inf ormation technology, it was possible to reduce the down times of approx. 26 0 minutes/year. Despite more and more sophisticated, failure-tolerant systems of informatio n technology, this field of digital process control currently offers the gr eatest challenge to reliability engineering. Nuclear technology, too, provides decisive stimuli for the application of r eliability engineering: for example, the rule that the possible damage caus ed by rejecting a technology based on identification and revelation of risk s is considered smaller than the benefit of reducing existing risks by mean s of such analyses. This means that, with the help of reliability engineeri ng and its tools and methods, evidence must be provided in the shape of a " the more .-. the more" formula. Thus: "the more serious the effects of a fa ilure can be, the higher must be the reliability of the system." This also corresponds to the risk-oriented working hypothesis which already represent s approval strategy in nuclear technology in various countries (e.g. Canada , UK, USA) or is being translated into far-reaching standards. Unfortunately, such successes on the part of reliability engineering have n ot, in the author's opinion, gone so far as to arouse the enthusiasm of you ng engineers for this field to a great extent, nor have they motivated indu stry to embark on appropriate large investment projects. The author gives s everal reasons for this - from the tradition of engineering education to Ge rman legislation. He is, however, optimistic that the "gurus" of reliabilit y engineering will in the future, too, not hesitate to overcome these obsta cles.