Reliability, Maintainability, and Safety for Engineers

B.S. Dhillon

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9780367352653
• eBook ISBN: 9781000050349
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Design
• Subtopic: Industrial Design

To meet the needs of today, engineered products and systems are an important element of the world economy, and each year billions of dollars are spent to develop, manufacture, operate, and maintain various types of products and systems around the globe.

This book integrates and combines three of those topics to meet today's needs for the engineers working in these fields. This book provides a single volume that considers reliability, maintainability, and safety when designing new products and systems. Examples along with their solutions are placed at the end of each chapter to test readers' comprehension. The book is written in a manner that readers do not need any previous knowledge of the subject, and many references are provided.

This book is also useful to many people, including design engineers, system engineers, reliability specialists, safety professionals, maintainability engineers, engineering administrators, graduate and senior undergraduate students, researchers, and instructors.

chapter one

Introduction

1.1 Background

The history of the reliability field may be traced back to the early years of 1930s when probability concepts were applied to electric power ­generation-associated problems [1, 2]. During World War II, Germans applied the basic reliability concepts to improve reliability of their V1 and V2 rockets. During the period of 1945–1950, the U.S. Department of Defense conducted various studies concerning electronic equipment failure, equipment maintenance, repair cost, etc. As the result of the findings of these studies, it formed an ad hoc committee on reliability, and in 1952, the committee was transformed to a permanent body: The Advisory Group on the Reliability of Electronic Equipment. Additional information on the history of the reliability field is available in Ref. [3].

Although, the precise origin of maintainability as an identifiable discipline is somewhat obscured, but in some ways, the concept goes back to the very beginning of the twentieth century. For example, in 1901, the Army Signal Corps contract for the development of the Wright Brothers’ airplane stated that the aircraft should be ‘simple to operate and maintain’ [4]. In the modern context, the beginning of the discipline of maintainability may be traced to the period between World War II and the early years of 1950s, when various studies carried out by the U.S. Department of Defense and produced startling results [5, 6]. For example, a Navy study reported that during maneuvers, electronic equipment was operative only 30% of the time. Additional information on the history of maintainability is available in Refs. [7, 8].

The history of the safety field may be traced back to the Code of Hammurabi (2000 BC) developed by a Babylonian ruler named Hammurabi. However, in modern times, in 1868, a patent was awarded for the first barrier safeguard in the United States [9]. Twenty-five years later in 1893, the U.S. Congress passed the Railway Safety Act, and in 1912, the Cooperative Safety Congress met in Milwaukee, Wisconsin [9, 10]. Additional information on the history of safety is available in Ref. [11].

1.2 Reliability, maintainability, and safety facts, figures, and examples

Some of the facts, figures, and examples, directly or indirectly, concerned with engineering system reliability/maintainability/safety are as follows:

• As per Refs. [12, 13], the number of persons killed because of computer system-related failures was somewhere between 1000 and 3000.
• Each year, the U.S. industry spends about $300 billion on plant maintenance and repair [14].
• A study by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission reported that around 65% of nuclear system failures involve human error [15].
• In 2002, a study commissioned by the National Institute of Standards and Technology reported that software errors cost the U.S. economy about US $59 billion per year [16].
• A study reported that around 12%–17% of the accidents in the industrial sector using advanced manufacturing technology were related to automated production equipment [17, 18].
• In a typical year, the work accidental deaths by cause in the United States are motor vehicle related: 37.2%, falls: 12.5%, electric current: 3.7%, drowning: 3.2%, fire related: 3.1%, air transport related: 3%, poison (solid, liquid): 2.7%, water transport related: 1.65%, poison (gas, vapor): 1.4%, and others: 31.6% [9, 19].
• In the European Union, approximately 5500 persons are killed due to workplace-related accidents each year [20].
• In 1969, the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare special committee reported that over a period of ten years, there were around 10,000 medical device-related injuries and 731 resulted in deaths [21, 22].
• As per Ref. [23], some studies carried out in Japan indicate that more than 50% of working accidents with robots can be attributed to faults in the control systems’ electronic circuits.
• A study reported that approximately 18% of all aircraft accidents are maintenance related [24, 25].
• A study of safety-related issues concerning onboard fatalities of jet fleets worldwide for the period of 1982–1991 reported that inspection and maintenance were clearly the second most important safety issue, with a total of 1481 onboard fatalities [26, 27].
• A study of over 4400 maintenance-related records concerning a boiling water reactor nuclear power plant covering the period from 1992 to 1994 reported that around 7.5% of all failure records could be attributed to human error related to maintenance tasks/activities [28, 29].
• In coal mining-related operations throughout the United States, during the period 1990–1999, 197 equipment fires resulted in 76 injuries [30].
• As per Ref. [31], during the period of 1990–1994, around 27% of the commercial nuclear power plant outages in the United States were the result of human error.
• A Boeing study reported that approximately 19.2% of in-flight engine shutdowns are due to maintenance error [32].
• In 1979, in a DC-10 aircraft accident in Chicago, 272 persons lost their lives because of wrong procedures followed by maintenance personnel [33].
• In 1991, United Airlines Flight 585 (aircraft type: Boeing 737-291) crashed because of rudder device malfunction and caused 25 fatalities [34].
• In 2002, an Amtrak auto train derailed because of malfunctioning brakes and poor track maintenance near Crescent City, Florida, and caused four deaths and 142 injuries [35].
• As per Ref. [36], the Emergency Care Research Institute after examining a sample of 15,000 hospital products concluded that about 4%–6% of these products were dangerous enough for warranting immediate corrective measure [36].
• The Internet has grown from four hosts in 1969 to over 147 hosts and 38 sites in 2002, and in 2001, there were 52,000 Internet-related failures and incidents [37].

1.3 Terms and definitions

There are a large number of terms and definitions used in the area of reliability, maintainability, and safety. Some of these are presented in the following [4, 38–41]:

• Reliability: The probability that an item will perform its assigned mission satisfactorily for the stated period when used according to the specified conditions.
• Maintainability: The probability that a failed item will be restored to its satisfactory operational state.
• Safety: The conservation of human life and the prevention of damage to items as per mission requirements.
• Maintenance: All actions appropriate for retaining an item/equipment in, or restoring it to, a given condition.
• Failure: The inab...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface
• About the author
• Chapter 1 Introduction
• 1.1 Background
• 1.2 Reliability, maintainability, and safety facts, figures, and examples
• 1.3 Terms and definitions
• 1.4 Useful sources for obtaining information on reliability, maintainability, and safety
• 1.5 Scope of the book
• 1.6 Problems
• References
• Chapter 2 Reliability, maintainability, and safety mathematics
• 2.1 Introduction
• 2.2 Arithmetic mean and mean deviation
• 2.3 Boolean algebra laws
• 2.4 Probability definition and properties
• 2.5 Mathematical definitions
• 2.6 Probability distributions
• 2.7 Solving first-order differential equations with Laplace transforms
• 2.8 Problems
• References
• Chapter 3 Reliability, maintainability, and safety basics
• 3.1 Introduction
• 3.2 Bathtub hazard rate curve
• 3.3 General reliability formulas
• 3.4 Reliability networks
• 3.5 The importance, purpose, and results of maintainability efforts
• 3.6 Maintainability versus reliability
• 3.7 Maintainability functions
• 3.8 The role of engineers in regard to safety
• 3.9 Safety management principles and organization tasks for product safety
• 3.10 Product hazard classifications
• 3.11 Accident causation theories
• 3.12 Problems
• References
• Chapter 4 Methods for performing reliability, maintainability, and safety analysis
• 4.1 Introduction
• 4.2 Fault tree analysis (FTA)
• 4.3 Failure modes and effect analysis (FMEA)
• 4.4 Markov method
• 4.5 Cause and effect diagram
• 4.6 Probability tree analysis
• 4.7 Hazard and operability analysis (HAZOP)
• 4.8 Technique of operations review (TOR)
• 4.9 Job safety analysis (JSA)
• 4.10 Interface safety analysis (ISA)
• 4.11 Problems
• References
• Chapter 5 Reliability management
• 5.1 Introduction
• 5.2 General management reliability program responsibilities and guiding force-related facts for the general management for an effective reliability program
• 5.3 A procedure for developing reliability goals and useful guidelines for developing reliability programs
• 5.4 Reliability and maintainability management-related tasks in the product life cycle
• 5.5 Reliability management documents and tools
• 5.6 Reliability engineering department responsibilities and a reliability engineer’s tasks
• 5.7 Pitfalls in reliability program management and useful rules for reliability professionals
• 5.8 Problems
• References
• Chapter 6 Human and mechanical reliability
• 6.1 Introduction
• 6.2 Human error occurrence facts and figures
• 6.3 Human error classifications and causes
• 6.4 Human stress-performance effectiveness and stress factors
• 6.5 Human performance reliability in continuous time and mean time to human error (MTTHE) measure
• 6.6 Human reliability analysis methods
• 6.7 Mechanical failure modes and general causes
• 6.8 Safety factors and safety margin
• 6.9 Stress–strength interference theory modeling
• 6.10 Failure rate models
• 6.11 Problems
• References
• Chapter 7 Reliability testing and growth
• 7.1 Introduction
• 7.2 Reliability test classifications
• 7.3 Success testing
• 7.4 Accelerated life testing
• 7.5 Confidence interval estimates for mean time between failures
• 7.6 Reliability growth program and reliability growth process evaluation approaches
• 7.7 Reliability growth models
• 7.8 Problems
• References
• Chapter 8 Maintainability management
• 8.1 Introduction
• 8.2 Maintainability management functions during the product life cycle
• 8.3 Maintainability organization functions
• 8.4 Maintainability program plan
• 8.5 Maintainability design reviews
• 8.6 Maintainability-associated personnel
• 8.7 Problems
• References
• Chapter 9 Human factors in maintainability
• 9.1 Introduction
• 9.2 General human behaviors
• 9.3 Human body measurements
• 9.4 Human sensory capabilities
• 9.5 Visual and auditory warning devices in maintenance activities
• 9.6 Human factors formulas
• 9.7 Problems
• References
• Chapter 10 Maintainability testing and demonstration
• 10.1 Introduction
• 10.2 Maintainability testing and demonstration planning and control requirements
• 10.3 Useful checklists for maintainability demonstration plans, procedures, and reports
• 10.4 Maintainability test approaches
• 10.5 Maintainability testing methods
• 10.6 Steps for performing maintainability demonstrations and evaluating the results and guidelines to avoid pitfalls in maintainability testing
• 10.7 Problems
• References
• Chapter 11 Safety management
• 11.1 Introduction
• 11.2 Principles of safety management
• 11.3 Functions of safety department, manager, and engineer
• 11.4 Steps for developing a safety program plan and managerial-related deficiencies leading to accidents
• 11.5 Product safety management program and organization tasks
• 11.6 Safety performance measures and drawbacks of the standard indexes
• 11.7 Problems
• References
• Chapter 12 Safety costing
• 12.1 Introduction
• 12.2 Safety cost-related facts, figures, and examples
• 12.3 Losses of a company due to an accident involving its product
• 12.4 Safety cost estimation methods
• 12.5 Safety cost estimation models
• 12.6 Safety cost performance measurement indexes
• 12.7 Problems
• References
• Chapter 13 Human factors in safety
• 13.1 Introduction
• 13.2 Job stress
• 13.3 Work site analysis program for human factors
• 13.4 Symptoms of human factors-associated problems in organizations, identification of specific human factors-associated problems, and useful strategies for solving human factors-associated problems
• 13.5 Useful Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) ergonomics guidelines
• 13.6 Human factors-related safety issues
• 13.7 Employee training and education
• 13.8 Problems
• References
• Chapter 14 Software and robot safety
• 14.1 Introduction
• 14.2 Software hazard causing ways
• 14.3 Basic software system safety-related tasks and software quality assurance organization’s role in regard to software safety
• 14.4 Software safety assurance program
• 14.5 Software hazard analysis methods
• 14.6 Robot safety problems and accident types
• 14.7 Robot hazard causes
• 14.8 Safety considerations in robot life cycle
• 14.9 Robot safeguard approaches
• 14.10 Problems
• References
• Index