1.1 Background
The history of the reliability field may be traced back to the early 1930s when probability concepts were applied to electric power generation-related problems [1,2]. During World War II, Germans applied the basic reliability concepts for improving reliability of their V1 and V2 rockets. During the period of 1945–1950, the US Department of Defense performed various studies concerning electronic equipment failure, equipment maintenance, repair cost, etc. As the result 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. A detailed history of the reliability field is available in the study of Dhillon [3].
The history of the safety field may be traced back to the Code of Hammurabi (2000 BC) developed by a Babylonian ruler named Hammurabi. In modern times, in 1868, a patent was awarded for the first barrier safeguard in the United States [4]. In 1893, the US Congress passed the Railway Safety Act, and in 1912, the Cooperative Safety Congress met in Milwaukee, Wisconsin [4,5]. Additional information on the history of safety is available in the study of Dhillon [6].
Although humans have felt the need for maintaining their equipment since the beginning of time, the beginning of modern engineering equipment/system maintenance may be regarded as the development of the steam engine, in 1769, in the United Kingdom, by James Watt (1736–1819) [7]. In the United States, a magazine entitled Factory, which first appeared in 1882, has played an important role in the development of the engineering systems/equipment maintenance field [8]. A book on maintenance of railways was published in 1886 [9].
Needless to say, each year, billions of dollars are spent on engineering system reliability, safety, and maintenance around the world and engineering system reliability, safety, and maintenance has become a very important issue.
Over the years, a large number of publications directly or indirectly related to engineering system reliability, safety, and maintenance have appeared in the form of journal articles, conference proceeding articles, technical reports, etc. A list of over 335 such publications is provided in the Appendix section.
