Overview

In my handy pocket dictionary, the word comprehensive is defined as totally inclusive. For purposes of this discussion, I would like to define comprehensive in a different manner. A comprehensive reliability program is one that provides information and analysis at each phase during the lifecycle of your facility or equipment.

Lifecycle Cost:

Lifecycle cost is the sum of all expenses associated with a system or device, beginning with the initial concept and ending with retirement. Lifecycle costs include the initial cost of procurement, operation, and maintenance. Costs of lost opportunity due to unreliability and outages are also included, together with the costs associated with unsafe conditions, environmental events, and expenses involved with addressing those issues, both during the life of the system or device and after its retirement if they continue afterward.

This chapter is dedicated to a brief discussion of the reliability techniques used during each of the numerous phases in a typical lifecycle.

Project Development Phase: Concurrent Engineering / Design for Reliability

In a role as a Reliability Director for a large chemical company, there were a number of occasions when I approached the Project Director to recommend performing reliability analysis as a part of the design process. In this situation, I could expect one of two responses. The first was, "You are too early. We haven't gotten to that point in the design yet." The second was, "You are too late. We have already completed...