The four steps to achieve a reliable design

In the present competitive environment of globalization and the reduction of the defense industrial complex, intelligent and timely planning is required to achieve the desired goal of a marketable product. Therefore, to be competitive in today´s environment, newly marketed products must be highly reliable and buildable at a minimum cost. Reliability can be achieved at a minimum cost only if it is introduced concurrently with each of the design phases, starting at the conceptual phase. The key then to obtain a cost-effective, reliable product/system, is to introduce reliability concepts in the earliest stage of the design. At that point, the design is still flexible enough to permit the architectural arrangement or system configuration to obtain the desired reliability at a competitive level. Otherwise, if reliability improvements are introduced after the design is frozen, even a minor change can have a substantial impact on cost. However, if reliability concepts are introduced early in the design, it is possible, with the appropriate trade-off studies, to meet all the reliability and performance requirements and still have a more efficient and cost-effective configuration than would appear feasible at first look. It should be strongly emphasized that reliability can and should influence the system configuration/architecture for a cost-effective and reliable product. Therefore, the objectives of a good system design as addressed in this paper are: obtain desired reliability; minimize cost; for achievement of continuous operation at the required performance level