Building-in reliability: making it work

Aggressive reliability and market-entry demands will require the use of a building-in approach to reliability. The objectives are (1) to review the essential features of this new approach and contrast them with those of the traditional approaches, (2) to identify obstacles in accepting the building-in-reliability approach and suggest ways to overcome them, and (3) to suggest a way to facilitate the implementation of this approach. The approach requires that significant breaks be made from the traditional ways of improving and appraising reliability. The nature of these breaks is discussed in the context of describing the basic elements of the approach of building-in reliability and the obstacles that hinder its adoption. To help visualize how the approach can be implemented, initial steps in making the transition and some specific examples of its use are described.<>