An Introduction to Reliability and Quality Engineering

Book by Bentley, John P.

A parachute must obviously be of sufficient quality to fulfill its purpose, but it must also be reliable so that it functions effectively each time it is used, In less extreme circumstances, these two factors are still of prime importance. A customer will only buy a product or employ a process if it has an appropriate quality level. Any reliability problems can cause the customer economic loss or present a safety hazard. Quality and reliability are interrelated topics which together are vital ingredients in any engineering activity.

John Bentley's accessible introduction to these critical topics provides a clear and concise explanation of the key principles of reliability and quality and illustrates them by a broad range of examples and problems drawn from several engineering disciplines. It discusses design, manufacturing and maintenance techniques to ensure that the quality and reliability of a product meet the target specifications and goes on to analyze the effects of these issues on economics from the manufacturers' and customers' points of view. The final chapter applies reliability principles to safety through a case study of a hazardous process.

Suitable for students of all engineering disciplines and professional engineers, this interdisciplinary and user-friendly text will enable the reader to apply the principles of quality and reliability to manufacturing processes and engineering systems. Key benefits are the:

• clear and concise writing style using a minimum of mathematics
• comprehensive index and guide to all symbols and abbreviations
• numerous worked examples and case-studies, based on real products, to illustrate principles at key points in the text
• end of chapter self-assessment problems
• new coverage of statistical quality and process control, event tree analysis, capability indices, control charts and fault tolerant systems