A unique book that describes the practical processes necessary to achieve failure free equipment performance, for quality and reliability engineers, design, manufacturing process and environmental test engineers. This book studies the essential requirements for successful product life cycle management. It identifies key contributors to failure in product life cycle management and particular emphasis is placed upon the importance of thorough Manufacturing Process Capability reviews for both in-house and outsourced manufacturing strategies. The readers? attention is also drawn to the many hazards to which a new product is exposed from the commencement of manufacture through to end of life disposal. Revolutionary in focus, as it describes how to achieve failure free performance rather than how to predict an acceptable performance failure rate (reliability technology rather than reliability engineering) Author has over 40 years experience in the field, and the text is based on classroom tested notes from the reliability technology course he taught at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA Contains graphical interpretations of mathematical models together with diagrams, tables of physical constants, case studies and unique worked examples

On behalf of the Organising Committee of the 11th ARTS I would like to welcome all the delegates, session chairpersons and authors. I particularly welcome new delegates, delegates from mainland Europe and from other countries. At the time of the last symposium, our tenth anniversary, we looked back on the growth of the symposium and the support it had received from so many people. Not least was the support given by Mrs Ruth Campbell who, between this symposium and the last, has retired from the National Centre of Systems Reliability. The Organising Committee would hereby like to acknowledge a very special debt of gratitude, over many years, to Ruth. Our gratitude also goes to Dr A. Z. Keller of the University of Bradford, the Organising Committee Chairman at the 10th Symposium, our President for 11th ARTS and, since the beginning, a staunch supporter of the ARTS. Our thanks go to Mme A. Camino of Electricite de France for being our after-dinner speaker and to Mr A. J. Bourne for being our keynote speaker. Their speeches have been keenly anticipated. Behind the symposium, the detailed and hard work of the administrative staff of the National Centre of Systems Reliability continues even after it has ended. Our thanks go to them, particularly, and to the Universities of Liverpool, Manchester Institute of Science and Technology and Bradford for their consistent support to the symposium.

The effective and interrelated functioning of system reliability technology, human factors, and quality play an important role in the appropriate, efficient, and cost-effective delivery of health care. Simply put, it can save you time, money, and more importantly, lives. Over the years a large number of journal and conference proceedings articles o