System Reliability < >Concepts and applications < >The mind-boggling rate of industrial expansion of recent decades has produced innumerable technical devices and systems on which we rely in our daily life for modern convenience, safety, and sometimes even preservation of human lives. These modern artifacts cover a broad spectrum ranging from a relatively simple electronic watch to very complex transportation systems such as airplanes or spacecraft. Often, one is not even aware of the use of particular systems (part of our electrical energy is generated by nuclear reactors) until one is most unpleasantly reminded (Chernobyl disaster). < >It is a proven fact that all these technical systems are producible, in other words: one can at least make them work at the time of first use. A higher order requirement, however, is that they remain serviceable throughout their expected useful life; i.e. that they are reliable. The consequences of an unreliable functioning of these systems may vary
