Minimum Cost Systems with Specified Reliability

A method is presented for allocating reliability to each unit of a system with a view to minimizing the system cost. The practical utility of this method, as well as other methods, depends heavily on the availability of cost-reliability data for the 1 constituent units. Unfortunately, for most components such data are not readily available. There is a need for manufacturers and users to make these data available to reliability theoreticians so that the derived results are usefully applied to practical systems. So far, very little seems to have been done in this direction.