Improving Maintainability and Reliability through Design

The importance that engineering design plays in the reduction of maintenance costs is well known. Furthermore, maintainability and reliability are recognized as being highly significant factors in the economic success of engineering systems and products. written from the perspective that good design is a pre-requisite to the development of cost-effective products, this work gives a thorough review of the entire range of design activities from initial specification to detail design. The principles and practical methods described in this volume are applicable to the process industries (for example chemical, food, nuclear, and steel) together with general manufacturing industry and consumer products. It deals with all types of activities undertaken in the design process including: specification and initial tenders; concept generation, development, and evaluation; schematic and detail design; creative design, synthesis, and analysis. This book is for designers and those who work in design-related functions. The design methods and procedures given are presented with respect to principles and applications. Some, or all, of the methods can be incorporated into existing design practices or a complete design procedures may be taken up. Therefore, the text can be used both as an overall study of how to achieve good maintainability and reliability through design or as a reference text for particular design methods.