Service reliability and maintainability

Abstract: Today, the perspective of business is shifting from a focus on physical products to service production delivered as functional products, often referred to as total care products. This thesis is concerned with the provision of functional products, that is, products that include both hardware and services. The 'seller' of the function must consider the long- term implications of the function provided, including the effects of failure of any part of the functional product. In a functional product, it is necessary to consider the reliability of services as well as that of hardware in order to provide a reliable product. Hardware reliability is an established research area; however, little attention has been focused to date on the reliability of services. A case study consisting of a support system for aircraft engines is described and factors are identified that affect service reliability in the context of functional products. The reliability and maintainability of functional products are important factors in this case, because a customer is a guaranteed a certain level of availability of the functional product. Shortcomings of established techniques are highlighted and suggestions for suitable methodology that could be used to investigate failures of service systems are presented.