Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

Failure is the state that occurs when the performance of an intended function of a process, product, or service is not met. The converse of failure is “reliability.” Reliability is the probability that a product, piece of equipment, or system performs its intended function for a stated period of time under specified operating conditions. Failures occur because of lack of reliability. Not all failures are equally serious. Organizations therefore need to discriminate between failures and pay particular attention to those which are critical either in their own right or because they may jeopardize the rest of the operation. A prerequisite for this is some understanding of the reasons for failures and an ability to measure the effects of the failure. These two dimensions of failure determine the way in which operations managers treat failure. If the probability of a particular failure occurring in an operation is high and the impact of that failure is also high, it is unlikely that the operation itself will be viable. Conversely, when both the probability and impact of a failure is low, the very issue of failure will be relatively trivial. It is the spectrum between the two poles of low‐impact failures occurring relatively frequently and high‐impact events occurring infrequently that is of most interest. The types of failure that occur relatively frequently but that individually may ... log in or subscribe to read full text