AbstractA typical flexible manufacturing system, Westland Helicopters' sheet metal detail manufacturing complex, has been analysed for reliability. The techniques of fault tree analysis and event tree analysis are presented and their applicability to this study investigated. Event tree analysis has been found to be a more effective method for analysing manufacturing systems. The failure states of the system have been identified from the construction of an event tree which considers random hardware faults that influence production. Failure rate data have been used to quantify the critical production failure states in terms of machine failures. Estimates are made of the system's MTTF and percentage availability using typical MTTR figures. The probability that a selected production route fails to complete the manufacture of a set of parts is also evaluated. A dependency of systems reliability on the production demand has been discovered, and a possible method for modelling and assessing the reliability of systems capable of producing several products is proposed.
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