“Reliability engineering” encompasses the systematic application of methods of reliability analysis and evaluation over the entire product lifecycle in order to ensure system reliability. It describes the reliability, functional reliability, availability and serviceability of an interrelated set of technical elements. Ever more complex technical products (modern motor vehicles, airplanes, many medical devices and also smart systems) are expected to increase reliability as well as increased performance. The methods of “Reliability Engineering” serve to identify and eliminate weaknesses (qualitative) and to predict the expected reliability (quantitative).

The course consists of the following topics

• Introduction to the basic concepts of system reliability
• qualitative reliability analysis: Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA), fault tree analysis (FTA), examples from electromobility
• quantitative reliability analysis: Boolean system theory (non-repairable systems) and Markov processes (repairable systems)
• measures to increase reliability: concepts of redundancy, uncertainty analysis, fault tolerance and functional safety
• numerical and experimental simulation: system reliability analysis of smart systems
• system reliability in electromobility
• quality management: introduction to the basic concepts of quality and Total Quality Management (TQM)