For a long time, quality has been one of industry's main preoccupations. It remains so today. There is some foundation for the statement that there is a 'quality crisis' in Europe, the methods traditionally used in our industries being unable to meet today's demands. Consequently it is essential to look for new directions in which to progress, taking account of the methods for achieving quality that have been developed in recent years. These methods impact on all parts of the industrial enterprise - marketing, manufacturing, research and development, after-sales services. All staff,...

Maintenance planning is becoming increasingly important with the growing emphasis for the need of quality control. This book provides an introduction to the subject, explaining how the maintenance requirements of different kinds of equipment are measured and how maintenance operations are planned and managed. The mathematical techniques involved, for example, estimating the probability that a given piece of equipment will fail in any given period, are described but no prior mathematical knowledge is assumed. Throughout, the treatment is practical and the examples used are designed to be of...

As the developments in engineering production techniques have resulted in an increasing dependence on automation, the increasing complexity of these systems has made the reliability of the machines a matter of great importance. An unexpected breakdown can be a very expensive experience for the company. Further, in the aerospace industry, problems of reliability, maintainability and availability are critical. For a long time industrial research and training centres have been interested primarily in the problems of design, manufacture and production; recently, however, there has been a growing...