SOR 1204 Choosing the Right Reliability Metrics — Part 1

Reliability metrics are supposed to help engineers make better decisions—but what happens when the metric itself points you in the wrong direction? Chris and Enrico examine how consumer products, electronics, automotive applications, and defense measure reliability, from warranty claims and FIT rates to MTBF. They challenge assumptions about infant mortality, extremely long predicted component lives, and the usefulness of reducing complex failure behaviour to a single number. The episode makes the case that reliability engineering should start with the business or engineering problem and then select the appropriate metric—not simply inherit whatever metric an industry has traditionally used.