There are a number of reasons why reliability is an important asset attribute, including the following:
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Risk Mitigation - High reliability is a critical defense mechanism to ensuring regulatory, financial, and operational risk mitigation. Reliability can affect employee, customer, and the general population safety, the financial viability of an operation, or ability of an operation to satisfy their requirements.
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Customer Satisfaction - High reliability is a mandatory requirement for customer satisfaction and retention. Customer cost, delivery, and quality are all impacted by poor operations (asset) reliability. Additionally, many Customers in today's market demand that their suppliers have an effective reliability program. These customers have learned the benefits of reliability analysis from experience.
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Costs - If an operating asset fails to perform its function, the replacement and repair costs will negatively affect profits, customer expectations from a cost of goods perspective, and possibly gain unwanted negative attention in the Market. Introducing reliability analysis is an important step in taking corrective action, ultimately leading to an operating environment that is more reliable and predictable, thus satisfying the Customer valid requirements.
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Revenue - If an operating asset fails to perform its function, the ability to produce the products or services to meet the market demands will negatively affect revenue and thus profits, customer expectations, and possibly impact the competitiveness of the product or service.
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Employee Satisfaction - A concentrated effort towards improved reliability shows existing customers that a manufacturer is serious about its product and committed to customer satisfaction. This type of attitude has a positive impact on future business and ultimately employee job satisfaction.
Each of these reasons is directly related to the reliability of the assets, systems, or structures with respect to availability, capacity, quality, and energy efficiency.