The cost of unreliability: a case study

Abstract

The running cost of over 300 PCs has been studied at Rolls‐Royce and Associates. The company helpdesk system was employed to provide detail of the frequency and nature of the PC component failure and the time taken for the repairs. The cost of unreliability was then calculated as the cost of replacing each faulty component plus the cost of unavailability while waiting for the repair. It was found that for most PC components there is a higher probability of failure, leading to a higher cost of unreliability, in the early part of life. The conclusion is drawn that bulk purchase of PCs will lead to higher running costs in the initial period and for many organisations a rolling replacement policy would spread costs more evenly. The helpdesk was found to be an excellent source of information for improving the quality of maintenance procedures.

Citation

Bradley, M. and Dawson, R. (1998), "The cost of unreliability: a case study", Journal of Quality in Maintenance Engineering, Vol. 4 No. 3, pp. 212-218. https://doi.org/10.1108/13552519810225209