Methods of Evaluating the Reliability of Multi-Component Systems: A Comprehensive and Practical Review

This paper aims to analyze comprehensively and structurally the different methods proposed in the literature by researchers, and identify the new fields for future studies.

Design/methodology/approach: 

In this research, the methods proposed in the literature have been explained comprehensively and structurally focusing on mathematical functions, assumptions, functional objectives, results, weaknesses, and strengths. Different types of dependencies between system components have been also considered in this study.

In this paper, the methods in the literature were clustered by a new approach based on the system type, dependency, the method of considering the dependency and the objective. The different challenges of this field of study in the future were also investigated in this paper.

Research limitations/implications:

 Few practical studies in the field of multi-component systems have been performed in the literature. 

Practical implications: 

Since the analysis of multi-component systems is considered an important and applied issue in the reliability field for different complex products, the discussion of this paper and the results can be used by technical experts in different industries.

Social implications:

 This paper can be used as a reference for increasing people’s quality of life.

Originality/value: 

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first time that a comprehensive analysis of multi-component systems is reported in considering its structure and applied approach