Abstract
M.Ing.
This dissertation covers a literature study of the reliability engineering,
and this is then applied to the hospital oxygen supply system in order to
determine the reliability of the system.
The hospital oxygen supply system must comply with international and
local legislation, which insists that the reliability of the system must be
very high, since it supports life in the hospital. Since there were no
previous studies conducted in terms of the oxygen supply system to the
knowledge of the author, it definitely opens a new study field for the
application of reliability engineering concepts.
In the research it was found that no records were kept by the company
on the failures occurring with the oxygen supply system. This increased
the difficulty to calculate the actual reliability of the supply system. A
reliability prediction was done, based on the failure rate data from a
database. The reliability prediction of the .system was very low, and
possibly not a very accurate prediction of the actual reliability of the
system.
The author therefore created a reliability calculation program, which
calculates the reliability of the system and also keeps, an accurate failure
data record on each component of the system.
The main conclusion reached with this dissertation is that failure data
feedback, and accurate records are a very important factor of reliability
engineering. This may influence the company's ability to rectify design
changes in their systems, as there is no idea where the failure occurred
and how much money value is linked to the failures occurring.