A new method for reliability allocation: Critical flow method

A complex system consists of many subsystems, which are developed concurrently and sometimes independently. It would be too late to validate the system reliability until the final system prototype is ready after months or years of development. From a project management point of view, the reliability of each subsystem or sub-function should be examined as early as possible. Therefore, the allocation of a reasonable reliability requirement to each subsystem and subfunction based on the system reliability target is very important. The present work analyses, in literature, the main reliability allocation techniques. Starting from the known methodologies, a new critical flow method for reliability allocation method has been developed. The proposed method can be used for complex system with serial and parallel configurations.