Managing for Quality and Performance Excellence 9th Edition by James Evans,William Lindsay

Exercise 36

An automated production system at Autoprod, Inc. consists of three operations: turning, milling, and grinding. Individual parts are transferred from one operation to the next by a robot. Hence, if one machine or the robot fails, the process stops.
a. If the reliabilities of the robot, turning center, milling machine, and grinder are 0.994, 0.980, 0.95, and 0.88, respectively, what is the reliability of the system?
b. Suppose that two grinders are available so that the system does not stop if one fails. What is the reliability of the system?