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

Exercise 16

Note: Data sets for several problems are available in the Excel workbook C07Data in the Student Companion Site for this chapter. Click on the appropriate worksheet tab as noted in the problem (e.g., Prob. 7-5, etc.) to access the data.
An electronic missile guidance system at Mguide, Inc. consists of Components A, B, C, and D, which have reliabilities of 0.98, 0.97, 0.91, and 0.99, respectively (see the following diagram).

a. What is the reliability of the entire system?
b. Suppose the customer requires a reliability of at least 0.98. Try to find a configuration that meets this requirement using the minimum number of components.