System Reliability: Chapter 1c
Safety defines the boundaries. System availability defines the outcome.
Last December we published the book Process Safety Management. Before that we published Plant Design and Operations. We are now working on the third book in this series: System Reliability: Decision Making in an Age of AI. An introduction to the series is provided here.
This new book is very much a work in progress. Nevertheless, we have releasing draft materials in order to encourage feedback and discussion. Please provide your comments.
Chapter 1
The first set of released materials will be four sections from Chapter 1: Boundaries and Outcome. There are four download modules:
Chapter 1d
The current Table of Contents for Chapter 1 is shown below.
Chapter 1 — Boundaries and Outcome
Overview
Book Structure
Book Series
Understanding Risk
Risk Management Strategy
Asymmetry
Benefits of Improved Availability
Optimum Reliability Investment
Production and Profitability
Reduced Maintenance and Downtime Costs
Customer Satisfaction and Public Relations
High Consequence Events
Leadership Benefits
Worked Examples
Pump System
Heat Exchanger
Concluding Transition
Overview of Chapter 1
Chapter 1 introduces a central idea of this book: that industrial performance is governed by two fundamentally different types of constraint. Safety and environmental protection define the boundaries within which a facility must operate. These boundaries are non-negotiable and reflect ethical, regulatory, and societal expectations. Within those constraints, the primary determinant of outcome is system availability — the ability of the facility to operate as intended, when required, and to recover quickly from disruption.
The chapter distinguishes between external factors that are largely beyond management control, such as market prices and input costs, and internal factors — reliability, maintenance, operations, and organizational effectiveness — that directly influence availability. It shows how these internal variables shape both production and cost, and therefore overall financial performance.
Although safety and availability both involve the management of risk, they are not the same type of problem. Safety decisions are constrained by ethical considerations and do not lend themselves to simple optimization. In contrast, availability can be analyzed, managed, and improved using economic and engineering principles.
The chapter concludes by outlining the structure of the book and introducing two worked examples that are used throughout to illustrate key concepts.
In other words:
Safety defines the boundaries.
System availability defines the outcome.
