Measuring reliability of service systems using failure rates: variations and extensions

In a recent article in this journal, Gunes and Deveci proposed the use of failure rate analysis, a technique commonly used to determine reliability rates of products, systems and components, to determine reliability rates of service systems. They also presented an application of this concept to a student office service system. This paper first extends this idea to multi‐stage service systems. Next, it illustrates how several other concepts and techniques of reliability engineering can be applied for measuring reliability rates of services. Two case studies where such techniques were applied are presented. It will also discuss how customers view reliability of a service and how objective measures of reliability rates based on reliability engineering concepts and techniques can be combined with customer expectations and perceptions to set performance standards for a service.

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