A production line has three machines A, B, and C, with reliabilities of .94, .90, and .89, respectively. The machines are arranged so that if one breaks down, the others must shut down. Engineers are weighing two alternative designs for increasing the line’s reliability. Plan 1 involves adding an identical backup line, and plan 2 involves providing a backup for each machine. In either case, three machines (A, B, and C) would be used with reliabilities equal to the original three.
a. Compute the reliability of the machines. (Round your intermediate calculations and final answer to 4 decimal places.)
Reliability
Machine A
Machine B
Machine C
b. Which plan will provide the higher reliability?
Plan2
Plan1