Quality is important in manufacturing, usually a complex activity. Figure 1 shows a three level characterisation of a manufacturing business. There are several key elements at each level, as indicated below.

Level 1 corresponds to the floor shop level and has three key elements - Inputs, Process and Outputs. Level 2 corresponds to the operational management of the manufacturing business, with six elements. Level 3 corresponds to strategic management of the manufacturing business with six different elements.

The research at the Industrial and Systems Engineering Department at NUS focuses on Level 1 with emphasis on statistical process control (SPC) and design of experiments (DOE). The research at the University of Queensland deals with quality of operations at Levels 2 and 3. These include materials planning with uncertain quality, quality of post-sale service at Level 2 and quality of new product development at Level 3.

New research is being initiated based on the framework described in Figure 1. In particular, at level 1, research will focus on the development and application of advanced methodologies and statistical tools for process control and improvement. At levels 2 and 3, quality management framework and tools for product designs and testing will be looked into.

One particular area that staff from both universities have focused on is reliability engineering. Reliability of a product (system) conveys the concept of dependability, successful operation or performance and the absence of failures. Unreliability (or lack of reliability) conveys the opposite. Since the process of deterioration leading to failure occurs in an uncertain manner, the concept of reliability requires a dynamic and probabilistic framework.

Reliability deals with the interdisciplinary use of probability, statistics and stochastic modelling, combined with engineering insights into design, and scientific understanding of the failure mechanisms, to study the various aspects of reliability. It encompasses issues such as (i) reliability modelling, (ii) reliability analysis and optimization, (iii) reliability engineering, (iv) reliability science, (v) reliability technology and (vi) reliability management.

The framework needed to study reliability is indicated in Figure 2. As can be seen it involves a mix of many different disciplines and factors.

The research in the ISE Department of NUS deals with reliability modelling (both hardware and software), reliability analysis (testing, estimation, and assessment) and maintenance of unreliable systems. The research at UQ deals with reliability modelling (hardware in ME and software in Electrical Engineering and Computing Science), reliability analysis (implications for post-sale service or warranties and associated logistic support issues), reliability engineering (design, operation and maintenance) and reliability management (looking at reliability in the life cycle context).

In early November 1998, a one-day international workshop on reliability was organised under the chairmanship of Professor Murthy of UQ. The workshop attracted over 60 participants from 15 countries and regions. The conference proceeding was published by NUS. Some of the papers presented at the workshop will be published as a Special Issue of an international journal with Professor Murthy as guest editor.

Based on the success of the international workshop on reliability, regular conferences on reliability are now planned, with Singapore as the venue for the next one to be held in 2000. NUS, UQ and some other universities will play a major role in the promotion and organisation of this conference.