3 ms·

There are high demands on reliability: the equipment is expected to run 10-24 hours a day for years, without harming the operator or leaking oil onto customer's

• jagged-chisel 7y ago
  I read comments like this as anthropomorphizing the machine - it's not like the machine has to remember to not harm the operator or not to leak. Anyway, I don't find this a compelling argument against allowing mechanical failures. Manufacturers these days understand the trade-offs between cost to manufacture, part reliability, and tolerance of failure. (That said, mechanical failure might not even be a problem with the machines. It could just be the need to claim their offline so that staff can service other customers better.)
  • sangnoir 7y ago
    > Anyway, I don't find this a compelling argument against allowing mechanical failures. Manufacturers these days understand the trade-offs between cost to manufacture, part reliability, and tolerance of failure. I fully agree - my point was not to anthropomorphize machines. However, as you said, manufacturers understand the trade-offs, and for "industrial-grade" products, they prioritize having longer Mean time to failure compared to consumer goods. MTTF is sometimes baked into the contract/warrantees since any downtime is money lost - McDonald's can't take the fry machine offline and continue serving 95% of their meals