Reliability Odyssey: After 2001

Abstract

The story of reliability engineering reminds to most human stories, either in technical and scientific field, or in arts and social relationships, hence may be told in a general, metaphorical way going back to timeless myths and tales. Highs and lows, good ideas and mistakes, rigorous approaches and fads. It's the same old story, and it is then possible to remind to timeless literature works in order to describe the story of this discipline. The Odyssey of Homer is the perfect tale to represent the first five decades, until the end of the XX century, but entering the new millennium is like to pass the Pillars of Hercules. New challenges require that reliability changes itself. Maintaining the metaphor, the change is similar to the evolution from the world of the Greek cities to the Roman empire. The Odyssey speaks of illusions, monsters, storms, errors and hope woven together. The new challenge faces to dominate the ever increasing dimension of the problems and to take care of the nature through sustainability.