Multi-state System Reliability Analysis and Optimization for Engineers and Industrial Managers

Anatoly Lisnianski is the author and co-author of more than 80 scientific papers, one book and 3 book chapters. He has more than 30 years of experience in the fields of reliability, maintainability and risk analysis, both in industry and academia. Dr Lisnianski received his MSc degree in Electrical Engineering from the State University of Information Technology, Precision Mechanics and Optics, Sankt-Petersburg, Russia, in 1975 and his PhD degree in Reliability from the Federal Scientific & Production Centre "Aurora" in Sankt-Petersburg, Russia, where he was working from 1975 till 1989. Since 1991 he has been an expert engineer in the Planning, Development & Technology Division, Reliability Department, of The Israel Electric Corporation Ltd. He is also a scientific supervisor of the Centre for Reliability and Risk Management in the Sami Shamoon College of Engineering, Beer Sheva, Israel and senior lecturer at Haifa University. Ilia Frenkel is the author and co-author of more than 30 scientific publications. He has more than 35 years of experience in academia and industry in the fields of operational research, reliability and statistical quality control. Dr Frenkel received his MSc degree in Applied Mathematics from Voronezh State University, Russia, and his PhD degree in Operational Research and Computer Science, Institute of Economy, Ukrainian Academy of Science, formerly USSR. From 1988 till 1991 he was Department Chair and Associate Professor in the Applied Mathematics and Computers Department in the Volgograd Civil Engineering Institute, Russia. Now he is senior lecturer and director of the Centre for Reliability and Risk Management in the Sami Shamoon College of Engineering, Beer Sheva, Israel. He is a member of the editorial boards of scientific and professional journals. Yi Ding received his BEng from Shanghai Jiaotong University, China, and his PhD from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, both in Electrical Engineering. From 2005 to 2006, he worked as a post-doctoral research fellow in the Centre for Reliability and Risk Management of SCE - Shamoon College of Engineering, Beer Sheva, Israel. From 2007 to 2008, he was a postdoctoral research fellow in the University of Alberta, Canada. Currently, he is a member of the academic staff at Nanyang Technological University. His research interests include: electric power systems reliability and security; restructured power systems management and policy; engineering systems reliability; and evolutionary programming and fuzzy modeling. His research papers have been published in several international journals, such as: IEEE Trans. on Power Systems, Fuzzy Sets & Systems, Reliability Engineering & System Safety, and IEE Proc.-Gener. Transm. Distrib.

MATLAB codes provided in the appendix of the book enhance its usefulness for a serious minded researcher who likes to go in depth into the study of MSS. The book is a stand alone resource and does not require any prior knowledge on the part of a reader. This feature is likely to be appreciated by beginners who are being initiated to MSS reliability analysis. This feature will be particularly useful to the practicing engineers and managers who do not have time to look around and search all the supporting resources. The reviewer feels that this book would also be found useful for researchers, students and teachers. Krishna B. Misra, International Journal of Performability Engineering

• Multi-state Systems in Nature and in Engineering.- Modern Stochastic Process Methods for Multi-state System Reliability Assessment.- Statistical Analysis of Reliability Data for Multi-state Systems.- Universal Generating Function Method.- Combined Universal Generating Function and Stochastic Process Method.- Reliability-associated Cost Assessment and Management Decisions for Multi-state Systems.- Aging Multi-state Systems.- Fuzzy Multi-state System: General Definition and Reliability Assessment.