Achieving Excellence in Steel Quality through Reliability

Quality determines the performance of a product at a particular point in time, after manufacture. Reliability determines the performance of a system during its entire lifetime. Reliability helps to sustain the quality of a product in the long run. True customer satisfaction that quality promises can be achieved only when it is maintained throughout the life cycle of the product. Hence reliability aspects of a product during its service should also be taken into consideration while developing a quality product. The purpose of this paper is to provide an approach to incorporate this concept for the production of steel where such a practice is yet to be applied. Steel constitutes the largest segment of materials produced today and is the backbone of large sectors like infrastructure, construction, engineering, automobile, ship building etc. It is advocated to incorporate such an approach in the steel industry to achieve excellence in the production of steel.