Today’s modern systems have become increasingly complex to design and build, while the demand for reliability and cost effective development continues. Reliability is one of the most important attributes in all these systems, including aerospace applications, real-time control, medical applications, defense systems, human decision-making, and home-security products. Growing international competition has increased the need for all designers, managers, practitioners, scientists and engineers to ensure a level of reliability of their product before release at the lowest cost. The interest in reliability has been growing in recent years and this trend will continue during the next decade and beyond.

The Springer Series in Reliability Engineering publishes books, monographs and edited volumes in important areas of current theoretical research development in reliability and in areas that attempt to bridge the gap between theory and application in areas of interest to practitioners in industry, laboratories, business, and government.

Interested authors should contact the series editor, Hoang Pham, Dept. of Industrial Engineering, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA. Email: hopham@rci.rutgers.edu, or Anthony Doyle, Senior Editor, Springer, London. Email: anthony.doyle@springer-sbm.com.