Dependability in the current socio-economic climate
Sustainability
Meeting the environmental, social and economic needs of the present without compromising the needs of the future.
In other words, we shouldn’t use up all the earth’s natural resources to meet our current needs without ensuring that the earth’s resources will be available for use in the future. For example, we should prevent global warming as it will impact on our future.
Keeping systems operating for as long as possible and enabling them to be improved over time is an important aspect of sustainability. Dependability can assist in ensuring that a product will operate as reliably as possible and that it is maintained for as long as necessary. Environmental and economic considerations are necessary elements when developing long lasting systems and incorporating improvements (changes, enhancements, extensions and expansion of useable boundaries).
Useful links are: IEC 60300-1, IEC 60300-3-4, IEC 60300-3-10, IEC 60300-3-14,IEC 60300-3-17, IEC 60300-3-18, IEC 62853, and IEC 62309
Circular economy
An economic system that uses a systemic approach to the sustainable development (development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the needs of the future) by optimizing the use of natural sources, aiming to eliminate waste and pollution, circulate products and materials for as long as possible, while giving the opportunity to natural systems to regenerate themselves
Circular economy is similar to sustainability, but goes into more detail in how to make the most use of our natural resources. It deals with a) extending the life of an item, b) making it easy to repair, c) enabling it or its sub items to be repurposed and finally d) being able to recycle the contents of the discarded item. As with sustainability, dependability assists in achieving a), b), c) and d), but not a great deal on enabling a natural resource to recover.
Useful links are: IEC 60300-1, IEC 60300-3-4, IEC 60300-3-10, IEC 60300-3-14,IEC 60300-3-17, IEC 60300-3-18, IEC 62853, and IEC 62309
Asset management
A systematic process of developing, operating, maintaining, upgrading, and disposing of assets (tangible and intangible) in the most cost-effective manner (including all costs, risks, and performance attributes).
Dependability is an important aspect of asset management in that it is the ability of an asset to perform as and when required. It is thus the ability to fulfil requirements and expectations consistently over time. It includes the ability to meet requirements under normal and expected conditions and the ability to adapt to unexpected changes in requirements, assumptions and circumstances and to recover from failure (IEC/TS 62775:2016)
Useful links are: IEC 60300‑1, IEC 60300-3-4, IEC 60300-3-10, IEC 60300-3-14, IEC 60300-3-17, IEC 60300-3-18, IEC 62853, and IEC TS62775
Trustworthiness
Ability to meet expectations.
This has a wide range of interpretation so its characteristics can include some or all of the following: Accountability, accuracy, authenticity, availability, controllability, integrity, privacy, quality, reliability, recoverability, resilience, robustness, safety, security, transparency and usability.
For all these characteristics, dependability can be involved in helping them to be achieved. For example, maintenance activities can ensure that incorrect, corrupt or illegal hardware or software are not installed during updating or repairing products (which is assisting integrity and security).
Useful links are: IEC 60300-1, IEC 60300-3-4, IEC 60300-3-10, IEC 60300-3-14,IEC 60300-3-17, IEC 60300-3-18, and IEC 62853
Resilience
Resilience is the ability of an item to return to functional capability, within an acceptable time period, after having been affected by inputs or conditions that are outside the defined specification.
Reliability tools incorporate adverse events and unusual circumstances into ‘What if’ scenarios to achieve reliable products. Maintainability and Supportability incorporate ‘What if’ scenarios to minimise adverse events when introducing repairs, updates and planned servicing activities.
Note: The same principles can be applied to robustness and recoverability.
Useful links: IEC 31010, IEC 60812, IEC 61025, IEC 61078.
Autonomy
Characteristic of a system that is capable of modifying its operating domain or goal without external intervention, control or oversight.
Autonomous systems can benefit from dependability through the provision of comprehensive testability design providing appropriate reliable status reporting, online maintenance and high reliability to perform as required. Useful links are: IEC 60300-1, IEC 60300-3-4, IEC 60300-3-10, IEC 60300-3-14,IEC 60300-3-17, IEC 60300-3-18, IEC 62853, and IEC 60706-5