Fuzzy reliability analysis of the washing system in a paper plant using the TBFLT technique

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyze the reliability of the washing system in a paper plant in a more promising way under vague environment by reducing the accumulating phenomenon of fuzziness and accelerating the computation process using the T ω (weakest t -norm) based fuzzy lambda-tau (TBFLT) technique. Design/methodology/approach This paper presents a unified approach for analyzing the fuzzy reliability of the washing system under vague environment. This approach applies the TBFLT technique which uses triangular fuzzy numbers for incorporating data uncertainty, fault tree and lambda-tau method for finding system failure rate and repair time mathematical expressions while simplified T ω -based arithmetic operations are applied for computing various reliability parameters of the system. The effectiveness of the TBFLT technique has been demonstrated by analyzing fuzzy reliability of the system using five different techniques including TBFLT. Moreover, this paper applies extended Tanaka’s (1983) approach to rank the critical components of the system. Findings The TBFLT technique has the advantage of low computation complexity in comparison to other techniques and effectively reduces the accumulating phenomenon of fuzziness. This main finding verifies the conclusion made by Chen (1994). Originality/value The author has suggested a simple and more applicable technique for analyzing the fuzzy reliability of any complex process industrial system under vague environment. The effectiveness of the technique has been demonstrated by computing various reliability parameters of the washing system of a paper plant.