• AUTOMATED TELLER MACHINE RELIABILITY, PROBLEMS AND RISKS

Abstract

As machines and devices are manufactured, engineers and designers try as hard as possible to be perfect and produce devices that perform to optimal levels. However, no matter how good the design is, it is prone to failure at some stage in its life time. This is because devices are mostly made of moving parts, which may wear out due to friction, or electronic components which may be affected by the environment they function in. This brings about the problem of device reliability. This paper aims at coming up with reliability models for Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) that can be extended to other computer hardware. Reliability models were formulated. Comparisons were made between simulated data and actual data collected over time at a local Building society Bank in Zimbabwe. The results indicate that the value of the hazard rate function is 0.02. This means that the probability of failure in a very small interval of time is very low and we are unlikely to get a failure in such an interval. The mean time before failure (MTBF) is 28.704 which translate to 28 days before a failure at the stated values of k (the average failure rate of the system) and, the initial number of failures at time. This is a fairly large period that provides some confidence that the system is reliable.