ABSTRACT
The importance of reliability, availability, and maintainability (RAM) and safety has increased over the past years. The increase of the safety requirements is mainly driven by product liability, authorities, standards, and the development of the homologation process, whereas RAM importance increased through the rising number of rolling stock operators having life cycle cost in focus based on RAM. Through these developments, the integration of reliability, availability, maintainability, and safety (RAMS) engineers into the engineering process has undergone a change from only documenting the results of the engineering process to directly influencing the product and its development. This chapter describes the role and tasks of the RAMS engineer during the different product development phases and shows that the RAMS process as well as the product development follows the product life cycle process represented by the V-model in EN 50126. Depending on the role of the engineering team in the supply chain, the extent of RAMS activities shall be adapted. Additionally, the chapter illustrates the need that RAMS and design engineers have to work in close cooperation. Finally, the chapter defines the required skills and competencies of a RAMS engineer.
