International Journal for Research in Engineering Application & Management (IJREAM) ISSN : 2454-9150 Vol-03, Issue 04, May 2017 78 | IJREAMV03I042822 www.ijream.org © 2017, IJREAM All Rights Reserved Abstract: The concept of reliability is necessary in the study of ‘Maintenance Planning and Control’. Improving the reliability is synonymous to better quality and productivity of an industry. This work identifies the scale of possible improvement in the measure of reliability by addressing each section of a tea industry. In doing so, the processes in a tea industry have been studied. During the analysis of each process, the existing reliability is determined and the scope for reliability improvement has been identified at each section. Reliability analysis of each section has been carried to obtain the present reliability of the system. The achievable reliability has been estimated by applying the necessary relations, considering each section. The scope and calculations follow the concept of Failure Modes, Effects and Criticality Analysis (FMECA). It has been observed that some simple yet effective measures may be enough to improve the overall reliability of the system. Keywords: FMECA, maintenance planning and control, productivity, quality, reliability, tea industry, etc. I. INTRODUCTION Reliability is a measure of the ability of a product to survive and perform its intended function under a given operating environment and prescribed set of conditions. When an industry is considered for such an analysis, the focus is mostly on the ways to improve the productivity without sacrificing the quality of the production. The study and analysis can be both quantitative as well as qualitative. In effect, reliability is a probability [1]. It is one such concept of study, which can help us in reducing the chances of failures of the various components in a system for a smoother functioning of the entire system and thus, an industry. The concept of reliability can be matched with systems concept [3]. The individual component’s reliability affects the reliability of the product [4]. Hence, sufficient effort should be given at the design stage so as to maximize the product’s reliability. There are various factors on which the reliability of a system or a product depends [3]. Some basic ways to improve the reliability of a system are mentioned below:  Improved design of components.  Usage of better production equipment.  Maintaining better quality standards.  Maintaining better testing standards.  Availability of sufficient number of standby units.  Scheduling periodic preventive maintenance. There is scope for reliability improvement in almost every section of an industry. In this work, a CTC (cut, tear & curl) tea industry named, “Evergreen Dooars Tea Private Limited”, has been considered for analysis. CTC (Crush, Tear, and Curl or Cut, Tear and Curl) is a method of processing black tea in which tea leaves are passed through a series of cylindrical rollers with serrated blades that crush, tear, and curl the tea into small, even-shaped pellets [2]. CTC tea generally produces a rich red-brown color when they are boiled by the Indian method [5]. The processing of tea aims to produce the final product ready to be consumed from the freshly picked leaves [6]. Selection of the various parameters and the ambient conditions is done on the basis of expertise and experience of the personnel [8]. Higher the reliability of a component, higher is the reliability of the section and higher is the reliability of the entire system involving the sections, which would help to obtain the optimum levels of quality and quantity. The five sections of the tea industry are: withering section, cut, tear and curl (CTC) section, continuous fermentation machine (CFM) section, drying section and sorting section [7]. The processes are briefly described using the following table, i.e. Table 1. Reliability Study of Tea Industry 1 Debapriya Roy, 2 Dr. S. Mukherjee 1 Post Graduate Scholar, 2 Professor, 1,2 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Jalpaiguri Govt. Engineering College, Jalpaiguri, India. 1 royz137@gmail.com, 2 sudipmukherjee_63@rediffmail.com