UdemyBestseller on UdemyEngineeringPaid courseAll LevelsCertificate

Introduction to Reliability Engineering (Udemy.com)

Learn reliability engineering tools to reduce failures, improve product performance, and ensure quality

4.7

4,371 reviews

Created by: Ray Harkins

Last updated August 2026

Our take

Based on the ratings of 4,371 students, a sample of their written reviews and the syllabus, as the course stood in August 2026. No course pays to be reviewed.

An overview of reliability engineering aimed at working engineers and quality staff. Ray Harkins, a manufacturing engineer with 25 years in the field and ASQ certifications, walks through why things fail, strength versus stress analysis, the normal and exponential distributions, accelerated life testing, HALT and HASS, reliability block diagrams and maintenance strategies. About 5 hours of video across 43 lectures, with 6 quizzes. One reviewer, a mechanical engineer with no formal reliability training, says it was exactly what he was after, and another picked it as a starting point for the CRE, which matches the course's pitch to quality and manufacturing engineers who want the vocabulary and core tools before going deeper.

Students like how the instructor breaks concepts down to an understandable level and keeps the energy going. One reviewer singles out the normal and exponential distribution sections, and another warns to be ready to stop the lectures and take notes because there is a lot of information packed in. Complaints are mild. A 4-star reviewer ran it at double speed and felt the length could be trimmed. The whole course sits in a single section of 43 lectures, so finding a specific topic later is a chore. There are no assignments, practice tests or coding exercises, just the six quizzes, so practice is up to you.

With 4,371 reviews and a 4.7 rating, about 90 percent of them at 4 or 5 stars, it is one of the safer picks in the engineering category, and it was refreshed in August 2026. It is much narrower than the systems engineering or PCB design courses it sits beside, and that is the point. If you want a compact, well-taught primer on reliability before buying textbooks or a CRE prep course, this is a sensible paid pick.

Best forMechanical, quality or manufacturing engineers who have never had formal reliability training and want the core tools first.

Skip it ifYou already hold a CRE or want hands-on exercises and software practice rather than a lecture overview.

Pros

Reviewers say the instructor breaks the concepts down clearly and keeps the energy up
Refreshed in August 2026 and still a Bestseller with 4,371 reviews at a 4.7 rating
Covers ALT, HALT, HASS, block diagrams and maintenance strategy in about 5 hours
One reviewer calls it exactly the starting point they wanted for CRE study

Cons

All 43 lectures sit in one section, so jumping back to a specific topic is awkward
Only six quizzes and no assignments or practice tests, so nothing hands-on
One reviewer felt the length could be trimmed and ran it at double speed

There's a lot of good, useful information in this course and it's presented well. Be ready to stop the lectures and take notes.

Robbie Seward, a student

Listed as all levels but pitched at working engineers; basic math, Excel and some manufacturing background help.

What you will learn

What is Reliability and How is it Measured
Why Things Fail
The Fundamentals of Strength-Stress Analysis
The Basics of the Normal and Exponential Distributions
Z-Score and how it's used in Strength-Stress Analysis
Introductions to Life Testing, Accelerated Life Testing (ALT), Highly Accelerated Life Testing (HALT), and Highly Accelerated Stress Screening (HASS)
The "Bathtub" or Weibull Curve
Reliability Block Diagrams
Redundancy, Preventive/Predictive Maintenance, and Derating and Methods for Improving Reliability
How Reliability Engineering is a key component in the product design and manufacturing processes
And much more!!

Course content

1 section · 43 lectures · 5.3 hours of video 6 quizzes

1Introduction 2 free previews43 lectures · 6 quizzes · 5.3 hours

Who it is for

The instructor says it suits

Reliability Engineers, Quality Engineers, Manufacturing Engineers, Maintenance Engineers
Industrial Engineers, Process Engineers, Product Development Engineers, Design Engineers
Quality Technicians, Engineering Technicians, Preventive Maintenance Planners, Predictive Maintenance Analysts
Continuous Improvement Specialists, Operations Managers, Technical Project Managers

What you need before you start

Basic math and Excel skill are helpful
An understanding of manufacturing is also helpful

How it compares

Against the other 335 rated Udemy courses in Engineering on CourseDuck:

Rating4.7 out of 5higher than 88% of them
Reviews4,371#16 of 336 by number of reviews
Length5.3 hoursshorter than 49% of them
Last updatedAugust 2026more recently than 95% of them

Course Description

Reliability is often referred to as "quality over time". And this idea of reliability that was birthed in the early days of electronics and aviation, now extends into every sector of consumer and industrial products. Automobiles, airplane, televisions and computers have all found their way into the hands of everyday consumers because of the advancement in reliability engineering.
In "An Introduction to Reliability Engineering", we present an overview of the major concepts in the field of study including:- The single reason of why things fail- Strength / load analysis- Statistical analysis using the Normal and Exponential distributions- Accelerated Life Testing (ALT)- Reliability block diagrams- Assessing the reliability of systems- Reliability improvement- Highly Accelerated Life Testing (HALT)and Highly Accelerated Stress Screening (HASS)- Preventive and predictive maintenance- And MUCHMORE!!!
This class is designed for the quality, manufacturing or engineering professionals looking to expand their skill set into this important field of study. "An Introduction to Reliability Engineering" will give you a foundational understanding of these key ideas and prepare you for more advanced training.
While an advanced understanding of statistics is required to become a reliability engineer, only a basic understanding of manufacturing, mathematics and Microsoft Excel is required to get started in this class.
Sign up today to begin your journey into the field of reliability engineering!!"This course was absolutely fantastic. The instructor is very engaging and knowledgeable of the topic ... I had such a great time taking this course that I plan on enrolling in more of Ray Harkins's classes. The video included in the "Bonus Section" has pointed me towards many great suggestions for that next class. Thank you very much Ray, and God bless!" - Gary E."Lots of important, interesting and fundamental information. Really enjoying it and learning lots." - Matthew O.
Who this course is for:
Mechanical engineersManufacturing engineersIndustrial engineersQuality engineersQuality techniciansDesign engineerReliability engineers

All Levels

Time: 5.3h

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Instructor Details

Ray Harkins

4.7 Rating
4,371 Reviews

Ray Harkins is a senior manufacturing professional with over 25years experience in manufacturing engineering, quality management,and business analysis. During his career, he has toured hundreds of manufacturing facilities and worked with leadingindustry professionalsthroughout North America and Japan. He is a senior member of the American Society of Quality, and holds their Quality Engineering, Quality Auditing and Calibration Technician certifications. Ray has written extensively for national trade publications on the topics of quality engineeringand career management.

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Reviews

4.7

4,371 ratings on Udemy

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Write a review

By Zeyad Faris on 11/15/2020

This class is awesome. I got A LOT from this session and I really enjoyed it. Hope Mr. Ray can introduce the advance reliability engineering or make an independent course for CRE. He is one of the best in field of quality and design. Big thanks Mr. Ray!

By Abdul Hameed on 11/8/2020

excellent explanation and examples to understand concepts

By Shahed Reza on 11/8/2020

Like the pace and how the instructor takes care to explain in details.

By David Hehir on 11/1/2020

Engineers or anyone in working in a business who needs to understand Reliability this is the course for you. I was surprised to find it here a Udemy and it covered the material well.

By Andrey Mayol on 10/25/2020

Yes, know what s reliability

By Adarsh K R on 10/24/2020

Yes.. Expect more in coming videos

By Xuan Li on 10/23/2020

Excellence class for any and quality professionals. Ray is a great teacher who can demonstrate the complicated statistical problems very clear and concise. Thank you !

By Michael Onibala on 10/20/2020

The Course Content is good especially for people who just in place as new Reliability Engineer, but its not really fit for re-fresher of Reliability Engineer.
I love the way of explaining material of each topic is very good. The spoken of English is very clear and not really fast which is It is good for people who has English not as mother language.
I would suggest this course will more amazing if you can please add some topics such as FMEA and its design + FMECA, Fault Tree Analysis, Tolerance and worst-case analysis, Reliability Centre Maintenance and its design, Simulation Techniques (Monte Carlo simulation), MTBF, MTTF, MTTR design and their strategies, PDF (Probability Density Function, Maintenance Management design and its Strategy.
If you could that will be great and much appreciated.
I just let you know, I have been enroll four class of yours.
Thanks in advance.

By Abhijeet Vaze on 10/19/2020

Excellent course, to sum up , Concepts of strength, load, ALT, HALT and HASS explained through appropriate mathematical background using the distributions - normal, exponential and Weibull. This course is an excellent organization of the material and equally superb delivery. lucid and easy style of explanation , looking forward to an advanced course on this topic.

By satyanarayana BN on 10/14/2020

Excellent

By Kevin Cherian on 10/13/2020

An amazing course that has set me in the right direction . I really like the way every single concept was explained .I thought I would get lost somewhere, but you really made it very easy to understand . It was totally engaging and very informative , especially with all the Excel workouts and the Statistical Diagrams. It was more than I expected . Thank You very much Mr. Ray. Looking forward to attending the many more courses that you provide.

By Harishanker Singh on 10/12/2020