Suppose that a process is comprised of multiple components, each having a 75% success rate. What is the change in reliability going from a series layout to a parallel layout if the process has 5 components?

A) 0%
B) 100%
C) 76.2%
D) -76.2 %
E) unable to determine

In a series layout, the reliability is the product of the individual reliabilities, so for 5 components each with a 75% success rate, the overall reliability is $0.75^5=0.2373$ or 23.73%. In a parallel layout, the failure rate is the product of the individual failure rates, so the failure rate for 5 components each with a 25% failure rate (100% - 75%) is $0.25^5=0.0009765625$ , and the reliability is $1-0.0009765625=0.9990234375$ or 99.90234375%. The change in reliability is $99.90234375\%-23.73\%=76.17234375\%$ , which rounds to 76.2%.