The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects on reliability of equipment or product which spends a great deal of its time in the non-operating condition. The paper will look at the effects on the failure modes, the failure rates, the failure distribution and the possible reliability models. Many military and commercial systems experienced periods of non-operating stage throughout their life cycle, such as periods of operational storage where the system waits, ready for use. The design of such systems must account for how these periods of non-operating effects system performance. The simulation methodology for reliability analysis was developed to support the evaluation of nonoperating modes of operation of systems and subsystems. For proper handling of the non-operating environment, issues relating to non-operating failures need to be taken into consideration from design stage of the life cycle. Furthermore, the relevant environmental concerns and issues that need to be taken into consideration are discussed.