Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) have become increasingly important in commercial application areas as they are extremely versatile. Knowing the operating lifetime of MEMS is indispensable; therefore, their mechanical reliability is a significant aspect that has to be analyzed. We develop methods for the quantification of the reliability and robustness of MEMS devices. For this, we combine experimental and numerical expertise. Experiments enable a reproduction of failure mechanisms and an extraction of system parameters in the first step. In the second step, we use extracted parameters to build high quality simulation models which shall extend our understanding of MEMS failure.