Stability loss is one of the key issues in the analysis of shells made of composite materials. This paper aims at finding the variation of the critical or limit value of the load resulting from geometric imperfections. An axially compressed 16-layer cylindrical panel model is considered. The imperfections of the panel are simulated as random fields. The parameters of these fields are used as the basic variables of the reliability problem of the model. The reliability analysis is based on the Response Surface Methodology (RSM). On the basis of the derived equation of the response surface, a reliability index of the model is determined using an author's program – both the Monte Carlo method (MC) and the Hasofer-Lind- -Rackwitz-Fiessler (HLRF) reliability index formulation analyses.