Your Reliability Engineering Professional Development Site
A listing in reverse chronological order of articles by:
Frac plugs create a seal with the inner diameter of the casing. With the frac ball on seat in the frac plug, a check valve is formed in the casing which resists fracturing pressures up to 15,000 psi. Composite frac plugs use substantially composite components and rubber seals. Degradable frac plugs use components manufactured from magnesium (Mg) alloys. [Read more…]
The Central Artery/Tunnel Project, known as the Big Dig in Boston, originally was planned to take 10 years to complete for a budget of $2.5B. It actually took 30 years and cost $14.8 B. The traditional project framework used was inadequate for a long duration project. A new project framework, I call Adaptive Rolling Wave, is needed. It is a combination of the Adaptive Project and Rolling Wave framework, that is more suited for a long duration project because it breaks down the project into a number of smaller projects. [Read more…]
Working From Home (WFH)…just one of the things that the “New Normal” will bring according to a few voices from the populations of various workforces who have contributed to economies during lockdowns. People seem to have enjoyed the utopia of ‘flexible’ working hours with a freedom to work when they want, attending virtual meetings and collaborating in on-line virtual offices. [Read more…]
Multi-stage horizontal wells have been drilled and completed in shale formations in North America for two decades, and now account for nearly 90% of new wells drilled in the U.S. The Plug and Perf process (PnP) is used for completing most of these wells. [Read more…]
As a risk manager, you will often be asked to explain the RoI (return on investment) of you, your team, even the whole risk management program.
Effective risk management can help an organization grasp an opportunity and realizing an upside risk should generate a positive RoI.
However, when you are focussed on shoring up a weak system, plugging gaps and minimizing risks, showing an RoI can be hard. Even so, an inability to show a positive RoI in a cost-conscious environment can threaten investment in your team. It can even make people question the value of the program as a whole. [Read more…]
Have faith to seize on opportunities that come your way (but the risk is within us!)
Everyone has opportunities. But it is up to us to seize the opportunities that come our way!
There will be opportunities to build lives, to better ourselves, or to serve the community.
Faith and opportunities
Faith is the complete trust or confidence in someone or something. It is the confident assurance that something we want is going to happen. Faith is the certainty that what we hope for is waiting for us, even though we cannot see it up ahead. [Read more…]
In the article Reliability in Equipment Design it was stated that a project team can set reliability target(s) for new equipment using historical reliability data. One option OEMs have for capturing historical reliability data is a Failure Reporting And Corrective Action System, or FRACAS. The data captured can provide a comprehensive view of how the equipment is performing. This data can be used to improve legacy equipment and drive decision-making on new equipment. [Read more…]
The Coronavirus pandemic (COVID19) continues to spread throughout the world despite the best efforts of governments and the medical community. With no vaccine becoming available in the near term and perhaps even in the long term we are faced with growing uncertainty. It seems that ever since the emergence of COVID19 that conflicting advice, information and guidance has exacerbated the situation and created a lack of trust on the part of the public on what measures to take. Wear a mask.
Don’t wear a mask. Social distance. Don’t social distance. The only advice that seems trustworthy is “Wash your hands”; and, that is something that we should do regardless of the pandemic – it’s good common sense. [Read more…]
A while back, I felt that pretty much everything was out of sync and I was highly disorganized. There was a growing list of undone things whether that was around the house, at work, with my family, or at the places where I volunteer.
It was definitely time for a reorganization. [Read more…]
Changes are a part of the evolution of a new design. But managing the timing of changes is important. Figure 1 shows that the cost of making design changes increases rapidly beginning late in development. In well-run projects, design changes are mostly complete by early development. But project teams that ignore reliability often discover the need for changes during lab testing (late development) or commercialization. This is very costly, creates schedule delays, and can lead to brand damage. In Maximizing Oilfield Equipment Reliability, it is stated that Design for Reliability (DfR) programs are used by OEMs to elevate reliability. But DfR activities can also reduce the cost of changes. How is this achieved? [Read more…]
Fifty years ago, having your own car was a sign of adulthood and your ticket around town. But that is all going to change within the next five to ten years due to rising CO2 levels and a new trend called Transportation as a Service. TaaS sits at the intersection of four technical macro trends. These are:
These trends are here today and are predicted to grow significantly and quickly over the next five to ten years. It is a positive trend with a lot of positive affects on the country and world.
The risk to this trend is the need for electric power will outstrip the supply. This article presents the case for this risk. [Read more…]
George Bernhard Shaw once said, and it’s now been written down and put on posters and the like: “The problem with communication is the illusion that it has taken place”.
In this ‘Information Age’ we have access to, receive, generate, and send more information than ever before. People can suffer from infoxication as a consequence of ‘information overload’ and decision making has, we are told, become more difficult as a consequence. [Read more…]
High reliability is expected of mature products with track records (low hazard rate). But new products with little or no track record (hazard rate = ?) are commercialized every day in the upstream industry. The technical objectives for new equipment always consist of performance targets, but should also include designing to maximize reliability. So, how does an OEM achieve this? The answer involves culture, capabilities, and best practices. [Read more…]
On 31 December 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) learned of several cases of severe pneumonia in the Chinese city of Wuhan. This strain of coronavirus has since spread through China and into other countries. WHO later named COVID-19.
The emergence of the coronavirus was exactly the type of fast-emerging risk with uncertain consequences that could have triggered quick actions by governments and organisations. Instead, it was played down or dismissed by many. They adopted a wait and see approach to risk management. [Read more…]
This is where the achievement of objectives must be translated into tangible successes that are linked to positive outcomes.
Growth for growth’s sake is meaningless. Achieving objectives for the sake of it is meaningless unless you want to game the system and get your financial bonuses by meeting some meaningless performance targets. It becomes a meaningless compliance exercise. [Read more…]
