Articles

Find all articles across all article series listed in reverse chronological order.

How Less Data Can Give You Better Results

Guest Post by Andrew Sheves (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)

“Hi, I’m Andrew, and I have a weakness for data.”

There, I said it.

I love spreadsheets. I love national statistics. I love primary sources.

I could probably have completed my Master’s dissertation without an extension if I had just accepted that cited quotes were valid instead of looking for all the original sources*. And I don’t need to read the last three years of a company’s annual reports before I have a 20-minute call with them.

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by James Reyes-Picknell Leave a Comment

Do you really need an assessment?

Do you really need an assessment? Will it help, or will it create problems?

Conventional consulting approaches begin with detailed assessments to determine your current state of affairs, judge what’s good and bad about it, give it a score, provide a long list of recommendations and then build an improvement strategy based on the outcome. A typical assessment can take up to a couple of weeks plus report generation time. Does it really add the value you might expect?

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by Steven Wachs Leave a Comment

Analyzing the Experiment (Part 5) – Contour Plots and Optimization

In the last Article, we learned how to work with predictive models to find solutions that solve for desired responses. We used some basic algebra to solve for solutions and looked at the use of contour plots to quickly visualize many solutions at a glance.

In this article, we further explore the use of contour plots and other tools to help us quickly find solutions to our models. We start by revisiting the battery life DOE example that was discussed in the previous article. The statistical output below shows the coded model that contains only the statistically significant (main and interaction) effects. [Read more…]

by Robert (Bob) J. Latino Leave a Comment

Do Human Performance Learning Teams Make RCA Obsolete

I recently attended a conference where I listened to a presentation on Human Performance Improvement (HPI) by Dr. Todd Conklin and other speakers advocating Dr. Conklin’s ‘Learning Team’ approach. This was the first time I had heard Root Cause Analysis (RCA) referred to as ‘old school’ and obsolete. This got me to thinking, given I have been in the RCA business for decades, is what I do for a living…obsolete?

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by Fred Schenkelberg 2 Comments

The Art of Creating a Reliability Plan

A plan is a road map toward a destination. It provide guidance toward a goal. The idea of a plan is to consider the path forward, the knowledge necessary to acquire, and the decisions along the way.

No plan is perfect other than those that successfully accommodate the successes and setbacks along the way. No plan can anticipate all the information yet to be uncovered, yet it can set a course to deliberately uncover what is necessary to move forward.

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by James Kovacevic Leave a Comment

Using Failure Mode Effects Criticality Analysis as a Reliability Tool

How to use FMECA to drive reliability improvements in your organization

An important part of the Reliability Centered Maintenance process, or used as a standalone approach for less critical assets; the Failure Mode Effect Criticality Analysis is vital reliability tool. However, a large percentage of organizations do not take advantage of the tool during the design phase of the asset, or to develop the maintenance strategy once the asset is installed.
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by Alex Williams Leave a Comment

7 Tips for Avoiding CMMS/EAM Failure

Many maintenance organizations invest in a CMMS/EAM in hopes that it will solve their maintenance management problems, only to discover that the software fails to deliver the desired results. Faulty software might be to blame for some CMMS implementation failures, but more often than not, the problems begin well before the software is even implemented. Here are 7 tips for avoiding CMMS failure:

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by James Reyes-Picknell Leave a Comment

Entropy and Maintenance – Part 3

Entropy and maintenance are more related than you might think. What happens in maintenance and many operations can be explained with this simple thermodynamic concept. Entropy is a concept that represents chaos and degradation. It occurs naturally in any physical system and will naturally grow (i.e.: the system will become more chaotic) if we don’t do something to arrest its growth. Doing something requires the expenditure of energy, so energy is what counters entropy. Entropy and maintenance are seldom discussed together, we don’t speak of these thermodynamic terms and concepts in everyday language and conversation, but they are at work behind the scenes. For practical purposes, if we want something to remain orderly we need to put some form of energy (effort) into keeping it that way. If we don’t, then nature will steadily and relentlessly increase the state of chaos in which we exist. In maintenance that means moving from proactive (which requires energy) to reactive (which drains it away).

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by Greg Hutchins Leave a Comment

Poor Management of Known Risks is Major Cause of Failed Projects

Guest Post by John Ayers (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)

Studies show most projects fail due to poor management of known risks. The known risks on a project are:

Scope
Schedule.
Cost.
Quality.

The question is how do we manage known risks better? Known risks can be significantly mitigated with application of basic Project Management methods and processes.

This article will address scope. The other known risks will be addressed in separate articles.

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by Larry George 2 Comments

Renewal Process Estimation, Without Life Data

At my job interview, the new product development director, an econometrician, explained that he tried to forecast auto parts’ sales using regression. His model was

sales forecast = Σ[b(s)*n(t-s)] + noise; s=1,2,…,t,

where b(s) are regression coefficients to be estimated, n(t-s) are counts of vehicles of age t-s in the neighborhood of auto parts stores. The director admitted to regression analysis problems, because of autocorrelation among the n(t-s) vehicle counts, no pun intended.

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by Steven Wachs Leave a Comment

How do I Implement SPC for Short Production Runs (Part I)?

Traditional SPC methods were developed to support high volume production and long production runs. However, with the trend toward product specialization, product diversity, and flexible manufacturing, short production runs have become more common. Applying SPC in the traditional manner presents challenges in short production runs, because by the time enough data is collected to establish valid control charts, the production run may be over! [Read more…]

by Robert (Bob) J. Latino Leave a Comment

Tips for Examining Rolling Element Bearings: Prepping for a Root Cause Analysis

In our last series highlighting the 4 primary Failure Modes (FM) of component failures (erosion, corrosion, fatigue and overload), we discussed how to read fractured surfaces. In this follow up series, we will take a look at tips on how to collect, preserve and examine such failed components.

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by Doug Lehr 1 Comment

Lab Testing Programs

The Critical Equipment Series has covered design and design risk reduction. A Laboratory Test Program (LTP) is the final step in validating the equipment design after updating it with all improvements determined through design risk reduction and related activities.

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by James Kovacevic Leave a Comment

Using Reliability Analysis to Determine Spares Stocking

How to use an FMECA or RCM Analysis to Determine What Spares to Stock

Determining which parts of stock can be a very overwhelming process. As such, many choose to blindly accept the OEM or Manufacturer’s recommendations. And why shouldn’t they? The OEM has many years of experience in building these types of assets and supplying spares, right?
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by James Reyes-Picknell Leave a Comment

Uptime Insights – 10 – Process optimization

Business processes are often talked about, yet not well understood. The big problem with them is that too few people know what the whole process actually should be. Whenever you are following a set of steps to achieve some goal you are following a process. Sometimes various people follow different steps to achieve the same goal. You rely on processes in order to deliver results. If they are ill-conceived or inefficient, then things move slowly and results are more expensive to obtain than they need to be. Well designed, efficient, and consistent processes that integrate with other related business processes keep things running smoothly, costs down, and help to keep people motivated.

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