Articles

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

Systems Thinking Improves Reliability and Dependability (15 ways to do it)

Organizations can systematically enhance reliability and dependability by integrating key approaches into the development, deployment, and maintenance processes of their products and systems. Systems thinking rules! Despite subtle differences in terminology, regular assessments and updates should be conducted to address emerging challenges and technological advancements. This article provides a brief description and demonstration of several key approaches for enhancing reliability and dependability.

Reliability and Dependability Are Often Used Interchangeably

When it comes to choosing the right word to describe a product or service, the terms “reliability” and “dependability” are often used interchangeably. However, there are subtle differences between the two that can impact how they are perceived in practice and by consumers.

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by Semion Gengrinovich Leave a Comment

Reliability Allocation

In the realm of complex electromechanical systems, reliability allocation is a critical process that demands a delicate balance between safety, cost, and performance. As engineers, we are tasked with creating systems that not only meet functional requirements but also operate safely, efficiently, and cost-effectively over their intended lifespan. This article explores key strategies for optimal reliability allocation, emphasizing the importance of safety while considering economic factors and system performance.

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by Fred Schenkelberg Leave a Comment

5 Clues Using MTBF is Not Helping

Have you ever heard the claim that “We use MTBF, as it’s working just fine”?

They may be profitable and successful in the marketplace. Is MTBF serving them well?

Probably not.

One way help the folks claiming MTBF is alright is to illustrate using a better reliability metric may provide an improvement over using MTBF. Asking a few questions may find the inevitable chink in the MTBF armor.

Any early failures due to supplier or assembly error?
Any test design to check for how long the system will last?
Ever notice maintenance seems to improve or degrade system performance?
Did you fix the time frame for the calculation of MTBF?
Do you plot and track the month to month changes in MTBF?

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by Greg Hutchins Leave a Comment

The Ghost Company

All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.
Arthur Schopenhauer – Philosopher

I’ve seen the Future Of Work. And, I don’t like it. Why? In Portland, Oregon, a retail store sells kombucha, a slightly alcoholic green or black tea. Great location. Great storefront. Sure money-maker!

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by Mike Sondalini Leave a Comment

Equipment Reliability 101

Learn Vital Equipment Reliability Basics for Equipment Reliability Management Success

Learning how to run your industrial plant and equipment to get outstanding reliability requires an understanding of its failure mechanisms.

You can have tremendous equipment reliability if you use the right maintenance strategies at the right times during the equipment life cycle to prevent the causes of failure.

Abstract:

Equipment Reliability Basics 101 for Reliability Management. When you understand the behaviour of equipment over its lifetime you will understand why proactive maintenance (as opposed to repairs) is critical. Our technologically based society depends on machinery and equipment to keep it operating. Knowing how equipment behaves during its operating life, and why it fails from time to time, means you can set up the right maintenance strategies to deliver lifetime reliability. Learn to apply the correct ways to use equipment failure curves to select your maintenance strategies. Change your maintenance and operating practices to control and eliminate failure and ensure you deliver outstanding equipment reliability.Keyword: Keywords: Equipment reliability management, reliability curves, equipment failure curves

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by Nancy Regan Leave a Comment

The Best Definition of Reliability Centered Maintenance I Ever Heard

Storytime: What is Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM)? This is the best definition of RCM I ever heard.

In this video, I share a story that has stuck with me throughout my 26-year journey with Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM). It all started when I was working as a civilian employee at the US Navy’s Naval Warfare Center in Lakehurst, New Jersey. One evening, during a dinner with the British Royal Navy’s RCM team in Bath, England, Commander Andrew Matters shared a simple yet profound definition of RCM: “RCM is nothing more than common sense applied to physical assets.” That definition has guided my understanding of RCM ever since.

RCM might seem complex, but at its core, it’s grounded in practical, common-sense principles. In this video, I explain how RCM helps us identify safe and cost-effective maintenance tasks, manage failure modes, and build a strong reliability culture. When applied correctly, RCM has the power to transform organizations—and I’ve seen it happen firsthand.

What’s keeping you from carrying out a couple of RCM pilot projects? Why not see for yourself how RCM can make a difference for your equipment and your reliability team?

I’m Nancy Regan. Thank you for watching!

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by Hemant Urdhwareshe 1 Comment

Weibull Analysis with a Free Open Source Software

Dear friends, I am releasing this 102nd video after a long gap of more than three months! I went through some critical health issues since October-2024! Now that I have recovered fairly well, I have created this interesting video. In this video, I have explained how to perform Weibull Probability Plotting and life data analysis of complete data using ‘Reliability Analytics Toolkit’.

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by André-Michel Ferrari 2 Comments

Relia-nomics – When Reliability meets Economics

In an increasingly complex and interconnected world, ensuring that systems—from machinery to software, from power networks to consumer products—perform reliably across their intended lifetimes, is essential not only for safety and quality but also for economic viability. This intersection between ensuring dependable performance and managing costs is broadly studied under what is known as Reliability Engineering and Economics. Or Relia-nomics.

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by Chris Weir Leave a Comment

Why Human Factors Matter in Reliability and Maintainability

For reliability engineers, numbers can be our comfort zone. Predictions, modelling, analysis and results, work that is rigorous, data-driven, and essential for complex systems – but does it always tell the full story?

Recently completing Level 1 of the CIEHF Cross-Sector Learning Pathway has led me to consider system reliability in a different light. Technical performance alone does not guarantee success and to truly understand reliability, we must also account for the human component – the operators, maintainers, and decision-makers whose actions are inseparable from system outcomes.

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by JD Solomon 1 Comment

Why Fix Your Asset Management Program When Replacement Asset Values Are Missing

Asset management for facilities and infrastructure has fallen into the leadership realm of gearheads and data managers. The result is asset management programs that are years (or decades) and hundreds of thousands (or millions) of dollars into their programs and still cannot produce realistic replacement values for their assets.

Too Much Time in the Wrong Places?

Does it matter that we have spent most of our attention on asset management systems, GIS integrations, condition assessments, and preventive maintenance programs? You bet it does. And you may have put too much time in the wrong places. [Read more…]

by Semion Gengrinovich 2 Comments

Data Scientist vs. Reliability Engineer

In today’s data-driven business landscape, two roles have emerged as critical to improving company strategy through data analysis and system optimization: data scientists and reliability engineers. While these roles have distinct focuses, they share common skills and often work together to drive organizational success. This article will explore the similarities and differences between data scientists and reliability engineers, highlighting how their skills complement each other in day-to-day activities and contribute to data-driven decision-making.

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by Fred Schenkelberg Leave a Comment

What is Reliability?

Guest Post by Martin Shaw

In today’s complex product environment, becoming more and more electronic, do the designers and manufacturers really understand what IS Reliability ??

It is NOT simply following standards to test in RD to focus only on Design Robustness as there is too much risk in prediction confidence, it only deals with the ‘intrinsic’ failure period and rarely has sufficient Test Strength to stimulate failures. [Read more…]

by Ray Harkins Leave a Comment

Cohen’s Kappa: Measuring Agreement Beyond Chance

Attribute inspection is one of the most widespread and difficult-to-control measurement methods in manufacturing. Whether inspecting machined surfaces for cosmetic defects, checking weld quality, reviewing molded parts, evaluating assembly completeness, or using go/no-go gauges, many operations depend on human inspectors to make subjective judgments. [Read more…]

by Mike Sondalini Leave a Comment

Business Risk Hierarchy

There is a direct connection between the microstructure health of your equipment parts and your operational and business success

There are key concepts and practices that an organization needs to use if they want optimal asset health from their plant and equipment. The greatest successes come when operating and safety risks are eliminated at their root causes. The Plant Wellness Way EAM methodology focuses on getting lasting asset health so world class operating performance is normal in your company day-after-day. Its processes and analysis tools create a system-of-reliability that gets exceptional asset health and delivers the greatest ROI from each operating asset throughout its service life.

Risk is the total losses suffered when any asset’s components may fail. The causes of failure are the environmental and operating stresses that affect a component’s microstructure. This means that world class reliability is the effective, complete remove of the causes of failure, also known as risks, from your operations. [Read more…]

by James Reyes-Picknell Leave a Comment

Is Your Project Ready for Operations?

Is your project ready for operations when you want to start up? Can you commission and start up with ease and expect to reach full and steady production quickly? Or is your experience with project start ups more chaotic?

Chaos is natural

Conceptually, entropy is a scientific measure that represents that natural state of everything – chaos. The more chaotic things are, the more entropy they have. We tend to prefer things orderly and predictable. To achieve that we add energy, but without it, we will have chaos. If start ups after a capital project are chaotic, it means you have missed something. Think of it as not having enough energy. That energy is fore-thought and preparation. With it, your project is ready for operations.

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