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on Maintenance Reliability

A listing in reverse chronological order of these article series:


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Total Productive Maintenance and CMMS

Total Productive Maintenance and CMMS

For conscientious plant managers and production leaders, achieving successful and sustainable Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) is a top priority. TPM is the key to reducing downtime, preventing breakdowns, and ensuring top-notch product quality during the process of manufacturing maintenance. But how do you put a TPM plan into action, and what steps should you follow to seamlessly integrate it into your existing operations and maintenance procedures? Keep reading, and we’ll break down what TPM is, how to implement it step by step, and why it matters. [Read more…]

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Using RAM models for Criticality Analysis – Advantages and Limitations

Using RAM models for Criticality Analysis – Advantages and Limitations

Introduction to RAM Models and Criticality Analysis

Building a Reliability, Availability and Maintainability (RAM) model can provide numerous benefits to an Asset Management program. This includes conducting a Criticality Analysis. Criticality Analysis involves ranking assets based on their potential risk to the organization. It considers risk categories such as Production Impact, Safety, Environment, and Reputation, amongst others. The category list can vary and is a reflection of the organization’s structure. Organizations generally have a finite financial pool allocated to preserving asset function. A Criticality Analysis helps optimize the allocation of resources to each asset according to its importance in the system network. Ultimately this helps maximize revenue, minimize spend and maintain the organization’s license to operate.

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SAE JA1011 Standard

SAE JA1011 Standard

Article first posted at Conscious Reliability by James Reyes-Picknell, Jesus Sifonte, and team.

Evaluation Criteria for Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) Processes

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, one of the accepted definitions for standard is: “something established by authority, custom, or general consent as a model, for example.” In our case, a standard comprises a document or sets of documents providing requirements, specifications, guidelines, or characteristics that can be used consistently to ensure that materials, products, processes, and services fit their purpose. There exist international standards on quality (ISO 9,000), risk (ISO 31,000), environment (ISO 14,000), energy (ISO 50,000), management and many other fields providing information and guidance on the practices, methods, and processes designed by groups of highly qualified international experts. Most technical field professionals utilize international standards to base their practice on trusted mathematically and/or scientifically proven methods. Trial and error are no longer acceptable out of the laboratory anymore today. But, lessons learned from its practice in conjunction with regretful real-life incidents and accidents provide knowledge on their risks, mitigation, and prevention. Most asset and maintenance management best practices and techniques are standard-driven, meaning they have been carefully defined and established. The SAE JA1011 Standard on Evaluation Criteria for Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) Process has an exciting background, including disappointing and successful stories before its principles were conceived and eventually incorporated into an international engineering standard.

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Top 3 CMMS Blunders to Avoid – A Reliability Engineering Perspective

Top 3 CMMS Blunders to Avoid – A Reliability Engineering Perspective

CMMS overview

A proper Computer Maintenance Management System (CMMS) setup can make a world of difference in an organization’s asset management journey. Conversely, a substandard setup can be a living hell for Reliability Engineers like myself and other analysts. This article highlights some practices to avoid in order to gain the most out of your CMMS in the long run. The examples given are based on my own experience in industry. There could be many more learnings out there. Reader comments and suggestions are most welcome as this will benefit the entire Maintenance and Reliability community.

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Optimizing Spare Parts Inventory: A Step-by-Step Guide to Calculating Minimum Quantities

Optimizing Spare Parts Inventory: A Step-by-Step Guide to Calculating Minimum Quantities

You don’t realise how important it is to get your critical spares holding right until your $50K/hr machine is sitting dead with an emergency part all the way in a different city.

So how does your warehouse ensure you have what you need, when you need it? Who decides how much to stock?
Well… in most cases on mining sites there is no real math behind this number, and that’s a shame considering how much not having spares costs us in lost opportunity.

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Introduction of Machinery and its Management: 1843 Steam Manual and Screw Propellers

Introduction of Machinery and its Management: 1843 Steam Manual and Screw Propellers

The Royal Navy built its first steam-powered ship, the HMS Comet, in 1822. The first generation of steamships normally had both sails and a steam engine. A ship with both sails and a boiler had a long range and was mobile in close quarters. A boiler reduced the tactical importance of wind direction, and allowed maneuvering in disadvantageous winds or when becalmed. Over the next 40 years, the Royal Navy converted many sailing ships to steam by retrofitting boilers. 

The capability came at a cost. A worldwide coal distribution system was required. The ship had to contain a stack, machinery, the boiler itself, and tons of coal. The added weight changed how the ship moved and reduced space for supplies, weapons, and ammunition. Refueling, called coaling, changed operational patterns.

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Reliability Centered Maintenance -Reengineered (RCM-R®)

Reliability Centered Maintenance -Reengineered (RCM-R®)

Article first posted at Conscious Reliability by James Reyes-Picknell, Jesus Sifonte, and team.

by Jesus Sifonte

We have seen that RCM is defined as a process to determine what must be done to keep assets doing what their operators want them to do in their current operating context. What about RCM-R®?  How does it stand when compared with SAE JA1011?

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Stop Being Blind to Risk

Stop Being Blind to Risk

Make Use of a Risk Cost Calculator and Risk Matrix

Risk is probabilistic—a risk event may happen or it may not. The human mind struggles to understand probability until you make a picture.

Here is a simple visual management tool to let you see the impact of changing risk. Combine it with a risk cost calculator and you have an effective way to see how your risk changes with risk management plans and risk abatements

We are blind to risk. Most of us have to suffer a risk event before we know we are in one. We first experience pain and then we realise that we need to stop doing what is causing the pain.

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Mastering Maintenance Leadership

Mastering Maintenance Leadership

The Blueprint for Strategic Business Planning

In the realm of maintenance leadership, strategic business planning isn’t an option; it’s a prerequisite for success. The dynamic interplay of technology, industry standards, and organizational needs demands a clear roadmap for navigating the complex landscape of maintenance and reliability. Here, we delve into the significance of maintenance leadership in business planning and how it paves the way for optimal asset management and operational excellence.

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The reason why your Weibull Analysis is giving a poor fit

The reason why your Weibull Analysis is giving a poor fit

When Weibull analysis is applied to complex, repairable systems – like mining equipment – care must be taken to ensure the analysis is applied to failure data exhibiting a common failure mode on the component-level, not the system-level.

This requires the reliability engineer to review the work order data at times and, ideally, the failed components themselves. Otherwise, the “Garbage In, Garbage Out” principle applies.

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