Your Reliability Engineering Professional Development Site
A listing in reverse chronological order of these article series:
In the intricate web of industrial operations, maintenance, repairs, and operations (MRO) process development stands as the unsung hero, optimizing workflows, minimizing downtime, and ensuring the seamless continuity of production. It’s a craft that requires precision, strategic planning, and a knack for efficiency. Let’s embark on a journey to uncover the art of MRO process development and why it’s the lynchpin of high-quality operations.
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A business management system needs a quality management system built to make customers happy.
Every company already has a business management system they use to deliver products or services. If you want to be a more profitable business, you need to continually create a better management system.
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It took a long time to understand why a business in the same market did better than other businesses. Every one thought it was due to better marketing, or access to more capital. But it was not. It was simply that one business had products that better suited customer needs. The best product always gains most market share and makes the biggest profits. Which is why a business management system needs a quality management system that improves their products.
What is the purpose of Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM)? Why do RCM? As Reliability professionals, we are not in the business of preventing all failures. Sometimes it’s impossible to predict or prevent some Failure Modes. But that doesn’t mean we can’t do anything about it. RCM helps us figure other actions we can take to manage the consequences of failure.
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There is a definite distinction between Reliability Engineers (RE) and Maintenance Engineers (ME). Although they are highly dependant on each other. REs rely a lot on MEs and vice versa. However, those roles are often confused let also not well understood by recruiters, managers or regrettably, even professionals in the roles.
In a Reliabilityweb.com article, Paul Barringer provides a good summary of this distinction. He also underlines the vital partnership between those specialties. Some aspects highlighted by Barringer are:
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The Phonograph came first in 1877, cassette players arrived in 1971, CDs made it to the market in 1982 and the just arrived ultra-modern solid state hard drives are devices all capable of recording sound. Likewise, the 1876 telephone and the 2 decades old cell phone are all good for making possible long-distance conversations. Certainly, sometimes technology changes faster than our ability to adapt to it. When you are still getting used to a specific computer operating system X.1 its creator is already announcing the launch of the newer version X.2 and the extra features it brings making it a better option than its predecessor. A change to the new version’s ‘toy’ always seems more convenient than keeping the current stuff – just think of Apple’s product development trajectory!
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Behaviour Based Safety (BBS) programs address safety culture barriers with effective solutions for changing safety culture and securing a positive safety behaviour change.
Behaviour Based Safety passively and positively changes existing unsafe workplace behaviours by identifying and reinforcing the use of the right behaviours that protect people in real-world safety problems.
In workplaces that want high safety performance, behaviour based safety programs, when properly implemented, significantly improve personal safe performance and greatly reduce workplace injury and illness.
Behavioral Observation Programs using behavior based safety management reduce safety incidents by bringing beneficial workforce safety behavior change.
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In the realm of industrial operations, a culture of reliability isn’t just a preference; it’s a necessity. It’s the bedrock of efficiency, safety, and sustainability, providing the fertile ground for organizations to thrive and adapt in an ever-evolving world. In this blog, we will explore the methods and principles that guide the development of a reliability culture, the essence of operational excellence.
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Overhauling equipment is expected to bring it to an “as good as new” state. But is this really the case in reality? Equipment will deteriorate over time and progressively lose its ability to function. No matter how extensive the overhaul, the equipment will unlikely be up to the level of “newness” as when it rolled out of the assembly line. Sure, if you have this vintage automobile from the 1930s, and spend an absolute fortune on its overhaul, it might come close to being new again. But somewhere in the structure of this automobile, there will an element that is “as good as old” and vulnerable to imminent failure. Also remember that this vintage automobile is not out there generating revenue. There is no accountant running after you with regards to budget constraints or revenue increases. Where there is passion, cost might not matter.
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A risk management risk matrix can trick you into leaving high consequences uncontrolled and convince you it is fine to do nothing to reduce the impacts of failure. Whether you think a bad event cannot happen has no standing in Law. The likelihood of an adverse event is unimportant; only the resultant severity is how the Law will gauge your risk abatement efforts. Did you do ‘reasonably practicable’ risk control?
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False. Nearly all organizations do not have adequate historical data found in databases to successfully carry out an RCM analysis.
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Accelerated life tests are used to help predict the rate of failure of components. Capacitors are frequent victims of accelerated life testing, and have a distant relationship with one of the earliest documented accelerated life tests: the unit of capacitance, the farad, is named for Sir Michael Faraday.
Michael Faraday remains one of the most important scientists of all time. He made foundational discoveries in electricity, magnetism, and electrochemistry. Today, Faraday is less well known for documenting the Royal Navy’s results of accelerated life tests on dry rot of wood.
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The Plant and Equipment Wellness Way was designed to quickly create Operational Excellence success. You can only get the Plant Wellness Way from LRS Operational Excellence Consultants.
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Managing assets to make them deliver the products and services we need now and in the future is the essential purpose of Asset Management. However, Asset Management is more about obtaining value from assets than what you do to the assets. It is about utilizing assets to deliver value to your organization while attaining corporate goals. Human capital is an essential element of the whole asset management process from strategy to operation.
[Read more…]Credibility, often described as the currency of trust, is a quality that sets the foundation for professional success. It’s the attribute that influences how others perceive your competence, reliability, and integrity. Whether you’re an individual striving to advance your career or a business aiming to gain the trust of your clients, credibility is your guiding star. In this blog, we’ll delve into the methods of developing and enhancing credibility to help you stand out in your professional journey.
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Maintenance and Reliability practitioners often need to find quick methods to estimate life distributions in order to get some urgent answers to a customer. The tempting solution and easy way out to this is to refer to a handbook or publication out there. Also known as “Reliability Data” handbooks. These publications would have “ready to go” life distributions. However, this can come with multiple pitfalls listed as follows.
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