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on Maintenance Reliability

A listing in reverse chronological order of these article series:


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Understanding Reliability Block Diagrams

Understanding Reliability Block Diagrams

How To Evaluate The Reliability Of A System Or Process

60% of failures and safety issues can be prevented by ensuring there is a robust equipment design and that Maintenance & Reliability is taken into account during the design phase. Equipment should be designed with the following in mind:

  • Designed for Fault Tolerance
  • Designed to Fail Safely
  • Designed with early warning of the failure to the user
  • Designed with a built-in diagnostic system to identify fault location
  • Designed to eliminate all or critical failure modes cost effectively, if possible.

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The Role of Software In Reliability Engineering

Deciding if Software is Right For Your Program

Let’s face it, the field of reliability engineering is diverse and full of statistics, models and detailed analysis.  The detailed calculations, the building of models and analysis, have been performed with great success in the past and currently.  The models built through manual calculation have been successful and demonstrated the importance of reliability engineering.

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At The Intersection Of CMMS And Reliability

At The Intersection Of CMMS And Reliability

As more and more organizations seek to improve their maintenance, many are shifting from the reactive ‘repair-focused’ maintenance models to more proactive ‘reliability-focused’ maintenance which includes things like tracking, identifying, and eliminating failure, maintenance planning and scheduling, reduced downtime, reduced costs, continuous improvement, and similar.

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Focus on the Important Issues, Not the Many Issues

Focus on the Important Issues, Not the Many Issues

Utilizing the Pareto Method to Prioritize Improvement Activities

There is limited time, money or resources in every maintenance department.  Sometimes you have 2 of the 3, sometimes just 1.  So how do you prioritize the items or issues that will have the biggest impact on your facility?  There is a simple, yet vital principle that can be used in your facility to determine which issues to focus on.  This principle started in a garden in Italy while studying peas…  This principle which started with an observation of peas can have an important impact on your operation.

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RCM Training

RCM Training

RCM Training should always reinforce the importance of ensuring the inherent designed reliability of the asset or system that is being analyzed. It is primarily this function of the RCM process that people fail to fully understand. The importance of properly conveying this message is what most often differentiates successful Reliability Centered Maintenance efforts from those who dabble and fail.

Reliability Centered Maintenance Training should always include a case study that allows the participants to identify failure modes that result in the team making task decisions in each of the following Consequence Categories: Hidden Failure Consequences, Health Safety and Environmental Consequences, Operational Consequences and Non-Operational Consequences.

RCM Training should always include real-life facilitation in a team format. It’s extremely important for those learning the process to understand the detail required to properly assess failure modes, failure effects and tasks.

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How to Deliver Sustainable Gains in Maintenance Planning

How to Deliver Sustainable Gains in Maintenance Planning

Utilizing the PDCA Methodology in Work Planning

It is well known that maintenance planning & scheduling can deliver significant improvements in the efficiency and effectiveness of the maintenance department.  Maintenance planning & scheduling seems simple enough, plan the work and schedule it to be done at the most opportune time.   However, why is it that the organization seem to struggle with realizing the benefits of maintenance planning & scheduling?  In my experience, I have seen organizations that focus on the scheduling portion of work management, while not fully planning the work.   Doc Palmer (an authority on Maintenance Planning & Scheduling) has said that you cannot schedule without proper planning.  So how is it that they are scheduling work without knowing what needs to be done and what materials are required?

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