Your Reliability Engineering Professional Development Site
A listing in reverse chronological order of articles by:
What is quality? In a manufacturing or heavy industry, it is to minimize the defects and errors. Today it emphasizes customer satisfaction as well. It means quality is achieved if in the end the customer or user can effectively use the product. High quality is important to project success. Poor quality has a cost. [Read more…]
We rely upon skilled, able and talented individuals to assist in the successful delivery projects and improve businesses. They are gifted in their niche areas of expertise and without their stellar performances, where would we be? They are akin to the Prima Donna of an operatic performance and they are respected for their superior skills and ability. But when respect turns to reverence the lesser mortals around them may flail in the wake of the rising star. Such reverence may well inflate egos and a “Prima Donna” in the derogatory sense of the term may well emerge. As their egos grow their belief in their own abilities increases and they begin to ignore reality, make facts fit their needs, and take refuge in an ivory tower from where they may look down from on-high with their heads shrouded in the clouds of sanctimony. [Read more…]
This has been one of the most disruptive week ins recent memory [late January 2020] – at the individual, country, and global levels. I’ll go through a couple of these events. [Read more…]
As we get older, it’s interesting what we recall from our youth and the impact it had upon us – even if we didn’t know it at the time. For me, I was blessed with having several teachers who supported me and influenced me a great deal. [Read more…]
There are basically two types of risks on a project. They are programmatic risks and technical risks. A project cannot meet schedule (hence cost) without resolution of issues that affect the schedule. Events that impact the schedule are programmatic risks. These types of risks determine the risk level of the project. The assumption in making this statement is if the schedule cannot be made, then the project will be over budget. [Read more…]
The CERM Risk Insights article #262 by Tom Taormina and the comments by Paul Simpson and Greg Hutchins, open an important discussion on the future of the quality profession. This piece builds on that discussion. The discussion is important because the quality profession is being disrupted. Both the business approaches and professional organizations which have supported and advanced the quality profession are being affected by this disruption. [Read more…]
We have all heard and/or read the oft quoted “40% of all businesses experiencing a crisis go out of business within one year…”. Ever wonder where that statistic came from? For many years a colleague of mine, unfortunately now deceased, searched for the answer; to no avail. No one could actually cite the source for this statistic. Many refer to FEMA or the US Small Business Administration:
“According to a report from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), 40 percent of businesses do not reopen following a disaster. On top of that, another 25 percent fail within one year”. [Read more…]
Since 2002, I’ve been involved in well over 100 risk assessments as either an in-house risk manager or as a consultant. Actually, let me rephrase that.
Since 2002, I’ve been involved in the beginning of well over 100 risk assessments. However, I’ve seen many fewer risk assessments completed. Of those completed assessments, fewer still actually get turned into any kind of meaningful action. [Read more…]
The World Economic Forum has conducted an annual survey of its members since 2007. This piece looks at the results of the 2020 survey of 800 members. For the first time the survey separately reports the results of 200 members of a “Global Shapers Community”. This group is considered a younger generation of social entrepreneurs and leaders. By comparing the response of these two groups, one can see a divergence perspective on risk. This piece will also discuss how survey results can be overtaken by events. [Read more…]
In 2004, The Home Safety Council completed the most comprehensive study ever done of the severity and causes of home injury in the United States. Not surprisingly, the rates of injury are highest among young children and older adults. While there are literally millions of home hazards that exist, the study was able to separate out the five leading causes of unintentional home injury. These five leading causes are:
This article focuses on carbon monoxide poisoning caused by a poor furnace ventilation system. [Read more…]
Most of my career was spent with the Department of Defense (DOD) industry. The many programs I worked on included a fairly difficult reliability requirement. I was taught that reliability is designed into a system. I learned that verifying a reliability requirement was done by analysis. But for the system reliability to succeed, you need to consider the manufacturing and installation of the system. This is when risk management comes into play to ensure system reliability requirements succeed. This paper explains why. [Read more…]
Most of us travel by air and have probably wondered about the safety aspects of this mode of transportation, especially in light of the almost daily news media reports of accidents, terrorist plots, problems involving aircraft crews etc. The 737 MAX debacle alone would give anyone pause! This guide gives a broad picture of how the entire aviation industry works and will hopefully shed some light on the question “how safe is it?”. [Read more…]
Commercial aviation is undergoing constant technological change which, although apparent to the aviation community, is little noticed or understood by the flying public. These changes are driving the industry inexorably toward increasing automation for reasons of both safety and cost reduction, the ultimate long term goal being to produce the “totally autonomous” aircraft. [Read more…]
You may be thinking this can’t be right. ISO 31000 is a guideline document. ISO 31000 – 2019 explicitly states that it is NOT for certification.
Well things change.
AENOR offers an ISO 31000 certification.
AENOR is the Spanish Association for Standardization. It is global Certification Body. It has 20 offices in Spain, almost 600 employees and almost 19,000 management system certificates.[1] [Read more…]
The Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) just issued “On Risk: A guide to Understanding, Aligning, and Optimizing Risk 2020”. This is the first risk assessment survey conducted by IIA. It is also the first survey which includes responses from board members, the C-suit and the Chief Audit Executive (CAE). This article looks at the results of the survey and its implications. [Read more…]