Your Reliability Engineering Professional Development Site
Find all articles across all article series listed in reverse chronological order.
In Part 1 of this article series, we described validation engineering as the process of validating, monitoring and execution of product requirements to ensure customer needs are met. The validation engineer is the validation process owner and works with subject matter experts to develop complete, accurate and testable requirements.
[Read more…]
“It is the policy of my Administration to respond to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic through effective approaches guided by the best available science and data” [Biden Executive order, 2021]. That epidemic inspired the simultaneous nonparametric estimation of survival functions from case to recovery and case to death, without lifetime data (figure 1)!
Why not do the same for multiple-failure-mode data? This article shows nonparametric, multiple-failure-mode, maximum likelihood reliability estimation in a spreadsheet. Data are system first-failure times and the corresponding failure modes that caused the first system failures (table 1). However those data are dependent. I will explain the likelihood function, lnL, and how to find the maximum likelihood reliability estimates for all failure modes simultaneously.
[Read more…]
Dear friends, we are happy to released this fifth video in our series on Hypothesis Testing! In this video, Hemant Urdhwareshe explains the applicability of Chi-square test of one variance with an illustration! Hemant is Fellow of ASQ and is one of the few Certified Six Sigma Master Black Belts from ASQ having six certifications from ASQ.
[Read more…]
Supervisors in maintenance play a crucial role in ensuring the efficient operation of equipment and facilities. To be effective in this role, they need a combination of technical knowledge and management skills. Some key management skills necessary for a supervisor in maintenance include:
[Read more…]
I’m Nancy Regan, joining you from the beautiful Key Largo, Florida. Today, we’re delving into a significant pitfall in Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) — not fully understanding the process. Just like a boat captain needs to know the waters, successful RCM implementation requires a deep understanding of its principles.
[Read more…]
The term Measurement Systems Analysis refers to a collection of experimental and statistical methods designed to evaluate the error introduced by a measurement system and the resulting usefulness of that system for a particular application.
Measurement systems range from the simplest of gages like steel rulers to the most complex, multi-sensor measurement systems. Yet regardless of their sophistication, all gages are flawed and fail to deliver a perfectly accurate result to their users. This idea is best expressed by an equation fundamental to measurement science,
[Read more…]
Crow-AMSAA Plots have a variety of names, such as Reliability Growth Plots or Duane Plots. The term “Crow” comes from Dr Larry H. Crow, who enhanced James T. Duane’s pioneering launch of this methodology, which was developed in the early 1960s (1). Crow successfully applied the method in the US Army Materials System Analysis Activity (AMSAA). The technique has blossomed into large amounts of new applications in industry such as but not limited to:
In practical terms, The Crow-AMSAA technique involves plotting, most commonly, cumulative failures vs cumulative time on a log-log scale resulting in straight line plots (2). The line slope value (or Beta value) indicates improving, deteriorating, or constant failure occurrences. Due to the straight-line nature of the plots, future failure forecasts can be estimated. In plain words, based on the current trend, when is the next failure expected to occur? This method handles mixed failure modes, so it is, therefore, suitable for the complex nature of the generating units. [Read more…]
Asking questions as a technical facilitator is a nuanced and deliberate process. All facilitators guide participants through solutions that are created, understood, and accepted by all. The “by all” part makes the role especially challenging and one that transcends a single session. Asking questions as a reliability facilitator contrasts with persuasion or manipulation, where narratives and emotions carry the day. The long game approach requires empathy, patience, consistency, and an in-depth understanding of context.
“Being a great facilitator requires commitment to your participants.”
[Read more…]
To me it means very little, as it rarely occurs. Products fail for a wide range of reasons and each failure follows it’s own path to failure.
As you may understand, some failures tend to occur early, some later. Some we call early life failures, out-of-box failures, etc. Some we deem end-of-life or wear-out failures. There are a few that are truly random in nature, just as a drop or accident causing an overstress fracture, for example. [Read more…]
The t-test was first described by William Sealy Gosset in 1908, when he published his article under the pseudonym ‘student’ while working for a brewery. Gosset, an Englishman, developed the t-test and t distribution, and he is considered the “godfather” of the t-test.
[Read more…]
Welcome to another insightful video where we dive into the world of Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM). I’m Nancy Regan, and today we’re tackling an important question: Do redundant systems require RCM?
Redundant systems, or protective devices, are vital because often they are our last line of defense when primary systems fail. But does this mean they need the same level of scrutiny as other systems?
[Read more…]
Overview the Plant Wellness Way EAM Methodology for a simple and successful Enterprise Asset Management System. Learn how to apply the Plant and Equipment Wellness enterprise asset management methodology. Follow the steps to get the best performance from your plant and equipment. Learn what systems and processes produce the optimal plant and equipment reliability results. From creating low stress component environment for lasting equipment health through to establishing the simplest and most effective business system and processes for world class asset management performance, this overview guide to the Plant Wellness Way takes you step by step in creating the outstanding asset performance needed for world class operational excellence. As with human wellness, the Plant Wellness Way requires you to build a healthy life for your machines. Learn to control your plant’s reliability by managing the stresses put on equipment parts and reducing the risk of failure so plant and equipment remains fit and healthy to produce its best performance. The Plant Wellness Way EAM methodology lets you find the ideal health conditions for your equipment and machines and makes you establish business processes and systems to achieve and maintain outstanding reliability performance.
[Read more…]
Compliance management is getting more challenging. Not only are legislators and governments around the world imposing more regulations, but the expectations placed on compliance leadership to management expanding scope of compliance oversight is growing every day. The periphery of compliance–including ethics, diversity, ESG, and risk management–ask to sever more of compliance leaders who are seeking to best manage, scale, and address compliance demand efficiently and effectively.
[Read more…]
Dear friends, we are happy to release our fourth video in our series on Hypothesis Testing! In this video, Hemant Urdhwareshe explains the application of Student’s t-test for paired t-test using tables of t-distribution and using Microsoft Excel Add-ins. The concept is illustrated with an application example of comparing assessment of answer papers by two professors!
[Read more…]In this article we’ll look at the technical leg of project management that enables the development of a hardware product.
Let’s start with a simplified definition of project management:
The planning, monitoring and execution of the project within scope, schedule and resource constraints. The project manager works with subject matter experts to establish a work breakdown structure and facilitates the execution of WBS activities and deliverables. Ultimately, the goal is good project quality within the scope, schedule and resource constraints. However, good product quality and reliability depends on systems/validation engineering.
[Read more…]