Your Reliability Engineering Professional Development Site
Find all articles across all article series listed in reverse chronological order.
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…]
Cloud computing is increasingly becoming critical to business, especially as digital technologies like IIoT become widespread. Gartner predicts that in the next year, the cloud-based Software as a Service (SaaS) market will grow 85%, five times faster than traditional software. For industrial companies who want to use the IIoT for predictive maintenance, cloud-based SaaS solutions offer tremendous opportunities that have the potential to disrupt the equipment maintenance world. [Read more…]
Maintain equipment, minimize downtime, meet production demands, manage inventory levels, monitor staff productivity, comply with regulatory standards, etc. etc. The list of maintenance demands in a manufacturing plant is nearly impossible to meet without the help of computerized maintenance management systems (CMMS). Manufacturing CMMS software automates the process of maintaining assets to help simplify operations, maximize uptime and control costs.
Many manufacturing plants are relying on outdated systems or maintenance spreadsheets to keep tabs on their equipment and other important aspects of production. In doing so, they run the risk of premature equipment failure, production lags, increased downtime and, ultimately, the loss of business. Consequently, competitors utilizing modern manufacturing CMMS software are more successful.
This is our third article about the 3 ways to do reliability allocation. In the first article, we set the scene. We talked about the reliability design cycle that needs to be implemented to make sure what we do will actually work. Will actually matter. In the second article, we cover the six steps of reliability allocation. In this article, we go through the six steps of reliability allocation.
You should have already read these articles – and if you haven’t please do! Once we have our reliability design cycle up and running, there are six key steps to making reliability allocation happen. And this article is about the sixth step – doing something!
If you want to learn more about a straightforward approach to reliability allocation – read this!
As the owner or maintenance manager at a busy organization, one of your priorities will be to monitor the efficiency of your maintenance team to sustain that level of efficiency (if it’s satisfactory), or improving it (if it’s below an acceptable level). Doing this will require that, among other things, you understand what’s really going on while staff are on the job and then identify any areas for improvement.
On this week’s webinar, an audience member, who works at a university, asked how they could teach their students the skills that make us good reliability engineers. My answer was pretty typical, the technical skills are easy to teach & learn, but what makes the great reliability engineers is their ability to build a culture. I continued to say that it takes relationship building and lots of donuts.
But why do we always talk about culture when it’s connecting with the individual?
Our optimism or pessimism can impact performance and decision making. How do our natural biases impact emotions? We explore this topic to help gain a competitive advantage. [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…]
We are often asked about the impact of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) on equipment maintenance for industrial companies. When it comes to repairs, we don’t anticipate that much will change because of the IIoT, except in identifying when repairs are needed. Making systems safe after they’ve suffered failures and taking things apart and replacing components will always require human intervention. In the area of proactive maintenance however, we see a big impact and huge potential benefits. [Read more…]
I remember the feeling I had as child when I first heard about Rudolf. I was certain that Santa had eight reindeer. Then suddenly one day, I was wrong. Somehow a ninth reindeer had appeared on the scene and forever altered my view of St. Nick’s tiny sleigh. This feeling of cognitive dissonance recurred years later when I first heard about Cpm – the “Rudolf” of capability indices. I knew about Cp and Cpk. I knew about Pp and Ppk. And I thought that was it. But once again, the mental rug was yanked from beneath me when abruptly I realized there was more. [Read more…]
I spoke to my doctor yesterday and she mentioned that we’ll be in this lock-down period for at least a few more months. She sees the front lines more than I do but she doesn’t even know how long it’s going to be. However, it’s safe to say:
We’re going to be here a while. [Read more…]
One can read thousands of books on leadership and maybe even train and practice enough to gain skills that help them influence others or manage people but does that make them a leader? Classes I’ve taken, books I’ve read, and approaches I failed at have all served me well in gaining understanding but to say doing these things can “make” a leader is something else entirely. Many of the folks who lead others are neither in leadership roles or qualified, whatever that means. They are people who think and act genuinely without hesitation because it’s simply who they are at the core. [Read more…]
Communication is important for success, but constant meetings kill team productivity. Improvement can allow greater productivity and greater accomplishment. This video talks about characteristics that can help with that effort. [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…]
Despite its well-documented successes, Reliability Centered Maintenance has always drawn a lot of discussion and controversy. Much of it is because of a lack of understanding and ‘myths’ generated to discredit RCM as a viable business solution. Here I will fill in some of those gaps in understanding and debunk some of the myths. [Read more…]