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Seminar: HALT Techniques and connecting to program objectives

Seminar: HALT Techniques and connecting to program objectives

This is the third session from the Annual Apex Ridge Reliability Seminar held in Boston.

In this session, I discuss the methodology of HALT and how to connect it with program tools and objectives.

The philosophy of HALT is often misunderstood simply due to its name and acronym, “Highly Accelerated Life Testing” (HALT).

It is not an accelerated life test, it’s really not even a test. HALT is a process of increasing stress on a design to induce failures for the purpose of learning about the design and improving its robustness.

It’s a discovery process. [Read more…]

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The Connection of Reliability and Customer Expectations

The Connection of Reliability and Customer Expectations

Customers Experience Product Reliability in Real Time

In a customer’s mind, the product works or it doesn’t. If it doesn’t work as expected it has failed. This may or may not be a reliability problem.

A customer or someone using your product brings a set of expectations to the experience. The range of expectations may range from very little to very high functioning, value production, and durability.

Failures are defined by customers.

In part, this is the functional capability, the operating within specifications, and the durability. The customer’s definition of reliability may or may not follow the design specifications.

It is the comparison of what should happen to what does happen. [Read more…]

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Safety Is a Lifestyle

Safety Is a Lifestyle

Something to think about in a day and age when most companies post their mission, vision, and goals on the company web page.

Do we really stand behind these statements and demonstrate the behaviors that clearly show we are willing to do what it takes to create a safe workplace?

If you have ever questioned this, consider two questions I ask RCM Teams as we analyze failure modes that impact health, safety, and environment: [Read more…]

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Use and Environmental Profiles

Use and Environmental Profiles

Use and Environmental profiles

Did you know that hot air doesn’t rise when there is no or very little gravity?

The electronics used to steer an oil exploration drill head 5 miles deep in the earth experiences 200°C sulfuric acid immersion along with continuous 50,000G shocks.

I used to think the environment under the hood a car was difficult. [Read more…]

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Linking RCM Facilitation with Effective Maintenance Program Implementation

Linking RCM Facilitation with Effective Maintenance Program Implementation

Most of us would agree that there is a new global economy being forged right now in the manufacturing sector.

Inevitably, this translates to a renewed focus on transferring more business value to the customer. Central to this will be linking RCM (Reliability Centered Maintenance) facilitation with effective maintenance program implementations.

In short, the difference between what we, as RCM Facilitators, have been doing in the past and what we will be doing from now on is: a strong emphasis on what tactics are required in order to achieve the failure management strategies an RCM Team defines.

That is, we will conduct the decisions phase of the analysis somewhat differently. (i.e. The 3rd pass through when walking-the-dog in an RCM analysis) [Read more…]

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The Black Hole of Maintenance

black hole image
Photo by Steve Jurvetson

Where Maintenance Requests Go But Never Appear to Escape From- the Backlog.

This is exactly what some operations staff think of when we tell them to submit a work request.

It means that they do not think that the work will be completed, or it will after it no longer matters to them.

What if you called the cable company and reported an issue? You would expect prompt service, and would expect that you would not have to chase them down to do the work correct? Maintenance is a service organization that enables the successful operation of the business.

The business shouldn’t have to chase us down or wonder if we will repair the equipment. [Read more…]

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Seminar: Reliability Testing Outputs as Program Inputs

Seminar: Reliability Testing Outputs as Program Inputs

This is the second session from the Annual Apex Ridge Reliability Seminar held in Boston.

The session focus was how to best use specialized testing technique outputs as effective program inputs. There are simple steps for hooking the information from the test data into the correct program management decision points.

Very often opportunities are missed in programs by aligning testing outputs with incorrect program phases. [Read more…]

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Basics: Project Risk Management

Basics: Project Risk Management

Basics: Project Risk Management

Guest Post by Rod Farrar (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)

The project management body of knowledge generally focuses on scope management, time management, and cost management. Risk management generally comes in at about 8th place out of the ten.

However, risk management is potentially the biggest part of the project management planning process.

Often organizations assign resources, dollars and time to project objectives to know exactly when the project is going to finish, how much it is going to cost and what resources are needed.

The problem with doing this is they have not identified risks. [Read more…]

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Performing the Right Corrective Action

Performing the Right Corrective Action

Performing the Right Corrective Action

When something doesn’t work as expected, it is a failure. A common response to a failure by an organization is to restore the system or remedy the situation.

Each failure is unique to the product, industry, customer situation, expectations, etc. Selecting the appropriate response or corrective action when confronted with a failure may or may not be obvious.

Selecting the right corrective action depends on the business and legal factors, along with customer expectations.

For a given failure, thinking through the range of possible responses and selecting the right one takes care to meet the various stakeholder’s requirements or expectations. [Read more…]

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The Environmental and Use Manual

The Environmental and Use Manual

Environmental and Use Manual

How well can you describe the use conditions your product will experience?

How well do you need to know the use conditions?

For some situations, the environment for your product is assessable, others are not. For some situations, we guess the range of expected stresses, others we measure.

The design process and the myriad decisions that impact product reliability rely on characterized environmental stresses.

A great place to consolidate how and where customers will use your product (including the relevant stress factors) is in an environmental manual. [Read more…]

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Searching for Quick Fixes Now Leads to Problems Down the Road

Searching for Quick Fixes Now Leads to Problems Down the Road

I want it now and I want it cheap! Oh – and I don’t want to do any work for it.

When it comes to information, entertainment, finding your way around and communications these days, we more or less literally have it all at our fingertips and available to us just about anywhere.

We can even order and pay for coffee to pick up on our way from the commuter train to the office – no lineups for delays. We can book hotels, airlines and rental cars at the touch of our fingers with apps that show us the cheapest options.

We live in a world where instant gratification is a reality in many aspects of our private lives.

Consumer electronics has transformed a great deal of business – basically, anything where there is a service or goods that a consumer might buy on their own, we can get it easily and immediately.

We’ve grown used to instant gratification in much [Read more…]