Articles

Find all articles across all article series listed in reverse chronological order.

Asking Questions is Reliability Engineering

Finding solutions is reliability engineering too.

Have you noticed that finding solutions often requires just the right question, the proper framing of the issue, the query that reveals the problem and solution?

One of the best ways to lead a team and provide a focus on reliability performance is to ask the right questions.

Understanding objectives, risks, and failures is what we primarily do as reliability professionals. We work with teams to achieve or improve reliability performance.

We ask questions. [Read more…]

by James Reyes-Picknell Leave a Comment

The Need for Maintenance Management Assessments

Conventional consulting approaches begin with assessments to determine your current state of affairs, judge what’s good and bad about it, give it a score, provide a long list of recommendations and then build an improvement strategy based on the outcome.

Strategy development is normally carried out by a select leadership team and then the change is rolled out to lower levels in the organization. This approach has served well for a long time and it is at the outset of almost any major consulting engagement.

It is useful when comparing sites among each other, but is there some sort of award for being best? Usually not. [Read more…]

by James Kovacevic 2 Comments

Be a Leader

Caution Future World and Local Leaders at Work and Play — Photo by Wesley Fryer

Applying the Dale Carnegie Principles to Build a Reliability Culture

Building on the Dale Carnegie® Principles from the famous book, How to Win Friends and Influence People, we can progress to the final set of principles.

Using his key principles as a guide, we can bring about change within our organization.

In the first post, we covered how to build authentic and meaningful relationships. In the second post, we covered how to win people to your way of thinking. In this last post, we will cover what it means to be a leader.

If you haven’t read the previous posts, I strongly suggest that you do, as they build on each other. [Read more…]

by Mike Sondalini 2 Comments

Heat Welding of Plastics

Written with assistance from Ben Karel of Fusion Engineering Plastics

Pty Ltd. Unit 1, 7 Dobra Rd, Yangebup WA ph (08) 9494 1004

Abstract

Welding can join thermoplastic parts together. It can be by melting the surfaces and pressing them together or by extrusion welding with a filler rod.

Several methods of welding are available. Proper manual techniques are critical to success as is the pressure testing of pressure parts.

Keywords: electro-fusion, butt welding, electro-socket welding, hot air gun, melt temperature. [Read more…]

by Greg Hutchins Leave a Comment

Unsafe at Any Speed

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

In the 1960’s Ralph Nader became famous by writing an expose’ of the Corvair, a rear-engined Chevy built by General Motors.

He called it “Unsafe at Any Speed: The Designed-In Dangers of the American Automobile “[1][2]. He accused car makers of ignoring safety, resisting providing seat belts and other design issues that contributed to injuries in accidents.

In 1966 the U.S. Congress passed the Highway Safety Act (aka National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act), which created mandatory federal safety standards for motor vehicles and established what is now the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. [Read more…]

by Fred Schenkelberg 2 Comments

Introduction to Risk Terminology

The world of risk management has a unique set of risk terminology.

Your ability to incorporate reliability concerns into risk discussions hinges on understanding the terms in use.

Let’s explore a few terms and how they relate to reliability engineering. [Read more…]

by Les Warrington Leave a Comment

3 Case Studies of How to Define the Right Reliability Requirements for Each Customer

We all probably know Fred’s fight against the use of “MTBF” as a default measure of reliability.

And I concur. “MTBF” offers the least insight to product reliability. It offers little to the user in terms of realizing the benefits of reliability.

However, we all would like to see products that deliver more appealing benefits; and reliability is a key factor. But reliability is only part of the equation.

Technical performance is important.

So is price. So is appearance. So is delivery. So is the customer: different customers may see the world differently. And so may your competitors.

So, we can’t all adopt the same measurement for reliability. [Read more…]

by Kevin Stewart Leave a Comment

RCA is the Bedrock of a Reliability Program

Basic Reliability Definition

Occasionally, I like to step back and reflect on reliability in basic terms.

In that spirit, the basic premise of reliability is usually stated as “The probability that an item will perform a required function, without failure, under stated conditions, for a stated period of time.”

To use the reliability equation, the definition of failure must be defined, so you can tell if your equipment has indeed failed. This way you can include it in the MTBF (Mean Time Between Failure) calculation.

After you have defined a failure and recorded them appropriately, you can plug the numbers into the reliability equation, R = e ^-(λ*t) where λ is the failure rate which is defined as λ= 1/MTBF and come up with an objective value for the reliability. [Read more…]

by Fred Schenkelberg Leave a Comment

Adjusting to Customer Expectations Changing

Customers Expectations Tend Toward Better Reliability Over Time

Reliability goals or objectives are just a starting point.

You goals represent your target at one point in time.

At best they represent what your customers expect for reliability performance at one point in time.

When goals are set well, they anticipate what your customer expects when they receive your product. In a perfect world, you customer will find the reliability performance just a bit better than expected.

It’s not a perfect world. [Read more…]

by Doug Plucknette Leave a Comment

Cracks in the Road

“Dave is the guy we call when we need to get the plant up and running again; there really isn’t anything he can’t fix.”

Dave sits back in his chair, he looks down and while he is smiling I can see he is slightly embarrassed by the praise his manager is heaping on him.

It’s clear to me that he is not comfortable sitting in this conference room with a group of people that includes his manager, supervisor, and two engineers who are here to kick off their first RCM analysis. I have just begun asking the group to introduce themselves; Dave followed his manager and the two engineers in the room who each rattled off where they attended college, what their degrees they earned, the areas of the plant they are responsible for, their hobbies outside of work and some banter regarding the upcoming college football season.

Then it was Dave’s turn. [Read more…]

by James Reyes-Picknell Leave a Comment

Process Optimization

Welcome to the final blog in my 10-part series called “Uptime Insights”, where we explore a journey of excellence in maintenance.

To stay on top, managers must implement strategies that keep operations performing at high levels. In these articles, I will show you how to achieve excellence in maintenance – a critical business process in any capital intensive industry.

Uptime Insights Part Ten:

Process Optimization

Whenever you are following a set of steps to achieve some goal you are following a process.

Your people do their jobs through day to day implementation of those processes in order to deliver results. If the processes are ill-conceived or inefficient things move slowly and results are more expensive to obtain than they need to be.

Well designed, efficient processes that integrate with other related business processes keep things running smoothly, costs down and help to keep people motivated. [Read more…]

by James Kovacevic Leave a Comment

Win People to Your Way of Thinking

Road caution sign with Think below — Photo by Taymaz Valley

Applying the Dale Carnegie Principles to Build a Reliability Culture

Building on the Dale Carnegie® Principles from the famous book, How to Win Friends and Influence People, we can progress to the next set of principles.

Using his key principles as a guide, we can bring about change within our organization. In the previous post, we covered how to build authentic and meaningful relationships.

If you have not read that post, yet, please go back and do so before reading on.

I was part way through my Dale Carnegie® course when I was challenged to make a change at work by using one or two of the principles below.

We were struggling with being able to complete our weekly PMs because we had to support the production line changeovers. Dwelling on this, I approached the skilled trades that were preparing to perform a changeover. I asked them about the changeover, and what were the sticking points.

I allowed them to do a great deal of the talking. I listened to the challenges they had and why the changeovers took so long. [Read more…]

by Mike Sondalini Leave a Comment

Radar Level Detectors

Radar level detectors are becoming a popular technique for tank level detection of liquids.

The radar sends a sub-millionth of a second pulse from an emitter and the return signal is detected at a receiver.

The reflection’s time lapse is measured and electronically converted to a distance from the liquid surface. Installation peculiarities need to be understood and appreciated in order to provide a reliable operating set-up.

Keyword: antenna, spurious reflection, reference plane, emission cone. [Read more…]

by Greg Hutchins Leave a Comment

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. [Read more…]

by Greg Hutchins Leave a Comment

Some Thoughts on Exposure Reduction and Mitigation

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

Exposure to threats, hazards, and risks leads to vulnerabilities that an organization must deal with.

Commonly these are addressed via a mitigation process. Once mitigation is accomplished, often times the organization feels that the risk, threat, hazard does not need to be revisited. However, as a result of the mitigation efforts on the part of the organization, the risks, threats, hazards reconfigure and re-emerge in a different form.

In order for mitigation to be successful, it has to be a constant and ongoing process that produces a resilience to the negative effects of risks, threats, and hazards that are realized. [Read more…]