Your Reliability Engineering Professional Development Site
Find all articles across all article series listed in reverse chronological order.
One of my favorite things to do when visiting a new company, it at lunch or during a break, ask:
“Any major disasters that impacted reliability?”
Typically, there are three stories that start with, “Remember the… “, or, “One time…”
It seems every organization has legendary stories in the organizational memory. [Read more…]
Our simple 3 legged stool model from part 1 will deliver high performance at low cost and risk – i.e.: high productivity. It is important however to keep the legs intact! Doing so requires a bit of investment. In thermodynamic terms we need to put some energy into the system to keep the entropy from growing. That energy is investment in maintenance and the payoff comes in the form of steady, predictable revenues with a high margin for profit. Those words should be music to accountants’ ears. [Read more…]
Guest Post by John Ayers (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)
Some people say take what you love in college. Problem is, not too many high school seniors know what they love. Others say college should be an intellectual journey. Problem is many degrees will not prepare you for the real world in terms of making a good living. I believe college is to prepare you for a career which can support you and a family down the road. If important, intellectual studies can take place outside of work using the internet. [Read more…]
Chemical corrosion occurs at increased rates in agitated conditions.
Typical iso-corrosion curves for alloy metals no longer apply. These curves only show corrosion rates at various chemical concentrations and temperatures in stagnant conditions.
A typical curve is shown below. The curves are available from alloy metal suppliers on request.
When metals are selected for agitated corrosive conditions the curves can only be used in a relative sense.
They help grade the metal selection but they cannot provide absolute corrosion rates. [Read more…]
Image that. Customers say one thing and expect something else.
A customer may provide a detailed and complete reliability specification, then, 6 months into using the product complain it is not reliable enough. [Read more…]
We all want high productivity – maximum output for the least input, the most blast for our buck! We know that high payback will entail a level of risk, but again, we want to minimize our downside risks and maximize the opportunities that may be available to us. We need practical ways to achieve this. Good Capital Asset Management™ will deliver that – how? Well, here’s a simplified scientific explanation of how that works. [Read more…]
A benchmark is the end distance point from the start.
In the world of maintenance, it is the name for the targets that an organization sets for itself in an improvement program.
Benchmarking is often against world-best practice and it is used to provide direction and focus in an organization’s efforts to improve.
When RAV is chosen as the benchmark it means that the annual cost of maintaining the plant will be measured against the value of the plant.
RAV is a percentage of the cost to replace the plant. The lower the RAV the more effective the maintenance effort. [Read more…]
Guest Post by Greg Hutchins (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)
We’ve been discussing how ISO 9001:2015 has adopted Risk Based Thinking that will impact 1.2 million companies. ISO 14001:2015 will impact 400,000 companies. Now, government agencies are adopting and putting into statute risk management.
We’ve been talking up the fact the US government is requiring Enterprise Risk Management (ERM), specifically Office of Management and Budget Circular OMB A 123, of all US departments. This is a game changer for federal agencies. In this article, we’ll look at some of the significant changes in ERM for Federal agencies. [Read more…]
On page 6 of Statistics for Experimenters, Box, and Hunter suggest a scientist could conduct an investigation without statistics.
Whereas, a statistician could not do so without scientific knowledge.
The text’s discussion quickly expands on the benefits to a scientist when they do employ statistical thinking and tools.
Design of Experiments, DOE, is a set of statistical tools that allow an investigator to efficiently examine multiple factors and their associated influence on results.
DOE allows us to be better investigators. [Read more…]
Let me first say that this is not a slam against accountants or the accounting profession. This is intended to help put what they do in perspective and to show the similarity of what they do with what we, as maintainers, do. [Read more…]
Guest Post by Geary Sikich (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)
Inferno, the first part of Dante’s Divine Comedy that inspired the latest Dan Brown’s bestseller of the same title describes the poet’s vision of Hell. The story begins with the narrator (who is the poet himself) being lost in a dark wood where he is attacked by three beasts which he cannot escape. He is rescued by the Roman poet Virgil who is sent by Beatrice (Dante’s ideal woman). Together, they begin the journey into the underworld or the Nine Circles of Hell. [Read more…]
Vibration in equipment is the result of unbalanced forces.
Out-of-balance is corrected by adding or removing material so that when the equipment is operating the unbalance is controlled to an acceptable level.
Keywords: spring stiffness, damping, center of rotation, center of mass, natural frequency, isolation mount, counterbalance, out-of-phase. [Read more…]
A good plot reveals the data’s story.
Repairable system data is what is called by statisticians a renewal process.
The repair activity may restore the system to as good as new. Sometimes, the repair pretty much leaves the system in a state similar to just before the repair.
What happens most often, though, is the chance of system failure changes after each repair activity.
A simple plot can help us see what is happening. [Read more…]
We know that there are no “quick fixes” or “silver bullet solutions” when it comes to improvements in maintenance management. In my last article I pointed out that many separate conditions and events must come together properly to achieve “schedule success” – i.e.: the high level of compliance to a schedule of planned work as produced by your planners. That list of includes: [Read more…]
Guest Post by Greg Hutchins (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)
The idea of supply chain risk management has been around for about 10 years. It is only in the last 5 years, that it has become popular. We are still at the early stage of supply chain risk management adoption and deployment.
In terms of total dollar amount, external suppliers provide a significant portion of a manufacturer’s product. For U.S. firms, 50% to 80% or more of the final price of a product can be the cost of purchased goods. In Japan, it can be even higher.
For these reasons, any supply disruption can kill a supply chain. As a result, supply chain risk management is now critical to a company’s competitiveness. [Read more…]