Your Reliability Engineering Professional Development Site
A conversation with Teradyne’s Manager of Reliability Mark Levin and Senior Software Engineering Manager Jon Bodin about reliability, DFM, and their new book “Improving Product Reliability and Software Quality: Strategies, Tools, Process and Implementation”, 2nd Edition. The book is available here: https://tinyurl.com/y2f3nhav
RCA is one of the most basic yet most important of the processes in a reliability program. RCA isn’t just about solving a problem or fixing an error in your system. It is more than just finding a single root causes. When a problem occurs, there can be more than one reasons why that occurred in the first place. RCA helps us reduce the risk of that problem to a level that is acceptable to the organization. It is always a systemic and latent approach that takes time and should be done more often rather than just doing it when a problem has already occurred.
In this episode, we covered:
Chris and Fred discuss the question posed to us by one of our listeners regarding the ‘flat’ bottom of the ‘bathtub curve.’ Just a bit of background – the ‘bathtub curve’ represents the hazard rate of a system. That is, it helps us understand the probability that a product that works ‘now’ will fail. The ‘flat’ part of the curve is often cited as the ‘random’ part of the curve where failure is caused by environmental overstress conditions. So how do we test for this part of the curve? … but hang on – is the ‘bathtub curve’ even a thing? Is it even relevant for the useful life of a product? If this intrigues you, listen to this podcast!
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Chris and Fred discuss one of the most popular interpretations of maintainability which is based on how long it takes to maintain something. We see so many textbooks and guides that focus on this metric as the only maintainability measure. But is this really all that matters? What about the number of technicians required? … the number of tools required? … the training required for these technicians? … the mass of these tools? Does reliability matter? Yes to all these things. But how does they relate to the time-based definition? They don’t. Listen to this podcast to learn more.
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Welcome to Rob’s Reliability Project, I’m Rob Kalwarowsky. On this week’s episode, I welcome on Drew Welch from Resilient Reliability. We talk about how 39% of plants don’t use a CMMS, why people using a paper system should move to a mobile solution and why the excuses companies make to stay with paper aren’t justifiable.
If you haven’t yet, check out my website robsreliability.comand sign up for the weekly reliability newsletter with bonus content. If you like the show, please tell your colleagues about it and follow Rob’s Reliability Project on LinkedIn and YouTube.
Finally, if there are any topics, guests you’d like to hear from, questions you want answered, or if you’d like to appear on the podcast, email me at robsreliabilityproject@gmail.com
If you haven’t signed up for my weekly reliability newsletter with extra exclusive content, go to http://robsreliability.com/email-list/ and sign up!
Check out UpKeep – http://www.robsreliability.com/upkeep/
Follow Drew Welch on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/drewwelchpflugerville/
Follow Rob’s Reliability Project on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/company/robsreliabilityproject/
Follow Rob’s Reliability Project on Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/robsreliabilityproject/
Music by Jahzzar Songs: Look Inside and Circles Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 International License.
Cyber security can be a significant issue why your assets are not working as they are supposed to and you face more downtime than expected. When you use network enabled systems, there are a lot of things on the internet that can cause damage to your system. Viruses such as malwares, ad-wares, and other harmful software leave your asset vulnerable to all sorts of attacks. If you are a leading organization in the industry, your systems can be exposed to hackers as well. So, there are a lot of aspects that an organization needs to look at when installing an industrial system in the facility.
In this episode, we covered:
Adam and Fred discussing how reliability still suffers as a solo activity in programs
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Adam and Fred discussing how program decisions are made regarding reliability
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Graphics, when used well, can convey easy-to-understand information. Reliability graphics may focus on trends in failure rates or the verification of improvement work. Often, reliability graphics convey time-to-failure patterns.
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When a product or system fails, there is a consequence. Often, there is a loss of value. Each warranty replacement costs money. Downtime may result in lost revenue. Do you know the full extent of the costs involved when something fails?
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Welcome to Rob’s Reliability Project, I’m Rob Kalwarowsky. On this week’s episode, I welcome on LaWayne Smith to talk about my new role in asset management, the relationship between asset management and reliability and the parallels between reliability and water polo.
If you haven’t yet, check out my website robsreliability.comand sign up for the weekly reliability newsletter with bonus content. If you like the show, please tell your colleagues about it and follow Rob’s Reliability Project on LinkedIn and YouTube.
Finally, if there are any topics, guests you’d like to hear from, questions you want answered, or if you’d like to appear on the podcast, email me at robsreliabilityproject@gmail.com
If you haven’t signed up for my weekly reliability newsletter with extra exclusive content, go to http://robsreliability.com/email-list/ and sign up!
Check out UpKeep – http://www.robsreliability.com/upkeep/
Follow LaWayne Smith on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/lawayne-smith-crl-crcm-7a3b13124/
Follow Rob’s Reliability Project on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/company/robsreliabilityproject/
Follow Rob’s Reliability Project on Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/robsreliabilityproject/
Music by Jahzzar Songs: Look Inside and Circles Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 International License.
A conversion with Datest Founder Robert Boguski Jr. about testing circuit assemblies. The conversation covers many types of circuit testing, ethics in testing, and how to share results with customers.
As a Reliability Engineer, you are always keen to learn something new and practice it to add to your professional experience. There are a lot of ways to get the kind of knowledge that you need to be good at your job. Online certifications are a trendy way to get skills these days. These certifications are especially beneficial for engineers who don’t have the time to register to a university and take classes there. There are many good platforms that provide such certifications to help you shine in your career. One of such certifications is Certified Maintenance and Reliability Technician.
In this episode, we covered:
Chris and Fred often hear at least one person (or a small group of people) challenge your ‘cultural’ reliability improvement initiative. We hear things like ‘but to make it very reliable, it becomes too heavy or expensive.’ We also hear things like ‘but to make it very reliable, we need to invest lots of money for something the customer won’t buy.’ If you boil their complaints down or get to the hub of their issue … they are really suggesting that we do ‘reliability things’ without thinking. A checklist of activities that may or may not be valuable. This could not be further from what actually happens in reality. It never happens. Listen to this podcast to learn more.
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