Many elements help make a reliability engineer successful.Two such elements are knowing the right people to get the job done and generally being a positive and enjoyable person to be around.
Networked and Positive as a Reliability Engineer
on Product Reliability
A listing in reverse chronological order of articles by:
- Kirk Grey — Accelerated Reliability series
- Les Warrington — Achieving the Benefits of Reliability series
- Adam Bahret — Apex Ridge series
- Michael Pfeifer — Metals Engineering and Product Reliability series
- Fred Schenkelberg — Musings on Reliability and Maintenance series
- Arthur Hart — Reliability Engineering Insights series
- Chris Jackson — Reliability in Emerging Technology series
Talent and Professionalism as a Reliability Engineer
My dictionary says that talented is “having a natural aptitude or skill for something.”
We learn reliability engineering and those who understand the range of tools and techniques useful for a given situation would be considered talented.
Everything is not solved by running a highly accelerated life test (HALT) or only conducting detailed failure analysis. Knowing when and why to apply a particular tool and using the tool effectively (i.e., when to use a Weibull distribution to model lifetime data and how to use the information to make decisions) are critical. [Read more…]
Success as a Reliability Engineer
Whether by design or by accident some of us become reliability engineers. Making a career in reliability engineering relies on your ability to make a difference and to add value. Being successful as a reliability engineer, while creating reliable products, permits continuation and growth as a reliability professional.
Why Wait for Field Returns?
In an ideal world, our products and equipment will just work. They would not fail and would not require warranty claims, product returns, or repair.
Unfortunately, we make design mistakes, assembly errors, incur damage, or simply fail. The desired balance for most businesses is the cost of returns will not outweigh the profit of sales.
How to Spot Reliability-Minded Coworkers
Being the reliability engineer on a project doesn’t have to be a lonely assignment.
Nearly everyone on the team shares the same goal. That of creating a reliable product or maintaining equipment availability.
Other may be electrical or mechanical engineers, technicians, procurement or some other part of the organization, yet they all have something to contribute to improving reliability.
Sometimes you have to find the reliability-minded individuals – to assist when gathering information – to identify potential weaknesses – to provide support for a reliability task – to encourage others to fully consider reliability with each decision [Read more…]
Creating Reliability Champions
How do you find, encourage and develop reliability professionals across your organization? We all face the challenge of creating a culture of reliability within an organization at some point in our careers.
Do so alone is nearly impossible.
You need support. You need more hands and minds that can spot reliability opportunities. You need to be in dozens of conversations per hour across the organization.
This is difficult for one person to accomplish.
14 Ways to Acquire Reliability Engineering Knowledge
Maria Popova recently wrote about the work of James T. Mangan and his book You Can Do Anything!
, published in 1936. In particular she focused on one section titled 14 Ways to Acquire Knowledge
The article is about learning anything, which had me thinking about how to learn reliability engineering. So, without apology let’s explore 14 ways to learn about reliability engineering. [Read more…]
Basics of Reliability Engineering
One of best features about working in reliability engineering is everything fails, eventually. This fact provides a bit of career stability.
Another aspect I enjoy is the concepts and approaches that create the foundation for reliability engineering knowledge do not change very much over time. The basics of reliability engineering are the same as when the earliest engineers began design structures and products.
3 Ideas to Overcome Organizational Inertia
It seems the forces of nature are working against our ideas.
I recall being frustrated as a child playing in the sandbox. I wanted to create a ramp of sand to race my cars down. No matter how much I pushed and patted the dry sand succumbed to some unseen force and did not hold the desired shape.
In business, we sometimes experience the same frustration. It’s not gravity.
Instead, we are facing organizational inertia.
11 Ways to Find Reliability Value
Most agree that improving products or process reliability is a good thing. It’s good for customers, factories, and our business.
And, sometimes it’s difficult to answer the question,
What is the value of that reliability activity?
Years ago my boss asked me what value I provided the organization. Working as a reliability professional, I thought that my value was obvious. He asked me to show the value.
It was harder than I thought.
Finding Value in FMEA
Failure modes and effect analysis (FMEA) is a tool that works to prevent process and product problems before they occur.
I like to define FMEA’s as an organized brainstorm. The process examines a product or process and asks what could go wrong. Then the team systematically determines and rank orders for each failure mode:
– the severity of the problem when it occurs
– the probability of the problem occurring
– the ability to detect the problem before it occurs
Good design engineers think about how the design could fail and improve the design. FMEA provides a structured team approach to further improve the design.
Consider Reliability Prediction Value
One of the primary questions we answer as reliability engineers is:
How long will it last?
Reliability prediction is the forecast or prognostication attempting to quantify either the time till failure, or expected future failure rate or warranty claims, or required spare parts.
We need to know as we make decisions today about the design or purchase.
5 Ways to Be in Service of Others
Over the past week or two (originally published in December 2013), I’ve received requests and comments that have given me pause. Why is it that I have time to answer questions and share information? Why do I spend the time to do so in the first place?
I have found that responding to questions or requests for assistance is rewarding.
Today I received a request for help in a job search. Last week it was an employer looking for a perfect candidate. I’ve received questions about graduate school in the US from a Chinese undergraduate. A question on accelerated life testing approaches. Another on maintenance practices and data analysis.
For each, I try to provide an answer or direct to find an answer.
3 Investments in Reliability
When a product or asset works as it’s expected for as long or longer than expected, we often consider it reliable.
Consumers around the world look for reliable products and services. Some will pay a premium with the desire to obtain failure free value from the purchase. When designing a product or service we often want to create the most reliable item within the constraints of time, resources, and cost. Designers and engineers may add margin or safety factors into calculations and decisions to avoid failures.
Many of us have heard that fixing a design is orders of magnitude less expensive early the product lifecycle. Product recalled or major failures can damage profits and brand image.
Here are three ways you can invest in improving product reliability. [Read more…]
Building Reliability Leadership
Some believe leaders are born and become natural leaders. Others believe leadership can be taught and anyone can become a leader. I believe leadership is situational and when intentional can be very powerful.
I learned leadership theory and enjoyed plenty of practice attending the US Military Academy. I certainly practiced leadership during my tour in the Army.
And, I’m not an expert on leadership.
