Your Reliability Engineering Professional Development Site
All articles listed in reverse chronological order.
While a potentially useful technique, Risk management is often an unwanted obligation. Done well, it can prevent field failures and gain needed resources. Does your project or organization get this value? Or do you only experience the pain? [Read more…]
This risk story includes risk at the enterprise level, the program/project level, and the product level. From the enterprise level risk, it was a little naïve on my company’s part to think they could go from zero not having manufactured any sonobuoys previously) to full up production the first time around without investing the time and finances to go up the learning curve prior to making the bid. From the program/product level risk viewpoint, the baseline plan did not include sufficient component and subassembly trial builds and testing before finalizing the concept, preliminary design and final design. [Read more…]
How do you decide what level and type of maintenance to use on an individual item of plant and its sub-assemblies? Not all equipment is equally important to your business. Some are critical to production and without them the process stops. Others are important and will eventually affect production if they cannot be returned to service in time. While other items of plant are not important at all and can fail and not affect production for a very long time. [Read more…]
Businesses, to be competitive, need to control all costs. Product or service failure can result in large uncontrolled costs. As product development proceeds, the cost of failures increases. The concept is shown in figure 1.
Figure 1
Alright … this needs a lot of context. English electronic music artist ‘Fatboy Slim’ released his ‘You’ve come a Long Way, Baby’ album in 1998. Its cover art was a photograph of an attendee at the 1983 ‘Fat People’s Festival’ in Danville, Virginia. And perhaps due to its ‘heritage,’ the album’s cover was changed to an image of a bookshelf for North American listeners. But the rest of the world got to bask in its magnificence.
So what is particular about this photograph? The subject is a larger than average human (as you would expect noting where it was taken). And he is wearing a shirt emblazoned:
I’m #1 so why try harder?
I am not writing this as a commentary on human value versus instinctive stereotypes. Far from it. There are plenty of people who are ‘better than all others at something’ that do not have sleek chiseled physiques. [Read more…]
A coaching philosophy involves a concept we call “no wasted motion.” It looks at the fundamentals and the impact of various decisions. Habits create results in business and in basketball. A critical and yet realistic eye can help you achieve at the next highest level. [Read more…]
I found myself seated next to a corporate executive in a recent flight out of Atlanta, while I was attempting to read a book, he was yammering away on his cell phone about quarterly results and the need for a reduction in head count. Hearing this, my hopes of becoming engrossed in a good book was now over. Now I’m just upset at how some folks seem to make life changing decisions with such little regard or emotion. [Read more…]
When something is working it is easy to just keep going forward. But how do you know things will keep chugging along? Is it worth stopping and asking “Why is this going well?”
I like lock picking “Lock Sport.” Of course I do. It’s a mechanical puzzle. It can also make you look like James Bond when someone forget’s their keys. I continue to challenge myself by getting progressively harder and harder locks. Throughout the years lock designs have come up with some great features to resist being picked. But there is still not one out there that is “pick proof”, so there is always a next level. I would say I am a mid-intermediate in the world of Lock Sport. So any lock that actually has good picking defenses can give me a good struggle.
Guest Post by James Kline (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)
Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice PhD. and Amy B. Zegart PhD. have written a book called Political Risk: How Businesses and Organizations Can Anticipate Global Insecurity. It has received good reviews. Having read the book, I would concur. It is an important book for those concerned with the increasing volatility and associated risk of the global economy. This piece discusses the relationship between Political Risk and Enterprise Risk Management (ERM). [Read more…]
A belt conveyor is a moving surface used to transport product from one end to the other. In its basic form it consists of a driving head pulley, a tail pulley, the moving belt, support rollers, cleaning devices, tensioning mechanisms and a structural frame. Though simple in concept its many components need to work together as a system to get the best performance and operating life. Critical to that is an understanding of how to care for a belt conveyor and tune it for successful operation. [Read more…]
Every journey begins with a statement of the goal or objective. Why would it be any different for FMEA? Yet, some FMEA teams do not clearly identifying the focus of the analysis. This sounds simple, and it is; but, it is very important. This article explains why.
“Begin with the end in mind” – Stephen Covey
After years of creating a positive impact with our training, we have discovered several elements to be aware of. When I first was looking for a Design of Experiments (DOE) trainer, I ran across these items too often. This is what drove us to create our own system of training. It grew out of control from there. [Read more…]
I get mad at Stan Nowlan and Howard Heap from time to time. Twenty years ago their work titled Reliability Centered Maintenance became the focus of my life when I first discovered the impact that RCM could have on manufacturing reliability. Since that time, I have authored somewhere around fifty articles on the subject, been a featured speaker at nearly three conferences a year and several years ago I even completed a book on the subject, describing what I see as the most effective way to complete a RCM analysis as well as the impact it can have on equipment and process reliability (Reliability Centered Maintenance using RCM Blitz™). For those who have taken the time to become educated in what a good RCM analysis is all about, they know power of this tool and where it applies. I know from experience, Reliability Centered Maintenance can and will deliver incredible results. [Read more…]
Good communication; the effective and efficient issue and receipt of the right information, by the right parties, at the right time, and in the right medium allowing both timely responses and decisions. It’s easy on paper and in theory but oftentimes the ‘noise’ in the communication channels are blamed for ‘bad’ communication. [Read more…]
Moving slurries about. Slurry is solid particles in a liquid. Concentration can vary from mostly liquid to mostly solid. Slurries are usually transported through pipe work using pumps, pressurised gas or steam. Different concentrations and different particulate produce different flow characteristics. Successful slurry transport requires knowledge of the particulate, its transport behaviour in the liquid at different concentrations and speeds, the nature and friction effects of the pipe work system and selection of the right motive method for the application. This article provides information for transporting slurries of up to 60% solids concentration. [Read more…]