Your Reliability Engineering Professional Development Site
All articles listed in reverse chronological order.
Companies want and need to train. How do you know you are getting your money’s worth? What key elements should you be looking for? While each topic is different, some guidelines have appeared through our experience. If you want this in your training, contact us to gain the benefits. [Read more…]
Guest Post by Geary Sikich (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)
Risk modeling is a useful tool for business continuity managers, but over-reliance and flawed approaches can create difficulties.
Fundamental uncertainties derive from our fragmentary understanding of risk and complex system dynamics and interdependencies. Abundant stochastic variation in risk parameters further exacerbates the ability to clearly assess uncertainties. [Read more…]
Abstract
Effect of process changes on electric motors. This article explains the effect of changing process loads on AC induction electric motor performance. The motor’s behaviour is a response to the load imposed on it by the equipment connected to it. The equipment’s behaviour is itself a response to the duty and service it has to perform. Where the equipment duty and service is adjustable by the operator, or fluctuates as the process changes, the motor will react to those changes. When the changes are so excessive that they are beyond the motor’s ability to handle them the motor stops and the equipment or process stops with it. Keywords: squirrel-cage motor, overload. [Read more…]
Thirty-three years ago, I graduated as a Journeymen Pipefitter from a three-year skilled trades apprentice program and went to work as a Journeymen at Eastman Kodak. At that time in my life I had no idea where this training would take me. I was simply honored to work alongside those who in mentoring me, passed on a set of skills that would last a lifetime. [Read more…]
John Wooden often talked about the value of balance as it relates to basketball. This video discusses areas of balance in both business and in basketball.
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Cyber security risk is among the most critical risks to the supply chain:
“Cyber and data privacy breaches are perceived to be the largest threat to the stability of transport and logistics, with the sector facing potential breaches of $2 trillion by 2019.”[i]
The reality of a cyber-crime is not if, but when, and how damaging it will be. The inevitability of a cyber-attack has forced end-product manufacturers to reassess every element of the end-product manufacturer from product design, outsourcing, and servicing the product. [Read more…]
The 5 s method of operation – A Five S program focuses on having visual order, organization, cleanliness and standardization throughout the workplace and the operation. It is a structured method to put operators and maintainers in control of what they do. [Read more…]
When considering a business process improvement (or some other) initiative, we also want to communicate to motivate the right behaviors. However, initiatives often seem to use buzzwords or use titles familiar to employees that have seen such initiatives come and go (the key word being “go”).
The term “Project Management” has been overused in recent years. Many people claim to be one, but what does it mean. For us, it is a very broad and very impactful role. It covers all aspects of project execution and success. It also involves deep customer interaction. [Read more…]
Something on the Project goes wrong and is fixed – “Let’s put this down for lessons learned” goes the management mantra. But was this experience just a failing that should not have happened in the first place and relearning a previously taught, but now forgotten, ‘lesson’?
If we don’t learn then the same mistakes will be made and possible opportunities will be missed and, as Edmund Burke the 18th Century Irish Statesman said, “Those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it“. But why do we forget our lessons? Abe Lincoln said “Lessons not learned in blood are soon forgotten” reflecting that loss in some form such as money, property, or reputation, not necessarily blood, is needed to ensure that memory is ingrained and can be recalled.
Lessons that are remembered after the fact tend to add insult to injury; when you’re up to your neck in alligators you then remember that distant lesson about draining the swamp! [Read more…]
Grease and oil are the key lubricants used throughout industry to reduce friction between metal parts. Lubricants can only reduce friction if their immediate environment sustains their lubricating properties. Once the operating conditions are known a suitable lubricant with the right properties can be used. When the lubricant is in place it is necessary to maintain the environment and the machine to the specified design standards and protect it from changes to the design conditions. There are six key factors to address for trouble- free life where grease or oil lubrication is used on machinery. [Read more…]
In previous articles we covered design for six sigma and design for lean. Now let’s take a look at Design for Assembly. We’ll do this by following the Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) thought process, and add design for assembly (DFA) subtopics as follows:
As a reliability guy I love seeing how stuff works. Was recently given an opportunity to mess around and compare a new product to it’s siblings in a field I love, welding. I recently provided some input on an article release by Superiorglove about types of insulation and heat conduction. Superiorglove is a glove manufacturer that makes about every type of glove you could imagine, many are really impressive industrial applications gloves. I like how much they get into the science of it. In our discussions I used an example of how my TIG welding gloves protect against conductive and radiative types of heat transfer. They informed me that they had a TIG welding glove line and would love if I would review four of their models. I happily accepted because I love to weld, check out how things work and …free gloves.
I am frequently asked to review engineering reports and documents. And I am continually baffled with how many engineers want to ‘take their reader on a journey’ as opposed to getting to the main point. These engineers write documents where you have to read every single word to work out what they are trying to say. But having a final reveal is never a good thing in any technical document. [Read more…]
This article culminates the first major milestone in the Inside FMEA series of articles: the “FMEA Fundamentals Series.” The next series is called: “FMEA Preparation Series.”
“Remember to celebrate milestones as you prepare for the road ahead.” Nelson Mandela