Innovation is vital for company and economic growth. What is it? How can you achieve it? We begin to explore this with you.
Innovation
All articles listed in reverse chronological order.
The 5 Differences Between Leaders and Managers
The 5 Differences Between Leaders and Managers – Can Someone Be the Best of Both?
While working in the field of Asset Management formerly known as Maintenance and Reliability for over 30 years I have worked with my share of Managers and Leaders. Those who have known me for years know that I started in the field as a Pipefitter Apprentice, worked as a Journeyman and Team Leader for a number of years, did a stint as a Maintenance Supervisor, went to night school to become a Reliability Engineer and then as a business owner working with customers around the world. [Read more…]
Reliability Belt Program Delivers the Tools You Need
Develop your skills – learn the tools and where to apply them
OK, let’s admit it. We don’t always make the best decisions. And of course, those around us don’t either. And yet, to deliver a product with all the best features to a customer or market, at a competitive price and in time to make the sale, and that also will have good reliability and long life, requires everyone to make the right decisions in a timely fashion all along the way. It doesn’t take many adverse decisions to introduce field issues, increase warranty claims and lessen product life.
Reliability management and engineering is all about using the best tools to guide our decision-making. Becoming a good reliability engineer, or decision-maker of any kind, is about learning those tools – including when and where to use them.
Process Logic Controller (PLC) Basics
What readers will learn from this article.
- Overview of how a programmable logic controller (PLC) operates.
- Communication methods used to connect the PLC to equipment.
- Dangerous practices that will lead to trouble if not corrected.
A process logic controller is a computer designed for monitoring and controlling equipment. The personal computer that many people have at home is designed to accept signals from the keyboard or mouse and use instructions (software) to display the resulting effects on a screen (monitor). A PLC accepts signals (inputs) from sensors located throughout a piece of equipment or process plant. It then follows the instructions (program) within its memory and sends out commands (output) to operate equipment. [Read more…]
What is Collateral Risk? And Why Should We Be Worried About It?
Guest Post by Geary Sikich (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)
What is Collateral Risk? And Why Should We Be Worried About It?
Introduction
The Law Dictionary defines Collateral Risk as:
The RISK of loss arising from errors in the nature, quantity, pricing, or characteristics of COLLATERAL securing a transaction with CREDIT RISK. Institutions that actively accept and deliver collateral and are unable to manage the process accurately are susceptible to loss. A subcategory of PROCESS RISK. [Read more…]
What is Lean Product Development? (Part II)
In my last article the high level goal of lean product development was established as follows:
Develop products that maximize customer value and minimize product cost, in the least amount of time, and at the least amount of product development cost.
Let’s analyze this goal statement and establish some high-level objectives. [Read more…]
The 2 Parameter Uniform Distribution 7 Formulas
This is part of a short series on the common distributions.
The Uniform distribution is a univariate continuous distribution. This short article focuses on 7 formulas of the Uniform Distribution. A common application is as a non-informative prior. Another application is to model a bounded parameter. The uniform distribution also finds application in random number generation. [Read more…]
Product Derivatives for Market Domination
I recently came across this announcement that HP is going to develop computer systems and peripheral devices that are optimized for environments where they are cleaned frequently, often medical environments. In the medical and scientific fields cleaning solutions are a significant stress for plastics, inks and touch control surfaces. It’s a smart strategy to evaluate where your products are used and optimize your test use cases. It most often will lead to more accurate test results and reliability projections. It may, as well, lead to a market opportunity that was previously unknown, and if you are the first among your competitors to acknowledge this need and create a specialized or derivative product you now grabbed a portion of the market that you may have not previously held.
A few others
- laptops that are impact and dirt resistant
- Kids winter coats with glove attachments
- Sport tuned models of economy cars
- Stackable chairs
- Folding bikes
- Standing desks
-Adam
Agile New Product Development
Agile has gained popularity as a software development tool, however it has also been implemented in hardware situations. What is unique about it? What are the core principles? Can I use those ideas with my existing methods? This video answers those and many more questions. [Read more…]
The Elevator Pitch, and No it’s not a Major League thing….
I was taking questions from the audience following my presentation at a conference last spring when a young lady stood up and asked me if I could give my Elevator Pitch.
She must have noted the confused look on my face because she repeated herself this time adding further details.
“If you were riding an elevator with someone and you had a quick minute to sell your RCM services what would you say?” [Read more…]
Sealing Threaded Pipe Connections
Threaded connections on process chemicals and utilities piping can be difficult to seal. Leaks from threads in steam and compressed air service are common. This article looks at pipe thread design and the proper sealing of threads. [Read more…]
How a Cultural Audit Can Assist Risk Management
Guest Post by James Kline (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)
How a Cultural Audit Can Assist Risk Management
Introduction
An organization’s culture is an important determinant of its success or failure. This is because an organization’s culture is the combined effect of the employees’ underlying assumptions, beliefs, attitudes and expectations. Each can affect performance and adaptability. A cultural assessment can help determine areas that can inhibit mission accomplishment. This article lists the different techniques used in conducting a cultural audit and indicates how it can help guide corrective action. [Read more…]
What is Lean Product Development (Part I)?
Lean product development might mean different things to different organizations, but let’s start with the 5 principles of lean manufacturing and see how it can be applied to the product development process. [Read more…]
The 1 Parameter Poisson Distribution 4 Formulas
This is part of a short series on the common life data distributions.
The Poisson distribution is a discrete distribution. This short article focuses on 4 formulas of the Poisson Distribution. It is also known as the rare event distribution. It has application in a homogeneous Poisson princess and with renewal theory. [Read more…]
Should I Stay or Should I go?
#AskAsh – 001 – Should I stay in my engineering job or search for another?
Question:
Hey Ash,
I have a question about whether I should stay in my current engineering job or pursue other options.I work for an engineering firm that does contract work for other companies. We have recently lost a big contract. With this lull, I have been told that much of my work over the next several months will basically be document control.
As a new engineer, I am concerned that I will be missing out on valuable experience if I am not working on strong engineering projects.
So my question is, should I stick it out or look for another job?
Thanks,
-Anonymous
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