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Much Ado About Infant Mortality

Much Ado About Infant Mortality

I have recently been diving into work orders and using Weibull analysis to determine optimal replacement times.  During one of the analyses, we discovered a significant infant mortality problem where the equipment was failing under 1 year of operation.  I’m not stopping there.

A common misconception with infant mortality is that there’s nothing we can do.  I’ve heard people say that we can’t plan for infant mortality or we can’t reduce these types of failures without switching manufacturers.

That’s not the case [Read more…]

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5 Ways to Keep Your Audience’s Attention

5 Ways to Keep Your Audience’s Attention

I have found the best way to lose an audience is to focus on statistical derivation. While this is a fascinating subject for me, it just doesn’t seem to hold an audience’s attention.

Having something interesting and useful to say is key to maintaining an audience’s attention, yet at times how we present helps them become distracted.

So, given great content or proposal, how can you help your audience not quickly check their phone, yet again? [Read more…]

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How Do You Measure the Effectiveness of a Maintenance Task?

How Do You Measure the Effectiveness of a Maintenance Task?

I am a firm believer in the notion of doing everything with the end-goal in mind. That is the only way we can gauge the effectiveness of our efforts. The same is true for all our efforts related to Maintenance & Reliability.

If & when you want to measure a certain maintenance task for its effectiveness (you should be doing it quite often); the best way is to identify whether the desired outcomes associated with that specific task are being realized or not. [Read more…]

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Hurry Up and Slow Down

Hurry Up and Slow Down

Guest Post by Joseph Paris (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)

I just got off the golf course hitting 9-holes with my Pop, who is 84 years old.  God bless him, I hope he has many more rounds to play and I look forward to getting out as often as I can with him.  We played the En-Joie Golf Club; a stop on the PGA Tour from 1972 to 2005 when the BC Open was played there – and now, as the Dick’s Sporting Goods Open, which is a stop on the Champions Tour. 

It is unique in that the course is owned and operated by Broome County.  This means that anyone off the street can play a PGA course for municipal rates, which top-out at $49 for 18-holes with a cart on summer weekends (it can be less, depending on date, day of the week, and time). [Read more…]

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Action Strategies to Reduce Severity Risk

Action Strategies to Reduce Severity Risk

What strategies can be used to reduce severity risk in an FMEA?

“However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.”
Winston Churchill

strategy

The Oxford English dictionary defines “strategy” as “a plan of action or policy designed to achieve a major or overall aim.”

Reference the article Understanding FMEA Severity Risk – Part 1 which discusses how Severity is defined and applied in FMEA.

[Read more…]

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Project Risk and Emergency Management: Response or Reaction

Project Risk and Emergency Management: Response or Reaction

Guest Post by Malcolm Peart (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)

In project management we can’t always be in control of the environment around us.  We can only forecast rather than predict risk and despite our ‘reasonable’ or even ‘best’ efforts to mitigate risk; shit happens and emergencies ensue!  It’s not just physical emergencies but also those related to time and cost; overbudget or late projects can create an emergency for stakeholders. Perhaps it’s because we tend to look at the ‘big risks’ or the ‘top ten’ after some semiquantitative assessment but then fail to consider that risks can change with time as more information becomes available.  Or, maybe it is because only those risks that can be clearly defined and are ‘likely’ are communicated to the eyes and ears on the ground.  Those low probability, high impact risks can tend to slip under any risk radar.

Then there is the matter of ‘optimism bias’ and a belief that ‘nothing can go wrong’ or that ‘risk only happens to other people’. Or perhaps, it’s just a matter of management not appreciating what is going on and ‘taking their eye off the ball’. [Read more…]