Your Reliability Engineering Professional Development Site
All articles listed in reverse chronological order.
Don’t run centrifugal pumps on the end of the curve. Pumps are designed and selected to operate near their highest efficiency point.
If they operate at the right-hand end of the pump curve the likelihood of cavitation increases.
Keywords: suction pressure, flow velocity, vapor pressure, duty point. [Read more…]
I’ve been managing supplier relationships for almost my entire career, including hardware component suppliers, contract manufacturers, technology alliance partners, and engineering service providers.
Over that time I’ve worked with a number of people at all levels who seem to believe that their one-up position as the customer entitles them to demand more from suppliers while paying less.
The attitude seems to be: “Do as I say or we’ll take our business elsewhere.” [Read more…]
Welcome to part four of my 10-part series of blogs called “Uptime Insights”, where we explore a journey of excellence in maintenance. To stay on top, managers must implement strategies that keep operations performing at high levels. In these articles I will show you how to achieve excellence in maintenance – a critical business process in any capital intensive industry. [Read more…]
In May of 2015, we finished ISO: Risk Based Thinking book. We answer more than 300 questions about risk, quality, RBT, risk based auditing, and certification. We will start answering questions that we get weekly.
So, what gives us credence since ISO 9001:2015 is coming out in 4 months. Well …. We coined and trademarked the expression: Future of Quality: Risk®. We used the expression CERM: Risk Based Problem Solving | Risk Based Decision Making years before ISO developed Risk Based Thinking. Twenty years ago, we wrote best selling ISO books. We worked with the first ISO CB’s in 1987. Anyway, you get the idea, we’ve been in this business a long time. [Read more…]
There is a good chance you can make astounding changes and achieve incredible performance improvements from your plant and equipment.
It can be done with the method used by Thomas Edison to solve his problems and make his discoveries. Improvements in the order of 20% maintenance savings with 100% on-time achievement of production plans are possible.
The method is that of continuous improvement. You start by proving it works for yourself first and then, once you are sure it works you introduce it to your people.
Keywords: continuous education
It’s been almost a year since launching Accendo Reliability. It’s been fun, exciting, and weekly.
Love it and really enjoy helping you answer questions, get stuff done, and master reliability engineering.
Since my wife and I just bought a house (out playing Pokemon Go when we stopped for an open house – and a week later our offer was accepted). Now we’re preparing to move ourselves to our new home.
There is a lot involved. [Read more…]
I’ve managed suppliers at multinational, US-based firms, and I’ve worked for a large electronics manufacturing services company, and those experiences have given me the opportunity to think a lot about the power dynamics on both sides of the table.
I know it seems obvious, but it’s important to remember that at the core it’s a business relationship based on a payment for a product or service, or an expectation of an ongoing revenue stream.
Suppliers are in business just like you are, and their decisions are based on the same concerns about profit and growth and predictability.
Welcome to part three of my 10-part series of blogs called “Uptime Insights”, where we explore a journey of excellence in maintenance. To stay on top, managers must implement strategies that keep operations performing at high levels. In these articles I will show you how to achieve excellence in maintenance – a critical business process in any capital intensive industry. [Read more…]
Walking, Playing and Bought a HouseSeriously, while out walking, listening to a podcast, and playing Pokemon Go, found an open house to view. A week later our offer was accepted and next week we close.
I would not have been out walking that Sunday afternoon if not out playing Pokemon Go.
Glad there are no dangerous cliffs nearby. [Read more…]
When we understand how something fails, we can create a mathematical model of the effect of stress or load on the time to failure behavior.
The model may take different forms, yet it is the ability to related the conditions surrounding the use of a device to its eventual demise that is essential. The specifics include a molecular level of detail in some cases.
Physics of Failure models focus on the particular relationships between stresses and materials. [Read more…]
What you will learn from this article.
Guest Post by Stuart Rosenberg (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)
The supply chains of most companies, large and small, exploit a world of opportunities. But increasing global exposure comes with an increasing range of risks. These companies’ complex networks of suppliers and customers are as diverse as the goods and resources they manage. Within the same supply chain, giant multinational companies can sit side-by side with small to medium enterprises (SMEs). Yet among companies large and small there is growing awareness that extreme weather and a changing climate pose new risks and opportunities to old ways of doing business. [Read more…]
Not much. You need just enough field failure data to identify the root cause and determine if and how to resolve the problem.
Field data will accumulate even if your program works diligently to prevent failures.
The actions taken before the reported failure will frame when you need to take action.
Gathering failure data and evaluating the trigger points for action is a reactive approach. This approach means you will only respond to problems.
You will also likely not spot the important emerging issues before they become significant problems. [Read more…]
There are three things that can happen when a non-conforming part appears on the production line.
(1) The part is immediately rejected and never makes it into an assembly.
That’s good, but the additional handling of the part is a waste of time and resources.
(2) The part is added to an assembly, but the assembly fails an inspection or tests further down the line. This adds more cost for rework and re-testing.
(3) The part is added to the assembly, isn’t caught by downstream testing and the product ships to a customer. Now it’s a bigger problem, depending on what characteristic of the part doesn’t meet requirements.
This could be a latent problem that will eventually cause the product to fail, leading to a return and an unhappy customer.
Welcome to part two of my 10-part series of blogs called “Uptime Insights”, where we explore a journey of excellence in maintenance. To stay on top, managers must implement strategies that keep operations performing at high levels. In these articles I will show you how to achieve excellence in maintenance – a critical business process in any capital intensive industry. [Read more…]