This article discusses the use of vee-belt drives. It covers some basic theory of friction drives and lists 11 factors to be considered when using vee-belt drives. [Read more…]
Vee-Belt Drives Basics and Considerations
Articles
Find all articles across all article series listed in reverse chronological order.
Baldrige Criteria Poses Challenges to the Quality Profession
Guest Post by James Kline (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)
The title may sound strange given the Baldrige’s origin as the U.S. National Quality Award. Yet, its migration to a Performance Excellence Criteria and the addition of Cyber Security, Innovation, and Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) does pose challenges to the quality profession. This is particularly true since the many of the Baldrige examiners are quality professionals. [Read more…]
The Importance of Laughter in the Workplace!
I’m laughing at work! At the same time, I’m shaking my head and smiling because I’m sitting alone at my computer working on developing some maintenance plans for one of our customers. Strange as it might seem the laughter was brought on by a social media notification that today is the birthday of an old friend. Someone I used to work with, and thinking about this person I remembered all the laughs our group shared at work. [Read more…]
The forever outfit, and a car for “right now”
I didn’t create this image but I thought it was an interesting idea. A consumer has captured a niche group of manufactures that are basing their brand on “service for life.” The forever outfit.
I saw this the same day that Tesla came out with their semi truck announcement. A few things that caught my attention from that announcement was how they emphasized reliability and low maintenance in their product profile. “The brake pads will last forever” and “The drivetrain has a 1 million mile warranty.”
Understanding FMEA Controls – Part 2
Problems and Solutions
In this article, we use problems and solutions to learn about FMEA controls. In the intermediate problem, we continue examining the door latch-pin failure of the DC-10 cargo door, as an example to identify FMEA controls. In the advanced problem, we analyze a fictitious FMEA relating to potential safety of someone trying to unjam a snowblower.
Incorporating Reliability into Your Future
How Building Reliability Into The Equipment Design Will Dramatically Improve Your Profitability
Often time’s equipment is procured, setup and put into operation with a single focus on reducing the initial capital expenditure. This can be a fatal mistake as the reliability of the equipment is built into the design of the equipment. This called the inherent reliability. Once the equipment is designed and installed, there is little the maintenance department can do to improve the inherent reliability. [Read more…]
Future of Conformity Assessment
We are seeing more global certification bodies create their own assurance and branded certification schemes.
Like ISO 31000 letter of conformance for airports.
Dubai Airports this week received a letter of conformance for ISO 31000 – 2009 Enterprise Risk Management from Lloyds’ Register Quality Assurance (LRQA). [Read more…]
Metal Corrosion Basics and Controls
This article explains the metal corrosion process including the basic chemistry of how metal loss occurs. Methods to control corrosion are also listed and explained. [Read more…]
Autonomous Vehicles and Safety – Why Industry has Every Right to Not Wait for Regulatory and Academic Leadership to Arise
What are legislators, regulators and academics doing to help the introduction of Autonomous Vehicles (AVs)? I don’t know either.
One of the sessions of the 2017 Autonomous Vehicle Safety Regulation World Congress that was held in Novi, Michigan, was devoted to ethics. The idea is that AVs must be taught what to do when death is unavoidable (hold that thought). That is, if an accident is imminent, does the AV kill the old lady or the three-month-old baby? Does the AV protect the driver or others around it? Many media outlets, journals and blogs emphasize this conundrum. The MIT Review published Why Self Driving Cars Must be Programmed to Kill where it discussed the behaviors that need to be embedded into AVs to control casualties. Some of you may be familiar with MIT’s Moral Machine which is an online survey aimed at understanding what the public thinks AVs should do in the event of an accident that involves fatalities.
But this discussion has conveniently hurdled the question – do AVs need to be programmed to kill? Because the answer is absolutely not. There is no compelling argument for anyone to expect manufacturers to design this sort of capability into their vehicles. In fact, it is likely going to make matters worse.
Top Down or Bottom Up – The Dilemma of Continuous Improvement
I’m sure you have all heard the phrase I wish I had a nickel for every time someone asked me this question. If you follow LinkedIn at all someone poses this question to anyone willing to answer at least once a day and as a result they get opinions that list the benefits of a Top Down or Bottom Up continuous improvement process. [Read more…]
Is This The Same As That?
A common tool for comparing if two populations are the same is the “student t-test.” This is often used in reliability, and science, if we want to investigate if a factor has caused a change in a respnse.
A population was assembled in location “A”. Another population was assembled in location “B”. Population “A” has an average defect rate of 4%. Population “B” has an average defect rate of 5.5%. Does the location of assembly affect defect rate? That’s just a big argument unless we can project the statistical likelihood that what we have measured is not just an overlap of noise. [Read more…]
Understanding FMEA Controls – Part 1
Leveraging the Value of Today
A common error in FMEA procedure is to make entries in the Controls column that the FMEA team believes need to be done, but are not currently planned or in place. Why is this error so prevalent? Maybe the question should be why do we limit entries into the prevention or detection control column to actions or methods that are currently planned or in place?
“Never mind your mistakes. One day they will become your most prized possessions.”
Abhijit Naskar
[Read more…]
Driving Performance Outcomes Through Effective Meetings
Understand How Effective Meetings Can Enable Improved Plant Performance
Nothing is worse than being in a meeting that completely wastes your time. Hopefully those meetings have been eliminated as part of the steps to making you, the maintenance professional, more effective. For the meetings that you could not eliminate, the meetings need to be effective, reducing wasted time and delivering benefits to the business.
To make meetings effective, the meetings should follow the 3 phases of effective meetings. The 3 phases ensure that meetings are effective, efficient and everyone knows what they are there to do. Lastly, it ensures that the any actions coming out of the meeting are addressed. [Read more…]
Baldrige Adds Enterprise Risk Management
Guest Post by James Kline (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) just issued the 2017-2018 Baldrige Excellence Frame Work. There were modifications to a number of categories such as Category 1 Leadership, Category 2, Strategy and Category 6 Operations. Included in the modifications were substantive additions for Cyber Attacks and Enterprise Risk Management (ERM).
In the discussion of the changes from the 2015- 2016 framework it is noted: “The future competitive advantage that will flow from good ERM is based on the holistic addressing of risk and the actions taken – including the pursuit of intelligent risks – as part of an overall strategic approach to managing organization performance.” (Baldrige.2017.45)
This statement makes two things clear. First, ERM is seen as contributing to the competitive advantage for any organization. Second, ERM is a holistic approach. The inclusion of ERM in the Baldrige Excellence Frame Work does two other things. It reinforces the momentum created by the inclusion of Risk Based Thinking in ISO 9001:2015 and the issuance by OMB of Circular A-123. Both actions expanded the reach and ultimately the interest in ERM. In addition, it signals that ERM is considered part of best practice. This means its use increasingly will become a standard by which all organizations can be evaluated by regulators and stakeholders. [Read more…]
Water Hammer and How it is Controlled
When a control valve or manual valve is shut fast in a full pipeline of moving liquid, the liquid comes to a sudden stop. If the pipe suddenly starts banging and thrashing about you can be sure a water hammer was created. [Read more…]
