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Find all articles across all article series listed in reverse chronological order.
Guest Post by Ed Perkins (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)
Risk Management is like vitamins; we know it is good for us, but we don’t always want to take it.
Why? Human nature is to avoid discomfort and unpleasantness. What does this have to do with risk? What is the real impact of consequence of a Risk? Why do we not want to face it? If you think about it, it is the underlying of risk – it is Fear. [Read more…]
Equipment Identification tags save time. Identifying equipment for operators and tradesmen will save time, reduce errors and promote accurate record keeping. Equipment identification involves putting a unique number and a unique written description onto a machine.
Keywords: CMMS, computerised maintenance management system, planning, breakdown repair, reporting faults, equipment tags, catalogue. [Read more…]
This is the first in a nine-part series of articles. This first one will lay out what I think are essential characteristics of an RCA program. The other articles will follow up on each of the items in some detail.
Being able to communicate the improvements with Maintenance Planning & Scheduling with finance and senior leaders can be difficult. The maintenance team sees a high PM Compliance, or more work being complete, but what does that mean for the business in tangible benefits? This is where the communication between maintenance and finance breakdown. By being able to identify and link the maintenance improvements to financial returns, maintenance will be able to generate support for current and future projects. [Read more…]
Experiences with magnetic (magdrive) pumps. Magnetic drive pumps come in three varieties – canned motor pumps, all metal pumps and plastic lined metal pumps. They are sealless and cannot leak into the environment. Long, repair- free service life depends on recognising the limitations of these pumps. This article covers issues with using direct mounted, lined magdrive pumps experienced ‘in the field’.
Keyword: separation liners, chemical compatibility, sediment, particulate. [Read more…]
Guest Post by Ed Perkins (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)
One area that does not receive much emphasis in risk management is the human factor. In risk assessments, risk events, likelihoods and consequences, vulnerabilities are the usual focus. People are viewed as ‘weak links’ in risk prevention, but what about risk mitigation? Your risk planning depends on people to respond when an event occurs. How good is their risk decision-making under stress? There is the weak link.
In 1996, IEEE published a book on “Probabilistic Risk Assessment and Management for Engineers and Scientists” by Kumamoto and Henley[1]. This book is about using probability to assess reliability and safety risks in an industrial environment. The book introduces some interesting concepts, such as risk perception and ‘Human Reliability’. [Read more…]
Many of our customers (internal/external) trust us when we say that a Weibull analysis is the best approach to understanding what the data set is telling us. We then take their data set, do something mysterious where no one can see us, and then present these accurate predictions as to what is going to happen with a given population of the product at some future date. [Read more…]
Leadership is not a position or title within an organization. It is an attitude.
You’ve seen the internet meme’s about the difference between leadership and management. There is a difference and while not everyone is going to be in top management, everyone can (and should) be a leader.
As a reliability professional, you are conveniently looked to for leadership. You are expected to use your knowledge and skill to solve problems. To help teams solve problems. To improve the reliability performance of your system and across your industry. [Read more…]
Have you ever felt overwhelmed with too much to do? I imagine most of us have struggled with time management at one time or another. There are just too many things on our plate, and they never go away.
Some may attribute this burden to their life, or perhaps they are inefficient time managers, or something else. Regardless, I doubt many enjoy the feeling or the situation.
If only we could walk across the bridge to self improvement and be enlightened.
Recently Peter Stuttard asked if I knew of a reference for the perfect strength and perfect stress concepts. I didn’t and asked for a bit of explanation of the phrases.
Here is his reply (via Linkedin, btw a great tool to get and stay in touch) posted with permission with minor formatting edits.
To learn more about Peter check out his Linkedin profile.
Fred
Thanks for responding so quickly, the concepts of Perfect Strength and Perfect Stress are related to your discussion re Parts Count and Parts Stress predictions and reading this on your web site prompted me to ask you about them. [Read more…]
Implementing a Maintenance Planning & Scheduling process can be trying, difficult and downright frustrating. How would you like to dramatically reduce the stress involved and see results quicker? By utilizing these 5 tips, you will be able to build a robust, highly efficient and effective process with reduced effort. [Read more…]
What readers will learn in this article.
Guest Post by Ed Perkins (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)
Why are there “bad” decisions? No one starts out to deliberately make a bad decision. If you look into available thought papers and reports, you can find some evidence that can provide some understanding of how bad decisions are made.
COSO in 2012, commissioned a report on “Enhancing Board Oversight”[1] focusing on challenges and biases in making professional judgments.
More recently, several HBS faculty authored a study an “attribution error”[2], where decisions are biased by unjustified attributions of goodness to applicants based on “luck” rather than ability. [Read more…]
Often when we request an analysis from an engineer we run with the results and don’t ask a lot of questions about the analysis itself. Having done a lot of analysis I am familiar with all the assumptions and estimations that go into making a calculation work. But that means that the results of the analysis are only relevant to those assumptions and estimations. The analyst may have to make the following “calls” without additional input or only a small fact-finding mission. [Read more…]
Have you ever worked on a project with no deadlines, unlimited resources, and boundless scope? Probably not.
You may have worked under the guidelines of a quality triangle, also known as a project management triangle, iron triangle, or project triangle.
Why is that? Why the limits to our ability to create a product or improve a system?
First, the world we work and live within has limits. We have only so much time for work, only the available resources, and limited knowledge. We do our best with what we have to work with at the time.
Second, as I once was told while working on an accelerated test design, ‘if there isn’t a deadline, you’ll happily tinker with the plan and get the testing done.’ My boss was right of course.
The set of constraints shape our projects and products. By understanding the set of constraints, specifically how they frame decisions, then we can complete complex projects. [Read more…]
