Accendo Reliability

Your Reliability Engineering Professional Development Site

All articles listed in reverse chronological order.

by Leave a Comment

This is the Best Time to do your Corporate Planning Differently

This is the Best Time to do your Corporate Planning Differently

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

Steve Jobs envisioned a future state with computers on every worker’s desk. It will be a progressive culture where technology creates more opportunities for employees and a workplace without secretaries.

The future-state for Jobs was about “building tools that amplify a human ability”. He used the word “tools”, not “computers”, at the start of Apple’s life, which became hugely successful.

That is why Apple came up with the iPod, iPhone, and iTunes. These tools revolutionised the way we listen to music. Many people didn’t know they wanted an iPad until Apple showed them these tools. [Read more…]

by 1 Comment

Entropy and Economics – Part 2

Entropy and Economics – Part 2

Entropy and economics, like entropy and maintenance, are related. In part 1 there is a simple 3 legged stool model: design, maintenance, and operations being its 3 legs. It can deliver high performance at low cost and risk – i.e.: high productivity. It is important to keep the legs balanced and indeed intact! Doing so requires a bit of investment. In thermodynamic terms, we need to put some energy into the system to keep the entropy from growing. That energy is an investment in maintenance and the payoff comes in the form of steady, predictable revenues with a high margin for profit. Those words should be music to accountants’ ears. [Read more…]

by 2 Comments

How to not do supplier relationships

How to not do supplier relationships

You can’t win wars where your allies are also your enemies

Steve Tengler from Forbes Magazine recently wrote about how Audi was improving the reliability and quality of its cars … by helping its suppliers. And while I wished he had a little more robustness behind his conclusions, he reinforced just how important it is to focus on who makes your products and not just what they make. [Read more…]

by 2 Comments

Materials and Design Risk

Materials and Design Risk

The materials used in new equipment can pose a design risk. But what makes a material a design risk? And how is de-risking achieved for metallic and nonmetallic materials?

To satisfy design requirements for loading, corrosion resistance, and manufacturability, materials properties must be controlled. Design risk is high when material properties are not controlled and materials are not selected using best practices. And as stated in Equipment Risk, material stability is also necessary for long service life, meaning that mechanical and physical property response to elevated temperature and corrosive media is predictable or reasonably estimated.  Thus, controls for material properties and selection are the basis of de-risking. [Read more…]

by Leave a Comment

Professional Development & Growth

The key to growing your knowledge and career

qtq80-OjQuRsTo increase your knowledge, you need to learn new things, try new things and generally push outside of your comfort zone.   One of the key components of growing your knowledge is knowing what is new and happening in Maintenance, Reliability, and Asset Management.

I recently had the privilege to attend and present two papers at the Society  of Maintenance & Reliability Professional’s 2016 Annual Conference in Jacksonville.  This premier event was 5 days long.   The conference had 3 Days of workshops and courses, with 2 days of presentations.  Many certification exams were held, such as the CMRT, CMRP, CAMA. [Read more…]

by Leave a Comment

A Risk Imperative for Agency Leaders

A Risk Imperative for Agency Leaders

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

In June 2019, the Association for Federal Risk Management publish a document entitled: “Getting Ahead of Risks Before They Become Government Failures: An Imperative for Agency Leaders to Embrace Enterprise Risk Management”.  The document states: “Agencies are under increasing pressure to perform their missions more effectively and efficiently, while the types of challenges that government confronts are growing more complex.

Agency leaders are expected to keep program and operations on track by getting ahead of risks before they turn into problems.” (1) [Read more…]

by Leave a Comment

Entropy Fundamentals for more Uptime – Part 1

Entropy Fundamentals for more Uptime – Part 1

Entropy fundamentals for more Uptime can help us understand maintenance and reliability a little bit better. Reliability requires good execution of the right maintenance (energy), otherwise we will see reactive maintenance (entropy and chaos) increase. Engineers are familiar with the concept of “entropy” and the laws of thermodynamics. The second law of thermodynamics states that the total entropy of an isolated system always increases over time. It can remain constant in ideal cases where the system is at a steady-state or undergoing a reversible process. So what does that mean for us in the world of asset management and maintenance? [Read more…]

by 2 Comments

Stratification: A Basic Quality Tool

Stratification: A Basic Quality Tool

Stratification implies layers or differences. A quick test for soil composition is to place a sample of soil with water in a clear jar and give it a shake. The sand, silt and loam will settle at different rates and create a layered appearance within the jar over time. The height of each layer provides information about the proportion of each type of soil within the sample.

Stratification as one of the seven basic quality tools (some lists use a run chart or flowchart instead) the idea of layers or differences still applies. The idea is to identify potentially meaning differences within a sample set. [Read more…]

by Leave a Comment

Storeroom and Spare Parts Management

Unlocking the Hidden Cash Flow in Your Organization

qtq80-rLnKL0Imagine not have the right spare parts to make a repair, or maybe you don’t have to imagine it.  It has already happened.   Now imagine having to go through the storeroom and throw out $300,000 worth of parts because they were obsolete.  Once again, you may not have to imagine it. [Read more…]

by Leave a Comment

Ergodicity, Toilet Paper, and Field Reliability

Ergodicity, Toilet Paper, and Field Reliability

Ergodicity means that cross-section probabilities equal longitudinal lifetime probabilities. (“Ergos” is Greek for “work.” Think of “ergonomics”.) Ergodicity means that we can estimate age-specific field reliability functions from cross-section data: ships (installed base) and returns (complaints, failures, service parts’ sales, etc.). Ships and returns provide information about lifetimes. Returns are the superpositions of failures of products or their parts started at different times. What does ergodicity have to do with toilet paper? [Read more…]

by 1 Comment

Relationship between FMEA and Risk Management

“If no one ever took risks, Michelangelo would have painted the Sistine floor.” – Neil Simon

FMEA and Risk Management are two distinct bodies of knowledge. This article explores some of the interactions between these two important methods. It is not intended to be a complete analysis of the similarities, differences, and linkages between FMEA and risk management. Rather, it is a high-level overview.

[Read more…]