Your Reliability Engineering Professional Development Site
Find all articles across all article series listed in reverse chronological order.
Recently, there has been an influx of Industry 4.0 companies promising their product/application would help predict the Remaining Useful Life (RUL) of a physical asset. Each uses a mix of machine learning algorithms to estimate the RUL based on the data available. This is their value proposition. But what is this ‘life’?
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This is an example of the value of identifying the variability in your business processes and removing them before spending money on new capital works. A simple production rate distribution bar chart shows you whether you have a “hidden factory” and how big it is.
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What does the future of any profession mean? Underdetermined future events (e.eg. COVID-19)? Future proof job? Work /family balance? Health at a later date? Secure retirement? It is all of the above and that is why you need to choose the right profession for you.
The future of the project management profession is bright and strong for a long time to come.
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In the world of reliability engineering, ensuring the long-term dependability and safety of components is of paramount importance. Nondestructive Testing (NDT) technologies have emerged as indispensable tools for reliability professionals in various industries, including aerospace, automotive, manufacturing, and power generation. By enabling the inspection and evaluation of materials and components without causing damage, NDT techniques play a crucial role in enhancing short and long-term reliability.
In this blog post, we will explore several NDT technologies and how they contribute to improving component reliability.
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The mining industry in Australia has for some time been plagued by high turnover in its skilled maintenance workforce. The tough lifestyle and remote/regional locations are some of the main contributing causes, and have been for years, however other industries of employment offering competitive wages and a better lifestyle have in the recent years pulled the workforce from mining, leaving a void of labor numbers behind that have proved difficult to fill.
The common query, “How do I keep equipment reliability up, even with high turnover?” prompts a standardized response from most maintenance professionals – proceduralize the maintenance system to reduce variability and maintain consistent output. However, while this approach bears truth, it overlooks a substantial aspect…
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Robert G. Albion was a notable historian of maritime affairs. He taught at Princeton and Harvard, and was one of the US Navy’s chief historians during World War II. In one of his books, Albion examined how timber management in Britain affected naval shipbuilding and maintenance policies.
In the late 1700s, the British Empire was more dependent on the navy for power projection, home defense, and security of maritime trade. In the age of sail, the average ship life was between 10 and 20 years. In the 17th century, British naval ships lasted 25-30 years. Albion found their average service life to be only 13 years in 1771. By 1792, service life fell to 12 years. In the Napoleonic period, the lifespan fell to only 8 years.
“The ‘life’ or duration of a ship was reckoned from the date of her launching to the time when her condition necessitated repairs as costly as the construction of a new ship.” The British determined service life by a basic level of repair analysis.
“This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill – the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill – you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes.”
– Morpheus to Neo in the movie The Matrix.
In the Reliability and Maintenance world, we often refer to what is known as the “bathtub” curve and ask the question: “What is the bathtub curve for this equipment?” The name “bathtub” comes from the equipment failure rate curve resembling a sanitary bathtub’s longitudinal section. In reality, it is rarely symmetrical and looks more like a distorted “u” or “v” shaped figure. The bathtub curve can be useful in various circumstances and help an operator better manage their assets over time. However, it is important to understand where it comes from and what it means so we can avoid misusing or misinterpreting it.
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How we provide business communication to senior management is different from how we communicate with our peers. Our language reflects the way we see the power related to our relationships. Communicating “with” someone subconsciously reflects a relationship of equals. Avoid this trap for better results – after all, you work for senior management. Make business communication “To” senior management for better results.
Communicating “with” is the politically correct way of communicating. “With” reflects more friendly, two-way communication. In fact, most software grammar checkers will recommend changing “to” to “with” to be less aggressive.
[Read more…]If there is one graphical technique that deserves a lot more attention that it gets and that every engineer needs to utilize in their day to day, my vote would definitely go for the mighty Youden Plot.
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Proponents of the Continuous Improvement method often quote the dictum ‘what gets Measured, gets Improved’. I’d like to modify it by adding ‘what gets Monitored…’ to its beginning. Here I’m referring to the Monitoring of the physical assets in their usage conditions and being Measured & Improved for their Reliability (Availability %, Cost $, MTBF, etc.) and Safety metrics.
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You read that headline right: everything does suck! And in this article, I’m going to give you the solid reasons why this makes me both optimistic and excited about our future!
Think to yourself: On any given day, how many times do you hear someone grumbling about their phone not working well, traffic patterns on their way to work driving them insane, how a business of any kind inconvenienced them by having poor customer service, or a government institution – commonly one like the DMV – putting them in a sour mood?
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Use Ben Franklin’s Distribution Curves for Performance Monitoring and Fast Improvement. Ben Franklin used statistical analysis to change his life. By measuring his ‘gaining of Virtue’ he quickly became rich and famous. You can change your business performance in the same way. But be cautious – Franklin’s method changed his behaviour forever.
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The (age-specific or actuarial) force of mortality drives the demand for spares, service parts, and most products. The actuarial demand forecast is Σd(t‑s)*n(s), where d(t-s) is (age-specific) actuarial demand rate and n(s) is the installed base of age s, s=0,1,2,…,t. Ulpian, 220 AD, made actuarial forecasts of pension costs for Roman Legionnaires. (Imagine computing actuarial demand forecasts with Roman numerals.) Actuarial demand rates are functions of reliability. What if reliability changes? We Need Statistical Reliability Control (SRC).
Actuarial demand forecasts require updating as installed base and field reliability data accumulates. Actuarial failure rate function, a(t), is related to reliability function, R(t), by a(t) = (R(t)-R(t-1))/R(t-1), t=1,2,… If products or parts are renewable or repairable, then actuarial demand rate function, d(t), depends on the number of prior renewals or repairs by age t [George, Sept. 2021].
Should you implement the manufacturer’s recommended maintenance schedules? Not without sanity-checking them first.
Be sure you consider your operating environment, which the manufacturer is unable to do.
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