Your Reliability Engineering Professional Development Site
Find all articles across all article series listed in reverse chronological order.
In this video, I share how Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) helps break the cycle of reactive mode by identifying plausible Failure Modes. I’ll explain the four criteria used for listing Failure Modes in an RCM analysis and how this proactive approach helps prevent unexpected downtime. Plus, stick around for a progress update on our building project!
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Dear friends, we are happy to release our 89th technical video. In this video, Hemant Urdhwareshe explains the basic idea behind Goodness of fit testes and how to perform Goodness of Fit test. Hemant illustrates this with an illustration of Goodness of Fit test for Normal Distribution using Microsoft Excel. Hemant is a Fellow of ASQ and is certified by ASQ as Six Sigma Master Black Belt, Quality Engineer (CQE), Quality Manager (CMQ/OE) and Reliability Engineer (CRE).
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In the fast-paced world of technology and manufacturing, one of the biggest challenges hardware companies face is managing New Product Introduction (NPI) processes. A common misconception is that simply applying an Agile template used in software production to hardware production will solve all problems, but without thoughtful consideration, it’s a recipe for disaster. Whether it’s waiting weeks for a crucial part, revising designs after production has started, or dealing with field failures, these common pitfalls can lead to big delays, increased costs, and, ultimately, unhappy customers. This blog will dive into some of these common challenges, offering insight and strategies to avoid getting caught in a never-ending cycle of fixing and delaying.
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Statistical tools play a critical role in product validation, particularly in the automotive industry where ensuring quality, safety, performance, and reliability is paramount. The search results provide a wealth of information on various statistical tools and methods that are commonly used during the different stages of product validation. Here are some of the most frequently used statistical tools based on the provided sources.
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Creating a product or system that lasts as long as expected, or longer, is a challenge.
It’s a common challenge that reliability engineering and the entire engineering team face on a regular basis. It’s also not our only challenge.
We face and solve a myriad of technical, political, and engineering challenges. Some of our challenges are born and carried forward by our own industry. We have tools suitable for a given purpose altered to ‘fit’ another situation (inappropriately and creating misleading results). We have terms that we, and our peers, struggle to understand.
Sometimes, we, as reliability engineers, have set up challenges that thwart our best efforts to make progress.
Let’s examine a few of the self made challenges and discuss ways to overcome these obstacles permitting us to tackle the real hurdles in our path. [Read more…]
Many companies adopt root cause failure analysis (RCFA) and then drop it. They use it for while and get no benefit. RCFA is often ineffective when used to solve individual problems. But when used to find systematic causes of problems and improve business systems, it provides grand payback for the effort.
Keywords: root cause failure analysis, business process improvement
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There are two mindsets surrounding the concepts of transformation and change. First, there is fear that comes with transformation and change. The feeling of not having control over something in your personal or professional life can be daunting, because it leaves us feeling helpless. And the second mindset is an apathetic, hands-off one. This is where the concepts of transformation and change seem so insurmountable that we accept them passively.
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True or False. Does RCM Always Reduce Scheduled Maintenance? False! Applying Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) may reduce scheduled maintenance if your current plans are heavy in scheduled replacement and restoration tasks. But if your organization is in Reactive Mode, RCM might actually result in more scheduled maintenance. The key benefit? Reduced unplanned downtime and significantly improved Equipment Reliability.
Watch to learn how RCM impacts your maintenance strategy! I’m Nancy Regan from Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Thank you for watching!
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Dear friends, we are pleased to released our 88th technical video on a very important topic in Statistical Quality Control and Six Sigma: Normal Probability Plotting! In this video, Hemant Urdhwareshe explains the concepts and basic procedure of Normal Probability Plotting using probability paper with a simple real life case study! Hemant is a Fellow of ASQ and is certified by ASQ as Six Sigma Master Black Belt (CMBB), Black Belt (CSSBB), Quality Manager (CMQ/OE), Quality Engineer (CQE) and Reliability Engineer (CRE)!
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Imagine product or part lifetime as the service time in a self-service system. Suppose you could observe periodic input and output counts of that self-service system, without identifying individual service times. How would you estimate the service time distribution without following individual products or parts from input to output? The maximum likelihood reliability estimator for an M/G/Infinity self-service-time distribution function from “ships” (inputs) and “returns” (outputs) counts also works for nonstationary arrival process M(t)/G/Infinity self-service systems, under a condition! A constant or increasing arrival (inputs or ships) rate satisfies the condition. If you identify returns by failure mode then you could estimate make nonparametric estimates of field reliability by failure mode and quantify reliability growth, without life data, if the condition is satisfied.
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An extended warranty is a prolonged warranty offered to consumers in addition to the standard and generally free manufacturer’s warranty on new items. It is also referred to as a service agreement or service contract, providing coverage for repairs or replacements after the manufacturer’s warranty expires. Extended warranties may be offered by the warranty administrator, retailer, or manufacturer, and they often come at an additional cost. Sometimes significantly in relation to the item’s base price.
The basis of this article is: should you consider buying extended warranty? What are the pernicious calculations it hides? It is often alleged that extended warranty is a ploy to extract more funds from a customer. Whilst this article does not question the honesty of the vendors of extended warranty, it demonstrates how warranty is calculated and that’s where the “devil” might lurk.
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In the world of hardware new product introduction, a broken process can have severe consequences, jeopardizing the success of a product launch and hurting the reputation of a company. So, it is crucial to understand the warning signs that a process is disfunctional. Whether it’s slipping schedules, exceeding budgets, or missing requirements, recognizing the signs allows teams to intervene in time.
Learn the ten warning signs and understand the potential impacts they can have on your product launch. By familiarizing yourself with these signs, you can take proactive measures to address them before they escalate into more significant problems.
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MTBF is a magic method for predicting time to failure for your new design. On this page we present to you the fastest way to achieving MTBF.
Maybe The Best Function ever! [Read more…]
In the automotive industry, particularly when dealing with electromechanical components, the validation process is a critical phase that ensures the safety, reliability, and performance of products before they reach the market. However, there is a growing Trend among companies to avoid failures during this process. Often leading to panic when they occur.
This article explores why encountering failures during validation should be seen as a blessing rather than a disaster.
[Read more…]Today’s Gremlin – “No plan needed”, shows up even where there are planners. This gremlin is comfortable creating maintenance work schedules that are little more than wishful thinking! Plans describe what work must be done, how it should be done and with what resources (skills, tools, parts, etc.). Schedules show when the work will be done. Between the two steps is a check on the availability of all those resources. Without them, the schedule is at risk. Without a plan, you don’t even know what to check on! “No plan needed” is at the heart of maintenance inefficiency.
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