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Accendo Reliability

Your Reliability Engineering Professional Development Site

All articles listed in reverse chronological order.

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Designing for Safety: Human Errors

Designing for Safety: Human Errors

Human Errors may be Unpreventable but, Preventing Harm is an Option

 

“You can’t cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water” – said Rabindranath Tagore, Nobel Prize recipient for literature. Not preventing harm is an example of this quote.

The quotation is an inspirational reminder that people achieve nothing unless they take purposeful action that has measurable results. Taking action on potential human errors, so that harm to system users is totally prevented, is a very productive goal because its impact is highly significant.

This article mostly discusses safety in hospitals because everyone is familiar with safety issues in healthcare. The principles equally apply to any process such as design, manufacturing, construction, and aerospace (Boeing 737 Max is an example). [Read more…]

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No Surprises – Asset Management Made Easy

No Surprises – Asset Management Made Easy

Good physical asset management is about making sure our physical assets do what we want them to do at optimum operating cost and tolerable levels of risk to safety, our environment and to your business.

Managing physical assets to achieve that in an industrial setting involves much more than simply buying and running a piece of equipment. [Read more…]

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Why a CMMS May Fail

Why a CMMS May Fail

CMMS: Computerized Maintenance Management System

Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) is an integral part of today’s industrial & commercial maintenance operations. During the last many years there have been a lot of advances made on improving CMMS & many products are now available in the market. Evolution of CMMS functionalities have now made it a vital component of Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) systems employed by many medium & large organizations around the globe. EAM as a whole is not the scope of this article; rather the focus is only on the CMMS. [Read more…]

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Reading is Fundamental, But Comprehension Is Important Too

Reading is Fundamental, But Comprehension Is Important Too

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

The art of debate has devolved.  No longer is it used as a tool of discovery, understanding, reconciliation, and progress.  Today, it is a tool used to beat one another into submission –with the wholesale surrender of the beliefs and values held by one party over the other being the goal. [Read more…]

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Is a Professional Certification Worth It?

Is a Professional Certification Worth It?

The way we learn, prove our worth, and the nature of work are all changing. Professional societies are struggling to adjust to these changes. Universities and employers likewise are experimenting and exploring new ways to operate.

Over the past few months, I’ve received about a dozen inquiries on how to prepare for the ASQ Certified Reliability Engineer (CRE) exam in order to obtain the ASQ CRE certification. Many also asked if I had a course available. Thus, I decided to run a live course (learn more at the live course page – note: if you see this after the course start date we’ll have a sign up for those interested in future classes). [Read more…]

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Can You See the Forest for the Trees?

Can You See the Forest for the Trees?

Last week, I was really struggling with anxiety and feeling like I haven’t made any progress in my personal development.  I felt like I had taken 1 step forward and many steps back to return to a place where I was paralyzed in my own mind.  My coach, Susan Hobson from Elite High Performance Coaching recommended that I put together a 2019 highlight reel of all of the things I had done that were meaningful in my development. [Read more…]

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3 Ways to Improve Your Reliability Thinking

3 Ways to Improve Your Reliability Thinking

I often joke that being a reliability engineer makes it difficult to get on an airplane. Yet air travel is by far the safest method of transportation. Maybe I just think about failure too much.

When a project manager views the day’s tasks, she sees timelines, connections, dependencies. When a marketing manager views a product idea, she sees benefits, sales channels, and profits. When a reliability engineer views a prototype, she sees the many ways it can fail.

Underlying how we view the world includes our assumptions, reasoning, and experience. We understand the world around us via the set of filters we use. We form conclusions and make decisions much the same way. Quickly and mostly automatically. [Read more…]

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Where Were You 6 months Ago

Where Were You 6 months Ago

When organizations bring me in, some times the team will say “where were you 6 months ago.” In several of those cases, I was already talking to them prior to the point of major project pain. If you ask, but do not need my support – I will tell you. But if you don’t ask, then you risk major project delays just to avoid a brief conversation. This video will discuss those unfortunate client situations. [Read more…]

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I Want it Now and I Want it Cheap

I Want it Now and I Want it Cheap

When it comes to information, entertainment, finding your way around and communications these days, we more or less literally have it all at our fingertips and available to us just about anywhere. We can even order and pay for coffee to pick up on our way from the commuter train to the office – no line ups for delays. We can book hotels, airlines and rental cars at the touch of our fingers with apps that show us the cheapest options. [Read more…]

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Not Understanding Risk Will Cause Your Projects to Fail

Not Understanding Risk Will Cause Your Projects to Fail

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

Risk is an event or activity that can go wrong and cause an impact to the project. Risks can have a negative or positive impact to the project. Risks that have a positive impact are called opportunities. If they a negative impact to the project, they are called risks.

Risks and opportunities can be generated by anyone on the project but typically are identified and analyzed at the IPT (Integrated ProductTeam) level.  A goal on a project is to try and balance risks and opportunities to mitigate the chance of cost or schedule growth. [Read more…]

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6 Maintenance Challenges CMMS Helps Resolve

6 Maintenance Challenges CMMS Helps Resolve

As a provider of CMMS software and services for over 30 years, we hear common challenges affecting maintenance managers, technicians, teams and overall bottom lines for companies. Luckily, computerized maintenance management software (CMMS) was developed to help overcome these challenges. Read on to learn more about specific maintenance challenges and how features available within CMMS help resolve each one.

Common Maintenance Challenge # 1:

Need a better way to reduce unplanned downtime and have the ability to plan and schedule preventive maintenance (PM) more effectively.

[Read more…]

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How Should I Start?

How Should I Start?

This morning, I was swimming and I was thinking about a question that I get asked frequently.  The question goes like this:

Rob, my facility is very reactive, how do I start my reliability program?

Having a water polo background is something I rely on when I embark on new projects.  I didn’t become a better swimmer by reading, watching YouTube videos or planning to become the best swimmer.  I got better at swimming by swimming.  I don’t discount the value of a coach, teammates or a plan (I had a coach and a team) but at the end of the day, you need to start. [Read more…]