85 – Calculating the ROI with Fred Schenkelberg

Calculating the ROI with Fred Schenkelberg

The reliability and maintenance process is never static in the organizations. There’s always something going on around and there are many activities being performed in the company. Now, these activities take time and need money to be done successfully. There are many activities in this list that will cost you millions sometimes. So, how do we get that kind of investment from our financiers? Some of the stakeholders can be convinced by merely good talks and promises of great success but the technical personnel who have spent all their lives running businesses, they can’t be persuaded by such means.
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82 – Design for Reliability with Fred Schenkelberg

Design for Reliability with Fred Schenkelberg

There are times when companies look for bringing in a new piece of equipment or implement a system that makes their work easier. They install it properly and put a lot of effort into making that equipment work with the other systems in place but the results still don’t meet their expectations. So, what else can they do to make the outcome desirable? That is what should be taken into account in the design phase because if you have the design exactly right, it is easier to fix things when failures occur.
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81 – Making FMEAs Work with Fred Schenkelberg

Making FMEAs Work with Fred Schenkelberg

In most of the organizations, Failure Modes and Effect Analysis, is taken as a light exercise where people come, argue, and leave without learning a single thing of value for their company. There is a lot going on when you are in need of FMEA because unless your equipment is failing, downtime is increasing, and you are losing big cash, why would you even bother to do FMEA right? Well, there is the answer why FMEA workshops lead to nothing knowledgeable in the organizations. FMEA is a very useful tool for you to know the causes of equipment failure and the steps you can take to prevent it from happening again.
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69 – Using Reliability Software with Fred Schenkelberg

Using Reliability Software with Fred Schenkelberg

When it comes to reliability modeling, there are a lot of variables involved that you need to look at before you go into the design phase. It is not possible for a human mind to make all these statistical calculations and run analysis—varying from simple to complex data analysis. That is where a reliability modeling software is needed. Now there are a lot of software available in the market for different purposes but you need to be clear about your needs first. The software assists you by running simulations based on different models.
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59 – What is a Failure Mechanism with Fred Schenkelberg

What is a Failure Mechanism with Fred Schenkelberg

This episode is centered upon the failure mechanism that reliability engineers have to deal with in everyday work. Before we understand what a failure mechanism is, it is very important to know what is called a failure. A failure is a technically relative term that is used when the results are below the expectations. Now different people have different definitions of failure based on their own performance scales. The failure depends on the criteria of performance that you have set for a particular machine and when the machine falls short of generating that specific output, you call it a failure.
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54 – What Makes a Good Consultant with Fred Schenkelberg

What Makes a Good Consultant with Fred Schenkelberg

In this episode, the guest Fred Schenkelberg explains what is a good consultant? Whenever comes the question of performance in an organization—performance of assets—there is always a consultant involved who is helping you make your organization better at what you do. So what is a consultant? The consultants are mainly categorized into three major types. There are contractors who help you set things in motion or strategists who make strategic decisions for you. Then there are facilitators or internal ones who you hire for specific projects so that they can assist you just like an extra set of hands. The last ones are trusted advisors who help you every step of the way and if they are truly capable—which they usually are—with experience and expertise, they can really make a difference with the knowledge and insights that they have.
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44 – What is a Monte Carlo Analysis with Fred Schenkelberg

What is a Monte Carlo Analysis with Fred Schenkelberg

In today’s episode, the guest Fred Schenkelberg explains the Monte Carlo simulation in a fair amount of detail. Before you get in the depth of how the tool works, you need to understand what basically this method is. The Monte Carlo simulation has been around since World War 2 and it is a mathematical technique that works based on probability functions, random variables, and the distribution of statistical data. The main concept of it to give the decision maker the most obvious choices while facing any risks to get the best out of every possible outcome. The tool serves the purpose for getting a better insight of the consequences relative to each choice the person making decisions has to make. When you’re looking for the reliability of your assets and checking the integrity of your different maintenance programs, it is a really powerful tool.
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33 – Utilizing Multiple Layers of Protection with Fred Schenkelberg

Utilizing Multiple Layers of Protection with Fred Schenkelberg

In today’s episode, the agenda of discussion is utilizing multiple layers of protection for the products or assets of an organization. The plant itself and some other resources are very critical to the value of production of bigger companies. They can’t afford to have a failure because of the tight deadlines and allocation of specific budgets. That’s why it is always a good practice to have backups and their backups as well.
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31 – The Role of Certifications in Maintenance & Reliability with Fred Schenkelberg

The Role of Certifications in Maintenance & Reliability with Fred Schenkelberg

In this episode, the topic of discussion is the role of certifications in maintenance and reliability. When it comes to knowledge, skills, and abilities, there is no boundary of course but being a certified professional is worth more than just being a technical person. It not only reflects a better resume but it also works as a proof in the reviews and portfolios that the person has all the basic knowledge about the job he is doing.
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29 – The Role of Training in Maintenance & Reliability with Fred Schenkelberg

The Role of Training in Maintenance & Reliability with Fred Schenkelberg

Today’s episode is about the role of training in affecting change. Sometimes you need to train the workforce to work better than the beginners but that completely depends on the culture of the organization and skills, knowledge, and abilities of the employees working out there.
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28 – Designing for Maintainability with Fred Schenkelberg

Designing for Maintainability with Fred Schenkelberg

This episode of the weekly podcast covers the need of designing for maintainability. It is one of the biggest processes involved in the area of reliability and helps in improving the availability of the equipment in time. So first of all, we need to understand what this term is —and the tools and techniques that are required to make it successful.
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26 – Managing Spare Parts: A Discussion with Fred Schenkelberg

Managing Spare Parts: A Discussion with Fred Schenkelberg

This episode of the weekly podcast gives a detailed insight about spare parts. First of all, a technician should know whether to repair the equipment or replace it. For this, he needs to have some failure data to help him improve his handling strategy. Next question here is that which spare parts do we need to stock? The answer for this can be obtained on the basis of analysis mechanisms such as Failure mode and Effects Analysis or data collected through other reliability measures.
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25 – 8D Problem Solving with Fred Schenkelberg

8D Problem Solving with Fred Schenkelberg

In today’s episode, the topic of the discussion is 8D problem solving. When it comes to problem-solving, there are a lot of procedures and techniques out there but what most of the engineers and reliability professional use is the Eight Disciplines problem solving. It is step by step approach to finding the root cause of the problem and then resolve it effectively and systemically. To perform this method, you need to have a team of different experts in place as it is not the job of a single person. Then, you can start solving issues in the following steps.

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21 – What Makes a Good RCA with Fred Schenkelberg

What Makes a Good RCA with Fred Schenkelberg

This episode is based on the discussion on Root Cause Analysis also known as RCA. It is a technique which is used to solve complex problems when finding the origin of any failure gets difficult. RCA includes a series of steps that lead right to the place from where the problem originated.
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16 – A Discussion on Weibull Analysis with Fred Schenkelberg

A Discussion on Weibull Analysis with Fred Schenkelberg

This episode of the weekly podcast discusses the basics of Weibull analysis and distribution technique. By using it you can precisely calculate the probability of failures through a statistical analysis of the failure data. As it is a statistical way of calculating the failure rate and getting an idea about the downtime and life of the equipment, it needs data.
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