158 LORA with Lucas Marino

Level Of Repair Analysis with Lucas Marino

Most of the organizations in the maintenance and reliability industry have limited resources and they want to make the best use of what they have got. If the maintenance requirements of an organizations don’t match its resources, it is always going to result into an increased cost and decreased employee performance. The type of maintenance that an asset required throughout its life cycle needs to be performed in a balanced way. That’s why it is so important to have a maintenance philosophy when you are planning the life cycle cost of an asset. Level of Repair Analysis or LORA is a framework that helps you manage between maintenance cost and resources.

In this episode, we covered:

What is LORA?
How to start using LORA!
The value of having a maintenance philosophy!
And much more!

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by Christopher Jackson 2 Comments

SOR 422 What Do I Do When the MTBF is Imposed on Me?

What Do I Do When MTBF is Imposed?

Abstract

Chris and Fred discuss what happens when you can’t avoid having the MTBF imposed upon you – even if it is your own organization and not the customer. Perhaps you are told that ‘our competitors quote the MTBF … so we have to as well!’ But you can (sneakily) tailor test data to get whatever MTBF you want. You can make life easy on yourself by not challenging this paradigm (noting that you will most likely get an unhappy customer). But it is almost impossible to apportion MTBF goals to individual designers that even allow the motivated ones to create a reliable system. So what do you do? Listen to this podcast to help you on your reliability journey.
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SOR 421 Specification Requires Testing… Really?

Specification Requires Testing… Really?

Abstract

Chris and Fred discuss scenarios where it is (for whatever reason) impossible to demonstrate reliability through testing. Some organizations think that if you can’t demonstrate through testing … then it can’t be a requirement that appears in a specification. So … does this mean that the customer can’t get something that is reliable if we can’t test for it? … can customers even ask for it? Of course they can. The customer knows what they want. Everyone needs to understand that you can verify performance through activities that don’t involve testing (… like analysis). This is how it works for nuclear power plants … so what makes your organization special? Listen to this podcast if this intrigues you.
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SOR 414 How Not to do FDSC

How Not to do FDSC

Abstract

Chris and Adam discuss FDSC. This may only mean something to you if you have experience in ‘military’ equipment. It stands for Failure Definition and Scoring Criteria. And it is used to remove subjectivity in classifying what sort of failure it is. Unless the military customer decides to change these during development. And this causes issues for all. If you want to hear more about what happens when you ‘shift the goal posts’ during development, then listen to this podcast!
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by Christopher Jackson 2 Comments

SOR 413 Characteristics of an Organization That Limits Reliability

Characteristics of an Organization That Limits Reliability

Abstract

Chris and Fred discuss what ‘tell’s an organization that sucks at reliability has. That is, can you just tell an organization makes terrible products before you even get to their reliability department/guidebook/strategy/laboratory? And if you can, what are they? Our experience shows that when we are brought in to solve a ‘reliability’ problem, we need to address a vision/leadership/resourcing/(insert poor business practice here) issue. If this interests you … please listen to this podcast!
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by James Kovacevic Leave a Comment

153-What tool when with Ron Moore

What Tool? When? with Ron Moore

Today’s episode is based on What Tool When by Ron Moore. The book covers all the common tools that are handy in a workplace for a maintenance engineer. Then, it covers concepts like Manufacturing, six sigma, TPM, reliability and maintenance along with information about lots of tools. In the early chapters, it provides insights into leadership and culture change. It tells you about the very basics of having a tool around and how to use it but it also provides you the basic things that should be in place before you get to the tool part.

In this episode, we covered:

The tools a Maintenance Engineer needs!
How to make change!
The steps you need to build a performance tool!
And much more!

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by Christopher Jackson Leave a Comment

SOR 412 Are Regulators Good For Reliability

Are Regulators Good For Reliability

Abstract

Chris and Fred discuss the role regulators play in many industries. Are we better off because of them? In many cases … yes. But perhaps regulators are also getting in the way of us doing things better. And at what point does their ‘net harm’ exceed their ‘net good’? Can regulators do a better job, and perhaps create an alternative to archaic checklists and compliance audits? We think yes. If this topic interests you, listen to this podcast!
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by Christopher Jackson 2 Comments

SOR 398 Introducing Accendo Reliability 2020

Introducing Accendo Reliability 2020

Abstract

Chris and Fred discuss the new challenges of reliability in the upcoming years. Accendo was originally setup to help reliability professionals in an objective and broad forum. And this appeared to fill a void. Trade magazines are over-bearing, with sponsor adds replacing well thought-out articles. Professional societies are becoming less and less relevant (but more expensive). And Accendo lists ‘competitor’ programs, blogs and articles where other organizations strictly focus on their products, courses, books and so on. So Accendo has become the only ‘one stop shop’ for the reliability engineering community who want to develop their skills.

[Read more…]

by James Kovacevic Leave a Comment

145 – How to Choose the Correct Seal Type with Chuck Tanner

How to Choose the Correct Seal Type with Chuck Tanner

Seals are very important to contain machine fluids and keep them from different sort of contamination. There are different types of seals in the market such as traditional packing, mechanical seals, air seals, and other seals that keep bearing hoses in check. Traditional packing is one of the cheapest sealing solutions out there in the market. The only difference between a mechanical seal and packing is that the mechanical seals work very well for the rotating piece of equipment. They give precision and accuracy where is needed as compared to the traditional packing where there are a lot more chances of errors while holding the fluids in.

In this episode, we covered:

What are seals?
What are the different types of seals?
What seal types are best for various applications?
Can you retrofit different types of seals?
And much more!

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by Christopher Jackson Leave a Comment

SOR 395 Professional Tidier Marie Kondo … and How we Can Do the Same in Reliability

Professional Tidier Marie Kondo … and How we Can Do the Same in Reliability

Abstract

Chris and Carl discussing how the self discipline of taking care of personal “tidiness” can be applied to improve the organization of reliability activities.
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144 – Understanding Asset Hierarchy with Shon Isenhour and Brandon Weil

Understanding Asset Hierarchy with Shon Isenhour and Brandon Weil

Asset hierarchy is very important to utilize the limited resources of an organization in the best way possible. It helps manage time and cost by prioritizing our assets. That’s why every organization needs to have a hierarchy. There are a lot of standards out there to help you build an asset hierarchy. ISO 14224 helps greatly in the matter. It contains guidelines that a maintenance and reliability organization can use to define some sort of organized processes and procedures that are important to have in the facilities. When they have laid out a foundation that way, it gets easier to do all sorts of things.

In this episode, we covered:

What is Asset Hierarchy?
Why is the asset hierarchy needed?
How should an asset hierarchy be organized?
How to develop an asset hierarchy?
And much more!

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by James Kovacevic Leave a Comment

142 – Developing Failure Codes with Bill Leahy

Developing Failure Codes with Bill Leahy

Failures codes help the reliability engineers to make intelligent business decisions regarding the issues with the assets. It is a formula that helps you understand how an asset fails and how can you gather the needed data to mitigate a failure? A good failure code contains a hierarchy of the problem towards a suitable solution. The best practice to devise a failure code would be to break it into a sequence of Part, Problem, and Cause. In short, failure codes help you describe and understand the problem based on the failure data, and you can trend that data to prevent those failures in the future.

In this episode, we covered:

What are failure codes?
Why are failure codes needed?
How can organizations develop meaningful failure codes?
What role does ISO 14224 play in failure data?
And much more!

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by James Kovacevic Leave a Comment

141 – Continuously Identify Problems w/ Peter Horsburgh

Continuously Identify Problems w/ Peter Horsburgh

Extraordinary Reliability Engineers always have some habits that differentiate them from the rest. One of these habits is that they identify the problem and really make sure that they understand it before they continue working towards its solution. A successful reliability engineer doesn’t just rely on the failure data, he actually analysis the problem, understands it, takes feedback from different people, and then deploy resources to fix that problem. When you really know what’s going on with your assets, only then you can hope to come up with a good solution that will stop that problem to occur repeatedly.

In this episode, we covered:

What are the 5 Habits of an Extraordinary Reliability Engineer?
What is Habit #1?
Why Habit #1 is so important?
How to incorporate Habit #1 into your day to day activities?
And much more!

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by Christopher Jackson Leave a Comment

SOR 375 HALT Versus ALT

HALT Versus ALT

Abstract

Chris and Adam discussing HALT and ALT. What are these? HALT stands for Highly Accelerated Life Testing. ALT stands for Accelerated Life Testing. They sound very similar. But they are not. HALT is a destructive test regime. In fact, a good HALT plan will involve that product failing many times. This is done by subjecting the product to stresses (vibration, thermal cycling et cetera) well beyond actual operating stresses. Some of the failures this creates will not be relevant. That is, they will simply never occur when the product is used ‘normally.’ But many failures are relevant. And by undertaking HALT, we now have a good idea of which failure mechanisms and modes are likely to occur when it is used normally. And this information is incredibly valuable to a design team. ALT on the other hand starts with a failure mechanism you know about. And in a short period of time, you can predict how long that failure mechanism will cause your product to fail when used normally.

Still confused? Well listen to this podcast.

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by Christopher Jackson 6 Comments

SOR 374 Reliability Security Blankets

Reliability Security Blankets

Abstract

Chris and Adam discuss ‘reliability security blankets.’ What are these? These are things that people or organizations do to give the illusion of ‘achieving something to do with reliability’ primarily to make them ‘feel’ better. Reliability security blankets tend to have little positive benefit. When we are focused on a feeling of ‘reliability goodness’ we quickly try to find the easiest way to get that feeling. Which leads us to standard or outdated methods, non-critical thinking, or (worst case) tests that are structured to ensure a system or product passes. Resources are sucked away from good reliability activities to create these reliability security blankets. If you think this applies to your organization, listen to this podcast.
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