315 – Prioritizing Initiatives with Paul Daoust

Prioritizing Initiatives with Paul Daoust

Welcome Paul to the Podcast. Paul is the founder of Scio Asset Management. Although, briefly, tell us about yourself.

I have almost 30 years experience in engineering reliability maintenance and both strategic and holistic asset management. At Scio we are providing frameworks for leadership in asset management that is based on first principle decision making. Also launching Assetiers that is a platform for leaders to discuss the challenges that we have in asset management.

In this episode we covered:

There are challenges in prioritising where to allocate resources in asset management. Have you seen this?
How do we prioritise the initiatives that are already in place such as lean manufacturing, Six Sigma, 5S and reliability maintenance?
There are diminishing returns in pursuing reliability best practice. Do we always have to be the best in class in these practices?

ᐅ Play Episode

by Christopher Jackson Leave a Comment

How to Take the Guess Work out of Expert Judgment

podcast episode with speaker Chris Jackson

Most humans can be quite technically minded. And sometimes we aren’t. Sometimes, we expect every drug or medical procedure to be checked, approved, validated, and tested on other people (et cetera) before subjecting ourselves to whatever our doctor suggests. At other times, we spend lots of money at casinos (note that I said ‘spend’ and not ‘invest’ or ‘win’). When it comes to reliability, we can sometimes be too technically minded. A reliability ‘number’ might not exist until our product has undergone exhaustive testing. Which can often be two years too late to do anything about if it turns out it doesn’t meet all our reliability dreams. So what can we do? Well … why spend money trying to generate information (through lengthy tests) when you can use the information stored in everyone’s brain? The most common answer (even if we don’t want to admit it) is that this sounds like guesswork. And guesswork can sound unprofessional. Or it’s just wrong. But there are ways you can suck out information from a group of experts in a quantifiable and remarkably accurate way. Want to learn more? This webinar introduces you to some of the concepts that might interest you.
[Read more…]

by James Kovacevic Leave a Comment

314 – Clean Energy with Howard Penrose

Clean Energy with Howard Penrose

Welcome back Howard to the Podcast. Howard is the founder of Motordoc and is heavily involved with IEEE and SMRP. Though, briefly, tell us about yourself.

My entire career has been about electric machines and systems from my time in the Navy. I later had short stints both in repair business and teaching at the University of Illinois. I also ran the energy resources at the University. I later went into the test equipment industry and afterwards started a repair shop named Motordoc. Currently involved in a lot of ESG projects and Utility works in solar energy and wind turbines. Also I am the vice chair of American Clean Power.

In this episode we covered:

Do the utilities know what they need to ramp up for?
What are the industrial facilities doing especially in degasifying their energy through electrification?
How are we to take advantage of this clean power if the infrastructure cannot support it?

ᐅ Play Episode

by James Kovacevic Leave a Comment

313 – Decarbonization and the Impact on Maintenance with Steven Dobie

Decarbonization and the Impact on Maintenance with Steven Dobie

Welcome Steven to the podcast. Steven is a co-host of another podcast called Maintenance Disrupted. However briefly, tell us more about yourself.

I am a maintenance and reliability engineer in the mining industry who has been in tech for a couple of years. Presently working with a centralised maintenance group focused on keeping equipment and trucks running longer.

In this episode we covered:

Are you being impacted a lot by sustainability i.e decarbonization, electrification?
How does this impact people from a maintenance person’s perspective?
What are the other ways to produce power?

ᐅ Play Episode

by Fred Schenkelberg Leave a Comment

How to Check a Regression Fit

podcast episode with speaker Fred Schenkelberg

When fitting a line or curve to data, it’s a model. When modeling, it is worth remembering the George Box quote, “Essentially all models are wrong, but some are useful.” Yet, how do we separate a useful model from one that isn’t useful? One step in finding a helpful regression model is to consider the residuals. BTW: Weibull analysis is another term for regression analysis. [Read more…]

by James Kovacevic Leave a Comment

312 – Cost vs Benefit of Inspection with Dane Boers

Cost vs Benefit of Inspection with Dane Boers

Welcome Dane back to the podcast. We last talked about asset modelling and factors that influence those assets. Today we will talk about optimising strategies; how we determine cost vs benefit of strategies. But first, give a brief introduction of yourself and Modla.

Modla is an asset knowledge and analytic platform. The vision is to capture subject matter expertise and knowledge around an asset and business processes. It then combines that with data for continuous improvement. We have worked in the utility industry; particularly water and electricity.

In this episode we covered:

How do we determine the probability of finding a defect to establish inspection frequency?
Are organisations looking to optimise inspections to ensure the benefits are worth the costs?
Can you borrow a task in an FMEA from another organisation?

ᐅ Play Episode

by James Kovacevic Leave a Comment

311 – Defect Elimination with Doug Plucknette

Defect Elimination with Doug Plucknette

Welcome Doug back to the podcast. Doug is the Author, President and Owner of Reliability Solutions Inc. Though briefly, give an introduction of yourself.

I started my reliability consultancy career back in 1999 after serving in several capacities at different organisations. Although currently semi-retired, I still respond to past clients who need help in streamlining their processes.

In this episode we covered:

How do we start moving defect elimination from smaller to a little more advanced problems?
How long does it take to move from simpler problems such as leaks to dealing with more advanced asset problems?
How do you prioritise the problems to be worked on?

ᐅ Play Episode

by James Kovacevic Leave a Comment

310 – Name Your Spare Parts Correctly with Conrad Greer

It is my pleasure to welcome Conrad Greer to the podcast, the founder of SPCResults.

In this episode we covered:

What is data cleansing?
Why do we want to standardize our material information?
Is MPN a saving grace?

ᐅ Play Episode

by Christopher Jackson 2 Comments

What is Reliability Growth?

podcast episode with speaker Chris Jackson

Sounds simple, right? And it is. Reliability growth literally refers to a process where we improve the reliability of a product, system, or service. But sometimes we find ourselves in situations where it is expected that not only do we understand reliability growth … but measure it. And predict how much it will grow in the future. This is sometimes called Reliability Growth Testing (RGT), Reliability Growth Planning (RGP), or Reliability Growth Prediction. And there are lots of equations and models for all these things. But do these models actually model the ‘real world?’ … can they work for you? … SHOULD they work for you? This webinar introduces you to the topic of reliability growth (both qualitative and quantitative) along with key concepts (like the Duane Failure Pattern) to help you work out if there is (or is not) a place for reliability growth in your organization.
[Read more…]

by James Kovacevic Leave a Comment

309 – Optimizing Energy Efficiency of Rotating Equipment with Simon Jagers

Optimizing Energy Efficiency of Rotating Equipment with Simon Jagers

It is my pleasure to welcome back Simon Jagers, one of the founders of Samotics, an industrial analytics company that helps clients improve reliability and sustainability, particularly of their rotating equipment.

In this episode we covered:

Why is energy efficiency so important for organizations?
What can we do to address these problems with energy efficiency?
What do we do about all these energy wasting assets?

ᐅ Play Episode

by Fred Schenkelberg Leave a Comment

Reliability and Safety

podcast episode with speaker Fred Schenkelberg

Is a reliable product safer? Are the safety elements of a product or system independent of its reliability performance? These and other questions speak to the complex relationship between reliability and safety.

[Read more…]

by James Kovacevic Leave a Comment

308 – Determining Training ROI with Lucas Marino

Determining Training ROI with Lucas Marino

It is my pleasure, to welcome back Lucas Marino to the podcast, working at The East Partnership dealing with submarine logistics.

In this episode we covered:

Why do you need training?
How do we calculate that ROI?
Why are organizations hesitant to invest in training?

ᐅ Play Episode

by James Kovacevic Leave a Comment

307 – The Evil Ways of MTBF with Fred Schenkelberg

The Evil Ways of MTBF with Fred Schenkelberg

It’s my pleasure to welcome Fred Schenkelberg back to the podcast. He is a reliability engineer and management consultant.

In this episode we covered:

What is MTBF?
Why would people want to calculate what that average time between failure is or where did this come about?
What do you think about using MTBF to monitor a complex systems reliability, and using that to pro proactively look at reviewing the maintenance program to it?

ᐅ Play Episode

by James Kovacevic Leave a Comment

306 – RCM Implementation with Nancy Regan

RCM Implementation with Nancy Regan

It is my pleasure to welcome back Nancy Regan to the podcast, the founder of RCMtrainingonline.com.

In this episode we covered:

What is an RCM implementation?
What challenges do you see within organizations as they go to implement the findings from their analysis?
What do you believe is the most important outcome from an RCM implementation at the end of it all?

ᐅ Play Episode

by Gabor Szabo Leave a Comment

CT E07 Part 2: A Successful Implementation of the Active Learning Model with Keith Fong

In Part 2 of Episode 7, my recurring guest, the phenomenal Keith Fong and I pick up our chat where we left off in Part 1 and go into detail on how to successfully apply the active learning model in your day-to-day. We also go over an example of a successful active learning program implementation.

[Read more…]