Your Reliability Engineering Professional Development Site
Find all articles across all article series listed in reverse chronological order.
We use our biases every day to make choices.
We select the beige sweater because we have a color bias concerning our sweaters.
Many of our biases help us quickly make decisions. We rely on biases to move through the day. Many of our biases are under the surface, unconsciously guiding our daily decisions. Mostly, biases are good or at least inconsequential.
The problem is the bias that shields us from achieving our goals. [Read more…]
In conversations about “Six Sigma level” performance, I hear people using DPPM and DPMO like they’re the same thing. And in fact, they’re close, but not interchangeable. Among manufacturing quality professionals though, this distinction matters critically when describing how good (or how bad) a process really is.
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After conducting a thorough root cause analysis and identifying the underlying issues behind a problem, the next critical step is developing and implementing effective solutions. However, this process requires careful planning and consideration of various factors to ensure the solution addresses the root cause and can be successfully deployed. This article explores key considerations when implementing solutions, particularly for products already in the field.
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This article will be providing “World Class Maintenance” Best Practices. As I write this article, I like to ask what people are saying about this topic.
Several surveys conducted in industries throughout the world have found that 70% of equipment failures are self-induced. Maintenance personnel who are not following what is termed ‘Best Maintenance Repair Practices’ substantially affect these failures. Between 30% and 50% of the self-induced failures are the result of maintenance personnel not knowing the basics of maintenance.
Maintenance personnel who, although skilled, choose not to follow best maintenance repair practices, potentially cause another 20% to 30% of those failures. The existence of this problem has been further validated through the skills assessment process performed in companies throughout the world. This program evaluated the knowledge of basic maintenance fundamentals through a combination of written, identification and performance assessments of thousands of maintenance personnel from a wide variety of industries.
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Outsourcing is a form of alternative service delivery where one company hires another to perform some of its functions. It’s fairly common in some fields, such as accounting, manufacturing, human resources, procurement, and IT, but not as common when it comes to maintenance and asset management. It has its advantages and risks and must be approached carefully.
In July/Aug 2014, we authored an article on outsourcing in PEM magazine (now MRO Magazine). Although outsourcing isn’t yet as popular in North America, as elsewhere, it is increasingly being seen as an option. Here are a number of considerations to make when considering outsourcing or contracting services.
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Accuracy Controlled Standard Operating Procedures Use The 3T’s – Target, Tolerance, Test – For Work Quality Assurance
Assure production and maintenance work quality with accuracy controlled standard operating procedures containing 3t precision work instructions where work is done right-first-time, every time
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An Accuracy Controlled Enterprise (ACE) is focused on getting things ‘right first time’. The quality focus in an ACE is about doing a job, every job, masterly, whether done on the shop floor or in the boardroom. That is achieved with accuracy controlled standard operating procedures in which every task is proven to be completed accurately before continuing to the next task. It is about being a master of what you do so you deliver world-class results in your work. You can read about being an ACE in the white paper The Accuracy Controlled Enterprise.
[Read more…]“Evaluate what you want – because what gets measured, gets produced.” James A. Belasco
Years ago, many FMEAs did not recommend actions to improve product designs or testing. They identified risk, which is important; but missed opportunities to actually improve product designs and test plans. In this article, I will outline how to evaluate an individual Design FMEA or Process FMEA against the FMEA Quality Objective for test improvements.
The concept is to take specific action to add new tests and/or revise current tests, in order to address high detection risk. [Read more…]
Dear friends, we are happy to release our 99th technical video on Binary Logistic Regression (BNR)! BNR is an important statistical technique which helps in determining the effect of variable factors on a discrete binary response! Some application examples can be:
• Effect of pouring temperature, pouring time, carbon equivalent on casting defects such as porosity
• Effect of salary, and experience on attrition
• Bankruptcy prediction based on financial ratios.
Hemnat Urdhwareshe, Fellow ASQ, have explained the mathematical basis of the technique and illustrated the technique with an application example on SigmaXL software. We hope you find the video interesting and useful!
[Read more…]Empowering employees is more than a management buzzword—it’s a transformative approach to leadership that benefits individuals, teams, and organizations alike. When employees feel empowered, they take ownership of their roles, embrace responsibility, and actively contribute to the success of their organization. But what does empowerment truly mean, and how can leaders create an environment where it thrives?
At its core, empowerment is about trust. It involves granting employees the autonomy to make decisions, solve problems, and take actions within their roles. This trust not only boosts morale but also encourages employees to innovate, challenge the status quo, and drive improvements. The result? A more engaged workforce that’s motivated to contribute at its highest potential. [Read more…]
If you sort your Amazon search on ‘reliability engineering’ by price: low to high, you may find some interesting titles available for free or maybe a few pennies. Not one to resist a chance to fill another bookcase, it’s been a bit of a spending spree.
One of the reasons I am interested in older titles is to determine why MTBF is so prevalent today. So far, still looking and learning along the way.
There are many great books in our field. Sure, some are older. Some are not at all useful or helpful.
This book review is the first in what may become a monthly addition to the NoMTBF blog.
Today’s review is on the book, An Elementary Guide to Reliability (3rd) Third Edition
, by G. W. A. Dummer and R. C. Winton. [Read more…]
The 5 Whys technique is a powerful tool for root cause analysis, originally developed by Sakichi Toyoda and later popularized by Taiichi Ohno within the Toyota Production System. This method involves asking “why” five times to drill down to the root cause of a problem, rather than just addressing its symptoms. In the context of product development, particularly in the automotive industry, the 5 Whys approach can significantly improve overall reliability by uncovering the true sources of failure modes.
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If you want to drastically reduce maintenance costs, stop lost production, eradicate unplanned outages and equipment breakdowns, you need to stop the continual introduction of defects and errors into your operation.
You do that by using quality management practices to drive continuous improvement of your management systems and so continuously improve the business processes, and your peoples’ knowledge.
To reduce maintenance costs and production downtime it is necessary to reduce the causes of the maintenance and downtime. Both maintenance and downtime are an effect and not a cause. The causes can be traced back to defects and errors from a variety of sources. Knowing that defects eventually lead to future equipment failures, production downtime and lost profits, it is necessary put strategies into place to purposely prevent them occurring in the first place and to eliminate them if they are present.
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Orders and being ordered can mean many things to many people. In biology order concerns the taxonomic rank for classifying organisms. More generally speaking it concerns the arrangement of people or things in relation to each other in some form of pattern, sequence, or method. Alternatively, it can mean an authoritative command or instructions that are, typically, conveyed in a particular sequence. When ordering a meal, for example, it’s normally done in the order in which the food will be served, but that’s always best clarified in some countries!
However, and despite orders regulating many of the things we do and being an intimate part of our lives, the concept of giving or taking ‘orders’ is taken as reprehensible and repugnant behaviour by some. Ordering for them, outside of restaurants or other purveyors of supplies, smacks of being in the army or being subjugated. Regimentation and discipline are often frowned upon by some of our more sensitive colleagues.
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True or False? Reading a book or taking an introductory course on Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) enables an organization to successfully implement RCM.
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