A RELIABILITY IMPROVEMENT POLICY IS A DOCUMENT CONTAINING A SET OF PRINCIPLES TO GUIDE DECISION MAKING AND ACTIONS. IT TELLS HOW RELIABILITY WILL BE ACHIEVED IN AN OPERATION. IT COVERS THE WHOLE ASSET LIFE CYCLE AND SAYS WHAT WILL BE DONE AT EACH PHASE TO DELIVER RELIABILITY.

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Unfortunately, we have been operating in a crisis manner without a reliability improvement policy. Have you samples of a Reliability Improvement Policy that I can use as a basis of crafting one for my organization — do you have anything to share?
As I have stated in the past, the materials you post have been a big blessing to my work. You have definitely empowered me with great information that I see changing the way people work.

Hello Friend,

Industries using machines require them to run reliably (no failures or unplanned stoppages) with high availability (ready for immediate use) and high utilization (continuously in use) all their working life.

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by James Reyes-Picknell Leave a Comment

Getting the Right Parts

Getting the right parts for your maintenance isn’t quite as easy as you might think. To begin with they must be included in your spares inventory and stocked on your site. If not, they must be purchased when needed. If you are reacting to a breakdown, you will need them in a hurry, and you may find yourself short. Why does that happen? And, what can you do about it? Missing parts can cost you time – time that the equipment is down and not producing. Your operators are idled and your supply chain folks are scrambling to help you. That increases maintenance and operating costs, reduces production output and reduces available working capital. Those parts are like gold to your operation!

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by Nancy Regan Leave a Comment

The Biggest FMEA Mistake You Can’t Afford to Make!

In this video, I reveal one of the most common mistakes people make when writing Failure Modes in a Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA).

Too often, people confuse Failure Modes with Failure Effects, leading to wasted time and ineffective results. But don’t worry! I’ll show you how to avoid this by asking one simple question: “What specifically causes…?” This technique helps ensure you develop proactive strategies that improve equipment reliability, avoid unexpected downtime, and strengthen your overall maintenance plan

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by Joe Anderson Leave a Comment

Team Building: Strengthening Connections for Success

The power of a strong team cannot be overstated. Teams drive innovation, solve complex problems, and deliver results that no individual could achieve alone. Yet, successful teamwork doesn’t happen by chance—it requires intentional effort through team building.

Team building is the art and science of creating connections, fostering collaboration, and aligning individuals toward a common goal. While it’s often associated with trust falls and icebreaker games, effective team building goes far beyond these surface-level activities. It focuses on strengthening relationships, improving communication, and establishing a shared sense of purpose.

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by Mike Sondalini Leave a Comment

Contents of a Reliability Improvement Plan

Unfortunately, we have been operating in a crisis manner without a reliability improvement policy. Have you samples of a Reliability Improvement Policy that I can use as a basis of crafting one for my organization — do you have anything to share?
As I have stated in the past, the materials you post have been a big blessing to my work. You have definitely empowered me with great information that I see changing the way people work.
[Read more…]

by Nancy Regan Leave a Comment

Do We Analyze Every Failure Mode?

Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) Myths

True or False? Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) seeks to analyze every Failure Mode.

False! In this short video, I clarify that RCM provides specific criteria for selecting which Failure Modes to include in the analysis. Discover the four criteria that guide this selection process. They include those that:

Have happened before
Have not happened, but are a real possibility.
Have not happened, are unlikely to occur, but have severe consequences.
Are currently managed via proactive maintenance.

Join me, Nancy Regan, as we break down these criteria and enhance your understanding of RCM!

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by Mike Sondalini Leave a Comment

What is Equipment Reliability and How Do You Get It?

High equipment reliability is a choice and not an accident of fortune. To a great extent you can choose how long you want between equipment failures. You can deliver high equipment reliability by ensuring the chance of incidents that cause failures of equipment parts are low. The secret to remarkably long and trouble-free equipment lives is to keep parts and components at low stress, within good local environmental conditions, so there is little risk they are unable to handle their design duty. If there is nothing to cause a failure, the failure will not happen and your equipment continues in service at full capacity and full availability.

For maintenance practitioners, it is the use of precision maintenance backed-up with condition monitoring applied as a tool to prove maintenance work is done precisely, that provides the foundation for exceptional equipment reliability.

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by James Reyes-Picknell Leave a Comment

Rapid Reliability Assessment

The need

Our Rapid Reliability Assessment is designed for small or budget constrained operations. Consulting engagements with the big firms are expensive and out of the question. This is for smaller operations that need something that is not overly intrusive, not expensive, and gives them big bang for their buck.

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by Nancy Regan Leave a Comment

Understanding the Importance of Operating Context in RCM

In this video, we dive into the significance of operating context when identifying proactive maintenance tasks for your equipment. Have you ever considered how the operating environment impacts maintenance strategies? Using the example of our metal building, we explore how factors like temperature and operational conditions can drastically affect maintenance tasks and intervals. 🔍 Discover how we determine the operating environment in Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) analysis, including:

Equipment location and usage frequency
Operational demands and circumstances
The role of redundancy

We also discuss how operating context influences not only maintenance strategies but also other important failure management strategies, such as emergency procedures and equipment redesigns.

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by George Williams Leave a Comment

Team Building: Creating Cohesive and Effective Teams

Building a strong, unified team takes more than just hiring the right people; it takes leadership, accountability, and a shared vision.

In this video, George Williams, Founder & CEO of Reliability X, breaks down what it takes to bring a team together and keep them moving toward the same goals. From setting the example as a leader to coaching team members toward success, these insights will help you create a workplace where people collaborate, support one another, and grow together.

You’ll learn:

How leadership shapes team dynamics
Why coaching and influence matter in building a strong team
The role of accountability in teamwork • Practical ways to get everyone engaged and involved

If you’re ready to build a team that truly works together, watch now and start making tomorrow better than today.

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by Mike Sondalini Leave a Comment

Reliability Growth Cause Analysis Tutorial

Improved reliability has a cause. Just like a failure has a cause, so too is there a cause for improved reliability. You can wait for a failure to happen and then learn from the experience and change your processes to prevent it. That is root cause failure analysis. But it is not proactive behaviour. Such an approach quickly buries you in firefighting. It helps you fix a few terrible failures, but not the tens of thousands of defects that are waiting to create the next lot of disasters. Permanent reliability growth requires proactive methodologies that identify all potential problems and stops them from starting. This is what is done in high reliability operations – they never allow defects to begin.

The process maps of your business processes, the workflow diagrams of your operating procedures and the bills of materials for your equipment are the foundation documents for improving equipment reliability. They are used respectively to control the business processes, to control human error and to address limitations in materials of construction and parts’ health practices.

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by Nancy Regan Leave a Comment

What You Don’t Know About RCM May Change Everything

True or False? Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) produces more than just a Proactive Maintenance Plan. In this short video, we explore the broader benefits of RCM! Discover how a Facilitated Working Group approach empowers equipment experts to identify vulnerabilities, known as Failure Modes, and develop effective solutions that go beyond traditional maintenance strategies. From new operating procedures to equipment redesigns, RCM can drive meaningful improvements across your organization.

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by Mike Sondalini Leave a Comment

Show Me the Money in Maintenance!

Find the fortune maintenance can make for your business. Unfortunately, maintenance people get praise when they repair breakdowns. This embeds and promotes a culture of equipment failure acceptance in a business. Maintenance must be used to prevent equipment failures, not fix them. If you want to start a culture of failure elimination in your business you have to start putting a money value on the breakdowns prevented by Maintenance. You have to start praising and recognising them for the breakdowns they didn’t let happen. Maintenance needs to be praised and glorified for the money it makes a company, not singled out for the money it spends.

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by James Reyes-Picknell Leave a Comment

Today’s Gremlin – Assumptions

Today’s Gremlin – “Assumptions” can get a planner or a supervisor into a lot of trouble. You might be very knowledgeable and have great faith in your trades-persons, but assuming they know what you know, can be dangerous. There’s always discussion about “how much detail” to put in a maintenance job plan. It should be safe to assume your trades know how to perform those basic skills that earned them their trade. But it is not safe to assume they are familiar enough with your equipment and operation to use those skills correctly.

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by Nancy Regan Leave a Comment

Is RCM Necessary for All Assets?

True or False? Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) must be applied to all assets.

False!

In this video, we explore the flexibility of Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) and how it can be tailored to your specific needs. RCM doesn’t have to be applied to every asset; instead, your analysis scope should be driven by your goals. Whether you focus on a single piece of equipment, a specific component, or a select group of machines, the approach can vary. Join me as we debunk the myth that RCM must be applied to everything.

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