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on Maintenance Reliability

A listing in reverse chronological order of these article series:


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Is Your Project Ready for Operations?

Is Your Project Ready for Operations?

Is your project ready for operations when you want to start up? Can you commission and start up with ease and expect to reach full and steady production quickly? Or is your experience with project start ups more chaotic?

Chaos is natural

Conceptually, entropy is a scientific measure that represents that natural state of everything – chaos. The more chaotic things are, the more entropy they have. We tend to prefer things orderly and predictable. To achieve that we add energy, but without it, we will have chaos. If start ups after a capital project are chaotic, it means you have missed something. Think of it as not having enough energy. That energy is fore-thought and preparation. With it, your project is ready for operations.

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What Are Failure Effects in RCM? Understanding the Importance

What Are Failure Effects in RCM? Understanding the Importance

In this video, I dive into the concept of Failure Effects and why they’re important to the Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) process. A Failure Effect tells the story of what would happen if we did nothing to predict or prevent each Failure Mode, allowing us to properly assess the consequences and formulate the right maintenance strategies. I break down the essential components of writing a Failure Effect, including:

  • A description of the failure process from the occurrence of the failure mode to the functional failure
  • Physical evidence that the failure has occurred
  • How it adversely affects safety and/or the environment
  • How it affects operational capability
  • Specific operating restrictions as a result of the failure
  • Secondary damage
  • What must be done and how long it takes to repair the failure.

Understanding this zero-based approach is key, even though it can feel counter-intuitive to RCM Working Group members who are used to managing equipment proactively. That’s why an experienced RCM Facilitator is essential to guide the process. I also share an example of a Failure Effect in the video—feel free to pause and read through it.

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Eliminate Defects & Unlock Reliability in Your Operation

Eliminate Defects & Unlock Reliability in Your Operation

Defects slow you down, cost you money, and wreak havoc on efficiency. It’s time to change that! In this video, George Williams breaks down Defect Elimination. Defect Elimination is a building block in the Operational Reliability domain, part of the Maintenance and Reliability Best Practices Framework.

⚙️ Identify defects early

⚙️ Take swift action to remove them

⚙️ Improve product quality and plant capacity

Stop reacting. Start eliminating. Watch now and take control of your operation’s reliability! Want to implement Defect Elimination in your operation? Contact us today! Let’s work together to improve your plant capacity and efficiency: www.reliabilityx.com/contact

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 Developing Maintenance Strategy for a Sheet of Paper 

 Developing Maintenance Strategy for a Sheet of Paper 

 How do you work-out the right life-cycle maintenance strategies? Does one strategy apply throughout an asset’s life? What influences the choices and decisions as to what maintenance to do and when it should be done? How much money and resources do you expend in the maintenance of an asset? To keep the concepts behind these important questions on maintenance strategy selection simple they are applied to a sheet of paper.

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Do Reliability Centered Maintenance Working Groups Really Guess?

Do Reliability Centered Maintenance Working Groups Really Guess?

RCM Myth Busting: Truth Revealed!

True or False? Do Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) Working Group members guess during an RCM analysis?

In this video, I dive into a common misconception about Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) analysis. While it is often wrongly believed that RCM Working Group members take guesses, the reality is quite different. Thanks to their in-depth knowledge of the equipment and its operating environment, they are well-prepared to answer most of the questions posed by the RCM Facilitator.

But what happens when a Working Group doesn’t have all the answers? The RCM Facilitator is trained to recognize when additional information is needed. When that happens, the Failure Mode is put on hold, and an action item is raised to ensure the right data is gathered before proceeding.

Watch this video to learn how RCM analysis is designed to prioritize thoroughness, ensuring that every decision is based on solid information.

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Should We Outsource

Should We Outsource

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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Work Quality Assurance with ACE 3T Standard Operating Procedures

Work Quality Assurance with ACE 3T Standard Operating Procedures

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.

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The Power of Empowering Employees

The Power of Empowering Employees

Unlocking Potential and Driving Success

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…]

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Equipment Defect Elimination Strategy

Equipment Defect Elimination Strategy

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.

Abstract:

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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Failure free? How come?

Failure free? How come?

Parameter Definition in Statistics

In statistics, parameters are numerical characteristics that describe a population or distribution. They summarize important aspects of the population. For example, in a normal distribution, the mean and variance are key parameters that define the distribution. Parameters are often denoted by Greek letters (e.g., μ for mean) and are used to create a parametric family, which consists of all distributions defined by the same parameters.

There is typically at least one parameter in every distribution. Some distributions can have different multiples of parameters. The exponential can have up to two, the lognormal have up to 3. This article deals with the Weibull distribution which can have 2 or 3 parameters.

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“Uptime”, will There be a Fourth Edition?

“Uptime”, will There be a Fourth Edition?

Uptime is now in its 3rd edition

My book, “Uptime – Strategies for Excellence in Maintenance Management”, now in its 3rd edition includes a chapter on “Evidence Based Asset Management”. It emphasizes the use of historical data, enhanced (substantially in most cases) by “evidence” from experts obtained through a structured interview process of “knowledge elicitation.”

The questions asked are not leading, they are designed to get at reliability related information from the experiences of those who generally do not understand the mathematics of reliability. That process is painstakingly accurate and tedious. Projects that I was involved in, involved highly educated reliability and data science experts, and took upwards of 6 months to produce analytical results that could be used.

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Empowerment

Empowerment

True empowerment isn’t just a buzzword—it’s a crucial element in effective leadership. In this video, George Williams, Founder and CEO of Reliability X, breaks down the last building block of the Leadership domain within the Maintenance and Reliability Best Practices (MRBP) framework.

Empowerment requires more than a simple declaration—it takes confidence, knowledge, training, and the right organizational culture to truly make a difference. Learn how leaders can create an environment where empowerment thrives, fostering innovation and driving success.

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