Your Reliability Engineering Professional Development Site
A listing in reverse chronological order of these article series:
In today’s video, we’ll outline the educational background and work experience required for an RCM Facilitator, as well as the essential skills and abilities necessary for effective RCM Facilitation.
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Here is a simple checklist of 31 maintenance management tips that you can use to improve your reliability and maintenance results.
Use it as a guide to start you thinking which maintenance management improvement strategies to use to lower your maintenance and operational costs.
The 31 maintenance management tips list below takes the form of a bullet-point list so it can be quickly reviewed. Should you wish more information in detail on any of the 31 maintenance management tips, then please read the PDF article 31 Sure Ways to Lower Operating Assets Maintenance Costs and Improve Reliability. If you have any questions from the article please contact us on the email address shown in the Contact Us page.
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True or False? The RCM Facilitator is responsible for checking the technical validity of the RCM Working Group’s answers to the RCM questions.
False! In this video, we explore the true role of the RCM Facilitator, highlighting their responsibilities and why they should not be an expert on the equipment being analyzed.
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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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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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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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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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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.
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…]
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:
Join me, Nancy Regan, as we break down these criteria and enhance your understanding of RCM!
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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.
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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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:
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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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:
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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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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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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