Your Reliability Engineering Professional Development Site
A listing in reverse chronological order of articles by:
A month ago, I wrote about fire in a biodiesel facility – the last one for 2010.
Four days into 2011, a fire was reported at a biodiesel plant in Indiana. A boiler used to heat oil which in turn in used to warm biodiesel caught on fire.
Job safety has come a long way in 50 years since the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSH Act) was enacted. The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) says “more than 627,000 workers now can say their lives have been saved since the passage of the OSH Act.”
But the journey is ongoing and there’s much farther to go in eliminating death and injuries on the job.
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NTSB has issued seven safety recommendations following the September, 2010 San Bruno incident in California.
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The 21st century, was an era of unprecedented global integration. During this period, the U.S. became heavily dependent on China for providing low-cost goods to help low and medium waged Americans to make ends meet. COVID-19 unveiled a very serious weakness in the U.S. supply chain with China that was unknown to the general public and most of the legislature.
More than 85% of all imports for N-95 masks, respirators, disposable; and non-disposable face masks, surgical drapes, and surgical towels come from China. As an example, global trade in medical masks used by doctors and nurses grew from $900 million in January to $9.2 billion in May. China was the source of 92% of the U.S. imports.
How can we mitigate China’s supply chain risk? This paper presents a strategy to consider in achieving this goal.
Here’s a touching ad from WorkSafe, an Australian safety agency, that makes us realize the importance of safety at work.
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This article is the eighth of fourteen parts to our risk management series. The series will be taking a look at the risk management guidelines under the ISO 31000 Standard to help you better understand them and how they relate to your own risk management activities. In doing so, we’ll be walking through the core aspects of the Standard and giving you practical guidance on how to implement it.
In previous articles we’ve looked at the core elements of the risk management framework, as well as the role of leadership and commitment, integration, design, implementation, evaluation and improvement more specifically. In this article, we’ll be moving away from the framework and instead introducing you to the risk management process.
Below is summary (annualized average) of 20-year pipeline incident data from 1990-2009. [Source: Pipeline and Hazardous Material Safety Administration,PHMSA]
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“Too many cooks spoil the broth” goes the Elizabethan poet George Gascoigne’s proverb. Although only written down in circa 1575 it had probably been around for many years beforehand. It is still used today and, far from being archaic, it’s become more and more relevant despite mankind’s predilection towards efficiency and effectiveness. But why?
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EPA announced that the promulgation of National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) for industrial, commercial, and institutional boilers and process heaters is postponed to January 16, 2011. The regulation, commonly referred to as Boiler MACT, will affect approx. 13,500 boilers at various facilities deemed to be major sources of hazardous air pollutants (HAPs).
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The current state of the quality profession is affected by shifting business infrastructures and changing definitions of brand quality.
Businesses need to react and change against external pressures like increased frequency of consumer communications, the availability of big data, expanding regulations and standards, and the expectations to innovate quickly. The quality profession is at risk of losing its effectiveness in the overall business operations if it does not proactively change with the business.
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The third edition of API 752, “Management of Hazards Associated with Permanent Buidlings” came out in late 2009 and there are a few major revisions to consider.
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When the COVID pandemic stuck in March 2020, many organisations struggled with business continuity. Many were caught out without business continuity strategies or plans to overcome the likely business disruption that was brought about by COVID.
Having worked with organisations on their business continuity planning, the key challenge many organisations face in developing their business continuity strategies and plans is the level of business continuity planning and effort required. Many business continuity consultants have adopted the ISO 22301 Business continuity management systems — Requirements approach and have unfortunately over-engineered the approach as a one-size-fits-all.
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You may have read about the 2007 incident at T2 laboratories in Florida – the explosion killed four of the company’s 12 employees, injured four other workers and 28 community members.
[Read more…]The five in a 5S workplace organizational and housekeeping methodology refers to five steps – sort, set in order, shine, standardize and sustain. Safety should be the honorary sixth “S.
Many manufacturing facilities have opted to follow the path towards a “5S” workplace organizational and housekeeping methodology as part of continuous improvement or lean manufacturing processes. The term refers to five steps – sort, set in order, shine, standardize and sustain – that are also sometimes known as the five pillars of a visual workplace.
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