Your Reliability Engineering Professional Development Site
Find all articles across all article series listed in reverse chronological order.
Do you have to apply Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) to every asset? Of course not! In this short video, I explain how RCM can be applied as broadly or as narrowly as you need, depending on your organization’s specific needs. Don’t worry about doing RCM for everything—just focus where it matters most!
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In the world of quality, reliability, product design, and manufacturing, improvement is a necessity, not a luxury. Few models have provided a stronger foundation for improvement than the Deming Cycle, commonly referred to as PDCA: Plan-Do-Check-Act.
Although simple in structure, PDCA represents a deep and disciplined approach to learning, problem-solving, and continuous improvement. Whether you are optimizing a production process, refining a laboratory method, or developing a new product, understanding PDCA is essential.
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At Pardus Consulting, we’ve just launched an online Jack-Knife Diagram (JKD) calculator that transforms downtime data into a clear, actionable visual.
By entering failure codes, counts of interventions and MTTR values, you’ll see at a glance which issues are both frequent and severe—no manual plotting or spreadsheet gymnastics required.
We’ve previously talked about this method as a much needed upgrade from Pareto Charts when prioritising downtime events and focus areas in our article HERE. [Read more…]
The concept of Reliability is often misused, misunderstood, and misinterpreted. Reliability in its academic root, is defined as the probability that a system will perform its intended function in a specified mission time and within specific process conditions. So, it is in essence a probability.
The ageing variable is crucial in calculating the reliability of a system. Reliability is the Probability of Success. And 1 minus the Probability of Failure. In the equation below , the ageing variable is time (t).
$$ \displaystyle \large R\left(t\right) = 1 – F\left(t\right) \:\:\:\: (where \: F = Failure \: Probability) $$
Reliability engineering is based on building data models to predict future system performance accurately. Based on past performance records. The model is more or less precise depending on how many past records we have. The more data, the more precise the model. At the end of the day, a well defined model, even with a little data, is better than no model. At least we can proceed in the right direction. That is, make the best possible decision for our assets.
This article looks at a non exhaustive list of models in the Reliability Engineering realm.
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Have you ever wondered by we use the assumption of a constant failure rate? Or considered why we assume our system is ‘in the flat part of the curve [bathtub curve]’?
Where did this silliness first arise?
In part, I lay blame on Mil Hdbk 217 and parts count prediction practices. Yet, there is a theoretical support for the notion that for large, complex systems the overall system time to failure will approach an exponential distribution.
Thanks go to Wally Tubell Jr., a professor of systems engineering and test. He recently sent me his analysis of Drenick’s theorem and it’s connection to the notion of a flat section of a bathtub curve.
Wally did a little research and found the theorem lacking for practical use. I agree and will explain below. [Read more…]
Software reliability and hardware reliability are two distinct concepts within the field of engineering, each with its own unique characteristics and measurement challenges.
Software reliability is defined as the probability that software will operate without failure for a specified period of time in a specified environment. It is a reflection of the design perfection rather than manufacturing perfection, which is more associated with hardware reliability. The complexity of software is a major contributing factor to software reliability issues. Unlike hardware, software does not degrade over time or wear out, but it may have faults due to design defects that can cause failures.
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The aim of being in business is to satisfy customers in ethical ways while making a profit. To achieve this, variable and fixed costs should be as low as possible without sacrificing on quality products or customer experience.
The term Operational Excellence is often used to refer to a range of technical, soft-skills, and culture components. Regardless of how it is phrased, the core definition and goal are the same – to produce better operational results, and create value for customers and shareholders. In short, Operational Excellence performance is to produce the best quality products or services customers will buy for the lowest expenditure to maximize operating profit. The most successful businesses have built systems and processes that automatically keep their costs low and profits high
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Breaking an old business model is always going to require leaders to follow their instincts. There will always be persuasive reasons not to take a risk. But if you only do what worked in the past, you’ll wake up one day and find that you’ve been passed by.
[Read more…]Dear friends, I am posting a video after some gap! This is our first video in our series on Response Surface Designs. Response Surface Designs become necessary when we want to model a second order response in an experiment. In this first video, Hemant Urdhwareshe explains addition of centerpoint to a factorial design to assess presence of non-linearity in the response. The concept is explained with a virtual catapult with a two-factor two-level design.
Links to the related videos:
(1) DOE-1: Introduction to Design of Experiments
(2) DOE-8: Linearity and Orthogonality in Experimental Design
(3) DOE-6: Case Study in Creating Full Factorial Design in Minitab
(4) DOE-7: Analyse Factorial Design with Minitab
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What Is SAE JA1011? The International Standard for Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM)
In today’s video, I explain SAE JA1011, the internationally recognized standard that sets the minimum criteria for any process to be called Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM). Published in 1999, this 12-page document was created to ensure that the term “RCM” is used correctly, following the original principles defined by Stanley Nowlan and Howard Heap. If you’re ever presented with a process claiming to be RCM, SAE JA1011 is your go-to reference to verify that the process is True RCM.
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Once a problem is clearly identified, the team must gather information concerning the problem, and identify potential solutons. After evaluating the potential solutions, the team can select the solution that will solve the problem effectively. It is then time to plan the details on the design change implementation.
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Everyone loves a great story. Storytelling has been a long tradition to pass along knowledge and wisdom.
There are good stories, tales of inspiration. There are sad stories, tales of caution.
There are fables, ghost stores, legends, epic poems, and more. When considering the reliability performance of your product or equipment, you probably have a few stories that you can tell. “That time … “
Simple join colleagues for lunch and ask about the ‘major disasters’ of the past. The stories help us to remember and hopefully avoid repeating mistakes.
Here are three stories with MTBF as a central figure. It is a site and blog that does take about MTBF, so it fits. To start, let me introduce you to Martin, a new reliability engineering reporting to his first day of work at a bicycle design and manufacturing company. Two sad stories and a good one. enjoy. [Read more…]
The level of care given to an equipment item depends directly on the size of business risk if it fails. Reduce the chance of its failure and you increase its reliability. It becomes vital to know the full range of risks each part within an equipment item will suffer. The right asset management strategy starts by knowing which parts are at risk and it is completed when the necessary actions to prevent all failures are in use. Asset Management that does not identify all the risks to equipment parts when selecting equipment maintenance and operating strategies will get you doing the wrong work.
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Back in 1990, I was introduced to Og Mandino, a best selling American author, just three of his books, “The Greatest Salesman in the World” The Greatest Miracle in The World” and “The Greatest Secret in the World” these three books alone sold over 50 million copies, his lecture was on “How to write and Speak.” In his presentation, which had been a tradition for more than 40 years, was posted on YouTube not long after his death in 1996. In it, he explains the relationship among three critical elements of any level of success: knowledge (K), practice (P) and talent (T).
“Gremlins today” is a series of short articles on problems that plague industrial operations the world over.
Originally, Gremlins were fictitious mischievous trouble makers who caused Royal Air Force aircraft breakdowns during World War II. Author Roald Dahl published a book about them in 1943, based on his own experience as an RAF pilot. Pilots in the RAF used to carry lucky Gremlins to ward off their effects. Dahl worked with Disney to publish a cartoon book based on them, but it never made it into a movie at the time. Never-the-less, it did loosely inspire the 1984 movie, “Gremlins,” by Steven Spielberg.
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