Your Reliability Engineering Professional Development Site
Find all articles across all article series listed in reverse chronological order.
I (like most of us) try to keep learning about stuff. And this includes (on occasion) listening to guys like Simon Sinek who has made a name for himself as an inspirational speaker and author. I learn a lot from some of his stuff. Most people like Simon are skilled at simplifying fundamentally ‘good’ ideas and principles into really simple messages that are easy to break through our sometimes cluttered brains.
Trick question, it’s neither!
When we hear people use the term ‘error’ it is normally associated with being the cause of some type of bad outcome. We hear it all the time with airline accidents where they conclude ‘pilot error’.
‘Error’ is neither the cause nor the undesirable outcome! Let’s see why.
Is the only type of error a ‘human error’? I struggled to think of an ‘error’ that is not a human error, so I asked if others could think of something else. I would like to thank Dr. Peter Elias who commented that errors can occur in biologic processes, such as RNA and DNA replication or messaging. He also cited non-human animals make errors all the time as well.
A major asset is being installed, and the asset is vital to the success of a brand new, high-profit product being introduced to the site. This product is enough to keep the site operational for many years to come. The installation of the asset is critical, and there is extensive prep work to eliminate soft foot, ensuring the base is flat (using geometric measurement) and that the asset is aligned properly.
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“Well, there was the kidnapping. Is that something you’re interested in?”
It was our last day of a week-long site security survey. We were meeting with the site manager to wrap up our visit but this was the first time we had heard anything about something as serious as this.
So yes, a kidnapping was something we were very, very interested in learning about….
There are two things you must do in a successful maintenance program: be good at doing your work, and only do the right work. Both are needed to deliver asset reliability – the cornerstone of sustainable, safe and quality production levels. In chasing reliability many turn to programs for defining the right work, yet many of those efforts will fail. Why? Poor or ineffective planning. The greatest benefits come from defining the right maintenance program using RCM and then implementing with quality work and on schedule.
Failure of reliability improvement programs can be from poor execution of RCM, but more often it is the result of something more basic. They are stuck in a culture of unreliability. [Read more…]
Manufacturing companies are struggling with the persistent and growing problem of finding employees with the skills needed to sustain and grow their businesses. This problem is commonly called the “skills gap.” Other sectors like construction are also affected by this skills gap. But at the macroeconomic level, the skills gap in manufacturing is particularly profound because of the growth in other sectors that manufacturing influences.
In all the years of facilitating RCFA, what seems like the easiest part has proven to be one of the most challenging. Documenting the problem statement. It is human nature is to immediately develop an opinion and provide a solution. When a group of people are put in a room together for an RCFA they immediately believe they are there to solve THE problem. This leads to a focus on solutions to the event as it occurred. The team gathers in the room and the facilitator asks what the problem statement is, and the replies tell it all. “Jane, the operator, hit the wrong button.” “The technician didn’t know how to install the bearing.” “Poor lubrication.” Sound familiar?
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In this article post, we discuss several important techniques to consider when conducting and analyzing an experiment. They are summarized in the table below and next we discuss each one in a bit more detail. Some of these techniques are bit more advanced (e.g. Blocking, Covariates), but they are introduced here. [Read more…]
You are an engineering manager overseeing product development. For the new offshore product developed by your team, you want to know:
We’ve all been ‘there.’ Watching the ‘mechanical’ design team lead go through 378 PowerPoint slides of suffocating technical content, pixelated iPhone pictures of bearing housings, and lists of ‘open’ items in fonts that are too small. There are ‘senior’ engineers wheeled in to ‘review’ but instead nod knowingly and ask sporadic questions about something they once designed ‘back in the day.’ And the chairperson will often ask our ‘mechanical’ design team lead if they are ‘on track.’
If you’ve ever led a Root Cause Analysis (RCA) Team, you will relate to this article. Being an effective RCA analyst is tough work in the healthcare (HC) industry. It is fraught with administrative, technical and political hurdles that continually erode our will to be effective, in spite of these barriers. However, for those ‘driven’ analysts, they just rise to the challenge and find a way to go over or through these often mental barriers, because the end game is the patient’s safety and it is worth it!
As the kids go back to school, maintenance, reliability, and asset management professional resume their professional learning. This learning usually takes place at one of the numerous world-class conferences available across North America and internationally. These conferences allow professionals to observe and connect with the latest tools, technology, and techniques in our amazing profession.
Sometimes it is difficult for the maintenance, reliability, and asset management professionals to get the approval or funding to attend the conference. Some organizations look at these events as a week of vacation, where there is little to no value from attending the conference. Changing this perception is not an easy task, but can be started by having an intention for the conference.
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Organisations cannot afford to have a faulty strategy, a faulty strategy execution, or both. Getting them right is vital for their survival especially in today’s crisis and economic downturn.
Businesses survive and thrive by taking risks. They falter when risks and opportunities are not managed effectively.
For organisations to execute their chosen strategy and achieve their strategy-focused objectives, risks and opportunities resulting from the implementation of their strategy must be differentiated from the risks and opportunities posed by the strategy itself. They do so by embedding risk management into their strategy planning and execution.
When risk management is effectively embedded in strategy planning and execution, corporate leaders will know the shortcomings of their chosen strategy while identifying those strategic objectives that may be at risk during their implementation.
Reliability depends on the right maintenance being done the right way, and at the right times. At the core of making that happen is the work management process. It is a six step process that’s fairly simple, but often not followed very well. Without, workforce deployment becomes reactive to emergencies and maintenance costs are high. Work done in those reactive situations is anywhere from 1.5 to 3 times as expensive as work that is fully planned and executed on schedule. In some industries the cost of emergency work is even higher. [Read more…]
An earlier article focused on the conceptual application of appropriate sample sizes for X-bar charts. As we discussed, the purpose of control charts is to detect significant process changes when they occur. When the proper sample size is selected, X-bar charts will detect process shifts (that have practical significance) in a timely manner. [Read more…]
