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You Really need a Plan

You Really need a Plan

There is a lot to be said for having a plan. Now, I’m not saying I always operate with a plan.  In my personal life, I tend to shoot from the hip, so to speak, and those that know me would undoubtedly describe me as impulsive.  As evidence of my spontaneity, I can cite a few  ever-morphing construction projects that had to be half redone once the final was denied  as well as dinners that ended up tasting a little weird because the recipe was composed of whatever I could find. Neither of these scenarios have devastating consequences when they are over budget, late to delivery or  kind of suck as far as accomplishing the original goal. We can always fix the weird porch extension next year and if you really don’t like my chicken, rice, tartar, mustard and olive dish then just order a pizza.  [Read more…]

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Root Cause Analysis vs. Shallow Cause Analysis: What’s the Difference?

Root Cause Analysis vs. Shallow Cause Analysis: What’s the Difference?

In a recent BMJ article entitled ‘Our current approach to root cause analysis: is it contributing to our failure to improve patient safety?‘, the authors’ state “Although RCA’s have been proposed as a mechanism for change, safety scientists believe the lack of improvement of adverse event rates in healthcare is largely because our methods of approaching change are ineffective”. [Read more…]

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Failure Analysis or Failure to Analyze?

Failure Analysis or Failure to Analyze?

“A failure analysis is a waste of resources. We know why it failed. We need to move on.”

If you have participated in a failure analysis, you have likely heard the preceding comments, and been told to fix the problem ASAP. You make a change, but the same failure re-surfaces and you are in the hot seat again. What can you do to improve the failure analysis process in the future? Let us begin by reviewing some realities of failures. [Read more…]

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5 Ways To Improve Reliability Of Performed Maintenance Work

5 Ways To Improve Reliability Of Performed Maintenance Work

Improving the reliability of performed maintenance work helps in the refinement and improvement of policies that shape a cost-effective maintenance strategy that aims to address dominant causes of asset failure.

Before we continue, we have to define how reliable maintenance looks like. In the context of this article, we will define it as consistently performing adequate maintenance in the required time frame. In other words, it means performing good maintenance work while respecting due dates.

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Post COVID: Fear and Loathing in Pandemia

Post COVID: Fear and Loathing in Pandemia

Guest Post by Malcolm Peart (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)

The risk of a pandemic is not an unknown unknown.  In the 2019 World Economic Forum’s Global Risk Report it ranked at a less than average likelihood with a more than average impact.  Not a bad assessment but the causes and consequences are difficult to evaluate.  There is a barrage of statistical data by country; a lack of knowledge and changing opinions which generates misinformation that is then clouded by journalistic sensationalism in the hunt for yet more breaking news and a spot on the TV. [Read more…]

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Myth busting 27: RCM is only for new assets

Myth busting 27: RCM is only for new assets

Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) was developed in the airline industry to be used for developing maintenance programs for new aircraft. There’s no doubting it – originally RCM was intended for new designs and arguably where the results of failure could be catastrophic, specifically the loss of life and where costs of maintaining had grown ridiculously high. Aircraft maintenance costs had indeed grown very high by the 1960’s and 70’s before RCM came along. In fact, one of the big drivers behind RCM was cost reduction. It worked too – in both the aerospace and nuclear power industries! Safety and other benefits were there too, but they were not primary drivers. Then, as today, cost was the problem that got the attention. [Read more…]

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Leaders & Losers

Leaders & Losers

by Alan Ross

As professionals in the field of electrical system reliability, we have a choice.

We can follow the leaders, or we can follow the losers.

 

It may seem harsh to say that there are “losers” out there, because that’s one of the words that nobody likes to hear. Well, I don’t mean “loser” in the same way kids do when they hold up an “L” on their foreheads on the playground (see above). I mean it in the literal sense. A loser is someone who has experienced loss. [Read more…]

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Understanding Software FMEA

“My software never has bugs. It just develops random features.” Anonymous

More and more mechanical and electrical systems include software integration. The FMEA methodology applies very well to software as well as hardware. It is possible to include software functionality in the System FMEA as part of the functional descriptions. However, for complex software functionality such as embedded control systems, it may be useful to perform a separate software FMEA.

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What is Depreciation?

What is Depreciation?

Depreciation is one of the more poorly understood, yet commonly encountered terms in managerial accounting. In accounting lingo, depreciation is the systematic allocation of the cost of an asset across its useful life. That’s a mouthful. But breaking down the definition into simpler terms helps explain how its used and why it’s important when conducting Return on Investment Analysis. [Read more…]

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The Risks that Go with Globalization

The Risks that Go with Globalization

Guest Post by Joseph Paris (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)

It is undoubtedly and incontrovertibly true that global extreme poverty has declined as capitalism has driven globalization – the trade between and among nations – to increase over time.  Certainly, there are arguments to be made that the growth in wealth has also been increasingly concentrated in the hands of fewer people, but the world as a whole has benefited. The charts below from Our World in Data, showing the number of people living in extreme poverty from 1820 to present, clearly demonstrate that the economic benefit of globalization has been as positive as it has been apparent [Read more…]

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Myth busting 26: I’ve read the book, now I’m…

Myth busting 26: I’ve read the book, now I’m…

Educational institutions realize that we all learn differently and combinations of learning styles will reach most of us. Some of us learn by seeing (reading), some by doing (tactile), some by hearing (aural). Most of us have a bit of each of these and rarely only one is enough. In college and university there is reading as well as assignment and lab work. We need both, so, how do we learn once we leave the academic world? [Read more…]