Your Reliability Engineering Professional Development Site
Find all articles across all article series listed in reverse chronological order.
Product demo of Fluke ii900 Sonic Industrial Imager. This unit combines the ultrasound and the visual spectrum to allow the user to see compressed gas leaks. This product demo includes and unboxing, review of features, a test, and review of pros and cons. [Read more…]
The way we learn, prove our worth, and the nature of work are all changing. Professional societies are struggling to adjust to these changes. Universities and employers likewise are experimenting and exploring new ways to operate.
Over the past few months, I’ve received about a dozen inquiries on how to prepare for the ASQ Certified Reliability Engineer (CRE) exam in order to obtain the ASQ CRE certification. Many also asked if I had a course available. Thus, I decided to run a live course (learn more at the live course page – note: if you see this after the course start date we’ll have a sign up for those interested in future classes). [Read more…]
Last week, I was really struggling with anxiety and feeling like I haven’t made any progress in my personal development. I felt like I had taken 1 step forward and many steps back to return to a place where I was paralyzed in my own mind. My coach, Susan Hobson from Elite High Performance Coaching recommended that I put together a 2019 highlight reel of all of the things I had done that were meaningful in my development. [Read more…]
I often joke that being a reliability engineer makes it difficult to get on an airplane. Yet air travel is by far the safest method of transportation. Maybe I just think about failure too much.
When a project manager views the day’s tasks, she sees timelines, connections, dependencies. When a marketing manager views a product idea, she sees benefits, sales channels, and profits. When a reliability engineer views a prototype, she sees the many ways it can fail.
Underlying how we view the world includes our assumptions, reasoning, and experience. We understand the world around us via the set of filters we use. We form conclusions and make decisions much the same way. Quickly and mostly automatically. [Read more…]
When organizations bring me in, some times the team will say “where were you 6 months ago.” In several of those cases, I was already talking to them prior to the point of major project pain. If you ask, but do not need my support – I will tell you. But if you don’t ask, then you risk major project delays just to avoid a brief conversation. This video will discuss those unfortunate client situations. [Read more…]
“It is not possible for minds degraded by a host of trivial concerns to ever rise to anything great.” Jean-Jacques Rousseau
One of the most important elements of excellent FMEAs is to stay focused on areas of concern. What does this mean and how should it be applied?
When it comes to information, entertainment, finding your way around and communications these days, we more or less literally have it all at our fingertips and available to us just about anywhere. We can even order and pay for coffee to pick up on our way from the commuter train to the office – no line ups for delays. We can book hotels, airlines and rental cars at the touch of our fingers with apps that show us the cheapest options. [Read more…]
Risk is an event or activity that can go wrong and cause an impact to the project. Risks can have a negative or positive impact to the project. Risks that have a positive impact are called opportunities. If they a negative impact to the project, they are called risks.
Risks and opportunities can be generated by anyone on the project but typically are identified and analyzed at the IPT (Integrated ProductTeam) level. A goal on a project is to try and balance risks and opportunities to mitigate the chance of cost or schedule growth. [Read more…]
As a provider of CMMS software and services for over 30 years, we hear common challenges affecting maintenance managers, technicians, teams and overall bottom lines for companies. Luckily, computerized maintenance management software (CMMS) was developed to help overcome these challenges. Read on to learn more about specific maintenance challenges and how features available within CMMS help resolve each one.
Need a better way to reduce unplanned downtime and have the ability to plan and schedule preventive maintenance (PM) more effectively.
This morning, I was swimming and I was thinking about a question that I get asked frequently. The question goes like this:
Rob, my facility is very reactive, how do I start my reliability program?
Having a water polo background is something I rely on when I embark on new projects. I didn’t become a better swimmer by reading, watching YouTube videos or planning to become the best swimmer. I got better at swimming by swimming. I don’t discount the value of a coach, teammates or a plan (I had a coach and a team) but at the end of the day, you need to start. [Read more…]
One of my standing searches revealed an article that has shows a nice example of reliability data analysis. The author analyzed the time-to-violent-death of Roman emperors. The article is interesting in a historical sense plus illustrates a few key points for any life data analysis.
The article, “Statistical reliability analysis for the most dangerous occupation: Roman Emperor” by Joseph Homer Saleh takes a look at the 69 Roman emperors and 62% of them that suffered a violent death. The idea of the study was to determine if there is some pattern to the deaths and if the analysis would reveal any insights for those studying the era of the Roman emperors. [Read more…]
Prototyping is not an objective in itself. There needs to be a clear purpose for the prototyping efforts. How can you make that happen? This video provides you ideas on how that can work for you. [Read more…]
This is the second blog in a two-part series that explain how to present Capital Asset Management and Maintenance Improvement programs to the various decision groups who speak different “languages”. Your finance people speak in terms of revenue, costs, return on investments. They see things as figures and financial statements. Somehow they need to translate your operational or functional benefits into dollars in order to truly support your ideas. [Read more…]
The 2020 democratic presidential candidates are backing the New Green Deal, which calls for the elimination of fossil fuels within 10-40 years (depending on which candidate you are talking to). If America is serious about this goal, then nuclear fusion power is the only practical way to begin to achieve it. [Read more…]
Twas the night before Christmas
When all through the facility
Not an engineer was stirring
Not even in reliability
The KPIs were hung by the lunchroom with care
In hopes that the plant manager soon would be there
When out on the plant floor there rose such a clatter
I sprang from my desk to see what was the matter
Away to the plant I flew like a flash
Put my PPE on and slammed my door with a crash
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear
But a man and eight junior engineers
With a white hard hat, suit and a shiny high vis vest
I knew in a moment it was the CEO, I guess
He spoke not a word but went straight to his desk
And walked right past the broken equipment that needs money to invest
And laying his finger aside of his nose
And giving a nod, up the stairs he rose
But I heard him exclaim, ere he climbed out of sight
Happy Christmas to all and to all a good night
