Your Reliability Engineering Professional Development Site
Find all articles across all article series listed in reverse chronological order.
Regular preventive maintenance (PM) makes up a large portion of many maintenance programs and, sometimes, we don’t get the results we want out of all that maintenance. Reliability professionals should evaluate their PMs to ensure effectiveness both from a reliability & cost perspective. [Read more…]
To gain an advantage on our competition, we need to accelerate and sharpen our learning process. This video provides some elements to allow us all to improve in this area. [Read more…]
With the growing trend of Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Data Science in Industrial Asset Management domain; I just wonder whether the Plant Engineers will still be keeping tab on the ‘Operating Context’ of their assets to extract real value from these revolutionary technologies or will just rush like lemmings to adopt them. [Read more…]
Guest Post by Geary Sikich (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)
Some interesting points about how organizations apply current standards such as Business Impact Analysis (Assessment) (BIA), risk assessment methodologies, compliance and planning has been written about lately. Each author presents good arguments for their particular methodology. Nassim Taleb created the concept of “Antifragile” because he did not feel that “resilience” adequately described the need for organizations to be ready to absorb the impact of an event and bounce back quickly. [Read more…]
The ability to make smarter asset management decisions is one of the main benefits of implementing computerized maintenance management software (CMMS). And the driving forces behind that ability are the reporting and dashboard features. Data mining is arguably the most important CMMS feature of all—it’s certainly a feature you should assess carefully when comparing software options. The CMMS reporting feature helps organizations accomplish the following:
Tracking key performance indicators (KPIs), or quantifiable metrics that reflect performance, allows maintenance managers to measure success. Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF) is a common KPI reported on within CMMS software. It reflects the amount of time lapsed between occurrences of asset failure, enabling maintenance staff to pinpoint problem assets. For example, a low MTBF for a specific piece of equipment could indicate there’s an underlying issue. Reporting KPI measurements such as these help maintenance managers spot potential trends leading to equipment breakdown and lags in production.
Over the last month, I’ve hired a coach to help me improve so I can improve and, more importantly, be happier. In one of my latest sessions, my coach said the goal for every day is “progression not perfection”. The concept being that perfection is unattainable and if we judge ourselves on perfection, we’re always going to be unhappy. [Read more…]
How two, back-to-back debacles with my face cream and eye cream highlight one of the strengths of Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) – and it has nothing to do with maintenance! Watch as I explain from my bathroom floor… [Read more…]
“Luck is not chance, it’s toil; fortune’s expensive smile is earned.”
Emily Dickinson
The Oxford English dictionary defines “occurrence” as “the fact or frequency of something happening.”
Reference the article Understanding FMEA Occurrence Risk – Part 1 which discusses how Occurrence is defined and applied in FMEA.
“You get pseudo-order when you seek order; you only get a measure of order and control when you embrace randomness.” Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Are you embracing randomness? There’s a misconception that once you determine a failure mode is random that your reliability work is over. That’s not the case, you’re just starting. [Read more…]
What types of equipment can you apply Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) to? (Hint: It’s NOT just for aircraft!) Watch to find out what Nowlan and Heap, the original architects of RCM, say about it! [Read more…]
Equipment failure is a reality that cuts across every industry. And when it occurs, its impact can vary from minimal inconveniences with localized damages that are easily contained and repaired, to significant incidents with damaging effects on the environment accompanied by several health and safety implications.
“The Perfect Reliability Program Plan”
We held the New England HALT Seminar this past week. It’s a little fun thing we like to put on every so often here in Boston. We do a few sessions where we talk about Reliability topics, we then play around with the HALT chambers and break a few things. It was great having sponsorship from Espec/Qualmark, and Air Liquide this year. In past years it has just been me doing a few 30 minute sessions (one man show). But this year we had four speakers and a diverse set of topics. Definitely our best one yet. This may grow to where we can’t do it at the lab any longer. Hopefully not, I don’t want to try and bring a HALT chamber to a conference center.
Let’s accept this with no uncertainty. We are living in times of extreme uncertainty. Be it the global politics or economics; our lives are clouded with a lot of uncertainty. Many economies & businesses around the world are stunned as to how to predict & plan for the future. Just see at the different predictions on oil prices made by renowned traders & analysts during last two years. Everyone seems to be so off-target. [Read more…]
In earlier articles, I discussed two risk-oriented surveys. One conducted at the World Economic Forum was of the world movers and shakers. The second was conducted by North Carolina State University. It reflected the responses of CEOs and senior managers. This article discusses the results of the Aon “Risk Management Survey” of risk managers. [Read more…]
When using a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS), proper naming conventions are important to its success. Although it may take time in the upfront planning phase to define IDs for assets, parts, resources, maintenance procedures, etc., the outcome will be well worth the extra effort. Appropriate CMMS naming conventions provide a streamlined process for easily finding information and reporting.
While a state of the art CMMS system provides extensive query capability by most data fields, it still makes sense to think about and craft proper naming standards. Your CMMS vendor should be able to provide recommendations that have stood the test of time and worked well for their customers. Most important to the success of a streamlined and efficient system is to document your organization’s conventions in the maintenance standard operating procedures (SOPs) and provide proper training on the SOPs, along with the software training provided by your CMMS vendor. Once users know the established standards and how to use their CMMS system, finding needed information is a snap.
