Your Reliability Engineering Professional Development Site
Find all articles across all article series listed in reverse chronological order.
After you’ve purchased computerized maintenance management software (CMMS), your work is done. Implementation will be a breeze, all users will quickly learn the system and your organization will begin reaping benefits immediately. Although this scenario is possible, it’s very unlikely. Companies that carve out ample time for CMMS training typically experience the most success with their software.
Have you worked in a company that says they want to be world class in reliability but won’t make investments in training their people or their reliability initiatives?
Have you seen companies who say safety is a value, but you see people pressured to work in an unsafe manner?
These are examples of misalignment and violates a concept in asset management. In asset management, aligning decisions with the company’s purpose & objectives is how to get the most value out of your assets.
What does this have to do with my happiness?
I do agree that working for a company that says one thing but acts another way is frustrating and can impact your happiness (mostly through disengagement), but that’s not I want to talk about.
Years ago someone told me that application of DOE into the software development world is the Holy Grail. After experiencing good applications in this space, we decided to share a perspective on how to apply it here. Listen and share your perspective with us. [Read more…]
By James Reyes-Picknell & Uri Wittenberg
It is vital to get Planning right, so it will take some time to execute. This is where some of the philosophies, concepts and tools, conveyed during the Awareness portion in concert with past knowledge and experiences, will help assemble the overall implementation project plan with all its pieces. It should consider cross-functional daily interaction between all areas in the organization vital to the successful operation of all business essentials. [Read more…]
I would find it hard to believe that any successful person achieved that success without having at least one mentor along their journey – someone who was instrumental and influential in the life journey of the person being mentored (the mentee). But what is mentorship? [Read more…]
As I’m writing this, it’s December of 2019 and you should be putting the final touches on your reliability plan for 2020 before the holidays.
What should you include in your reliability plan? [Read more…]
I’m just back from a week long trip to Switzerland. I was there developing a new Failure Mode Effects Analysis (FMEA) course for the “R is 4 Reliability” education series. If you have ever been to Switzerland you found that there are several things that are striking about this place. The natural beauty is unparalleled. Just about every view from every angle is of a beautiful snow capped mountain that has a lake or stream connected at its base. It’s never got old to look up and be viewing a real life postcard.
Forming an ideal system’s approach to designing new systems involves developing paradigms, standards, and design process models for developers to follow in their future design efforts. These paradigms are called “words of wisdom” or golden rules [1]. They become the guiding lights for your product management needs. [Read more…]
The guidelines for process development of medical devices includes the topics of IQ OQ and PQ. This video discusses the high level needs and expectations for performing this work effectively. Done well, it is a competitive advantage. Done poorly, it will greatly delay time to market. [Read more…]
By: James Reyes-Picknell & Uri Wittenberg. The Four Sustainability Stages of the Conscious Asset Framework™ comprise 3 building blocks each. Each of these blocks will be reviewed and customized to fit each individual organization’s unique needs.
Let’s take a closer and more detailed look at each of the four stages and their elements. [Read more…]
The title is based on a comment: “The quality fear factor is gone.” The assumption behind the comment is that fear often motivates behavioral change. This was certainly true for the quality movement. But, if the movement was driven by fear, what happens when the fear is no longer there? Does anything replace it? This piece looks at these questions. [Read more…]
There’s no denying the power of the Internet of Things (IoT) on our everyday lives. Connected devices provide us with the convenience we’ve become so accustomed to. Take the Amazon Echo, for example. It’s much easier to ask Alexa to add an item to your grocery list than it is to write it down. But IoT technology doesn’t just impact consumers, it’s transforming the way companies do business. And integrating IoT with CMMS software opens up a world of new possibilities for maintenance management professionals.
The use of CMMS (computerized maintenance management systems) software to streamline maintenance operations and reduce costs has existed for many years. However, new capabilities within CMMS software have been realized thanks to IoT technology. Aside from convenience, the IoT provides greater reliability through its vast data connections. Going back to the Amazon Echo example, you can’t always rely on yourself to remember to bring a written grocery list with you to the store. But you can rely on a list generated by a cloud-based voice service and access it through your mobile device. Data stored within the cloud works to the same advantage for maintenance professionals—it gives them the ability to simplify and improve many tasks.
I’ve had a nagging feeling that I needed to write about this topic for a while and I haven’t for fear of judgment. In honor of a mental health campaign in Edmonton titled 11 of Us after the statistic that 11 Edmontonians that attempt or die by suicide each day) and my core values of honesty, impact and service, here it is, my struggle with mental health.
June 4th, 2010 – This day should have been the biggest moment in my life up to that point. I walked across the stage and graduated from MIT. Coincidentally, it was also my 22nd birthday. I remember feeling void, questioning what’s next for me. Up until recently, those feelings never left. [Read more…]
“Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” Sun Tzu
The Oxford English dictionary defines “detection” as “discovery (of what is unknown or hidden); finding out.”
Reference the article Understanding FMEA Detection – Part 1 which discusses how Detection is defined and applied in FMEA.
We just want to do our jobs and not get distracted collecting information in support of metrics given to us. However, engaging in the metric process will allow us to do a better job and garner the support for our jobs that we crave. [Read more…]
