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Find all articles across all article series listed in reverse chronological order.
When considering a business process improvement (or some other) initiative, we also want to communicate to motivate the right behaviors. However, initiatives often seem to use buzzwords or use titles familiar to employees that have seen such initiatives come and go (the key word being “go”).
The term “Project Management” has been overused in recent years. Many people claim to be one, but what does it mean. For us, it is a very broad and very impactful role. It covers all aspects of project execution and success. It also involves deep customer interaction. [Read more…]
Something on the Project goes wrong and is fixed – “Let’s put this down for lessons learned” goes the management mantra. But was this experience just a failing that should not have happened in the first place and relearning a previously taught, but now forgotten, ‘lesson’?
If we don’t learn then the same mistakes will be made and possible opportunities will be missed and, as Edmund Burke the 18th Century Irish Statesman said, “Those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it“. But why do we forget our lessons? Abe Lincoln said “Lessons not learned in blood are soon forgotten” reflecting that loss in some form such as money, property, or reputation, not necessarily blood, is needed to ensure that memory is ingrained and can be recalled.
Lessons that are remembered after the fact tend to add insult to injury; when you’re up to your neck in alligators you then remember that distant lesson about draining the swamp! [Read more…]
Grease and oil are the key lubricants used throughout industry to reduce friction between metal parts. Lubricants can only reduce friction if their immediate environment sustains their lubricating properties. Once the operating conditions are known a suitable lubricant with the right properties can be used. When the lubricant is in place it is necessary to maintain the environment and the machine to the specified design standards and protect it from changes to the design conditions. There are six key factors to address for trouble- free life where grease or oil lubrication is used on machinery. [Read more…]
In previous articles we covered design for six sigma and design for lean. Now let’s take a look at Design for Assembly. We’ll do this by following the Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) thought process, and add design for assembly (DFA) subtopics as follows:
As a reliability guy I love seeing how stuff works. Was recently given an opportunity to mess around and compare a new product to it’s siblings in a field I love, welding. I recently provided some input on an article release by Superiorglove about types of insulation and heat conduction. Superiorglove is a glove manufacturer that makes about every type of glove you could imagine, many are really impressive industrial applications gloves. I like how much they get into the science of it. In our discussions I used an example of how my TIG welding gloves protect against conductive and radiative types of heat transfer. They informed me that they had a TIG welding glove line and would love if I would review four of their models. I happily accepted because I love to weld, check out how things work and …free gloves.
I am frequently asked to review engineering reports and documents. And I am continually baffled with how many engineers want to ‘take their reader on a journey’ as opposed to getting to the main point. These engineers write documents where you have to read every single word to work out what they are trying to say. But having a final reveal is never a good thing in any technical document. [Read more…]
This article culminates the first major milestone in the Inside FMEA series of articles: the “FMEA Fundamentals Series.” The next series is called: “FMEA Preparation Series.”
“Remember to celebrate milestones as you prepare for the road ahead.” Nelson Mandela
How do you interpret a DOE? With a few principles it becomes easier to understand. Very important to consider the intangibles. It is not a pure mathematical problem. It is critical because this is where the value from the testing shows up! [Read more…]
Discipline, look it up in the dictionary and you will find the following definition; the practice of training people to obey rules or a code of behavior, using punishment to correct disobedience.
People tend to get nervous when the word Discipline pops up at the top of a presentation. Truth is there are several definitions to this word. As an example, Discipline is also a branch of knowledge one studies in higher education. [Read more…]
Guest Post by James Kline (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)
Recently, Lloyd’s of London in conjunction with the University of Cambridge Center for Risk Studies, published the results of their global risk analysis. Lloyd’s document is entitled “Lloyd’s City Risk Index: Executive Summary”. Cambridge has entitled theirs “Cambridge Global Risk Outlook 2017”. This is their second risk assessment. The first was published in 2004.
The index is a ten-year projection based on twenty-two threats to 300 hundred of the world’s leading cities. The 300 cities account for half of the world’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This piece discusses the results of the study and its implication for the application of Enterprise Risk Management (ERM). [Read more…]
The Big Bang – starting and stopping equipment under load. When a machine starts-up its parts move from zero speed to operating speed in a short time (the reverse when stopping). During this short period the biggest forces that the machine experiences act on its components. If during the start-up or slow-down the product or process loads are added to the machines own self-loads the forces acting on the machine’s parts are horribly magnified. If these impulse forces exceed the machine’s design allowance, or cause gradual fatigue, then the stressed parts will shatter without warning. [Read more…]
I had the unbelievable pleasure of piloting a retired 1953 T-34 Air Force plane. The plane is owned by a friend and it has recently undergone a full restoration. A few year ago this model was grounded by the FAA due to an unusual issue. After the investigation the fleet was cleared to fly and the root cause was ruled as “mis-use.” Something many of use may not consider enough when creating our own products.
A state variable is a parameter that is categorized into a countable number of defined states. Examples would include transmission gear states, PRNDL positions, ignition switch states, and others. Sometimes continuous variable, like pedal positions, may be binned into discrete states to be displayed as a histogram. State change timing is unpredictable since vehicle operation is highly variable. A way to deal with this data is Markov Analysis.
We have promoted this definition for Design of Experiments for a long time. This video provides the background of what each phrase is important. [Read more…]
