Your Reliability Engineering Professional Development Site
Find all articles across all article series listed in reverse chronological order.
The Hot Shot Rule is a way to be your own coach in seeing what is possible and what needs improving.
Basically, you ask yourself, “If a hot shot took over my job today, what is one thing they would think is unacceptable?” And then go address that one thing. [Read more…]
I am a parent of two young children. As a result of my experiences as a mom, I feel that parents make great Reliability Engineers because there are so many shared skill sets. Please enjoy this lighthearted comparison to start your week out with a little humor.
First, I have to point out the development of a brand new Reliability Engineer requires the same skills of lubrication and vibration that the conception of a child requires. [Read more…]
Significant savings in product development costs can be realized with robust validation processes, starting with requirements validation. Validation confirms the product meets customer needs for the products intended use, and answers the question “are we designing the right product?” The “right product” therefore starts with the “right” product requirements. Even a product designed with detailed requirements, but incorrect specification limits, can be considered the “wrong product” (since the product would be rejected by the customer.) [Read more…]
This is part of a short series on the common life data distributions.
The Logistic distribution is univariate continuous distribution. This short article focuses on 7 formulas of the Logistic Distribution.
If you want to know more about fitting a set of data to a distribution, well that is in another article.
It has the essential formulas that you may find useful when answering specific questions. Knowing a distribution’s set of parameters does provide, along with the right formulas, a quick means to answer a wide range of reliability related questions. [Read more…]
I just came back from one of the best RAMS conferences I have attended (In my over 10 years of attending). I was fortunate enough to present a paper on “Balancing Reliability Goals in the Product Development Process”. The questions I received were great! The higher level management of how reliability integrates into product programs is the next big advancement for our discipline.
-Adam
Many companies experience challenges during product development. Can Design of Experiments (DOE) help in that complicated set of activities? Each section below contains a 2-minute video to expand on the topic provided. [Read more…]
20 years ago, I began my first assignment as a Reliability Engineer at Eastman Kodak’s Photo Chemical facility in Rochester, New York. Now, I understand that I just lost several people who began reading this article by using the words “photo” and “chemical” in the same sentence, but 20 years ago, most photography was still a chemical process. [Read more…]
Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is an excellent tool to ensure linkage of customer needs to product requirements. This article will provide a high-level overview on creating a ‘first-level’ QFD and how it can be used to guide design optimization.
(There are many additional features of QFD , however, and readers of this article are encouraged to research the methodology further.)
As stated above, we use the QFD matrix (similar to a cause-effect matrix) to ensure linkage of customer needs to product requirements using the critical thinking / questions as follows: [Read more…]
As of the date of this note, the Inside FMEA series of articles has completed the “Introduction to FMEA Series,” and is nearly complete with the “FMEA Fundamentals Series.”
This year, Inside FMEA articles will continue on a monthly basis. Each article will be posted for readers on the 1st day of the month.
As soon as the “FMEA Fundamentals Series” is completed, articles will continue with the “FMEA Preparation Series,” followed by the “FMEA Facilitation Series” and the “FMEA Special Topics Series.”
Readers of my book, Effective FMEAs, will continue to find the content of the Inside FMEA articles consistent with the concepts in the book.
It is my sincere desire that each and every person who reads Inside FMEA articles will discover the articles enjoyable to read and experience improved success in FMEA applications. As I say to readers of my book, “best wishes for effective FMEAs.”
Carl S. Carlson
Guest Post by Rod Farrar (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)
I have often been asked to provide insight into the management of shared risks, particularly by those working in Commonwealth Government Departments.
Element 7 of the Commonwealth Risk Management Policy states that: each entity must implement arrangements to understand and contribute to the management of shared risks. It goes onto to define shared risks as: those risks extending beyond a single entity which require shared oversight and management. Accountability and responsibility for the management of shared risks must include any risks that extend across entities and may involve other sectors, community, industry or other jurisdictions.
That might sound simple enough – but is it? [Read more…]
Safety showers and eyewash stations are installed when dangerous goods are present. The shower installation has to meet recognised standards like American National Standard Z385.1. This article notes the key requirements for safety shower installations and discusses some practical issues. [Read more…]
If a manufacturing plant was a human brain: Maintenance would be the repairing blood flow, Operations would be the electricity sparking between synapses, and Reliability would be the conscience. [Read more…]
It wasn’t until I was negotiating a salary for an external job offer that I really came to understand my worth in the job market. I started my career with a chemical engineering salary of $60k in 2007. I felt like I had won the lottery to score this salary right out of college.
Over the next eight years, I received annual (merit) raises based on performance, career development raises that coincided with promotions, as well as a few “equity” raises. This put me just over the six-figure mark, leaving me feeling like a ROCK STAR!! [Read more…]
In recent articles I framed the structure of a market analysis to ensure we understand customer needs and value, product requirements are “the what” the design provides (to ensure customer needs are met); the design is “the how” the product requirements will be met.
Product requirements are determined by answering the following question: “What shall the (product) design provide (output) @ input conditions? (Input conditions are functional inputs provided by the user, or environmental conditions.)
A complex product may have several outputs that interface with a system, however, and/or several inputs may be needed in order to enable the product to perform it’s intended function. System integration is therefore required.
Let’s assume your product is a subsystem. The questions become:
How do we establish optimum system performance? We would expect the customer (system designer) would model system performance and provide functional inputs, outputs and specification limits (for your subsystem) in order to achieve optimum system performance.
Accordingly, subsystem integrators should understand system performance well-enough to help system designers with overall system design optimization…at the very least, understand gaps in requirements and associated system/subsystem development risks. The subsystem requirements document therefore is a key deliverable, reviewed in detail and approved by the customer.
An integrated approach to ensuring customer needs and value should be embedded in the product life cycle process, and can save your company (and your customers) millions of dollars in product development costs.
This is part of a short series on the common life data distributions.
The Normal distribution is a continuous distribution widely taught. It is commonly used to describe items, measurements, or time to failure data when there are many additive perturbations that comprise the results. This short article focuses on 7 formulas of the Normal Distribution.
If you want to know more about fitting a set of data to a distribution, well that is in another article.
It has the essential formulas that you may find useful when answering specific questions. Knowing a distribution’s set of parameters does provide, along with the right formulas, a quick means to answer a wide range of reliability related questions. [Read more…]
