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The forever outfit, and a car for “right now”

The forever outfit, and a car for “right now”

I didn’t create this image but I thought it was an interesting idea. A consumer has captured  a niche group of manufactures that are basing their brand on “service for life.”  The forever outfit.

I saw this the same day that Tesla came out with their semi truck announcement.  A few things that caught my attention from that announcement was how they emphasized reliability and low maintenance in their product profile.  “The brake pads will last forever” and “The drivetrain has a 1 million mile warranty.”

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Understanding FMEA Controls – Part 2

Understanding FMEA Controls – Part 2

Problems and Solutions

In this article, we use problems and solutions to learn about FMEA controls. In the intermediate problem, we continue examining the door latch-pin failure of the DC-10 cargo door, as an example to identify FMEA controls. In the advanced problem, we analyze a fictitious FMEA relating to potential safety of someone trying to unjam a snowblower.

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Incorporating Reliability into Your Future

How Building Reliability Into The Equipment Design Will Dramatically Improve Your Profitability

6191850831_876eee6baf_zOften time’s equipment is procured, setup and put into operation with a single focus on reducing the initial capital expenditure.  This can be a fatal mistake as the reliability of the equipment is built into the design of the equipment.  This called the inherent reliability.  Once the equipment is designed and installed, there is little the maintenance department can do to improve the inherent reliability. [Read more…]

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Autonomous Vehicles and Safety – Why Industry has Every Right to Not Wait for Regulatory and Academic Leadership to Arise

Autonomous Vehicles and Safety – Why Industry has Every Right to Not Wait for Regulatory and Academic Leadership to Arise

What are legislators, regulators and academics doing to help the introduction of Autonomous Vehicles (AVs)? I don’t know either.

One of the sessions of the 2017 Autonomous Vehicle Safety Regulation World Congress that was held in Novi, Michigan, was devoted to ethics. The idea is that AVs must be taught what to do when death is unavoidable (hold that thought). That is, if an accident is imminent, does the AV kill the old lady or the three-month-old baby? Does the AV protect the driver or others around it? Many media outlets, journals and blogs emphasize this conundrum. The MIT Review published Why Self Driving Cars Must be Programmed to Kill where it discussed the behaviors that need to be embedded into AVs to control casualties. Some of you may be familiar with MIT’s Moral Machine which is an online survey aimed at understanding what the public thinks AVs should do in the event of an accident that involves fatalities.

But this discussion has conveniently hurdled the question – do AVs need to be programmed to kill? Because the answer is absolutely not. There is no compelling argument for anyone to expect manufacturers to design this sort of capability into their vehicles. In fact, it is likely going to make matters worse.

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Top Down or Bottom Up – The Dilemma of Continuous Improvement

Top Down or Bottom Up – The Dilemma of Continuous Improvement

I’m sure you have all heard the phrase I wish I had a nickel for every time someone asked me this question.  If you follow LinkedIn at all someone poses this question to anyone willing to answer at least once a day and as a result they get opinions that list the benefits of a Top Down or Bottom Up continuous improvement process. [Read more…]

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Is This The Same As That?

Is This The Same As That?

A common tool for comparing if two populations are the same is the “student t-test.”  This is often used in reliability, and science, if we want to investigate if a factor has caused a change in a respnse.

A population was assembled in location “A”.  Another population was assembled in location “B”.  Population “A” has an average defect rate of 4%.  Population “B” has an average defect rate of 5.5%. Does the location of assembly affect defect rate?  That’s just a big argument unless we can project the statistical likelihood that what we have measured is not just an overlap of noise. [Read more…]

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Understanding FMEA Controls – Part 1

Understanding FMEA Controls – Part 1

Leveraging the Value of Today

A common error in FMEA procedure is to make entries in the Controls column that the FMEA team believes need to be done, but are not currently planned or in place. Why is this error so prevalent? Maybe the question should be why do we limit entries into the prevention or detection control column to actions or methods that are currently planned or in place?

“Never mind your mistakes. One day they will become your most prized possessions.”
Abhijit Naskar

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Driving Performance Outcomes Through Effective Meetings

Understand How Effective Meetings Can Enable Improved Plant Performance

400StockMarketChartsNothing is worse than being in a meeting that completely wastes your time.  Hopefully those meetings have been eliminated as part of the steps to making you, the maintenance professional, more effective.  For the meetings that you could not eliminate, the meetings need to be effective, reducing wasted time and delivering benefits to the business.

To make meetings effective, the meetings should follow the 3 phases of effective meetings.  The 3 phases ensure that meetings are effective, efficient and everyone knows what they are there to do.  Lastly, it ensures that the any actions coming out of the meeting are addressed. [Read more…]

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Baldrige Adds Enterprise Risk Management

Baldrige Adds Enterprise Risk Management

Guest Post by James Kline (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) just issued the 2017-2018 Baldrige Excellence Frame Work.  There were modifications to a number of categories such as Category 1 Leadership, Category 2, Strategy and Category 6 Operations.  Included in the modifications were substantive additions for Cyber Attacks and Enterprise Risk Management (ERM).

In the discussion of the changes from the 2015- 2016 framework it is noted: “The future competitive advantage that will flow from good ERM is based on the holistic addressing of risk and the actions taken – including the pursuit of intelligent risks – as part of an overall strategic approach to managing organization performance.” (Baldrige.2017.45)

This statement makes two things clear.  First, ERM is seen as contributing to the competitive advantage for any organization.  Second, ERM is a holistic approach.  The inclusion of ERM in the Baldrige Excellence Frame Work does two other things.  It reinforces the momentum created by the inclusion of Risk Based Thinking in ISO 9001:2015 and the issuance by OMB of Circular A-123.   Both actions expanded the reach and ultimately the interest in ERM.  In addition, it signals that ERM is considered part of best practice. This means its use increasingly will become a standard by which all organizations can be evaluated by regulators and stakeholders. [Read more…]

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Reliability Engineering and Leadership

Reliability Engineering and Leadership

Leadership is a difficult term to clearly define. A team leader may have poor or wonderful leadership skills. A product may lead in a market with a broad feature offering, yet not hold a recognized leadership position.

As a reliability engineer, you will find many opportunities to lead. Your ability to provide vision, direction, guidance, and support for a team enables you to affect change and accomplish goals. [Read more…]

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The Top 5 Things I Hate About Social Media

The Top 5 Things I Hate About Social Media

First things first, let’s get something straight, I am not an internet marketing genius.  I do however talk with dozens of folks like myself who have active websites, write regular blog posts and enjoy interacting with family, friends and even customers via social media.

As a result like everyone else I have my list of pet peeves, the things that on their own may not send me over the top but put a few of them together and you will find me talking to the computer screen or my cell phone in a language not intended for young audiences. [Read more…]

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The Bane Of Our Existence

The Bane Of Our Existence

The bane of our existence is one thing, generating enough data to demonstrate statistical confidence.  Every reliability engineer, every project manager, every Director and VP all have the same moment of panic in a new product development program.  In synchronicity they put their head in their hand.  It’s when the required number of test units and calendar time to demonstrate a required confidence in the reliability goal is calculated.  It’s usually about ten times more units than can be acquired and about two times longer than the entire product development program timeline.

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