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Find all articles across all article series listed in reverse chronological order.
I’m Nancy Regan, joining you from the beautiful Key Largo, Florida. Today, we’re delving into a significant pitfall in Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) — not fully understanding the process. Just like a boat captain needs to know the waters, successful RCM implementation requires a deep understanding of its principles.
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The term Measurement Systems Analysis refers to a collection of experimental and statistical methods designed to evaluate the error introduced by a measurement system and the resulting usefulness of that system for a particular application.
Measurement systems range from the simplest of gages like steel rulers to the most complex, multi-sensor measurement systems. Yet regardless of their sophistication, all gages are flawed and fail to deliver a perfectly accurate result to their users. This idea is best expressed by an equation fundamental to measurement science,
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Crow-AMSAA Plots have a variety of names, such as Reliability Growth Plots or Duane Plots. The term “Crow” comes from Dr Larry H. Crow, who enhanced James T. Duane’s pioneering launch of this methodology, which was developed in the early 1960s (1). Crow successfully applied the method in the US Army Materials System Analysis Activity (AMSAA). The technique has blossomed into large amounts of new applications in industry such as but not limited to:
In practical terms, The Crow-AMSAA technique involves plotting, most commonly, cumulative failures vs cumulative time on a log-log scale resulting in straight line plots (2). The line slope value (or Beta value) indicates improving, deteriorating, or constant failure occurrences. Due to the straight-line nature of the plots, future failure forecasts can be estimated. In plain words, based on the current trend, when is the next failure expected to occur? This method handles mixed failure modes, so it is, therefore, suitable for the complex nature of the generating units. [Read more…]
Asking questions as a technical facilitator is a nuanced and deliberate process. All facilitators guide participants through solutions that are created, understood, and accepted by all. The “by all” part makes the role especially challenging and one that transcends a single session. Asking questions as a reliability facilitator contrasts with persuasion or manipulation, where narratives and emotions carry the day. The long game approach requires empathy, patience, consistency, and an in-depth understanding of context.
“Being a great facilitator requires commitment to your participants.”
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To me it means very little, as it rarely occurs. Products fail for a wide range of reasons and each failure follows it’s own path to failure.
As you may understand, some failures tend to occur early, some later. Some we call early life failures, out-of-box failures, etc. Some we deem end-of-life or wear-out failures. There are a few that are truly random in nature, just as a drop or accident causing an overstress fracture, for example. [Read more…]
The t-test was first described by William Sealy Gosset in 1908, when he published his article under the pseudonym ‘student’ while working for a brewery. Gosset, an Englishman, developed the t-test and t distribution, and he is considered the “godfather” of the t-test.
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Welcome to another insightful video where we dive into the world of Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM). I’m Nancy Regan, and today we’re tackling an important question: Do redundant systems require RCM?
Redundant systems, or protective devices, are vital because often they are our last line of defense when primary systems fail. But does this mean they need the same level of scrutiny as other systems?
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Overview the Plant Wellness Way EAM Methodology for a simple and successful Enterprise Asset Management System. Learn how to apply the Plant and Equipment Wellness enterprise asset management methodology. Follow the steps to get the best performance from your plant and equipment. Learn what systems and processes produce the optimal plant and equipment reliability results. From creating low stress component environment for lasting equipment health through to establishing the simplest and most effective business system and processes for world class asset management performance, this overview guide to the Plant Wellness Way takes you step by step in creating the outstanding asset performance needed for world class operational excellence. As with human wellness, the Plant Wellness Way requires you to build a healthy life for your machines. Learn to control your plant’s reliability by managing the stresses put on equipment parts and reducing the risk of failure so plant and equipment remains fit and healthy to produce its best performance. The Plant Wellness Way EAM methodology lets you find the ideal health conditions for your equipment and machines and makes you establish business processes and systems to achieve and maintain outstanding reliability performance.
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Compliance management is getting more challenging. Not only are legislators and governments around the world imposing more regulations, but the expectations placed on compliance leadership to management expanding scope of compliance oversight is growing every day. The periphery of compliance–including ethics, diversity, ESG, and risk management–ask to sever more of compliance leaders who are seeking to best manage, scale, and address compliance demand efficiently and effectively.
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Dear friends, we are happy to release our fourth video in our series on Hypothesis Testing! In this video, Hemant Urdhwareshe explains the application of Student’s t-test for paired t-test using tables of t-distribution and using Microsoft Excel Add-ins. The concept is illustrated with an application example of comparing assessment of answer papers by two professors!
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In this article we’ll look at the technical leg of project management that enables the development of a hardware product.
Let’s start with a simplified definition of project management:
The planning, monitoring and execution of the project within scope, schedule and resource constraints. The project manager works with subject matter experts to establish a work breakdown structure and facilitates the execution of WBS activities and deliverables. Ultimately, the goal is good project quality within the scope, schedule and resource constraints. However, good product quality and reliability depends on systems/validation engineering.
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The management of spare parts and inventories is all about balance between the cost of stocking the parts and the costs and risks of not having them when they are required.
As a consultancy owner, one of the most overlooked issues I see in Industrial operations is the management of spare parts. I don’t have enough fingers, toes and limbs to count how many times I’ve heard the phrase ” The machine is down because we’re waiting on spare parts”.
I see this phrase normalised so often that people don’t bat an eye and have accepted it as the norm- a lot of maintenance professionals don’t focus on the effective management of this area . I think this is overlooked because it requires MATH to calculate- and just like poetry, most people hate math. [Read more…]
Technical facilitators should avoid provoking others when asking questions to maintain respect, productive effective communication, and create professional relationships. However, there are situations where provocative questions can be effective. For technically trained professionals, the balance lies in knowing when to use respectful inquiry to foster collaboration and when to employ pointed questions to drive necessary change and innovation. The bottom line is to ask powerful questions. This article discusses how to avoid provoking others when asking questions.
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Preventive maintenance is a proactive approach used by industries to ensure the longevity and optimal performance of their assets. It involves regular maintenance tasks such as cleaning, lubrication, parts replacement, and equipment repairs to prevent unplanned downtime.
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Risk professionals can learn from Russia’s unprovoked war on Ukraine.
The ripple effect of the war on every individual can be felt across the globe. One such effect is the increase in fuel and food prices. This war is a stark reminder that we are living in an interconnected world. And the inter-connectedness of our risks within and external to our organisation must be considered as we identify and manage our risks. The complexity of our risk management practices should not be under-estimated.
Here are some risk management lessons we can learn. [Read more…]
