Your Reliability Engineering Professional Development Site
Find all articles across all article series listed in reverse chronological order.
Dear Friends, we hope you have seen our first video on Introduction to Design of Experiments DOE)! Here is my second video on DOE! I have illustrated a case study of DOE application to Spot Welding process! The Case study is about application of Full Factorial Design with three factors, each at two levels. The video assumes that viewers have seen our first video on Introduction to DOE.
[Read more…]
Eighteen years ago, at a small restaurant in Bath, England, a former head of the Royal Navy’s RCM program said something very poignant to me. It answers this question.
[Read more…]
Assessing critical infrastructure and facilities is essential for maintaining performance as systems age. Mid-level engineers are frequently tasked with leading a reliability assessment with limited training. The good news is that you don’t need to be a subject matter expert to be successful. But you do need a structured collaboration approach and a mental model to help you through the tough spots. Success rises and falls based on the quality of the facilitation. [Read more…]
With the kind permission of Wayne Nelson and Robert Abernathy, we are posting an article on the analysis of repair data. As you may know, the assumptions made when using simple time-to-failure analysis of repairable systems may provide misleading results. Using the analysis method outlined by Wayne is one way to avoid those costly mistakes.
[Read more…]
This article is the final of fourteen parts to our risk management series. The series will be taking a look at the risk management guidelines under the ISO 31000 Standard to help you better understand them and how they relate to your own risk management activities. In doing so, we’ll be walking through the core aspects of the Standard and giving you practical guidance on how to implement it.
In previous articles we’ve looked at the core elements of the risk management framework and the role of leadership and commitment, integration, design, implementation, evaluation and improvement more specifically. We’ve also briefly looked at the risk management process in a general sense, the importance of communication and consultation, how to set your scope, context and criteria, identifying, analysing and evaluating risks, and monitoring and reviewing risks. In this article, we’ll be looking at recording and reporting risks.
[Read more…]
To get different results of any kind, we need to make changes. As human beings we are very good at change, but not so good at “being changed”. If we want it, it will happen. If we don’t want it, we will resist.
Physical asset performance is a result of having a robust and reliable design to begin with, the right maintenance executed the right way, and operation within the assets’ performance limits. In an existing operation, the design is fixed already. Maintenance and operations however, are not, and can often be improved, usually with considerable effort. That effort however, can be well worth it.
[Read more…]
Abstract: Do the reliability math on organizational structure design, and in a militaristic silo configuration you’ll see that managers have a huge influence on their departments performance. But what is most surprising is that supervisors in silo groups have more than double their manager’s impact on their group’s success. Managers making poor and wrong choices will cause serious trouble. But supervisors who get decisions wrong cause catastrophe.
[Read more…]
In modern manufacturing, ensuring product quality is paramount. One of the fundamental tools employed to maintain quality standards is sampling plans. These plans provide a systematic approach to inspecting a subset of items from a larger batch, allowing for efficient and reliable decision-making regarding the acceptability of the entire lot.
In this primer, we probe the essentials of sampling plans, their types, and the trade-offs between sampling and 100% inspection. Because of their ubiquitous use in manufacturing, we will more closely examine attribute sampling plans, including single, double, and multiple sampling plans, and their applicable industry standards.
[Read more…]
Dear Friends, this video is created to provide a simple introduction to Design of Experiments (DOE). DOE is a proven statistical tool and is known to be superior to the conventional approach of One-Factor-at-a-Time of OFAT! In OFAT, one tries to optimize the settings of various factors one by one. But this has a major limitation of not getting information about interaction of the factors! DOE helps us to estimate effects of various factors along with their interactions! This is the first in the series of videos that we wish to create and share in near future. Our future videos on DOE will include practical application examples of DOE, analysis and interpretation, optimization using DOE, Fractional Factorial Designs. We will also introduce later to Response Surface Designs.
[Read more…]
Traditional spare parts or inventory calculation methods involving Min-Max levels lack rigor, especially for critical equipment. Reliability, Availability and Maintainability (RAM) models provide a better approach to this calculation.
[Read more…]
When conducting a Human Reliability Assessment (HRA), we use the terminology errors of commission or errors of omission. It behooves every professional to question why we focus on one metric in preference to all others in an objective and constructive manner in order to discern whether we are exposing our organization to errors of professional omission or commission. The other conclusion is that we are doing the right thing and this is also an empowering piece of knowledge.
This article is the thirteenth of fourteen parts to our risk management series. The series will be taking a look at the risk management guidelines under the ISO 31000 Standard to help you better understand them and how they relate to your own risk management activities. In doing so, we’ll be walking through the core aspects of the Standard and giving you practical guidance on how to implement it.
In previous articles we’ve looked at the core elements of the risk management framework and the role of leadership and commitment, integration, design, implementation, evaluation and improvement more specifically. We’ve also briefly looked at the risk management process in a general sense, the importance of communication and consultation, how to set your scope, context and criteria, identifying, analysing and evaluating risks, as well as treating risk. In this article, we’ll be looking at how you can monitor and review your risk management process.
[Read more…]
The request in the box below was received by email.
[Read more…]I am contacting you to make you aware of Request, RFP# 68250, “Breakthrough Technologies for Pipeline Leak Detection.”
We invite proposals for breakthrough technologies for pipeline leak prevention, detection, and remediation. We have identified you as a party with the potential expertise to respond to this request.
“No one can teach, if by teaching we mean the transmission of knowledge, in any mechanical fashion, from one person to another. The most that can be done is that one person who is more knowledgeable than another can, by asking a series of questions, stimulate the other to think, and so cause him to learn for himself.” Socrates
Questioning is important for transferring knowledge and building relationships. It is an essential part of effective teaching.
To maximize the benefits, RCM should be applied as early in the lifecycle as possible, beginning with the design stage. But, most RCM analyses are done on legacy assets – in other words – on assets that are already fielded. And many are initiated decades after the system was fielded – especially in the case of government and military equipment.
