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Find all articles across all article series listed in reverse chronological order.

by André-Michel Ferrari 4 Comments

Introduction to Barringer Process Reliability

Introduction to Barringer Process Reliability

Barringer Process Reliability – Your factory performance on a single page!

Barringer Process Reliability (BPR) was developed by Paul H. Barringer, a fellow reliability engineer “extraordinaire” and an outstanding mentor for myself and countless others in this field of practice. BPR highlights operational issues. Not addressed and mitigated, those could have significant revenue impacts. A BPR analysis uses the Weibull probability plot which happens to be a very well-known tool in the field of Reliability Engineering. On one side of a sheet of paper only, the BPR plot can tell the true “story” on the operation.

by Greg Hutchins Leave a Comment

Failing Project: Too Many Cooks in the Kitchen

Failing Project: Too Many Cooks in the Kitchen

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

“Too many cooks spoil the broth” goes the Elizabethan poet George Gascoigne’s proverb. Although only written down in circa 1575 it had probably been around for many years beforehand. It is still used today and, far from being archaic, it’s become more and more relevant despite mankind’s predilection towards efficiency and effectiveness. But why?

by James Reyes-Picknell Leave a Comment

RCM – 10 Myths Debunked

RCM – 10 Myths Debunked

Article first posted at Conscious Reliability by James Reyes-Picknell, Jesus Sifonte, and team.

What do you know about Reliability Centered Maintenance?

James Reyes-Picknell

Despite its well-documented successes, Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) has always drawn a lot of discussion and controversy. Much of it is because of a lack of understanding and “myths” generated to discredit RCM as a viable business solution. Here we attempt to fill in some of those gaps in understanding and debunk some of the myths.

by Mike Sondalini Leave a Comment

Tips on Maintenance Job Priority Rating

Tips on Maintenance Job Priority Rating

To help select which work orders to do first in situations of resource shortage many CMMS provide calculations for maintenance work order priority. Deciding maintenance work priority is a risk decision. The presence of risk totally changes the way to allocate maintenance job priority if you want to compare situations equally¹. When you work with risk you cannot use a linear priority scale. Using linear priority ranking gives the wrong order of importance for doing maintenance work.

by Sanjeev Saraf Leave a Comment

Boiler NESHAP Rules Postponed Until January 2011

Boiler NESHAP Rules Postponed Until January 2011

EPA announced that the promulgation of National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) for industrial, commercial, and institutional boilers and process heaters is postponed to January 16, 2011. The regulation, commonly referred to as Boiler MACT, will affect approx. 13,500 boilers at various facilities deemed to be major sources of hazardous air pollutants (HAPs).

by Miguel Pengel Leave a Comment

How to calculate optimal maintenance intervals

How to calculate optimal maintenance intervals

In a previous article we covered how to perform a detailed Weibull Analysis in Excel. The outputs from a Weibull analysis are important because we can use them for a variety of Reliability calculations such as when to most economically maintain assets.

A common mistake we see made is Reliability Engineers determining the optimal maintenance interval as the MTBF. This is incorrect as it assumes that you will have failed approximately 50-60% of the components before you have maintenance performed on them. (Sounds ridiculous when you say it that way right!?)

by Greg Hutchins Leave a Comment

Future of Quality

Future of Quality

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

The current state of the quality profession is affected by shifting business infrastructures and changing definitions of brand quality.

Businesses need to react and change against external pressures like increased frequency of consumer communications, the availability of big data, expanding regulations and standards, and the expectations to innovate quickly. The quality profession is at risk of losing its effectiveness in the overall business operations if it does not proactively change with the business.

by Mike Sondalini 1 Comment

Physics of Failure Analysis for Roller Bearing Failures

Physics of Failure Analysis for Roller Bearing Failures

A tutorial explaining the Physics of Failure method applied to regularly failing roller bearings in a dewatering press. After three years of exhaustive efforts to solve the cause of the bearing failures it was decided to test Physics of Failure Analysis with the aim of finding a lasting answer.

by Joe Anderson Leave a Comment

Exemplary Maintenance Leadership

Exemplary Maintenance Leadership

The Backbone of High-Quality Operations

In the world of industrial and manufacturing enterprises, where precision and reliability are paramount, maintenance leadership stands as the unsung hero. Behind the scenes, these individuals and teams are the custodians of high-quality operations, ensuring that machinery hums with efficiency, downtime is minimized, and standards are not just met but exceeded. Let’s take a closer look at the essence of exemplary maintenance leadership and why it’s the cornerstone of a well-oiled operation.

by Nancy Regan Leave a Comment

Should RCM be Applied to all Assets?

Should RCM be Applied to all Assets?

Really? I don’t know any organization that has the time, money, and other resources to do so.

by Larry George Leave a Comment

Kaplan-Meier Estimator for Renewal Processes?

Kaplan-Meier Estimator for Renewal Processes?

The New-Products manager asked me, “Your actuarial failure rate estimates (from vehicle registrations, bills-of-materials, and automotive aftermarket store sales) are for dead-forever parts with at most one failure. What if auto parts could be renewed or replaced more than once?” Chagrined, I wrote a spreadsheet program to estimate actuarial rates for renewal processes, without life data. But what is the corresponding estimator from grouped, cohort renewal counts like the Kaplan-Meier estimator for grouped, cohort failure counts?

by Sanjeev Saraf 1 Comment

API 752, 3rd Edition: Changes In Facility Siting Standard

API 752, 3rd Edition: Changes In Facility Siting Standard

The third edition of API 752, “Management of Hazards Associated with Permanent Buidlings” came out in late 2009 and there are a few major revisions to consider.

by Karl Burnett Leave a Comment

Ten Books About One Failure Mode

Ten Books About One Failure Mode

Failure of Ship Hulls Due to Rot

British oak forests provided the wood to build the fleets that fought the Seven Years’ War, American Revolutionary War, French Revolution, and the Napoleonic Wars. New trees had to mature for 80-120 years for shipbuilding. By the early 1800s, three-quarters of British oak forests had been harvested to fight a half century of naval wars. Additionally, a scourge of dry rot reduced the service life of Britain’s main battle ships from the historical 25 years to less than 7 years. Britain had a severe national security problem – the Timber Crisis.

by JD Solomon Leave a Comment

What’s in a Heading? Five Writing Tips to Make Your Text More Accessible

What’s in a Heading? Five Writing Tips to Make Your Text More Accessible

Headings are vital in improving accessibility for vision-impaired individuals by providing structure, navigation, and context. Headings make content more understandable and usable for those who rely on screen readers and other assistive technologies when used correctly.

Good Practices

It’s essential to follow good practices to create accessible text with headings.

1. Use Semantic HTML Element

Use proper HTML headings (<h1>, <h2>, etc.) to create a hierarchical structure. Avoid using other formatting (e.g., bold text) as a substitute for headings.

by André-Michel Ferrari Leave a Comment

When Will my Equipment Reach its End-of-Life State? – It Depends…

When Will my Equipment Reach its End-of-Life State? – It Depends…

End-of-life definition

Operators need to estimate when in the future their equipment will attain their end-of-life state. Obsolescence is another word for equipment end-of life. Once they reach this stage, equipment replacement often leads to significant budgetary expenditures. In addition, if the operation has a large number of a particular equipment types, they could all reach their end-of life at the same time leading to even greater financial impact. In industry jargon, this is known as the “Tsunami” effect. Operators need to aware and prepared in order to avoid this “wave” of consequences. Managing future cash inflow and outflows happens to be crucial financial exercise in any organization. Therefore, end-of-life management in an important financial accounting exercise. However, estimating end of life this is not always as straightforward as it seems.