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Find all articles across all article series listed in reverse chronological order.
In the current century, data is ubiquitous but how to make use of it to drive product decisions can take time and effort. Data visualization is a useful technique to identify patterns in a dataset and derive exploratory statistics to analyze trends.
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One way to think about risks is in terms of uncertainty.
Donald Rumsfeld, United States Secretary of Defense, explains the limitations of intelligence reports and issues surrounding risk-based decisions.
[Read more…]As we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don’t know we don’t know.Donald Rumsfeld
The Royal Navy built its first steam-powered ship, the HMS Comet, in 1822. The first generation of steamships normally had both sails and a steam engine. A ship with both sails and a boiler had a long range and was mobile in close quarters. A boiler reduced the tactical importance of wind direction, and allowed maneuvering in disadvantageous winds or when becalmed. Over the next 40 years, the Royal Navy converted many sailing ships to steam by retrofitting boilers.
The capability came at a cost. A worldwide coal distribution system was required. The ship had to contain a stack, machinery, the boiler itself, and tons of coal. The added weight changed how the ship moved and reduced space for supplies, weapons, and ammunition. Refueling, called coaling, changed operational patterns.
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Philosophies are for philosophers, theories are for academics, and approaches are for practitioners. That’s why when I go into an industrial plant, I ask the maintenance supervisor about their maintenance approaches, not their theories on maintenance. And the same can be said with business leaders. When I talk to executives, I don’t ask about their philosophy on running their business. I ask them to describe their approaches to running their business.
FINESSE is a cause-and-effect approach for effective communication with high levels of complexity and uncertainty. Said another way, FINESSE is an approach used for big, strategic decisions that take months or years to make. FINESSE facilitates the memory of effective communication: Frame, Illustrate, Noise, Empathy, Structure, Synergy, and Ethics.
[Read more…]Invisible threads are the strongest ties Friedrich Nietzsche
Key Teaching Principle # 2 is the instructor maintains a genuine connection with each of the students.
Our scientific knowledge has accelerated so rapidly that we sometimes forget the importance of human connection to our well being.
In 1951, Charles Latino graduated from NYU as a Chemical Engineer, and joined Allied Chemical & Dye Corporation as an entry level engineer in Chesterfield, VA. He soon found himself in the Maintenance Department, trying to get the significant number of ‘bugs’ out of the plant equipment and processes. He couldn’t understand why their equipment and processes broke down so much. He often mentioned, “If airplanes were maintained that poorly, nobody would fly them”. It is at that point that Charles decided it was time to make his plant ‘fly’. In the 1950’s, he referred to this effort as ‘increasing uptime’.
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by Jesus Sifonte
We have seen that RCM is defined as a process to determine what must be done to keep assets doing what their operators want them to do in their current operating context. What about RCM-R®? How does it stand when compared with SAE JA1011?
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Investigations of industrial accidents have found that a large number occurred during an interruption of production while an operator was trying to maintain or restart production. In each case the dangerous situation was created by a desire to save time and ease operations. In each case, the company’s safety rules were violated.
The best and most redundant safety layers can be defeated by poor or conflicting management practices. Numerous examples have been documented in the chemical industry. One accident in a polymer processing plant occurred after operations bypassed all alarms and interlocks to increase production by 5%. In another, interlocks and alarms failed—at a normal rate—but this was not known because management had decided to eliminate regular maintenance checks of the safety instrumentation.
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Risk is probabilistic—a risk event may happen or it may not. The human mind struggles to understand probability until you make a picture.
Here is a simple visual management tool to let you see the impact of changing risk. Combine it with a risk cost calculator and you have an effective way to see how your risk changes with risk management plans and risk abatements
We are blind to risk. Most of us have to suffer a risk event before we know we are in one. We first experience pain and then we realise that we need to stop doing what is causing the pain.
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In the realm of maintenance leadership, strategic business planning isn’t an option; it’s a prerequisite for success. The dynamic interplay of technology, industry standards, and organizational needs demands a clear roadmap for navigating the complex landscape of maintenance and reliability. Here, we delve into the significance of maintenance leadership in business planning and how it paves the way for optimal asset management and operational excellence.
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In this video, viewers will understand the basic concepts of Product Life Cycle. Phases of Product Life Cycle are Early Life period, Burn-in period or Infant Mortality period, Constant Hazard Rate Period and Wear-out period. Viewers will also get some understanding of the causes of failures in these phases.
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An operating asset, such as a refinery or oil and gas platform, poses risks to people and environment.
A quantitative risk analysis (QRA) quantifies operating risks.
Let’s get the math out of the way!
For quantification, risk is defined as product of frequency and severity. [Read more…]
Let’s say that you and your team have done well. Your products or systems are reliable. They work, customers are happy, and the cost of unreliability is low. That’s the goal, right? Congratulations are in order.
However, enjoying great reliability performance was the goal. It is what we expected. It’s what we worked to achieve. Now what?
[Read more…]When Weibull analysis is applied to complex, repairable systems – like mining equipment – care must be taken to ensure the analysis is applied to failure data exhibiting a common failure mode on the component-level, not the system-level.
This requires the reliability engineer to review the work order data at times and, ideally, the failed components themselves. Otherwise, the “Garbage In, Garbage Out” principle applies.
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Since I published my first contribution about reliability, I’ve received a number of emails asking where the stress and strength distributions come from (Figure 1).
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