Your Reliability Engineering Professional Development Site
Carl and Fred discussing how much of what we do as reliability professionals falls into the role of consultants. Learning how to be better consultants will enhance the results of our day-to-day work.
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Carl and Fred discussing the process of knowledge transfer from one person to others. This process is at the core of influencing others to achieve reliability objectives.
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“Most of us spend too much time on what is urgent, and not enough time on what is important.” – Steven Covey
FMEAs take time and cost money. If time is wasted, FMEAs will be unsupported and ineffective.
In this article, I’ll lay out some tips to keep FMEA in-meeting time as short as possible, without reducing the quality of results. Many of these tips are based on lessons learned from doing FMEAs the wrong way. This is not a complete list. I’m sure you have other lessons learned to save time, and would love to hear from you.
Carl and Fred discussing a listener question about how which failures to count in demonstration testing. Specifically, what about maintenance induced failures, supply chain failures and other types of failures, not typically part of the product design.
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Carl and Fred discussing the need to be fast in smaller or startup companies. Reliability engineering can adapt to a fast culture and support lean product development, without compromising essential tasks.
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“Interdependent people combine their own efforts with the efforts of others to achieve their greatest success.” Stephen Covey
If you’ve been reading the FMEA facilitation series, by now you understand the primary facilitation skills. Studying and applying these skills will help you achieve excellent results in FMEA applications. [Read more…]
Carl and Fred summarizing and discussing the latest questions received from readers and listeners.
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“Creativity is an ability to respond adaptively to the needs for new approaches and new products.” Frank Barron
Creativity is an essential ingredient to achieving excellence in FMEAs. Excerpts from the book Effective FMEAs will be used throughout the article.
Carl and Fred discussing a listener question about the use of FMEA when ramping up equipment in a plant. In this case, the equipment had been sitting dormant for a number of years.
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Carl and Fred discussing a listener question about when it is OK to celebrate reliability successes. Specifically, how long you have to wait to feel comfortable you have a successful product when nothing bad happens.
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The mere formulation of a problem is far more essential than its solution, which may be merely a matter of mathematical or experimental skills. To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination and marks real advances in science. – Albert Einstein
In this article, we will discuss how to use brainstorming to enhance FMEA effectiveness, and when (and when not) to use brainstorming.
Carl and Fred discussing how to build rapport with colleagues, as one of the steps in shaping and influencing product designs and manufacturing processes.
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Carl and Fred discussing a listener question about the crossover knowledge between asset reliability and product reliability. What are the similarities? What are the differences? What about a potential career change between one and the other?
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“Honest disagreement is often a good sign of progress” – Gandhi
The Oxford English Dictionary defines “conflict” as, “an incompatibility between two or more opinions, principles, or interests.”
Conflicts are bound to arise from time to time. They can be positive and beneficial. An absence of any expressions of disagreement or conflict may indicate a problem in adequacy or quality of facilitation. Facilitators should not be afraid of conflict, but should learn the value of disagreements and how to manage them. Understanding the difference between healthy debates and dysfunctional arguments is critical to good facilitation. [Read more…]
Carl and Fred discussing a listener question about the value of certification in reliability engineering. Does it help one’s career advancement? Will it enhance one’s salary? What are the pros and cons? Does certification improve one’s prospects internationally?
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