Fred Schenkelberg — Thought Leader

Author of CRE Preparation Notes, Musings", NoMTBF, multiple books & ebooks>, co-host on Speaking of Reliability>/a>, and speaker in the Accendo Reliability Webinar Series.

This author's archive lists contributions of articles and episodes.

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Delivering The Bad News, Safely

Reliability engineering includes delivering bad news. This piece of equipment will fail soon, this design won’t survive outdoor use.

We start early with engineering judgment on design weaknesses. Continue by organizing groups to evaluate and comment on what will likely fail. We test, prod, poke and force failures to occur. Then we tally the actual performance and compare that to the what we hoped.

We are the bearers of bad news all too often.

So how do you avoid the stigma attached to that bad news? [Read more…]

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The 2 Parameter Lognormal Distribution 7 Formulas

This is part of a short series on the common life data distributions.

The Lognormal distribution is a versatile and continuous distribution. It is similar to the Weibull in flexibility with just slightly fatter tails in most circumstances. It is commonly used to describe time to repair behavior. This short article focuses on 7 formulas of the Lognormal Distribution.

If you want to know more about fitting a set of data to a distribution, well that is in another article.

It has the essential formulas that you may find useful when answering specific questions. Knowing a distribution’s set of parameters does provide, along with the right formulas, a quick means to answer a wide range of reliability related questions. [Read more…]

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Reliability Engineering is About Answering 3 Questions

Engineers solve problems. We optimize solutions.

Engineering starts with a question. The work of engineering is answering those questions. Can we create an antenna with enough range? How can we make a safe autonomous driving car? How much can a delivery drone carry if it has a range of 100 miles?

Reliability engineers are no different. We ask questions and work to answer them. To solve the problems in the pursuit of providing our customers reliable solutions.

In general, there are only a few types of questions a reliability engineer addresses: What will fail, when, and what is the impact of a failure.

The answers are used to design reliable products, optimize supply chains and assembly processes, refine warranty accruals, and identify significant business risks. [Read more…]

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Fundamentals of Cost of Poor Reliability

Fundamentals of Cost of Poor Reliability podcast episode

I define a reliability failure as something that costs your organization money. It might be a warranty expense or a lost customer. A failure may also create customer expenses, too. Let’s talk about the range of un-reliability costs and their impacts.
[Read more…]

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The 1 Parameter Exponential Distribution 7 Formulas

This is part of a short series on the common life data distributions.

The Exponential distribution is popular and useful in isolated situations. It has some nice features and flexibility that support it’s popularity. This short article focuses on 7 formulas of the Exponential Distribution.

If you want to know more about fitting a set of data to a distribution, well that is in another article.

by Fred Schenkelberg 6 Comments

SOR 279 A Discussion About Drenick’s Theorem

A Discussion About Drenick’s Theorem

Abstract

Fred and Philip Sage discussing the possible source of the widespread use of MTBF.
ᐅ Play Episode

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The Gamma Distribution 7 Formulas

This is part of a short series on the common life data distributions.

The Gamma distribution is routinely used to describe systems undergoing sequences of events or shocks which lead to eventual failure. Also used to describe renewal processes. This short article focuses on 7 formulas of the Gamma Distribution.

If you want to know more about fitting a set of data to a distribution, well that is in another article.

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11 Motivations to Learn Reliability Engineering

There are many reasons or motivations to learn. From our boss asking us to solve a problem in an unfamiliar field of science, to simple curiosity.

When faced with an unusual failure mode, we need to learn what is causing the failure in order to solve the problem. When exploring a new material, we want to learn how it will fail in our design.

As reliability professionals, we are professional learners or should be.

Let’s take a look at a list of motivations that you may experience that prompt you to learn. When you review the past month or year, you will notice how much you learned.

When you feel one of these motivations, go with it. Learn, grow, and improve your capability as a reliability professional. Furthermore, you can foster these motivations with your team and colleagues, as well. [Read more…]

by Fred Schenkelberg 5 Comments

The 2 Parameter Weibull Distribution 7 Formulas

This is part of a short series on the common life data distributions.

The Weibull distribution is both popular and useful. It has some nice features and flexibility that support its popularity. This short article focuses on 7 formulas of the Weibull Distribution.

If you want to know more about fitting a set of data to a distribution, well that is in another article.

by Fred Schenkelberg 2 Comments

Fundamentals of Root Cause Analysis

Fundamentals of Root Cause Analysis podcast episode

The ability to determine the root cause of a failure is a skill. It requires agility, leadership, inquisitiveness, diligence, and technical skill. Successful RCA taps into your creativity and technical prowess. Using a structured approach helps.
[Read more…]

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Reliability Engineering and Leadership

Leadership is a difficult term to clearly define. A team leader may have poor or wonderful leadership skills. A product may lead in a market with a broad feature offering, yet not hold a recognized leadership position.

As a reliability engineer, you will find many opportunities to lead. Your ability to provide vision, direction, guidance, and support for a team enables you to affect change and accomplish goals. [Read more…]

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Fundamentals of Reliability Performance Monitoring

Monitoring reliability performance requires both measurement and reporting skills. Focusing on making decisions, we can tailor our metrics to improve our reliability program today. The right measures allow your team to spot problems and solve them.
[Read more…]

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How to Calculate Reliability Given 3 Different Distributions

On occasion, we want to estimate the reliability of an item at a specific time.

Maybe we are considering extending the warranty period, for example, and want to know the probability of no failures over one year instead of over the current 3 months.

Or, let’s say you talked to a bearing vendor and have the Weibull parameters and wish to know the reliability value over 2 years.

Whatever specific situation, you have the life distributions parameters. You just need to calculate reliability at a specific time. We can do that and let’s try it with three distributions using their respective reliability functions: exponential, Weibull, and lognormal. [Read more…]

by Fred Schenkelberg 13 Comments

4 Effective Risk Mitigation Strategies

Identifying risk is an important first step. It is not sufficient though.

Taking steps to deal with risk is an essential step. Knowing about and thinking about risk is not the same as doing something about risk.

Risk will occur. Some good, some bad. Some minor, some catastrophic. Your ability to mitigate risk allows you to proactively acknowledge and accommodate risks. Let’s talk about four different strategies to mitigate risk: avoid, accept, reduce/control, or transfer. [Read more…]

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Receiving Feedback Well

Not all of us are fortunate enough to receive great feedback. We all do receive feedback, and some receive very little actionable feedback.

If you offer proposals, give presentations, make requests, or even just ask for a favor, you will receive some form of response. It often is just an answer to the call to action, and nothing more.

At some point, you may be ‘pulled aside’ so someone can provide you feedback on your behavior, your delivery, your ability or skill. It is this type of feedback that is essential to your improvement. [Read more…]