This is the first annual survey to find what you recommend for those preparing for the ASQ CRE exam.
See the full list of reliability references for the CRE exam, for reliability and maintenance engineers at Accendo Reliability. [Read more…]
Value of CRE
The annual salary survey done by American Society for Quality (ASQ) is summarized in the December 2011 issue. And, the good news is a CRE certification provides approximately a $21k salary premium over those in similar positions without the certification. Based on Table 2. salary premiums for certification holders in the article, Land the Big One, indicated the largest premium is [Read more…]
First Impressions
At first MTBF seems like a commonly used and useful measure of reliability. Trained as a statistician and understanding the use of the expected value that MTBF represented, I thought, ‘cool, this is useful’.
Then the discussions with engineers, technical sales folks and other professionals about reliability using MTBF started. And the awareness that not everyone, and at times it seems very few, truly understood MTBF and how to properly use the measure.
Mid-1700s: A Habit of 3-year Preventive Maintenance
By 1792, six Royal Navy dockyards employed about 1500 workers each. The dockyards had a wider variety of technical specialties than was found in any other manufacturing enterprise. The dockyards “were some of the largest manufactories in Europe and dwarfed almost all private industries.” (Morriss) The dockyards built new ships, but maintaining ships was just as important. The Royal Navy’s dockyards constituted one of the largest industrial maintenance organizations in the world…and their only peer organizations in terms of the scale of maintenance management were the dockyards of other superpower navies.
[Read more…]Worst Disasters
Generally speaking, 5-6 things have to go wrong for an incident to occur. Furthermore, these events or failures have to occur in a certain sequence.
The characteristics of mega disasters is that 5-6 events with fairly low probabilities of occurrence line up.
[Read more…]Why Fist to Five is a Powerful Decision-Making Technique
Fist to five voting is a simple and effective way to gather group feedback or to gauge consensus in a meeting or discussion. In this method, participants are asked to rate their level of support for an idea or proposal on a scale of 1 to 5, using their fingers. However, fist to five is a decision-making technique that should be described in the project charter and agreed upon by all participants. Ample time should be allowed between the initial poll and the final vote for negotiation and agreement to occur. [Read more…]
Project Requirements are a Risk
Guest Post by John Ayers (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)
Some common reasons why requirements can cause risk to a project are:
- To be determined (TBD)
- Late requirements definition
- Unclear requirement definition
- Changing requirements
- Late requirement flow down to subcontractors
- Incorrect or poorly defined interface documents
This paper explains how poorly defined requirements can impact the project.
The Role and Responsibilities of the Engineering Manager
Advice on the Key Duties and Responsibilities of the Modern Engineering Manager Role
The duties of the engineering manager role usually include capital project management and maintenance management, two vital aspects that must be done exceedingly well in an industrial operation.
Poll: “Is life data required…?”
My wife says I am wasting my time trying to change reliability statistics, so I polled the www.linkedin.com Reliability Leadership…, ASQRRD, IEEE Reliability, “Biostatistics, and No MTBF groups. The polls claimed that “Life data, censored or not, is required to estimate MTBF, reliability function, failure rate function, or survivor function. TRUE? FALSE? or DON’T KNOW.” I am grateful for the responses.
[Read more…]New Safety And Environmental Management System (SEMS) From MMS
About a year ago, the Minerals Management Services (MMS) proposed a new rule that would require operators of oil and gas operations in the US Outer Continental Shelf to develop and implement Safety and Environmental Management System (SEMS).
It is expected that the rule will be promulgated sometime this year (2010).
[Read more…]Application of Quantitative Criticality Analysis in FMEA
Some defense-related applications require a special type of criticality analysis, called Quantitative Criticality Analysis to supplement FMEA applications. This is the “C” in what is called FMECA: Failure Mode, Effects and Criticality Analysis. I’ll shorten Criticality Analysis to CA in this article.
What is Quantitative CA? When and why it is used? Can Quantitative Criticality Analysis be used in commercial applications?
Five Impactful Elements of the New Book, Facilitating with FINESSE
Facilitating with FINESSE: How to Guide People to Powerful Business Solutions is a practitioner’s guide for ten common applications that technically trained professionals are frequently asked to facilitate. The range of applications covers quality and reliability techniques such as block diagrams and tree diagrams through master plans and strategic plans. This article provides five impactful elements for professionals who are often enlisted to lead teams to workable solutions, despite having little or no facilitation training,
Content
The book focuses on ten practical applications and provides specific ways to facilitate them better. There is not a lot of wasted time on the basics covered by most facilitation books. Each self-contained application includes examples – good and bad – from my experiences on some complicated and controversial projects.
[Read more…]Business Process Redesign the Plant Wellness Way
A presentation slide set titled “Simpler Industrial and Business Process Redesign”. Presented by Mike Sondalini to The Institution of Engineers, Malaysia, Electrical Engineering Technical Division.
The presentation opens with examining three universal business problems:
- Wasted effort and resources
- Wrong business process for the purpose
- Wide and out-of-control process variation
He also explores the implication of the quality loss function and then incorporates the concept of maintenance work quality. Then Mike explore specific steps you can implement to improve the fundamental processes within your organization.
[Read more…]Electoral Quality and Integrity
Guest Post by James Kline (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)
On September 15, 2021, ASQ announced the formation of the Center for Electoral Quality and Integrity. This announcement caused a conflicted reaction. On the one hand I liked that the Government Division, which was pushing this action, was showing some level of activity, after almost none for several years. One the other hand, I just laughed at the idea that ASQ and Government Division was going to, or even be capable of, having an impact on electoral quality or integrity. This is not a case of believing the objective is bad.
It is a case of realizing that this is not the 1990s when quality was a key priority of governments around the world. And that ASQ does not have the same level of influence it had, when in the 1990s it was instrumental in getting Education added to the Baldrige Award.
This piece discusses the white paper on Electoral Quality and Integrity which the Center seeks to implement. It also discusses the forces likely to prevent ASQ from being successful.
[Read more…]5 Myths About RCM
Let’s dispel five common myths about reliability centered maintenance, including:
- RCM is a maintenance program.
- You must choose to do FMEA or RCM.
- You must choose to do CBM or RCM.
- If you do RCM, you must do it on all your assets.
- RCM has serious weaknesses in an industrial environment.
Self Ownership Part 3
Think back to the restaurant mess we talked about a few pages back, who was responsible?
The lesson for grown-ups (and more importantly executives and business leaders) from The Boy Who Cried Wolf is that the boy was at fault when he lied the first time, but the person who was really responsible for the sheep being lost was the shepherd who left his flock with a boy who he knew couldn’t be trusted.
[Read more…]SO2 Vs. H2S: Which Is More Toxic?
I noticed that API-14C recommends monitoring of 2-ppm (and higher) SO2 levels. I felt this was a really low threshold value for SO2 .
What surprised me further is that the Immediately Dangerous to Life or Health (IDLH) value for SO2 is 100-ppm…same as H2S!
[Read more…]Determining Annual Maintenance Spend
Many people often ask, “how do I know if I have the proper annual maintenance spend for my plant?”. This short video will provide some concrete answers to measure how your maintenance spend compares to best practices.
This short video covers a simple formula to help you determine if your annual maintenance spend if reasonable.
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