Different Data Same Decision

Let say you have some time to failure data on your equipment. A common action is to calculate the MTBF. All well and good until you expect to make a meaningful decision based on the calculation.

Using just the mean of the data, the MTBF value is likely to provide you with a less-than-useful bit of information. Thus, your decision will be rather random or worthless.

Let’s explore just how this simple calculation of perfectly good data can mislead your decision-making. [Read more…]

by James Reyes-Picknell Leave a Comment

Trouble with Maintenance Planning?

Are you having trouble producing good quality maintenance job plans?
Is your “standard job” plan library nearly empty?
Is your planned work running below 65% (bottom quartile)?
Note: scheduling without a plan, isn’t planned, and failing to plan is planning to fail!

With maintenance costs burning up to 30% or more of your operating costs (depending on industry) there can be a big benefit from reducing those costs. Every dollar saved goes straight to the bottom line, and upwards of 20% (sometimes more) can be achieved by doing a good job at maintenance work management. But many companies don’t even come close. At the heart of their problem is their approach to maintenance planning. Not the planners! They do their best but are often untrained and unfamiliar with good practice in planning. [Read more…]

by Mike Sondalini Leave a Comment

Condition Monitoring using Operating Equipment Performance Monitoring

Article by Peter Brown

The data gathered from operating condition inspections and performance monitoring trends will increasingly appear alongside process plant performance data and be used to assign maintenance priorities and maximise plant uptime and equipment reliability.

Measuring machinery health by performance monitoring has the potential to give warning of a developing failure through the changing levels of a suitable parameter being measured, thereby indicating a change in condition of a component, machine or system.Keywords: machinery performance monitoring, machine condition assessment, equipment health monitoring

[Read more…]

by Greg Hutchins Leave a Comment

Company Acceptance of Hybrid PM is High Risk

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

A Hybrid Methodology combining the speed and flexibility of Agile and the structure of Waterfall is feasible and practical. I base my opinion on the research I have done. I recently presented a Webinar to Project Management Institute (PMI) members on how to merge Agile and Waterfall to achieve a Hybrid methodology. The focus of this paper is to address the greatest risk to a company in implementing the new methodology i.e., acceptance of it. I addressed how to accomplish the merger to achieve a Hybrid method in a paper I wrote and posted on LinkedIn in May

[Read more…]

by Ramesh Gulati Leave a Comment

Are You Ready for a Reliability Journey

Assets are crucial in the production of goods and services. These assets must have minimal to no failures. However, assets tend to fail frequently, and reliability improvement projects do not always provide the expected results. This has been documented in numerous case studies.

This webinar will explore the reasons why assets continue to fail and why reliability projects do not always yield the desired outcomes. What steps can we take to ensure a successful reliability journey

In this insightful webinar, discover how we can equip our workforce with the necessary tools and techniques to decrease failures and increase reliability, ultimately maximizing the return from our assets.

[Read more…]

by Nancy Regan Leave a Comment

Who Is Responsible for Reliability?

Building a Culture That Lasts

Hi everyone, I’m Nancy Regan, coming to you from beautiful Key Largo, Florida! ☀️ In today’s video, I’m discussing who’s responsible for reliability in an organization. Just like the intricate root systems of mangroves, every part of your organization plays a role in creating a strong and effective Reliability Culture.

From operators and maintainers to engineers and management, everyone must be involved to achieve the reliability you need from your equipment. Watch the full video to learn why building an effective Reliability Culture is essential and learn how to do it!

[Read more…]

by Hemant Urdhwareshe Leave a Comment

Fractional Factorial Design with Center Point: Design and Analysis

Dear friends, we are happy to release this video on fractional factorial design. In this video, Hemant Urdhwareshe has illustrated how to create a five-factor resolution-V design in Minitab (version 17) with an example of a virtual catapult (thanks to sigmazone.com)

[Read more…]

by Robert Allen Leave a Comment

NPI Materials Management and The Value Stream Perspective

In two recent articles we covered the management of a contract manufacturer (CM) value stream. We also covered NPI materials management within that model distinguishing NPI materials management from NPI project management.

[Read more…]

by Semion Gengrinovich Leave a Comment

Degradation test and Diagnostics

Degradation testing for electromechanical components such as pumps, valves, and sensors involves a series of steps to identify wear and tear that could lead to system failure. The goal is to detect these signs of degradation early enough to replace the part and prevent system failure.

For pumps, degradation can be monitored by sensors. A study on gear pumps used an accelerated life test (ALT) to monitor the degradation state. The volumetric efficiency of the pumps was measured over time, and the wear clearances were recorded. As the wear gap increased, the flow rate gradually decreased, indicating wear degradation.

[Read more…]

by Fred Schenkelberg 2 Comments

Discussions and MTBF Questions

The Importance of the Discussions around MTBF Questions

The best way to help others understand and stop using MTBF is to engage them in a discussion. I get questions concerning MTBF or reliability a few times a week. I attempt to answer each and every one, plus adding a follow up question or two.

In person or online, ask and answer MTBF questions. You not only improve your understanding of MTBF and reliability, you improve your still at tell stories to help affect change across your industry. [Read more…]

by Greg Hutchins Leave a Comment

Risk Based, Decision Making

Go out on a limb. That’s where the fruit is.||
Jimmy Carter – U.S. President

Working It in VUCA time emphasizes Risk Based, Problem Solving (RBPS) and Risk Based, Decision Making (RBDM), which are the essence of self-management, execution, career resilience, and career agility.

Years ago, our mantra was risk management should be part of the tool box of all engineers. Why? Engineers live and work in the world of uncertainty and risk. Then things changed. In VUCA time, we say that risk is the entire toolkit and lens for ALL work and living in VUCA time. McKinsey, the global consulting firm, explains the connection between problem solving and decision making:

[Read more…]

by Mike Sondalini Leave a Comment

Plot Distributions of Plant Performance to Discover New Successes

Figures 1 and 2 are examples of getting stuck trying to fix your current business when instead you ought to throw your troubles away and build a better business system.

This business is a renowned company in its home country. It is well respected and profitable enough. But it could easily be much wealthier. There are vast new fortunes sitting in the business, but they will never be seen by its owners and managers. They are totally focused each day on trying to make the existing business processes and system work properly. In reality, their operational processes need to be redesigned to remove the problems stopping them from delivering the organization’s purpose. [Read more…]

by Nancy Regan Leave a Comment

Failure Modes: The Key to Reliability Centered Maintenance

In this short video, I explain the key concept of Failure Modes—the specific causes of Functional Failures—and why they are the foundation of Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM).

Just like not all dollar bills are created equal, Failure Modes vary in severity, and some can have a much greater impact on your equipment’s Reliability.

Learn why proactively identifying Failure Modes is critical to managing your assets effectively and how RCM can help you achieve the Reliability you need—without overpaying for it.

[Read more…]

by Larry George 1 Comment

Reliability Estimation Efficiency? Without Lifetime Data?

What is the efficiency of your reliability estimators and failure forecasts? Compare naïve forecasts: guess, AFR, MTBF, or times series extrapolations such as ARIMA, GMDH, and AI, vs. forecasts based on reliability estimators. With grouped lifetime data, the Kaplan-Meier estimator is statistically efficient, under a condition often ignored! With lifetime data you could use maximum likelihood estimators like Weibull or Kaplan-Meier from (a sample of?) grouped lifetimes. Without lifetime data you could estimate reliability from population ships and returns counts from data required by GAAP! This article compares efficiency and cost of forecasts based on alternative data and estimators.

[Read more…]

by Hemant Urdhwareshe 1 Comment

Reliability Estimation with Kaplan-Meier Nonparametric Method

Hello Friends! I am happy to release this video on Kaplan-Meier (KM) nonparametric method to estimate reliability. The KM method is used in situations when the data cannot be modelled using mathematical distributions such as Weibull, Lognormal etc. The KM method is popularly used in medical science to estimate survival probabilities of patients with diseases such as cancer, kidney diseases, etc.

[Read more…]