Blog - Accendo Reliability

How do I Implement SPC for Short Production Runs (Part II)?

In Part I of this article, we introduced the concept of utilizing Deviation from Nominal (DNOM) control charts for short production runs. These charts allow us to monitor process characteristics over time even when the units being controlled have varying nominal values. DNOM charts assume that the process variability (i.e. standard deviation) does not vary significantly by part type. However, often this assumption does not hold. Characteristics with larger nominal values tend to have more variation than characteristics with smaller nominal values. In Part II we discuss how to test whether or not significant differences in variability exist and if so, how to modify the DNOM methods and charts to handle this situation. [Read more…]

by Doug Plucknette Leave a Comment

Should We Call it Precision Maintenance?

I got a call last week from a friend I used to work with who called just to catch up on what I had going on in life. After a few minutes of conversation on what each of us had going on he asked me what I thought of the phrase “Precision Maintenance.”

I must admit, I was a bit confused by the question. I told him I think a lack of precision maintenance might me the leading cause of failure for nearly every company in the world. I don’t think we spend nearly enough time training and certifying tradespeople in precision maintenance techniques and that the reduction in skilled trades apprentice programs has made the problem worse.

How Failed Parts Work Into an RCA

Author’s Note: I want to reiterate that this Series about reading the basic fracture surfaces, is for novices who often come into contact with such failed components. This Series is about the basics (101), and is intended to give readers an appreciation for the value of such ‘broken’ parts to an effective investigation/RCA. While this information will be rudimentary to seasoned materials engineers/investigators, I know they will all appreciate heightening awareness to the need to retain such failed parts for formal analysis, versus throwing them away and just replacing the part. Throwing away failed parts is a recipe for a repeat failure. When one does not understand why the part failed in the first place, they can’t prevent it from failing again.

In this article we will focus on how to actually incorporate the evidence (failed parts) from a failure, into a disciplined Root Cause Analysis (RCA) process.

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by James Kovacevic Leave a Comment

Who Owns the Storeroom? Maintenance or Procurement?

Understanding who owns the storeroom processes and stocking strategy

There are two different perspectives on the maintenance storeroom. These perspectives are on who owns the operation of the storeroom. Some believe that Maintenance owns the storeroom and the operation of it. Others believe it is Procurement, or potentially Logistics or Warehousing. Some organizations require the storerooms to be operated by a consistent group, while others leave it up to the site.
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by Greg Hutchins Leave a Comment

Change and Resistance Are Futile

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

Organisations exist in a dynamic world where business uncertainty and socio-political volatility can adversely affect their existence. The mass of data available and the contradictory interpretations that can be made add ambiguity and complexity to the mix. Our modern day organisations, or at least their management or leadership team realise, or should realise, that their operating environments are changing and, in order to adapt and survive, they too need to change.

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by James Reyes-Picknell Leave a Comment

Asset Management is more than Maintenance

Asset Management is more than maintenance and reliability, yet many often think they are the same. Asset Management is far broader and considers the entire life cycle.

How does your organization differentiate between asset management, and maintenance and reliability?

Early in the discussions around asset management, some organizations simply renamed their Maintenance and Reliability departments to Asset Management departments, even though they continued to do the same tasks and activities they always did.

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by Steven Wachs Leave a Comment

Analyzing the Experiment (Part 6) – Prediction Uncertainty and Model Validation

In the last Article, we explored the use of contour plots and other tools (such as a response optimizer) to help us quickly find solutions to our models. In this article, we will look at the uncertainty in these predictions. We will also discuss model validation to ensure that technical assumptions that are inherent in the modeling process is satisfied. [Read more…]

by Carl S. Carlson Leave a Comment

Facilitation Skill #2: Controlling Discussion

Facilitation Skill # 2 – Controlling Discussion

“It was impossible to get a conversation going, everybody was talking too much.” – Yogi Berra

Based on actual surveys of FMEA team leaders, the most common concern is how to control discussion during team meetings. This article will provide insight into this critical facilitation skill, and is a companion to the previous article in this series: Facilitation Skill #1: – Encouraging Participation.

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by Doug Lehr Leave a Comment

Failure Analysis – The Big Picture

The floating drilling rig, operating in 6,000 ft. of water, pitched in rough seas 300 miles away from shore as the outer bands of the hurricane’s winds buffeted the drilling location. Per procedure, the crew installed the Storm Packer (SP) in the well to isolate its open wellbore from the ocean before the storm roared across the location – but it failed its pressure test. The crew then installed the back-up SP which passed the pressure test. The well was finally secured, and the 25,000-ton drilling rig was moved out of the hurricane’s path. Because the first SP failed, a 12-hour process took 30 hours to complete, while wind speed and wave heights increased.

Tips for Examining Shafts: Prepping for a Root Cause Analysis

To those following this Series, I will apologize for the front-end redundancy. I am doing so for those that are NOT following the Series and will read these articles independent of each other. If you are following the series (Thank You!) and proceed past the front-end stuff and to the shaft pics below:-)

Abstract. In our last series highlighting the 4 primary Failure Modes (FM) of component failures (erosion, corrosion, fatigue and overload), we discussed how to read fractured surfaces. In this follow up series, we will take a look at tips on how to collect, preserve and examine such failed components.

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by James Kovacevic Leave a Comment

Learning to Crawl, Before You Can Walk and Run

Some Insights into the Current Status of Maintenance & Reliability Fundamentals

Let’s face it, we as engineers, maintenance staff, etc. all love technology and the newest gadget. Our industry is never short of these new and shiny techniques, tools, sensors, etc. Now, this new tech can lead to significant improvements in availability, OEE, or uptime. But these are not the silver bullets many claim them to be… especially if the foundational elements are not in place.
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by Greg Hutchins Leave a Comment

How Less Data Can Give You Better Results

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

“Hi, I’m Andrew, and I have a weakness for data.”

There, I said it.

I love spreadsheets. I love national statistics. I love primary sources.

I could probably have completed my Master’s dissertation without an extension if I had just accepted that cited quotes were valid instead of looking for all the original sources*. And I don’t need to read the last three years of a company’s annual reports before I have a 20-minute call with them.

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by James Reyes-Picknell Leave a Comment

Do you really need an assessment?

Do you really need an assessment? Will it help, or will it create problems?

Conventional consulting approaches begin with detailed assessments to determine your current state of affairs, judge what’s good and bad about it, give it a score, provide a long list of recommendations and then build an improvement strategy based on the outcome. A typical assessment can take up to a couple of weeks plus report generation time. Does it really add the value you might expect?

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by Steven Wachs Leave a Comment

Analyzing the Experiment (Part 5) – Contour Plots and Optimization

In the last Article, we learned how to work with predictive models to find solutions that solve for desired responses. We used some basic algebra to solve for solutions and looked at the use of contour plots to quickly visualize many solutions at a glance.

In this article, we further explore the use of contour plots and other tools to help us quickly find solutions to our models. We start by revisiting the battery life DOE example that was discussed in the previous article. The statistical output below shows the coded model that contains only the statistically significant (main and interaction) effects. [Read more…]

by Robert (Bob) J. Latino Leave a Comment

Do Human Performance Learning Teams Make RCA Obsolete

I recently attended a conference where I listened to a presentation on Human Performance Improvement (HPI) by Dr. Todd Conklin and other speakers advocating Dr. Conklin’s ‘Learning Team’ approach. This was the first time I had heard Root Cause Analysis (RCA) referred to as ‘old school’ and obsolete. This got me to thinking, given I have been in the RCA business for decades, is what I do for a living…obsolete?

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