Accendo Reliability

Your Reliability Engineering Professional Development Site

Home » Blog

by Leave a Comment

The Top 3 Analysis Techniques To Use When Performing a PM Optimization

Performing a PM Optimization is not always as simple as it sounds.  Often a Maintenance Planner will assemble a team of technicians to ask what is value-added and what is missing from a PM Routine.   While these may be good questions to ask before diving into an analysis, or after an analysis, it does not base the answers on data.   Basing the PM Routine on data, not intuition is critical to the long-term success of any organization.

To perform a PM Optimization, there are three main types of analysis to focus on the effectiveness of any PM Routine.  The specific analysis used will depend on how mature (or effective) the current PM Routine is, and on the specific type of failures that the PM Routine is trying to address.

[Read more…]

by Leave a Comment

New Project Framework for Long Duration Projects

New Project Framework for Long Duration Projects

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

The Central Artery/Tunnel Project, known as the Big Dig in Boston, originally was planned to take 10 years to complete for a budget of $2.5B. It actually took 30 years and cost $14.8 B.  The traditional project framework used was inadequate for a long duration project. A new project framework, I call Adaptive Rolling Wave, is needed. It is a combination of the Adaptive Project and Rolling Wave framework, that is more suited for a long duration project because it breaks down the project into a number of smaller projects. [Read more…]

by 1 Comment

The Impact of Industrial Automation on Machine Reliability

The Impact of Industrial Automation on Machine Reliability

Setting up industrial operations is part of the capital expenditure a business has to undertake. Businesses now analyze the lifetime cost of any capital expenditure before making a decision. This includes the inventory cost, labor expenses, maintenance costs, cost incurred due to expected downtime, and expenses for upgrades. This tilts the decision in favor of options that provide long-term machine reliability and reduced maintenance.

[Read more…]

by Leave a Comment

The “3 P’s” – Avoiding the Most Common Pitfalls of Establishing a Reliability Program

The “3 P’s” – Avoiding the Most Common Pitfalls of Establishing a Reliability Program

I often talk to engineers who have just been told that they are now a ‘reliability guy or girl’ for their organization. The CEO or perhaps a director decides that reliability is now important, so a group of poor unfortunates are hastily and collectively anointed as ‘the’ reliability program. Is this familiar?

Sometimes this works. Sometimes these rebranded ‘reliability guys and girls’ create amazing programs that [Read more…]

by Leave a Comment

Understanding ISO 14224: You Guide to Sustainable Defect Elimination

Capture The Right Failure Data to Power Your Defect Elimination Activities

In the petroleum, natural gas and petrochemical industries, great attention is being paid to safety, reliability, and maintainability of equipment.  This is true in any industry and as such the learnings and information found within ISO 14224 can be applied to any industry. [Read more…]

by Leave a Comment

Lean or Industrial Anorexia

Lean or Industrial Anorexia

In 2014, at an IMEC conference organized by the University of Toronto, Art Rice of Maintenance Technology Magazine said that in many cases “Lean is a form of Anorexia”. He was right then, and he is still right today.

When I heard him, I realized that in many cases where I’ve seen attempts at “lean manufacturing” the lean really means “understaffed”. In those cases some of the lean manufacturing tools have been implemented, often with the help of outside expert help but lean results haven’t occurred. The introduction of “lean” in those companies was yet another attempt to cut costs without any deep thought as to what caused the high costs before introducing “lean”. [Read more…]

by Leave a Comment

The New Normal: What Was the Old One?

The New Normal: What Was the Old One?

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

Working From Home (WFH)…just one of the things that the “New Normal” will bring according to a few voices from the populations of various workforces who have contributed to economies during lockdowns.  People seem to have enjoyed the utopia of ‘flexible’ working hours with a freedom to work when they want, attending virtual meetings and collaborating in on-line virtual offices. [Read more…]

by Leave a Comment

Data is Beautiful

Data is Beautiful

I recently held a lunch and learn about infographics. The recorded session is below. In our work as engineers, we often spend a great deal of time extracting amazing information from complex data sets only to find no clear way to get our message to those who need it which can include leadership, peers, or even the customer.

Changing how we present information can be the difference between driving change and simply being a slide in a weekly status meeting that solicits the response “next.” 

[Read more…]

by Leave a Comment

What-if Analysis

What-if Analysis

What if you knew all the possible outcomes for your product’s reliability performance due to component variations, for example? What if you knew the future with enough certainty to make a difference?

Building on brainstorming, what-if analysis involved using models or prototypes that allow you to change something and see how it alters the output or performance. What if we change this support bracket from iron to aluminum? What if we swap out this 100 ohm resistor for a 200 ohm one?

As a curious engineer you could spend many, many hours conducting what-if based experiments, so there is a bit more to this idea then just a random walk of changes. [Read more…]

by 10 Comments

10 Reasons you Need to do Reliability Engineering

10 Reasons you Need to do Reliability Engineering

Reliability engineering has an image problem. It is seen as an imbugerance that destroys budget, schedule and fun. People sometimes think reliability engineering is simply statistics, data analysis and other mind-numbing stuff. Reliability purgatory. Which brings us to the first reason you need to do reliability engineering.

#1 – Reliability engineering is not reliability purgatory. Reliability purgatory is all effort and no outcomes. Reliability happens at the point of decision. Design decisions. Manufacturing decisions. Maintenance decisions. True reliability engineering helps you make better decisions – which often comes down to organized judgment and not statistics.

[Read more…]

by Leave a Comment

Human Factors in Design Error?

Human Factors in Design Error?

As I headed to work this morning in my Chevy Silverado Truck, this message appeared on my dash console.

As if there aren’t enough distractions these days built into our vehicles (i.e. – GPS, telephones, use of our various electronic devices, iTunes, Email, Text, etc.), do we really need a warning message to read while driving, that is telling us to focus on the road?  [Read more…]