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How do I set up my reliability engineering career?

How do I set up my reliability engineering career?

One of the enduring beauties and mysteries of reliability engineering is that there is no straight forward definition of who a reliability engineer is. Proactive, successful organizations, employ reliability engineers in many different and tailored ways. Reactive, ‘barely solvent’ organizations use reliability engineers as over-qualified auditors, expected to clap system configurations through design review gates as quickly and quietly as possible.

So what does this mean for you and your reliability engineering career? Are you in a position now that you are not entirely happy with? Are you in an industry on a downward trend … meaning that sooner or later you need to move to a greener pasture? Or do you want to become a better version of yourself and feel more valued than you currently do? [Read more…]

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What Are the Root Causes of Ineffective Communication?- A Healthcare Case Study

What Are the Root Causes of Ineffective Communication?- A Healthcare Case Study

We hear about ‘poor communication’ so often related to undesirable outcomes, that the term has become somewhat generic in nature. It has become meaningless in terms of implementing corrective action plans to prevent the risk of further miscommunication. How can we act on ‘poor communications’ without understanding what causes such miscommunication? This article will focus on applying key RCA principles to understanding what causes miscommunication. [Read more…]

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Assessing Your Storeroom

The first step to improving the spare parts and storeroom process

Assessment.jpgKnowing what the best practices are in a storeroom or spare parts management process is not enough.  The best practices need to implemented, and typically it can’t just be implemented right away.  The level of resources, the ability of people to change all prevents the immediate implementation.  In addition, not every organization will be at the same starting point or want to go to the same level of maturity.  This is where an assessment comes in. [Read more…]

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The Observer Effect Unveiled

The Observer Effect Unveiled

Researchers in psychology and other social sciences have long been aware of the observer effect—a phenomenon that occurs when the subject of a study alters their behavior because they are aware of the observer’s presence. Researchers typically design their experiments to reduce or eliminate this effect to avoid skewing the results of the study. Beyond the realm of research, though, an understanding of the observer effect and its applications is valuable wherever people’s actions are being evaluated. [Read more…]

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COVID 19: Blame is for God and Small Children

COVID 19: Blame is for God and Small Children

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

Unless you are a person that firmly believes there will be a second wave – or even that there might be a second wave –  the reactions and measures taken to the COVID-19 pandemic are starting to calm down and the world is beginning to unwind the measures that have been put in place; albeit to varying degrees and velocities and with little consistency.

On thing is for certain; this event will be studied for years to come as data is gathered, scrubbed, and harmonized so that proper analysis can take place.  Unfortunately, another thing which is as certain is that the analysis will be politicized – with, unfortunately, a priority of placing blame being a primary driver of the analysis and the outcomes.

But it would be wise to remember; “Blame is for God and small children” – Dustin Hoffman as Louis Dega in the movie “Papillon”. [Read more…]

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Modeling and Optimizing Process Behavior using Design of Experiments

Modeling and Optimizing Process Behavior using Design of Experiments

Experimentation is frequently performed using trial and error approaches which are extremely inefficient and rarely lead to optimal solutions.  Furthermore, when it’s desired to understand theeffect of multiple variables on an outcome (response), “one-factor-at-a-time” trials are often performed.  Not only is this approach inefficient, it inhibits the ability to understand and model how multiple variables interact to jointly affect a response.  Statistically based Design of Experiments provides a methodology for optimally developing process understanding via experimentation.   [Read more…]

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The Pump-in Process

The Pump-in Process

As stated in The Plug and Perf Process, electric line and frac pump crews coordinate the pump-in process to convey each FP-setting tool-perforating gun “assembly” along the lateral section of the well – perhaps 70 times per well. High mechanical reliability is expected, so the pump-in process must also be reliable. But to achieve this, many process risks must be mitigated. How are some of these risks mitigated? [Read more…]

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5 reasons you need to do reliability allocation (and 1 reason you don’t)

5 reasons you need to do reliability allocation (and 1 reason you don’t)

One of the more overlooked elements of leadership is explained direction. This is where leaders take the time to describe (in a tailored, personal way) to everyone how their individual efforts directly contribute to organizational success.

The leader of course first needs to have a clear idea of what success and a strategy to get there (otherwise how can they know how you or I are an important part of getting there?) People appreciate when leaders explain to them how their HR, design review, testing and quality assurance efforts directly create value. This helps motivate, measuring achievement and all sorts of other good stuff. [Read more…]

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What is RCA? Separating the Tools from the Methodologies

What is RCA? Separating the Tools from the Methodologies

If we have heard it once, we have heard it a million times – “let’s do an RCA on that failure”. The problem here is that phrase will mean something different to everyone who says it. What is an RCA? That is a question even the notable experts cannot agree on. With all of this RCA “chaos”, how do we make any progress? [Read more…]

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Be Prepared: Have a Plan

Without a Plan, You’ll Never Get Where You Are Trying To Go

Image going for a vacation, but you don’t have a destination in mind, directions to the destination, or any funds allocated for the trip.  What kind of vacation will you have?  Chances are it won’t be a good one.

The importance of a plan cannot be understated.  Without a plan in any aspect of life, business or reliability, achieving goals are difficult, if not impossible.   Oftentimes organizations implement tactical activities, without a strategic plan.  This ad-hoc approach often results in certain aspects of a maintenance & reliability program implemented, but the results do not materialize.

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What is Maintenance Workflow?

What is Maintenance Workflow?

Maintenance workflow is the step-by-step process that gets initiated by some trigger event to the point where the action is closed out. For example, in a typical maintenance operation, a trigger event could be a report of faulty equipment. The step-by-step workflow process would include the generation of a maintenance order, the planning of the task, the execution of the repair and the reporting at the end of the job. Every organization has a workflow process whether it is officially documented or not; there is always a standard way to get things done. When this process is not well-defined, it can lead to frustrations on the part of employees trying to get their jobs done as well as major inefficiencies that are costly to the organization over time. In comes maintenance management software…

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Why Do You Let Your Budgets Hold You Back?

Why Do You Let Your Budgets Hold You Back?

The “no brainer” opportunity

Let’s say that you run your own business. You have an opportunity to invest some money and get a payback that is more than your total investment within the first year (payback is more than 100% in the first year). Moreover, that payback will continue for many years. Would you invest?

Most entrepreneurs running their own businesses would say yes. After all, the proposition is a “no brainer”. There aren’t a lot of investments with such huge paybacks. Yet many managers in most larger companies won’t go for it. Why? [Read more…]

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Your Risk Assessment’s a Thermometer, Not a Crystal Ball!

Your Risk Assessment’s a Thermometer, Not a Crystal Ball!

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

If you’re cooking, you need a way to tell how hot the oven is.  You won’t be able to tell the difference between 275F and 325F just by sticking your hand inside – both are going to feel hot to you – but this is the difference between a perfect, crunchy yet chewy meringue and something that’s dry and explodes into a pile of dust. So we use a thermometer to give us the information we need.

Similarly, we need a way to be able to differentiate between risks, to separate those that are ‘hotter’ and might burn us and the others that are simply ‘warm’.  Unfortunately, we can’t buy a risk thermometer so we conduct a risk assessment to help us make that differentiation. [Read more…]