Your Reliability Engineering Professional Development Site
Our previous article identified several forms of waste, specific to completing tasks, as detailed by the following table:
Keep in mind, by focusing on tasks, this table assumes several things:
All organizations regardless if they are public or private, for profit or not for profit, large or small face uncertainty. Uncertainty results in risks. More organizations will face uncertainty in the design, implementation, and assurance of their Quality Management System (QMS), Environmental Management System (EMS), Information Security Management System (ISMS), and most ISO management systems. The critical organizational challenge over the next decade is how organizations will address and treat the risks that result from the uncertainty. ISO 31000:2018 was developed to address this growing uncertainty. [Read more…]
When you have a scattering of ideas or suggestions, you can use affinity diagrams to organize and group them.
Affinity diagraming is a simple way for an individual or (better) a group to quickly gather and organize a large number of disparate concepts, ideas, suggestions, etc. It is a natural activity after a brainstorming session. [Read more…]
Anyone who knows me knows I love modifying things. I always feel there is a better design. This is the goal of a reliability engineer at heart. I enjoy sports and I enjoy running. I do believe that we were born to run. If you look at the human body that is clearly what it was built for. Our big toe faces forward, which makes them no longer good for gripping things like branches. But it does make them great for landing a foot in forward motion. We have extremely long legs in proportion to our bodies compared to all other primates. We are slender which provide a great ratio of surface area to mass for cooling. The ability to sweat without hair is a great temperature control method as well. We are also the only mammal that can uncouple our breathing to our running pace because we are bipeds. This let’s us optimize our breathing for long distance.
Our previous article compared agile/scrum with lean/kaizen and revealed several similar fundamentals that helped make each methodology easier to understand.
Since the objective of lean and agile is waste reduction, we also want to identify and eliminate various forms of waste.
In order to do this, first let’s consider our objective to manufacture hardware product, develop a hardware or digital product and/or execute a project:
When I started to develop the RCM Blitz™ methodology over twenty years ago, the one thing I knew that would help to ensure successful Reliability-Centered Maintenance analysis was to develop a way that would guarantee every implemented analysis would provide a return on investment. The answer to this was simple enough, if you’re looking to improve safety and reduce health, safety and environmental incidents we should focus on critical assets that are struggling to maintain their inherent designed reliability. The best way to identify the best candidates is by measuring the OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) of your top critical assets. [Read more…]
Requirements for the typical company have few guidelines. This video gives an outline for what we have experience in industry and in our consulting experiences. It is essential for success. We can help you get there. [Read more…]
Jezdimir Knezevic of the MIRCE Akademy published a paper with the title above and I have a few comments.
In the article, Jezdimir suggests that the statistical approach to describing the world about us is fundamental flaws and not inherently useful for our use. He compares a mathematical/statistical approach to a scientific approach and finds the stats wanting.
Let’s take a critical look at the topic of this paper and conclusions. [Read more…]
Budgets represent plans or expectations for the future! They are a means to plan, forecast, coordinate and control the activities needed to achieve the business’ objectives. The budget document contains the amount of money that has been allocated to achieve those goals and the timing of its spending. Budgets cover the planned use of men, materials, external resources and management effort that is expected to be sufficient to hit the targets. Once the budget is finalised it becomes a tool to feedback how the actual progress is going compared to what was expected. [Read more…]
Can we really manage risk, or do we delude ourselves by going through the prescribed activities of ‘risk management’ giving the illusion that it’s happening? Is risk management merely a hypocritical ritual and applying some science to fate through statistical mumbo-jumbo, decision trees, and quantitative analyses? [Read more…]
Did you know that best idea to solve a problem is often not the first one?
We all have plenty of bad ideas, hunches, guesses, and flawed ideas. That is ok. We also have great ideas and elegant solutions, too. The trick is exploring all those ideas to find the best ones.
One technique to draw out and capture many ideas is called brainstorming. You most likely have heard of and used this tool already. Let’s review a few key elements that make for excellent brainstorming results. [Read more…]
Once you have identified the scope of the FMEA project, made the scope visible, it is time identify the FMEA team members. This article discusses the composition of the FMEA team, including why each member is needed, and the underlying reason for a cross-functional team.
“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” Helen Keller
In sports, people talk about a go to guy or a go to play. What about in business or new product development? Where do you go during critical times? We find companies calling us to resolve those items. [Read more…]
Guest Post by James Kline (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)
I am a Senior member of ASQ, a quality professional association. I have two ASQ certifications. One, the Manager of Quality and Organizational Excellence (MQ/OE), is the highest general certification ASQ offers. The other is a Six Sigma Green Belt (SSGB). Over the past year or so, I have become concerned about the viability of ASQ. Some friends now liken ASQ to a Moose Lodges. While some lodges are still around, they are pretty much relics of earlier generations.
With the publication of the ISO 9001:2015 certification figures for 2017, the concern increased. This article looks at this issue and what the ISO 9001:2015 figures say about the disruptive environment ASQ faces. [Read more…]
Tracking belts on bucket elevators and short belt conveyors. Flexible, flat belts are used on bucket elevators and belt conveyors to carry loose, bulk product. The belt is stretched tight from head drum to tail drum and the friction generated on the turning head drum is used to drive the belt and carry the product. The belt must run true on the end pulleys (drums) and stay within the sides of the equipment structure. If the belt runs off the drums, buckets will be destroyed and belt edges frayed. In the worst cases the belt runs off the pulleys resulting in a breakdown repair. Proper and long- lived tracking of belts is critical for trouble-free operation. [Read more…]
