Your Reliability Engineering Professional Development Site
Derating is the selection of components and materials according to a set of standardized safety-margin definitions.
It is used by design engineers to ensure the selected elements of the design do not experience performance problems due to overstress conditions.
Derating, like stress-strength analysis, assists the designer when selecting elements for the product or system.
The outcome is a robust design able to withstand the expected, and some of the unexpected, stress applied. [Read more…]
Welcome to my latest 10-part series of blogs called “Uptime Insights”, where we explore a journey of excellence in maintenance. To stay on top, managers must implement strategies that keep operations performing at high levels. In these articles, I will show you how to achieve excellence in maintenance – a critical business process in any capital-intensive industry.
Leadership is all about making change and taking your organization in new directions. Leaders rock the boat, managers keep it stable. In choosing excellence you’ll be choosing a path of constant change and improvement – leadership is essential. Leadership is about strategy, effective execution and your people – without them you accomplish very little. If you want excellence you need leadership. [Read more…]
There are many internal & external pressures on our operations. Many we don’t even think about, or are even aware of. These pressures greatly influence our ability to be profitable, and therefore sustainable. Being aware of these pressures & barriers will allow us to head them off and ensure our profitability.
I remember when I was unexpectedly asked to cut my maintenance staff by 30%. What I wasn’t aware of was one of the largest external pressures, the shareholders. They were not impressed by the returns and demanded immediate action. [Read more…]
The efficient use of men, materials and external resources requires coordination and preparation.
When a job starts everything needed to do the job must be at hand and must be right to use. The maintenance planner does the preparation required prior to the start of a job.
The planner’s focus is to prepare everything needed to execute a job through to its successful completion and have it ready and on-hand before the job starts.
How well the planning job is done directly affects how efficiently the men do the work and how long it takes for it to be done.
Keywords: job scheduling, breakdown work. [Read more…]
Guest Post by Ed Perkins (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)
In an earlier post [1] we looked whether ‘plausible deniability’ was now a dead strategy in the face of enterprise risk management (ERM) and the likely impact of the US SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) guidance [2] regarding disclosure obligations relating to operational and cybersecurity risks and cyber incidents. The SEC noted that “a number of disclosure requirements may impose an obligation on registrants to disclose such risks and incidents. [Read more…]
Technical drawings and electrical specifications often include tolerances.
The range of values allowed for a particular aspect of the part.
Reliability engineers do not set the tolerances, yet we should both understand and influence them.
A critical element of design for reliability is the creation of a robust product.
It is not just robust in the end use, your product should also be robust to the variability that will occur during manufacturing and transportation. [Read more…]
If you are like me, then you have at least once found yourself struggling with Reliability & Maintenance(R&M) in a plant. Whether you are trying to implement planning & scheduling, manage spare parts or develop effective PMs, it can be frustrating. Not to mention how difficult it is to tie all of the different pieces together and making it stick.
The intention of this blog and website is to provide information on not only the different parts of a R&M program, but how they all tie together. This is what separates the profitable manufacturers from the ones that close. Preventing these closures is what High Performance Reliability and myself want to do. [Read more…]
Guest Post by John Mason (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)
The audit is finished, the exit meeting conducted and the audit report has hit your desk. As discussed, there should be no surprises, there should be correctly categorized findings, and specific examples.
Now you have 3, 6, 9 or 12 months in which to fix them.
If you have findings that have to be addressed within 3 months, then you have got a nonconformity or a major corrective action (of course the names are different for every certification service provider). [Read more…]
The very best asset managers have maintenance under control.
Their entire organization’s systems and methods are tuned to preventing unplanned stoppages. They only do that which has first been thought through and prepared for.
But most importantly they understand the key factor to excellent asset care and work toward it continuously and energetically.
Keywords: preventative maintenance, reliability-centered maintenance, RCM, total productive maintenance, TPM. [Read more…]
Did you shake a wrapped gift as a child?
Sometimes the rattling sound may indicate the hidden contents. A sweater from Grandma would make a muffled sound, while a new Lego set would rustle the many parts.
Your customers may not shake the package to guess its contents, yet your product will experience vibration and shock.
The environments of assembly, transpiration, use, maintenance, etc all include shock and vibration inputs to your product. The operation of your product may include producing vibration and shock loading across the product.
Understanding the basics of vibration and shock will assist you to design your product to operate as expected in the noisy, shaky world.
The rattling about your product experiences is just one of the many environmental and use factors. [Read more…]
Reliability engineers all have a start.
A point zero.
The transition point from pursuing something else, or nothing at all, then we begin our journey as a reliability engineering professional.
Getting started can be difficult and at times overwhelming.
Then you find Accendo Reliability and there is a lot of great content, maybe too much. So, this short article has the intent to create a starting point for you.
Plus, for those well along in their career, a request.
What is your advice to those just starting their career? My plan is to gather the advice from this community and assembly a start here guide just for those just starting their career.
Leave a comment below with your words of wisdom. [Read more…]
A term that I use when describing product goals that are tangible and drive program decisions is “Product Asset.”
A Product Asset is “a fundamental attribute of a product that can be characterized as a quantitative measurable goal.”
The five Product Assets that I commonly select are the following:
Weld preheating is the purposeful application of heat to warm metal to a desired temperature prior to welding.
Preheating slows down the cooling rate of the weld and gives the metal more time to form a good microstructure, release internal stresses and dissipate hydrogen from the weld.
Keywords: thickness, weld puddle, cooling rate, temperature. [Read more…]
Guest Post by Paul Kostek (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)
One of the keys to a successful project is having a set of requirements that are well defined and stable. We’ve all worked on projects where a lack of defined and controlled requirements has led to scope creep which result in schedule delays. Â
The requirements development process must also include mitigations for the risks identified in the Risk Management Plan. To accomplish this the initial risk assessment must be completed before the requirements development process begins. [Read more…]
Materials expand or contract with temperature change. Water expands as it freezes, whereas steel contracts as it cools.
This motion can limit the life of your system.
Materials and mechanical engineers include the expected motion into their designs, well the better engineers do.
Even centuries ago, craftsmen used expansion slots or features when attaching wooden table tops to their frames.
The motion due to temperature change will occur and has the potential to create immense strain within your product. [Read more…]
