Blog - Accendo Reliability

by André-Michel Ferrari Leave a Comment

How to Think Like a Reliability Engineer

How to Think Like a Reliability Engineer

Reliability Marketing

Reliability Engineers are forward and “out of the box” thinkers. They tend to bring creative solutions to customers and help them optimize asset performance. Creativity implies offering ideas and possibilities that a customer did not know of or even request. Ones that will be of great benefit to them. The role has a lot to do with marketing. It is actually marketing a better “operating” future for an organization. In this article, I share some of the approaches I have had as a Reliability Engineer on bringing the biggest reliability “bang” for the customer’s “buck”.

by Christopher Jackson Leave a Comment

What does Apple’s lightning cable, John Deere and the Mafia have in common?

Apple new iPhones will be somewhat different to those of the past. They will now have a USB-C charging and data port, and not Apple’s lightning cables. Why? Because the European Union said so. And they said so because they are not happy with the number of different charging cables we all now need for our various devices. Having a single cable that can charge an iPhone, Samsung smartphone, and virtually every other small electronic consumer product makes sense. It means fewer cables, smaller carbon footprints, less electronic waste, and prices will come down as less and less products assume that they need to provide a charging cable in their packaging. I have at least 20 power cables in my office that have been provided with various electronic gadgetry over the years.

by Arun Gowtham 4 Comments

Under the Double Umbrella: Reliability AI Projects

Under the Double Umbrella: Reliability AI Projects

Organizations are hastily adopting AI into their operating processes to increase efficiency, raise profits, and stay competitive. Among the hustle & bustle, the effective management of the AI projects is neglected, and teams are left to figure out retroactively how a completed AI project fits into the Business’s long-term goals.

by Greg Hutchins Leave a Comment

Small Companies Offer Faster Promotion but Higher Risks

Small Companies Offer Faster Promotion but Higher Risks

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

Based on my career experience as a project manager, I have observed that promotions can come quicker in a small company compared to a large one. This is especially true after you have gained several years’ experience. For some reason, many large companies are slow in giving promotions unless you are a rising star. If you are not a rising start and want to get a promotion, I suggest you look for opportunities in small companies to get the title you want (e.g., project manager).

Once you have the title, no one can take it away which means after several years’ experience in a small company you have a much better chance of getting the same position but with more responsibility and pay in a large company. The challenge is-do you have the right stuff to succeed in a small company?

by Mike Sondalini Leave a Comment

Determine which Critical Spare Parts to Keep in Stock

Determine which Critical Spare Parts to Keep in Stock

Which critical spare parts you carry in the maintenance store always revolve around how much risk your company is willing to bear. It is purely a risk based business decision. Look at the economics of the risk decisions available and go with the biggest chance of success.

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I have a question about critical spare parts determination that I always have a problem with. I do not know if this topic is included in the online preventive maintenance training I and my team of engineers are doing with you, that’s why I am asking the question.

How can I determine which are the critical spare parts that we have to keep on stock?

by Nancy Regan Leave a Comment

RCM has Serious Weaknesses in an Industrial Environment

RCM has Serious Weaknesses in an Industrial Environment

True of False? RCM has serious weaknesses in an industrial environment.

by Sanjeev Saraf Leave a Comment

Check Valve Failures

Check Valve Failures

Check valves are commonly used in the process industry for preventing back-flow or reverse flow.

Check valves achieve unidirectional flow by means of a mechanical partition – ball, diaphragm, disc.

by André-Michel Ferrari 2 Comments

Defining a Failure? – it is Actually up to You!

Defining a Failure? – it is Actually up to You!

The reliability definition in relation to asset failures

Maintenance and Reliability professionals deal with equipment failures all the time. However, the word “failure” could have different definitions or thresholds. In order to take adequate and effective action, it is important to have clear specifications for what a “failure” truly is.

by Mike Sondalini 1 Comment

The SR-71 Blackbird RCM Fallacy

The SR-71 Blackbird RCM Fallacy

Reliability by prevention vs. reliability by failure analysis

Here is a story of multimillion dollar aircraft failures that could have been prevented by spending $25. But no one did the risk analysis right using a financial model of the consequences. It’s also the story of why RCM is a poor maintenance strategy selection methodology. RCM will send you to financial disaster and you won’t even know it. Learn how to decide when doing preventive maintenance is far better for business success than doing the on-condition maintenance recommended by business-destroying RCM analysis.

by James Reyes-Picknell Leave a Comment

Solving the Skilled Trades Shortage

Solving the Skilled Trades Shortage

Your skilled maintenance trades are a valuable resource that is often squandered by poor management and a lack of proactive approach to the maintenance of industrial assets.

This article by RBC’s Thought Leadership group on Human Capital describes a problem that many of our industrial customers are dealing with.

by Greg Hutchins Leave a Comment

Criticality Map is Vital to Risk Management

Criticality Map is Vital to Risk Management

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

Criticality Map, a strategic top-down analytical tool that I developed and used, is vital for risk management, assurance mapping, and regulatory compliance. It is a great simplified tool for effectively guiding management action and resource allocation and as a sanity check.

by Ray Harkins Leave a Comment

The Softer Side of Success: Unlocking the Power of Soft Skills

The Softer Side of Success: Unlocking the Power of Soft Skills

In the world of reliability and quality engineering, technical expertise and domain knowledge have always been highly valued. Engineers are expected to possess a strong foundation of technical skills to excel in their roles. However, in today’s rapidly evolving workplace, it has become increasingly evident that technical ability alone is not enough to guarantee success. The modern engineering professional must recognize and embrace the importance of soft skills to complement their analytical skills.

In this blog post, we will dive into the significance of soft skills in the workplace and how they can enhance the effectiveness and success of reliability and quality engineering professionals.

by Larry George 2 Comments

With Weibull, What Shape Value Should your Product Have for Better Reliability?

With Weibull, What Shape Value Should your Product Have for Better Reliability?

The LinkedIn ASQ RRD group published this question from a reliability manager. Replies included:

“Beta (shape parameter) should be close to 1 for more useful life. But it should not be less than 1.”
“For Beta you would like to get as close to one as possible.”
“A Shape of 1 within warranty is good.”
“It depends on B2B, yes it should be close to 1 that’s within warranty.

by Karl Burnett 2 Comments

1884 – Depreciation and Maintenance Cannot be Separated

1884 – Depreciation and Maintenance Cannot be Separated

In the 19th century, factories and mills were major concentrations of capital. Manufacturing completed for investment money, and business cases could be as closely examined as any other risky investment. In 1884, Edwin Matheson wrote about how maintenance affected accounting and business prospects in The Depreciation of Factories and their Valuation. Matheson’s book became the basis of modern views of depreciation.

by André-Michel Ferrari 2 Comments

How Conservative and Prudent can a Risk Decision be? – Practical uses of Confidence Boundaries

How Conservative and Prudent can a Risk Decision be? – Practical uses of Confidence Boundaries

Introducing confidence boundaries

Confidence boundaries can be confusing to reliability engineering practitioners and their audience. Yet, they can play an important role in the risk-based decision-making process. When building statistical models, there is always uncertainty around the model because it is usually based on a smaller sample of the studied population. The confidence interval is the range of values you expect your model to fall between a certain percentage of the time if you run your experiment again or re-sample the population similarly. For example, using a 90% confidence boundary, one would expect 90% of the records to fall between the upper and lower confidence boundaries. As a rule of thumb, the more data you have, the more precise the model and the narrower the confidence boundaries. In essence, if we have an infinite amount of data, we will end up with a perfect model. However, this is never the case. Confidence boundaries help establish the accuracy of the model and also provide some information on the validity of the data.