Accendo Reliability

Your Reliability Engineering Professional Development Site

  • Home
  • About
    • Contributors
    • About Us
    • Colophon
    • Survey
  • Reliability.fm
    • Speaking Of Reliability
    • Rooted in Reliability: The Plant Performance Podcast
    • Quality during Design
    • CMMSradio
    • Way of the Quality Warrior
    • Critical Talks
    • Asset Performance
    • Dare to Know
    • Maintenance Disrupted
    • Metal Conversations
    • The Leadership Connection
    • Practical Reliability Podcast
    • Reliability Matters
    • Reliability it Matters
    • Maintenance Mavericks Podcast
    • Women in Maintenance
    • Accendo Reliability Webinar Series
  • Articles
    • CRE Preparation Notes
    • NoMTBF
    • on Leadership & Career
      • Advanced Engineering Culture
      • ASQR&R
      • Engineering Leadership
      • Managing in the 2000s
      • Product Development and Process Improvement
    • on Maintenance Reliability
      • Aasan Asset Management
      • AI & Predictive Maintenance
      • Asset Management in the Mining Industry
      • CMMS and Maintenance Management
      • CMMS and Reliability
      • Conscious Asset
      • EAM & CMMS
      • Everyday RCM
      • History of Maintenance Management
      • Life Cycle Asset Management
      • Maintenance and Reliability
      • Maintenance Management
      • Plant Maintenance
      • Process Plant Reliability Engineering
      • RCM Blitz®
      • ReliabilityXperience
      • Rob’s Reliability Project
      • The Intelligent Transformer Blog
      • The People Side of Maintenance
      • The Reliability Mindset
    • on Product Reliability
      • Accelerated Reliability
      • Achieving the Benefits of Reliability
      • Apex Ridge
      • Field Reliability Data Analysis
      • Metals Engineering and Product Reliability
      • Musings on Reliability and Maintenance Topics
      • Product Validation
      • Reliability by Design
      • Reliability Competence
      • Reliability Engineering Insights
      • Reliability in Emerging Technology
      • Reliability Knowledge
    • on Risk & Safety
      • CERM® Risk Insights
      • Equipment Risk and Reliability in Downhole Applications
      • Operational Risk Process Safety
    • on Systems Thinking
      • Communicating with FINESSE
      • The RCA
    • on Tools & Techniques
      • Big Data & Analytics
      • Experimental Design for NPD
      • Innovative Thinking in Reliability and Durability
      • Inside and Beyond HALT
      • Inside FMEA
      • Institute of Quality & Reliability
      • Integral Concepts
      • Learning from Failures
      • Progress in Field Reliability?
      • R for Engineering
      • Reliability Engineering Using Python
      • Reliability Reflections
      • Statistical Methods for Failure-Time Data
      • Testing 1 2 3
      • The Hardware Product Develoment Lifecycle
      • The Manufacturing Academy
  • eBooks
  • Resources
    • Accendo Authors
    • FMEA Resources
    • Glossary
    • Feed Forward Publications
    • Openings
    • Books
    • Webinar Sources
    • Journals
    • Higher Education
    • Podcasts
  • Courses
    • Your Courses
    • 14 Ways to Acquire Reliability Engineering Knowledge
    • Live Courses
      • Introduction to Reliability Engineering & Accelerated Testings Course Landing Page
      • Advanced Accelerated Testing Course Landing Page
    • Integral Concepts Courses
      • Reliability Analysis Methods Course Landing Page
      • Applied Reliability Analysis Course Landing Page
      • Statistics, Hypothesis Testing, & Regression Modeling Course Landing Page
      • Measurement System Assessment Course Landing Page
      • SPC & Process Capability Course Landing Page
      • Design of Experiments Course Landing Page
    • The Manufacturing Academy Courses
      • An Introduction to Reliability Engineering
      • Reliability Engineering Statistics
      • An Introduction to Quality Engineering
      • Quality Engineering Statistics
      • FMEA in Practice
      • Process Capability Analysis course
      • Root Cause Analysis and the 8D Corrective Action Process course
      • Return on Investment online course
    • Industrial Metallurgist Courses
    • FMEA courses Powered by The Luminous Group
      • FMEA Introduction
      • AIAG & VDA FMEA Methodology
    • Barringer Process Reliability Introduction
      • Barringer Process Reliability Introduction Course Landing Page
    • Fault Tree Analysis (FTA)
    • Foundations of RCM online course
    • Reliability Engineering for Heavy Industry
    • How to be an Online Student
    • Quondam Courses
  • Webinars
    • Upcoming Live Events
    • Accendo Reliability Webinar Series
  • Calendar
    • Call for Papers Listing
    • Upcoming Webinars
    • Webinar Calendar
  • Login
    • Member Home
Home » Articles » on Risk & Safety » Equipment Risk and Reliability in Downhole Applications » Exceeding Expectations

by Doug Lehr Leave a Comment

Exceeding Expectations

Exceeding Expectations

Your team knows what Operation Within Specification (OWS) is for its product. This is the set of performance limits confirmed in the laboratory using API product standards. These limits help establish the ratings for parameters such as pressure, mechanical load, operating temperature, and other parameters found in operating manuals.

Laboratory testing confirms that the product meets specifications. But will the product exceed expectations? Should the OEM set expectations, or will end-users set them? And how can the product be designed to exceed expectations? To know how to design the downhole completion product to exceed expectations, the team must first ask questions such as:

  • What conditions must our product survive during handling, transportation, and storage?
  • How can the product be abused or neglected, and how would it respond?
  • What extreme or survival loads will the product experience?
  • Does the product offer redundancy or contingency operation?
  • What are the consequences of failure for the end-user?
Cave dwellers discuss the latest
invention (artwork by D. Lehr)

I refer to this approach as Designing for Reality, or DfRe. The objective of DfRe is to enhance a product that already meets specifications by adding predictable response in terms of survivability, redundancy, contingency operation, failure modes, and other aspects beyond OWS. Regardless of the product, the idea is to avoid unintended responses to real-world inputs – i.e., the reality of the application. In addition to Exceeding Expectations, this series includes articles on:

  • The Statement of Requirements, or SoR
  • Service Life
  • Designing with Margin
  • Survivability
  • Serviceability

TRUTH: Exceeding expectations requires insight into product use over its service life.

This is the 1st of six articles on Design for Reality for downhole tools and systems.

  1. Exceeding Expectations
  2. The Statement of Requirements
  3. Service Life
  4. Designing with Margin
  5. Survivability

Filed Under: Articles, Equipment Risk and Reliability in Downhole Applications, on Risk & Safety

About Doug Lehr

Doug Lehr is the Founder and Principal of Integris Technology Services LLC. He has over 40 years of experience in the development of downhole tools for oil and gas wells and has built a track record of success in technical management, innovation, and industry leadership.

« Fact or Myth #1: All ‘RCA’ Thinking is Linear
The Hills Are Alive With The Sound of Maintenance: The Whitehead Torpedo »

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Articles by Doug Lehr, P.E., Founder and Principal, Integris Technology
in the Equipment Risk and Reliability in Downhole Applications series

Join Accendo

Receive information and updates about articles and many other resources offered by Accendo Reliability by becoming a member.

It’s free and only takes a minute.

Join Today

Recent Articles

  • 5: Design & Planning – Part 2 Planning
  • A Couple of Questions for You Concerning MTBF
  • Wear Out Prediction Model
  • Don’t Waste Your Time and Money with Condition Monitoring 
  • Today’s Gremlin – Don’t sweat the small stuff

© 2025 FMS Reliability · Privacy Policy · Terms of Service · Cookies Policy

Book the Course with John
  Ask a question or send along a comment. Please login to view and use the contact form.
This site uses cookies to give you a better experience, analyze site traffic, and gain insight to products or offers that may interest you. By continuing, you consent to the use of cookies. Learn how we use cookies, how they work, and how to set your browser preferences by reading our Cookies Policy.