Your Reliability Engineering Professional Development Site
Chris and Fred discuss what Failure Reporting and Corrective Action Systems (FRACAS) and Computerized Maintenance Management Systems (CSSM) are … and what they are not … and how they relate.
ᐅ Play Episode
Carl and Fred discuss why understanding the “mode” of failure is essential in Failure Mode and Effects Analysis.
ᐅ Play Episode
Are you harnessing the power of collaboration in your professional life? What could Shuji Nakamura, the Nobel Prize-winning engineer behind the blue LED, teach you about teamwork and career growth? Discover how transitioning from an independent researcher to a collaborative leader can elevate your professional journey.
Join me, Dianna Deeney, as I share insights from a recent event co-hosted for the IEEE Philadelphia Professional Communication Society. We’ll uncover valuable lessons from the books “Brilliant!” by Bob Johnstone and Dale Carnegie’s classic “How to Win Friends and Influence People,” both of which spotlight the transformative power of teamwork and communication.
Learn about Shuji Nakamura’s career evolution and find out how his story parallels many of our own professional paths. I’ll also dive into my personal shift from solitary work to embracing collaboration in quality engineering. By leveraging quality tools for better communication and idea sharing within cross-functional teams, you too can drive more successful engineering and design projects. This episode is packed with actionable advice and inspiring anecdotes to help you thrive in your professional life.
Don’t miss out on knowing THE baseline approach that can lead to collaboration success!
Many engineers rush to design or build something that we think is ‘awesome’ or at least ‘proves a concept.’ But this often means we build something that we like (not necessarily what our users like) or doesn’t work (because we didn’t realize that have sensitive electronic components near hot exhaust manifolds would be a problem). This is where taking a breath and understanding our product before we build the wrong thing fast can really helpful. A FMEA or functional block diagram can really help us visualize what different parts of our system do, and how they interact. They also help us identify the basic, interface and additional functions that separate an ‘average’ product from an ‘industry leading’ product. If this is something you think you or your team can benefit from, join us for this webinar.
[Read more…]
We’re the best, we’re number one, we’re better than them, we’ve won more awards than our competitors, we’ve all seen those ads. While this form of advertising isn’t unique, when’s the last time it caused you to buy a product based on the ad. I think we all know that answer.
There was a time when we relied heavily on print advertising to determine what products were available and from whom. The two primary methods to gain product awareness were print advertising and trade shows. While advertising and trade shows still exist, they are no longer the primary method of product awareness.
31 years ago, beginning on April 30, 1993, all of that began to change. What happened on April 30, 1993? Public access to the Internet was born.
Over the past 31 years, Internet technology propelled us into an age of self discovery. The older generation accuses the younger generation of always having their face in a screen. While that may be true, it’s not always TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, or Snapchat. People today, particularly younger people, research products, technologies, and a host of other things online. Consumers today are far more educated on the products they wish to purchase them at any time in history.
In what I find to be an exceptional irony, much of the industry responsible for building the technology behind Internet connectivity continues to advertise their products in a pre-Internet style.
You may ask, what does this have to do with reliability? Building reliable products requires a net sum of a vast amount of best practices. One of those practices is insuring the right products, procedures, specifications, designs, and so many other factors are implemented.
This goal cannot be accomplished by just reading advertisements from sellers. Frequently, engineers struggle to solve problems without a complete knowledge of the root cause of the problem. Particularly today, with so many in-house subject matter experts retiring, advertisements boasting the number of customers, time and business, and where they place in the hierarchy of competitive products do not assist the engineer and understanding the root cause of a potential problem, and certainly not the solution.
Over the past several years, several companies in our industry have begun to change their advertising strategies from transactional, to transformational. That is to say they help to connect problems to solutions, more than merely hyping products.
My guest today fully understands the value and effectiveness of what I like to call “Conscious Marketing “.
Carl and Fred discuss some of the most common reliability mistakes they have seen in their careers, both ones they have personally made or viewed.
ᐅ Play Episode
Dianna and Fred discuss selecting tools to solve problems that are outside of the workplace, too!
ᐅ Play Episode
Anne Meixner, Dr. Vaneeta Kaur Grover, and Dianna Deeney join in a panel discussion about engineering and STEM. They met for an engineering book review to discuss the ideas that came from the books themselves and to link literature about engineering to current-day challenges.
Uncover the intricacies of engineering’s past and present as we dissect To Engineer is Human and The Wright Brothers. Our collective expertise spans the gamut from semiconductor testing to biotechnology statistics, offering a rich tapestry of perspectives on these seminal works. This episode promises a journey through the shared trials and triumphs that shape our engineering landscape and a candid examination of the setbacks we seldom speak about.
Their wish for listeners is to gain different perspectives and to get inspired toward action: to try something new, read one of the books, or make new connections with others.
The episode isn’t complete without their review of the books that sparked this enriching dialogue. You’ll hear why “The Wright Brothers” and “To Engineer is Human” scored high on our recommendation list for anyone keen on understanding the essence of engineering, from the glory of breakthroughs to the wisdom found in failures. Join us for this episode, where we bridge the divide between historical achievement and contemporary challenges in the ever-evolving world of STEM.
This panel discussion about engineering and STEM originally aired on Linked-In Live on November 1, 2023.
Dianna and Fred discuss workplace politics: are silos an issue?
ᐅ Play Episode
Chris and Fred discuss why the Physics of Failure (PoF) is hard to model? … or is it?
ᐅ Play Episode
Phase diagrams are graphical representations of the phases present in a particular alloy being held at a particular temperature. Phase diagrams are used to predict the phase changes that occur in alloys during heating and cooling. This can be during heat treating, casting solidification, joining processes that involve molten metal, and elevated temperature use conditions. This is important because the properties of a metal component depend on the phases present in the metal.
In this episode Michael discusses phase diagrams and their use.
To learn more about phase diagrams check out this video and article.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fb5M-rgqxiU
https://www.imetllc.com/alloy-phase-diagram/
In this episode of the Asset Performance podcast, join us as we sit down with Stephen Timms and Ty Levine from Sigga, an independent software vendor specializing in connected worker solutions for maintenance organizations, particularly those using SAP. Host Wim Vancauwenberghe explores Sigga’s mission to elevate maintenance technicians as unsung heroes within organizations.
Calculating and interpreting the process capability ratios is the easy part. Getting valid results takes more work and thinking. Knowing that the process is capable is only one use of this information. We should also use the information contained in these ratios to inform product design tolerance. [Read more…]
We’ve discussed the silver tsunami on the show numerous times, the unprecedented rate of which employees are retiring. When engineers and other employees retire from companies, they take with them more than a set of gold cufflinks or an engraved plaque. In many cases, they also take with them wisdom and knowledge.
Perhaps this is never more true than in the case of my guest today. And who is that? My friend and colleague Doug Pauls.
Chris and Fred discuss the MTBF … again. And again. People don’t (want to) get it. So here we go again …
ᐅ Play Episode
