Search Results for: Change Management

Big Data and the Quality Profession

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

Dianna Deeney in her piece in CERM Insights #362 notes that big data may provide the quality profession with more professional opportunities. Dr Anil Maheshwari in his book Data Analytics: Made Accessible specifically indicates that quality management will benefit from big data. (1)

There can be no doubt that big data is an important environmental change and challenge for most businesses. It changes the environment because with increased computer storage and computational power, companies can access and evaluate more and more information about process performance and customer satisfaction. It is a challenge because the field is relatively new, and management is still trying to understand how the information can best be applied.

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by Larry George Leave a Comment

Do the Best You Can With Available Data?

Lifetime data is nice to have, but lifetime data is not necessary! Generally Accepted Accounting Principles require statistically sufficient data to estimate nonparametric reliability and failure rate functions. Some work is required!

ISO 14224 “Petroleum, Petrochemical and Natural Gas Industries—Collection and Exchange of Reliability and Maintenance Data for Equipment” requires lifetime data to estimate exponential or Weibull reliability functions! Sales or ships and returns or failure counts are statistically sufficient to make nonparametric estimates of reliability and failure rate functions, without unwarranted distribution assumptions or lifetime data!

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by Larry George Leave a Comment

Why Use Nonparametric Reliability Statistics?

Fred asked me to explain why use nonparametric statistics? The answer is reality. Reality trumps opinion, mathematical convenience, and tradition. Reality is more interesting, but quantifying reality takes work, especially if you track lifetimes. Using field reliability reality provides credibility and could reduce uncertainty due to tradition and unwarranted, unverified assumptions.

Data is inherently nonparametric. Cardinal numbers are used for period counts: cohorts, cases, failures, etc. Accounting data is numerical; it is derived from data or from dollars required by GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles); e.g., revenue = price*(products sold), service cost = (Cost per service)*(Number of services), or numbers of spare parts sold. Why not do nonparametric reliability estimation, with or without lifetime data?

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by Christopher Jackson Leave a Comment

Boeing is Steering Harder into its Spiral of Death

Boeing has somehow managed to make the bad public relations created by those pesky onboard batteries catching fire in 2013 practically disappear. Not through good management. But through a never-ending series of disasters and catastrophes that shows no sign of letting up which is dominating Boeing’s news cycle that there is no remaining airtime for missteps like those battery fires.

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by Fred Schenkelberg 1 Comment

The Language We Use Matters

During RAMS this year, Wayne Nelson made the point that language matters. One specific example was the substitution of ‘convincing’ for ‘statistically significant’ in an effort to clearly convey the ability of a test result to sway the reader. For example ‘the test data clearly demonstrates…’

As reliability professionals let’s say what we mean in a clear and unambiguous manner.

Thus, you may suspect, this topic is related to MTBF.

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by Fred Schenkelberg Leave a Comment

Fundamentals of Safety Margins

podcast episode with speaker Fred Schenkelberg

One way to create a robust product or system is to consider all the stresses and design to withstand those stresses. We often do not know all the stresses, magnitudes, and ranges of variation. We know that many materials degrade with time, yet we do not know precisely how much or how fast. We also do not know what new stresses may arise or how stresses will change over time.

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by Greg Hutchins Leave a Comment

ISO 31000 Risk Treatment

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

This article is the twelfth of fourteen parts to our risk management series. The series will be taking a look at the risk management guidelines under the ISO 31000 Standard to help you better understand them and how they relate to your own risk management activities. In doing so, we’ll be walking through the core aspects of the Standard and giving you practical guidance on how to implement it.

In previous articles we’ve looked at the core elements of the risk management framework and the role of leadership and commitment, integration, design, implementation, evaluation and improvement more specifically. We’ve also briefly looked at the risk management process in a general sense, the importance of communication and consultation, how to set your scope, context and criteria, as well as the identification, analysis and evaluation of risks. In this article, we’ll be looking at treating risk. [Read more…]

by André-Michel Ferrari 2 Comments

What is the “M” In RAM? – The Concept and Importance of Maintainability

In line with the RAM acronym sequence, we often start and go no further than the “R” in Reliability. In doing so, we forget about the “M”. The question often asked is: “what is the reliability of the system?” But rarely asked is: “what is the maintainability of the same system?” Myself, am guilty of this omission. Hence this article to remind myself and you the reader, of the importance of Maintainability in industry.

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by Mike Sondalini Leave a Comment

Interactive Information for Human Error Prevention and Mistake Proofing in Maintenance

Human error causes 80% of plant and equipment failures. It is the single factor, which if controlled, makes the most difference to achieving world class equipment reliability and operational success. With the introduction of low cost communication and visual devices it is now possible to assist maintenance workers proactively prevent human error. By using interactive audio-visual devices workers can be coached through a job error-free to get right-first-time quality every time.

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by Fred Schenkelberg Leave a Comment

MTBF free Availability

The classic formula for availability is MTBF divided by MTBF plus MTTF. Standard. And pretty much wrong most of the time.

Recently, working for a bottling plant design team, we pursued design options to improve the availability and throughput of the new line. The equipment would remain the same: filler, capper, labeler, etc. So we decided to gather the last six months or so of operating data, which included up and down time. Furthermore, the data included time to failure and time to repair information.

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by Mike Sondalini Leave a Comment

Strategic Maintenance Planning and Comprehensive Risk Abatement

Guest post by B.D. McLaughlin, ScD, MInstrP

Using a comprehensive and inclusive definition, risk may be defined as the cost of “failure to add value” per unit time. Such failure includes performance deficiencies for employees, equipment, material and method. It includes the types of “failure to add value” comprising traditional waste such as overproduction, wait time, transportation, processing, inventory, motion and defects. It includes the cost of injury, litigation and damage to company reputation. It encompasses the total cost of failure and not just the cost of remediation. You must minimize risk to stay competitive. Risk is consuming the hidden wealth of your enterprise. It is disguised and concealed as the “cost of doing business.”

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by André-Michel Ferrari 2 Comments

10 Crucial Attributes to Optimize your CMMS set-up for Reliability Analysis

CMMS overview

A proper CMMS (Computerized Maintenance Management System) setup can make a world of difference in an organization’s asset management journey. Conversely, a substandard setup can be a living hell for Reliability Engineers like myself and other analysts. I have personally wasted hundreds of hours of my work life sifting through a poor CMMS structure trying to find records. Ever wanted to make your Reliability Analysts more productive and engaged? If yes, then this article highlights 10 highly recommended set-up requirements.

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by JD Solomon Leave a Comment

Re-Introducing Communicating with FINESSE on Accendo Reliability

We launched Communicating with FINESSE two years ago to help technically trained professionals become better communicators and facilitators. Breaking it away from JD Solomon, Inc. as a not-for-profit organization was a first step in building a broader community to execute the mission. We have done that in many ways, although such endeavors never go as fast as you first imagine. Today, we summarize seven key concepts of Communicating with FINESSE.

#1 Systems Thinking Is the Foundation

The good news for most of us is that communication is indeed a system. Even better, as technical professionals, we are blessed with the reality of what that means. The next time you serve as a trusted advisor, remember that effective communication requires systems thinking.

Why Systems Thinking Produces Effective Communication – Accendo Reliability

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by Greg Hutchins Leave a Comment

ISO 31000 Risk Assessments

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

This article is the eleventh of fourteen parts to our risk management series. The series will be taking a look at the risk management guidelines under the ISO 31000 Standard to help you better understand them and how they relate to your own risk management activities. In doing so, we’ll be walking through the core aspects of the Standard and giving you practical guidance on how to implement it.

In previous articles we’ve looked at the core elements of the risk management framework, as well as the role of leadership and commitment, integration, design, implementation, evaluation and improvement more specifically. We’ve also briefly looked at the risk management process in a general sense, and we’ve also focused on the importance of communication and consultation, as well as how to set your scope, context and criteria. In this article, we’ll be looking at risk assessments and the role of risk identification, analysis and evaluation in such assessments.

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by André-Michel Ferrari 1 Comment

Using RAM models for Criticality Analysis – Advantages and Limitations

Introduction to RAM Models and Criticality Analysis

Building a Reliability, Availability and Maintainability (RAM) model can provide numerous benefits to an Asset Management program. This includes conducting a Criticality Analysis. Criticality Analysis involves ranking assets based on their potential risk to the organization. It considers risk categories such as Production Impact, Safety, Environment, and Reputation, amongst others. The category list can vary and is a reflection of the organization’s structure. Organizations generally have a finite financial pool allocated to preserving asset function. A Criticality Analysis helps optimize the allocation of resources to each asset according to its importance in the system network. Ultimately this helps maximize revenue, minimize spend and maintain the organization’s license to operate.

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