Your Reliability Engineering Professional Development Site
We know that there are no “quick fixes” or “silver bullet solutions” when it comes to improvements in maintenance management.
In my last article, I pointed out that many separate conditions and events must come together properly to achieve “schedule success” – i.e.: the high level of compliance to a schedule of planned work as produced by your planners.
That list of includes: [Read more…]
The definition of reliability includes four elements.
One of them is the intended environment where the device or system will experience a range of stresses.
The knowledge of where and how an item will operate enables:
A few years into your reliability journey, you start to struggle to make the improvements you were able to when you first started.
Why is this? You were able to systematically eliminate all of the low hanging fruit using the existing data in your CMMS. But now you have to dig deeper to realize the improvements and that requires better data. [Read more…]
Beyond the part reliability specification, you may also add conditions or requests to your reliability specification for your supplier.
The communication with your supplier should include sufficient information that they fully understand your reliability performance expectations. When buying or contracting with a supplier, you are the customer.
Be clear about your reliability requirements including constraints and conditions. [Read more…]
In the first installment of this series, we described the basics behind proactive maintenance and some of the considerations users need to make.
The second installment described RCM programs – the “gold standard” if you like for program development. This third installment describes what you can do if you realize you need a program but have nothing. It would also work if you’ve got a PM program but you are unhappy with the results you are getting. Chances are that something is missing or not being done often enough.
We’ve often encountered maintenance programs that are lacking. They need a stronger proactive component and they need it quickly to get things under control.
This guideline is intended to help to get things under control. [Read more…]
Your facility has data and maybe too much data. Using simple plotting may be the key to unlocking how well your maintenance program is performing.
Building on the concept of reliability growth modeling James Kovacevic described a convenient way to quickly visualize your repairable system failure data is with a mean cumulative function (MCF) plot. [Read more…]
This article is Part Two in my three part series about “PM” programs.
Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) is the world’s leading method for identifying maintenance and other activities required to sustain reliable performance of physical assets. If you want a proactive maintenance program that really works, then Reliability Centered Maintenance is the most thorough approach you can take to get there. [Read more…]
Imagine being able to predict the next time a failure will occur for a piece of equipment without a huge amount of work. Wouldn’t it be nice to know the approximate point in time that a failure will occur on a critical piece of equipment? It is possible, but I am not talking about using MTBF, as it is not a good measure (if you need to understand why, please visit http://www.NoMTBF.com). What I am talking about is a Crow-AMSAA analysis. [Read more…]
One aspect of creating a new product or system is the sourcing of parts, components, and materials.
Gone are the days of your organization providing every element of the final product. Henry Ford’s supply chain for early Ford automobiles includes their own forests, rubber plantations, and iron ore mines. [Gelderman, 1981]
We increasingly rely on the supply chain to create the necessary parts for the design’s functionality. Then to continue to supply those same parts for decades, in some cases. [Read more…]
Let’s face it, your technicians have been entering data into the CMMS for years, but you haven’t been able to use it to make improvements. Is it because the data isn’t codified or it doesn’t have the right data points? Generally, this is how most maintenance managers will view their data, but it is incorrect. The CMMS does have data that you can use almost immediately. [Read more…]
Guest Post by Geary Sikich (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)
There’s always a story that explains why an event is a “Black Swan” – after the fact. Where are the “Black Swan” prognosticators before events occur? I see “after the fact” articles and statements, such as, “we knew that was coming” or “we predicted this” – all after the fact. Generally projections and predictions seem never to hold sway until after the fact. Predictions and projections never seem to occur when the prognosticator specifies — is it just that the timing never seems to work out – until after the fact. From Nostradamus to the “Bible Code” we are enamored with predictions – after the fact. Does there seem to be a theme developing here? [Read more…]
Guest Post by Geary Sikich (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)
Exposure to threats, hazards, and risks leads to vulnerabilities that an organization must deal with.
Commonly these are addressed via a mitigation process. Once mitigation is accomplished, often times the organization feels that the risk, threat, hazard does not need to be revisited. However, as a result of the mitigation efforts on the part of the organization, the risks, threats, hazards reconfigure and re-emerge in a different form.
In order for mitigation to be successful, it has to be a constant and ongoing process that produces a resilience to the negative effects of risks, threats, and hazards that are realized. [Read more…]
Taken in entirety from http://prdweb.asq.org/certification/control/reliability-engineer/bok on April 6th, 2016. This is the 2009 update to the BoK.
Reprinted with permission from American Society for Quality ©2008 ASQ, www.asq.org. No further distribution allowed without permission.
[Read more…]
It is rare to have insight into any internal company history of serious electronic and electromechanical failures. Failure analysis and the causes of electronics or electromechanical systems failure can be a difficult investigation for any manufacturing company. Disclosure of the history and data is rarely if ever published due to the potential liability and litigation costs as well as loss of reputation for reliability and safety.
Guest Post by John Ayers (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)
Six Sigma is a powerful tool used to solve a problem or improve a process. The company (one of the 4 big defense companies) I worked for over 20 years lived, breathed and ate it every day. I became a six sigma specialist. For those readers not familiar with six sigma, I offer the following example to hopefully provide some insight into how it works and the benefits it offers. [Read more…]
