Reliability and Maintenance

podcast episode with speaker Fred Schenkelberg

Both reliability and maintenance activities work to reduce failures and downtime. Perfect reliability of a system would eliminate the need for maintenance. Perfect maintenance would keep even poorly designed (reliability-wise) operating.

Together, the work of reliability and maintenance professionals can achieve more than each team working separately. Each brings a set of insights and skills to the conversation. Working together means improving the design of a system so it’s easier to maintain. It also means the maintenance teams’ day-to-day observations provide meaningful information to the reliability team.

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Basic Mathematical Symbols and Stuff

podcast episode with speaker Chris Jackson

OK … we have all been there. We have all sat in some statistical presentation or read a document containing mathematical symbols and statistical hieroglyphics we don’t understand. And we pretend we do understand so that we don’t embarrass ourselves. The people we don’t want to embarrass ourselves in front of usually also pretend to understand those symbols and hieroglyphics. This webinar is a light (re)introduction to common mathematical symbols used in many engineering scenarios … including reliability. [Read more…]

Risk Decision Making, Frameworks, and Assessments

podcast episode with speaker Greg Hutchins

Disruption has been one of the major news items in 2022. Disruption results in risk. You can see ‘risk’ in almost every video, magazine, and blog. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Supply chain disruption. Climate change. New business models. Reshoring. Inflation. Price of gasoline. Can you imagine $10/gallon gasoline?

Greg will answer the following:

What is risk-based, problem-solving, and decision-making in reliability engineering and quality?

What are risk PDCA, taxonomies, risk assessment, risk management, etc?

What are the two critical risk management frameworks for problem-solving and decision-making?

What are examples of risk assessment tools? [Read more…]

How to Take the Guess Work out of Expert Judgment

podcast episode with speaker Chris Jackson

Most humans can be quite technically minded. And sometimes we aren’t. Sometimes, we expect every drug or medical procedure to be checked, approved, validated, and tested on other people (et cetera) before subjecting ourselves to whatever our doctor suggests. At other times, we spend lots of money at casinos (note that I said ‘spend’ and not ‘invest’ or ‘win’). When it comes to reliability, we can sometimes be too technically minded. A reliability ‘number’ might not exist until our product has undergone exhaustive testing. Which can often be two years too late to do anything about if it turns out it doesn’t meet all our reliability dreams. So what can we do? Well … why spend money trying to generate information (through lengthy tests) when you can use the information stored in everyone’s brain? The most common answer (even if we don’t want to admit it) is that this sounds like guesswork. And guesswork can sound unprofessional. Or it’s just wrong. But there are ways you can suck out information from a group of experts in a quantifiable and remarkably accurate way. Want to learn more? This webinar introduces you to some of the concepts that might interest you.
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How to Check a Regression Fit

podcast episode with speaker Fred Schenkelberg

When fitting a line or curve to data, it’s a model. When modeling, it is worth remembering the George Box quote, “Essentially all models are wrong, but some are useful.” Yet, how do we separate a useful model from one that isn’t useful? One step in finding a helpful regression model is to consider the residuals. BTW: Weibull analysis is another term for regression analysis. [Read more…]

What is Reliability Growth?

podcast episode with speaker Chris Jackson

Sounds simple, right? And it is. Reliability growth literally refers to a process where we improve the reliability of a product, system, or service. But sometimes we find ourselves in situations where it is expected that not only do we understand reliability growth … but measure it. And predict how much it will grow in the future. This is sometimes called Reliability Growth Testing (RGT), Reliability Growth Planning (RGP), or Reliability Growth Prediction. And there are lots of equations and models for all these things. But do these models actually model the ‘real world?’ … can they work for you? … SHOULD they work for you? This webinar introduces you to the topic of reliability growth (both qualitative and quantitative) along with key concepts (like the Duane Failure Pattern) to help you work out if there is (or is not) a place for reliability growth in your organization.
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Reliability and Safety

podcast episode with speaker Fred Schenkelberg

Is a reliable product safer? Are the safety elements of a product or system independent of its reliability performance? These and other questions speak to the complex relationship between reliability and safety.

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What is Process Capability Analysis (PCA)?

podcast episode with speaker Chris Jackson

A ‘capable’ process is a really weak term for what we are dealing with here. In short, a process is considered ‘capable’ if it creates products that, in spite of all the unavoidable natural variation in production, still fall within the boundaries of what ‘good’ looks like. Perhaps instead of ‘capable’, we should say ‘amazing’! A ‘capable’ process will essentially create products that have a very, very small chance of being defective. So how do we get here? SPC can help. But how do we measure how ‘capable’ our process is? And can we use this measurement to (for example) work out how many Parts Per Million (PPM) defects you are likely to get? This webinar introduces you to the concept of process capability, including well-known indices like CPK, along with what this means for your process. [Read more…]

Reliability and Quality

podcast episode with speaker Fred Schenkelberg

Some of my best friends are quality people. This is despite the notion that reliability is just one of many quality factors, while I suggest reliability is all of quality and over time. There are a lot of similarities and common objectives with quality and reliability efforts. Plus, there are a few differences.

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What is Statistical Process Control or SPC?

podcast episode with speaker Chris Jackson

You may have heard of Statistical Process Control (SPC), 6-sigma, Shewhart, the Japanese Economic Miracle, X̅ – R Charts … or perhaps none of them. So, if you have heard of these things (and are confused by them) or if you are involved in ‘processes’ (especially manufacturing), then this webinar might help you out. [Read more…]

Why We Use Statistics

podcast episode with speaker Fred Schenkelberg

You may fondly, or most likely not fondly, remember your undergraduate course on probability and statistics. The calculations of various winning hands with card games were interesting and connected to the early ‘invention’ of probability and statistical methods. Yet, the jar with colored beads was rather boring. [Read more…]

Accendo Reliability Mission, Vision, and Business Model

podcast episode with speaker Fred Schenkelberg

Accendo Reliability has been in the works for about ten years. Counting the various iterations in effect under different names and programs, it has been longer. The idea behind the site is to provide our community with great content to help you solve problems, learn, and improve. A close second concept is to provide a platform to help you share your knowledge.
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Let Me Tell You a Reliability Story

podcast episode with speaker Fred Schenkelberg

We always tell and listen to stories—anecdotes, encounters, best practices, near misses, memories, etc. We also influence how we interpret the world through the stories we tell ourselves. Plus, we often work to alter the stories others have in their head as we work to improve reliability. [Read more…]

Supportability
(and FMEAs/FMECAs)

podcast episode with speaker Chris Jackson

What is ‘supportability?’ Easy! It’s the ability of your product, system or service to be supported. But how do we get this so wrong so often? Well, the first way is by thinking that supportability is actually some activity where you work out how many spares you need to have on your shelf to last a year (for example). But what if your product, system, or service fails so often and is so difficult to repair that it needs LOTS of spare parts? Working this out doesn’t make it more supportable. Another way people get supportability wrong is by thinking about it AFTER you have designed something. How is this wrong? Well … supportability needs to be DESIGNED INTO your product, system, or service. [Read more…]

Helping Products Survive Transportation

podcast episode with speaker Fred Schenkelberg

Besides building your product inside your customer’s facility, your product will require some form of transportation to move from your factory to your customer. When your product doesn’t work ‘out of the box’, that is considered ‘not good’ for customer satisfaction.
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