Your Reliability Engineering Professional Development Site
Chris and Fred discuss how to analyze reliability data for repairable spares—and why the “as good as new” assumption can be dangerously misleading. They explore how maintenance itself can introduce new failures and distort your analysis.
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Chris and Fred discusshow to set up a new reliability team—and why structure matters far less than culture. They explain how to focus on decisions, not tools, and how to deliver quick wins that actually improve outcomes.
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Chris and Fred discuss the “build, test, fix” approach—and why it often leads to poor reliability outcomes when misunderstood. They explain why testing should generate insight, not act as a late-stage safety net.
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Chris and Fred discuss whether reliability engineers need to learn statistics—and why the real value lies in understanding what the numbers actually mean. They explain how statistics can clarify decisions, prevent costly mistakes, and cut through bad analysis.
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I usually write articles about topics I personally struggled to understand from the sources available to us such as books, online resources, and so on. I believe most technical concepts are fairly straightforward at their core, but the way we express ideas and translate our understanding into writing often makes them harder for others to grasp. That’s an area where we can all continue to improve.
As part of that journey, my goal with the Breaking Bad for Reliability newsletter is to be a communicator of Reliability Engineering principles, and I am doing this mainly for two categories of people: [Read more…]
Young professionals (under 40) will make up over half of the workforce by the end of next year. That means communication between young professionals and experienced professionals is essential for workplace success. Younger professionals dominating the workforce means that reliability engineering is undergoing formative changes. These are a few general thoughts on the impacts of the changing workforce and five ways it will impact reliability engineering.
Here are a few thoughts on intergenerational communication from my recent interview on The YoPro Know Podcast.
Companies are generally awkward with social media and how to reach the younger generations. On the one hand, companies know to try. On the other hand, the HR people and some of the technical managers are really bad at it.
Companies should do a gap analysis on reaching young professionals. There are inadvertent things companies do that really cause them to stumble inadvertently. Most companies do too much of a cookie-cutter approach to recruiting and retention.
[Read more…]
Reliability engineers are responsible for keeping equipment or facilities operational, extending their useful lives, and managing maintenance costs by formulating relevant maintenance management policies and programs. They offer guidance to maintenance teams, analyze existing maintenance programs to identify opportunities for improvement. Unlike maintenance supervisors, these professionals rarely engage in the daily execution of maintenance tasks. The roles of reliability engineers span the entire lifecycle of an asset beginning from the design phase, operational stage to disposal. How do reliability engineers influence the gradual improvement of maintenance management in different organizations? [Read more…]
Almost all maintenance, reliability or asset management professionals have heard of reliability engineering. But what is reliability engineering? A quick google search will return the following definition “Reliability Engineering is engineering that emphasizes dependability in the lifecycle management of a product. Dependability, or reliability, describes the ability of a system or component to function under stated conditions for a specified period of time.”
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What does the word statistics bring to mind when you hear it? Horrible high school classes that you sat through wondering why do I need this stuff? Complex math problems what were almost impossible to figure out? Or is it nonsense that is only used in political polls?
Statistics are used in every aspect of Reliability Engineering. So if you don’t have a good relationship with statistics, I highly recommend that you are starting investing time in building your knowledge in statistics. [Read more…]
At first glance, a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) and Failure Modes And Effects Analysis (FMEA) may appear to be worlds apart. But take a deeper dive, and it’s easy to see that they both share a common component: data. The core of any CMMS is defined by gigabytes of data that guarantee its usefulness and functionality, while the success of the systematic steps in FMEA depends on good quality data.
Let’s face it, the field of reliability engineering is diverse and full of statistics, models and detailed analysis. The detailed calculations, the building of models and analysis, have been performed with great success in the past and currently. The models built through manual calculation have been successful and demonstrated the importance of reliability engineering.
Jezdimir Knezevic of the MIRCE Akademy published a paper with the title above and I have a few comments.
In the article, Jezdimir suggests that the statistical approach to describing the world about us is fundamental flaws and not inherently useful for our use. He compares a mathematical/statistical approach to a scientific approach and finds the stats wanting.
Let’s take a critical look at the topic of this paper and conclusions. [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…]
The quality triangle is an admission that every project has design constraints. Note that reliability is rarely listed directly within the triangle, yet reliability does impact each element of the triad.
In a world where the design team is beset with numerous design for X priorities, understanding how reliability related to the top three and most common set of constraints is imperative.
For any set of priorities, you should be able to convey how addressing reliability performance in the design and assembly process impacts those priorities. Addressing reliability can improve quality, reduce the risk of launch delays, and reduce the cost of a product. All this and improve customer satisfaction as well.
Let’s explore a few ways you can connect reliability priorities to the common quality triangle priorities. [Read more…]
I am a parent of two young children. As a result of my experiences as a mom, I feel that parents make great Reliability Engineers because there are so many shared skill sets. Please enjoy this lighthearted comparison to start your week out with a little humor.
First, I have to point out the development of a brand new Reliability Engineer requires the same skills of lubrication and vibration that the conception of a child requires. [Read more…]
