Your Reliability Engineering Professional Development Site
I can’t believe it! They took it to the next level, They hired a sniper, and he was good, he got a kill shot with one round.
I’m in the hull of my boat doing what should be the easiest “Spring prep before launch” I have ever done. I got everything set up a week earlier to make this ritual of “man vs machine” as easy as possible. I even took care of the squirrel problem from the previous year. [Read more…]
If we have even a moderately complex product, we often need to break up our design team into smaller groups. Perhaps electronic, mechanical and hydraulic teams. Perhaps teams for specific functional components. And these teams need to work at least partially independently. So what do we do if we have a system reliability goal? What goals do we pass on to our smaller teams? This is where reliability allocation comes into play. Reliability allocation is often portrayed as a very complex, very involved and extremely exhaustive process. It should never be! In fact – the more exhaustive you make, the less likely it is to work.
If you want to learn more about a straightforward approach to reliability allocation – read this!
The “Optimize Your Launch” series is a set of interviews with industry experts to help companies bring their products to market quickly, maintain quality, and create loyal satisfied customers.
Take a moment and check out my session with Chelsea here (or in the player below). I shared my thoughts on the key factors in creating a highly reliable product, including why a good reliability culture is key to success.
The full series can be viewed here if you would like to see the full catalogue of contributors and topics. There is a free gift at her series site on my page. A downloadable pdf copy of my book “How Reliable is Your Product? 50 Ways to Improve Product Reliability”
-Adam
(Inspired by the Poem by Clement Clarke Moore)
Twas the night before Christmas
When all through the facility
Not an engineer was stirring
Not even in reliability
The KPIs were hung by the lunchroom with care
In hopes that the plant manager soon would be there
When out on the plant floor there rose such a clatter
I sprang from my desk to see what was the matter
Away to the plant I flew like a flash
Put my PPE on and slammed my door with a crash
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear
But a man and eight junior engineers
With a white hard hat, suit and a shiny high vis vest
I knew in a moment it was the CEO, I guess
He spoke not a word but went straight to his desk
And walked right past the broken equipment that needs money to invest
And laying his finger aside of his nose
And giving a nod, up the stairs he rose
But I heard him exclaim, ere he climbed out of sight
Happy Christmas to all and to all a good night
I’m just back from a week long trip to Switzerland. I was there developing a new Failure Mode Effects Analysis (FMEA) course for the “R is 4 Reliability” education series. If you have ever been to Switzerland you found that there are several things that are striking about this place. The natural beauty is unparalleled. Just about every view from every angle is of a beautiful snow capped mountain that has a lake or stream connected at its base. It’s never got old to look up and be viewing a real life postcard.
My wife (Beth) and I both train and compete in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. It’s a grappling sport like wrestling. In Jiu Jitsu your Gi (the karate looking uniform) is a big part of the sport. It’s a very heavy fabric with very specific features that are inspected before each match. Many moves involve the GI, especially the jacket. I have wrapped my sleeve around someones neck for a choke, You can grab the end of both of the opponents sleeves and dig your feed into their elbows to lock up their arms and throw them, you can use an opponent’s own lapel and wrap it around their neck for a submission or simply to roll them any way you wish.
It’s been a few years since I have had a Porsche 911 in the stable. It seemed like the right time since were down to only two 
sports cars in addition to the daily drivers. I think five cars is the bare minimum these days. “It’s only a problem if you want to stop but can’t.” I don’t want to. There are some less free spirited individuals in the house who have expressed differing opinions.
I was recently in New York City for work. I stopped by to see a friend in the area. He said “I have something interesting to show you.” I was pretty excited because when Mark says “I have something interesting to show you.” you know it is going to be good. He’s a writer and his passion is finding strange and interesting things. My personal Indiana Jones. Many days he wakes up and just gives himself some adventure assignment and the goes searching for it.
The gage measurements are expected to be stable, meaning the gage should provide consistent readings. Some random variation due to random error is expected. However, gage measurements change with time or because the gage is damaged. The gage stability can be checked by measuring a known reference.
In this article, it is shown how to use control charts to assess gage stability.
If you recall I went on a slightly crazy adventure up to the edge of the article circle with my adventure buddy, my daughter Natalie, 11. We almost froze to death on a mountain just to see the Northern Lights (story here). But we also did something we both have always wanted to do and knew would be epic, a dog sled ride. The first thing I have to say about it is holy crap those dogs are fast. It felt like you could blow the doors off a snowmobile if you came across one.
I was recently giving a presentation for IEEE at MIT Lincoln Labs here in the Boston area. The topic was one of my favorites, my new playground, Use Case 7 ! The crowd loved the idea of expanding how we access use cases and came up with great examples. and experiences, of their own. They found many areas in their work where the Use Case 7 exercise may yield some interesting insight.
In February I did a hit and run trip to Fairbanks Alaska with my daughter, age 11, to try and see the Northern Lights. It was a long shot but I’ve done nuttier expeditions and she was game. It was actually her idea, and she knew who the right person was to ask for such a trip. She turned 11 in January. I asked her what she wanted for her birthday. I was ready for the “this or that electronic” request. Instead she said “I want to see the Northern Lights.” First thought was “Geez that’s a bit extravagant” but
then my second thought was she’s 11 and this could have a great impact on her and what an interesting/cool thing to ask for. It might energize an interest in physics or natural photography, or cold weather clothing design. I also thought about how in a few years she may not want to do anything with me because I’ll be an “idiot who doesn’t get it.”
In the past five weeks I have been to Miami, Orlando, Cleveland, Chicago, Fairbanks Alaska, Fortuna Costa Rica. For one stint of that I went Fairbanks to Boston to Costa Rica in a 24 hr period. I walked into my home dropped the Alaska suitcase, grabbed the prepacked Cost Rica suitcase, slept for 6 hours ,and was back on a plane 13 hrs later. I think that qualifies as a HALT test considering the lowest temperature I experienced in Fairbanks (Arctic circle edge) was -30F on top of a mountain and then 85F in Costa Rica in the Rainforest.
So why did I do all of this? Because it’s me and it seemed fun.
Most of us rely on accurate measurements. If these measurements are unreliable, then our decisions could be based on false information. How can we have confidence in our measurements?
The purpose of a measurement system analysis is to determine if a gauge is fit for use. This means that we can rely upon the measurements to give us a true indication of the parameter being measured. Our decisions will not be affected by erroneous data. So how can we know the quality of our measurements?
[Read more…]
Anyone who knows me knows I love modifying things. I always feel there is a better design. This is the goal of a reliability engineer at heart. I enjoy sports and I enjoy running. I do believe that we were born to run. If you look at the human body that is clearly what it was built for. Our big toe faces forward, which makes them no longer good for gripping things like branches. But it does make them great for landing a foot in forward motion. We have extremely long legs in proportion to our bodies compared to all other primates. We are slender which provide a great ratio of surface area to mass for cooling. The ability to sweat without hair is a great temperature control method as well. We are also the only mammal that can uncouple our breathing to our running pace because we are bipeds. This let’s us optimize our breathing for long distance.
