Safety & Reliability

By Terry Harris

January 12, 2021 / 8am Pacific Time

$45

A Reliable Process Solutions 1-hour webinar event focused on providing you practical content to improve your reliability program today.

This webinar will include presentation and discussion on:

• Hand Tool Safety
• Electrical Safety
• Guarding & Safety
• Lockout/Tagout
• Reliability & Safety Statistics

Sign up is direct with Reliable Process Solutions. After payment they will forward the link for the GotoWebinar event or provided access to the recording. There are also options to buy bundles of webinars (3 for $135, 6 for $215 and all 12 in 2021 for $335. You determine which 3 or 6 topics you’d like to include in your bundle.

Three Approaches to Accelerated Life Testing

By Fred Schenkelberg

January 12, 2021 / 9am Pacific Time

We can make a guess, some assumptions, or conduct an experiment. In fact, we use engineering judgment, prudent assumptions to create our experiments that lead to understanding time to failure information. Accelerated life testing, ALT, is one of the most complex and important types of experiments we conduct. It involves samples, failure mechanisms, stress, measurements, and statistics.

In my experience, there are three basic approaches to ALT: Test to pass, test to failure, and degradation testing. Each may or may not be an appropriate approach for a given situation. Each may lead to faulty or excellent results.

Let’s discuss a little about the challenges and constraints along with the attributes of each of these three approaches. And, how to determine which approach is appropriate for your current situation. We’ll also explore when and why you should conduct an ALT. That may be a fourth approach, deciding not to conduct the experiment.

Reliability Making Money

By Chris Jackson

January 26, 2021  / 8am Pacific Time

We all know that all you need to work out how many spare parts you need is to put some numbers into a computer, perhaps throw in a ‘confidence’ level as well, and use the number that computer spits back out at you. Right? Well … you can do this. Especially if you hate money, love carrying too many spares or not enough. Especially if you are not trying to keep searching for an edge with your competitors. And especially if you like saying that you take ‘reliability stuff’ seriously – but don’t really want to take the time to do it – then use the number that computer gives you. Instead, you can use your brain to work out the right number of spares you need and save lots, and lots of money. If this sounds interesting to you … join me at this webinar!

The Rise of the Connected Worker: Implications for Maintenance and Operations in 2021

By Keith Larson and Ankush Molhotra

January 6, 2021 / 8am Pacific Time

As more plants move ahead with their digitalization strategies, individual maintenance and reliability professionals will find themselves becoming increasingly “connected” in 2021. But what does that actually look like? Where are the biggest differences, what are the speedbumps we should watch out for, and which opportunities are the most exciting? Keith Larson, editor-in-chief of Control magazine, and Ankush Malhotra, vice president and general manager at Fluke Reliability, share their insights about what the coming year may hold for maintenance and operations professionals.

Medical Device Risk Management following ISO 14971:2019

By Edwin Waldbusser

January 6, 2021 / 10am Pacific Time

$150

FDA expects that as part of a product development program risk management will be conducted and risks will be mitigated as far as practical. Risk Analysis is required in a FDA product submission.

FDA recommends using ISO 14971 as a guide and has accepted it as a recognized standard. Hazard Analysis, described in ISO 14971, is the most powerful of the risk management tools , but it is very confusing.

Many new concepts are introduced. We will explain these concepts and provide examples so that you can expertly perform the process. Templates will be provided. Handouts are hazard analysis forms and HA report template.

Start 2021 Right: Guide to Goal Setting for Your Maintenance Team

By Cliff Williams

January 7, 2021 / 11am Pacific Time

Cliff Williams is author of the best-selling maintenance novel ‘People – A Reliability Success Story’. Cliff was awarded the Sergio Guy Memorial Award for contribution to maintenance and reliability in 2012 and is a Director with the Plant Engineering and Maintenance Association of Canada. Cliff has been the facilitator for the first offerings of PEMAC’s Asset Management Professional Certification program that focuses on the approach to ISO 55000. He was awarded this year’s inaugural PEMAC for Asset Management Leadership award for contributions to the field of Asset Management. Cliff has worked in the steel, pulp and paper industries as well as for food giants Coca Cola, Kraft and Wrigley’s and ERCO Worldwide. Cliff’s focus has always been on developing the systems and people he has worked with – whatever the industry.

Human Error, Human Performance and Human Factors

January 8, 2021 / 8am Pacific Time

How many errors does your organization want? What is the error rate in your organization? What is it in other industries? There are radically different schools of thought on what human error is and how human performance is improved. This webinar clears up some of the confusion and addresses the myths around human error. We’ll review different types of errors and cover the topic of human factors. We’ll also share what some organizations have done to reduce human error and explain some basic steps you can apply in your organization.

A Beginner’s Guide to Cleaning Circuit Assemblies

By Mike Konrad

January 12, 2021 / 8am Pacific Time

The need to remove potentially harmful residues from circuit assemblies has grown in recent years. Many assemblers find themselves investigating new cleaning processes. While some assemblers recall cleaning from several decades ago, others have never experienced the need to clean. This non-commercial webinar will present the current best-practice strategies and methods to eliminate the increasing failure-induced electrochemical migration (ECM) events by removing the residues that produce ECM.

Are You Getting the Most Out of Your System? – Prognostics and Health Management

By Dr. Michael H. Azarian

January 12, 2021  / 8am Pacific Time

While electronics provide tools for entertainment and leisure, electronics have also become critical to our security and safety. As such, managing downtime and maintenance is critical. With available compute power, expanding sensor technology, and machine learning, the ability to anticipate degradation and prevent in-use failure can be achieved. Prognostics and health management (PHM) combines monitoring and analysis of environmental, operational, and performance-related parameters to assess the health of a system and predict its remaining useful life.

This talk will describe data-driven and physics-of-failure-based PHM strategies employed at the Center for Advanced Life Cycle Engineering (CALCE), as well as the fusion of these approaches. One problem for complex systems, which is particularly common for electronics, is how to perform diagnostics on systems that contain a large number of potential failure sites and that are not adequately equipped with embedded sensors. Some potential solutions to this problem will be illustrated using examples from research in this area.

Getting Your Point Across

By James Reyes-Picknell

January 12, 2021 / 9am Pacific Time

This presentation will focus on ways to communicate the value that arises with good maintenance, and operational and asset management practices, throughout the lifecycle of physical assets. “Value” is often misinterpreted to mean “low cost,” especially in the accounting community. To them, value comes from minimizing any and all costs. Operations managers often interpret “value” as the ability to deliver more and avoid any downtime on any machine involved in production. To them, denying downtime for maintenance is a good thing to do. Maintainers tend to interpret value to mean fewer failures. Yet the avoidance of all failures may actually expend needless resources where there’s no need.

Engineers often think of value deriving from the delivery of projects on time and on budget—even better if delivered earlier or at lower-than-estimated costs. Spending less upfront, however, can lead to high operating and maintenance costs for years to come. To an extent, they’re all correct, but they’re all missing the true meaning. We’ll speak to value, what it is, how our organizations can ensure it’s delivered, and how we can make a case to our managers and executives so they’ll understand. This presentation is based on Paying Your Way (2020).

Using Statistics to Determine Sample Size

By Steven Wachs

January 13, 2021 / 10am Pacific Time

$150

The webinar will provide important considerations when selecting sample sizes for specific applications. The knowledge gained by attending the webinar will allow practitioners to consider the implications of sample size selection prior to conducting the study and ensure that the information obtained can be useful for decision making.

Auditing ISO 9001 Clause 8.3, Design and Development of Products and Services (Risk Based Thinking)

January 14, 2021 / 9am Pacific Time

Internal auditing is a requirement in ISO 9001:2015. Its purpose is to assess if processes are maintained and effective. This webinar will review how internal auditing, as well as the use of risk based thinking (RBT), can add value to the process of design and development of product and services. Focus will be on project reviews as well as verification and validation requirements providing examples of areas that had shown prior weaknesses. It is also recognized that industry specific standards such as aerospace (AS 9100) and automotive (IATF 16949) have added additional design and development requirements. These requirements will need to be audited if the organization registered to the industry specific quality management system.

What You Need to Know About the Cause Mapping® Template

January 15, 2021 / 8am Pacific Time

The template, which we provide for free, is a workbook in Microsoft Excel created specifically to allow users to document, analyze and present their root cause analysis within one file. Each worksheet has a specific purpose within the investigation and allows you to document the different parts of a complete incident investigation. This free webinar will explain the purpose of each of the worksheets included in the file, as well as offer a few helpful tips and tricks to complete your investigation.

Human Factors/ Usability Studies following ISO62366 and the new FDA Guidance

By Edwin Waldbusser

January 19, 2021 / 10am Pacific Time

$150

Human Factors/ Usability is the analysis of how people interact with medical devices.

The process of conducting rigorous human factors studies throughout the design process, integrating it with the device risk analysis and design process, and validating the effectiveness of the studies will be explained.

The various types and methods of human factors analysis will be explained. This process conforms to the new ISO 62366 standard and the new FDA Guidance document.

Mechanical & Electrical Failure Analysis & Reporting with Ultrasound

By Adrian Messer

January 19, 2021  / 3pm Pacific Time

The Maintenance Community on Slack invites you to join us at 3pmPT/6pmET for this FREE webinar “Mechanical & Electrical Failure Analysis & Reporting with Ultrasound” with Adrian Messer!

Root Causes of Lubricant Degradation and How to Prevent it from Harming your Machines

By Lanya Mathura

January 20, 2021 / 8am Pacific Time

Oil analysis is a primary way to determine lubrication breakdown, a sign of potential premature failure in critical and other assets. Lubricant degradation occurs in six ways — oxidation, thermal degradation, micro dieseling, electrostatic spark discharge, additive depletion, and contamination. Expert Sanya Mathura, founder of Trinidad-based Strategic Reliability Solutions, Ltd., introduces the basic concepts of lubrication, and discusses how a lubricant can degrade and ways each situation can be handled to avoid asset decline and demise. Mathura’s company have solved lubrication problems and provided training in the automotive, industrial, marine, construction, and transportation sectors.

Reliability Prediction Based on Multiple Accelerated Life Tests

By Joseph Bernstein

January 20, 2021  / 8:30-10:30am Pacific Time

$200

To this day, the users of our most sophisticated electronic systems that include opto-electronic, photonic, MEMS device, etc. are expected to rely on a simple reliability value (FIT) published by the supplier. The FIT is determined today in the product qualification process by use of HTOL or other standardized test, depending on the product. The manufacturer reports a zero-failure result from the given conditions of the single-point test and uses a single-mechanism model to fit an expected MTTF at the operator’s use conditions.

The zero-failure qualification is well known as a very expensive exercise that provides nearly no useful information. As a result, designers often rely on HALT testing and on handbooks such as Fides, Telecordia or Mil Handbook 217 to estimate the failure rate of their products, knowing full well that these approaches act as guidelines rather than as a reliable prediction tool. Furthermore, with zero failure required for the “pass” criterion as well as the poor correlation of expensive HTOL data to test and field failures, there is no communication for the designers to utilize this knowledge in order to build in reliability or to trade it off with performance. Prediction is not really the goal of these tests; however, current practice is to assign an expected failure rate, FIT, based only on this test even if the presumed acceleration factor is not correct.

We present, in this tutorial, a simple way to predictive reliability assessment using the common language of Failure In Time or Failure unIT (FIT). We will evaluate the goal of finding MTBF and evaluate the wisdom of various approaches to reliability prediction. Our goal is to predict reliability based on the system environment including space, military and commercial. It is our intent to show that the era of confidence in reliability prediction has arrived and that we can make reasonable reliability predictions from qualification testing at the system level.

The Future of Industrial Jobs & Manufacturing

By Ryan Chan

January 21, 2021  / 3:30pm Pacific Time

Lessons Learned from the Loss of the Space Shuttle Challenger

January 22, 2021 / 8am Pacific Time

On the morning of January 28, 1986, during the tenth flight of Space Shuttle Challenger, NASA’s first space shuttle disaster. A mere 73 seconds after liftoff, the space shuttle broke apart over the Atlantic Ocean, taking the lives of all seven crew members. In this webinar, we’ll use this catastrophic event as a case study for understanding how a cause-and-effect based root cause analysis can be applied to complex, catastrophic incidents.

Sample Size Determination for Design Validation Activities

By Steven Wachs

January 22, 2021 / 10-11:30am Pacific Time

$150

Sample sizes have a significant impact on the uncertainty in estimates of key process performance characteristics. To have high confidence in results, sufficient sample sizes must be used.

Potential problems should be uncovered during Design Validation, prior to launching a product. Failure to do so may result in customer dissatisfaction, excessive warranty, costly recalls, or litigation.

Participants in the webinar will be able to understand the impact of sample sizes on the results from various statistical analysis methods commonly used during Design Validation.

Transformer Management 1 Course (TM1)

By Aris Pena, Chuck Baker, and Jon Karas

January 25-29, 2021 / Various Times Eastern Time

$150 per webinar

SDMyers is offering 9 online courses that compose the entire “Transformer Management 1” (TM1) course. Each course runs between 2 and 2.5 hours and cost $150. Receive a $200 discount when purchasing all 9 individual courses that make up the entire Transformer Management 1 course; use coupon code TM1 at check out.

Courses that apply are:

• Introduction to Reliability Centered Maintenance (Jan 25, 9-11am)
• Transformer Components & Functions (Jan 25, 1-3pm)
• Solid insulation Life & Aging (Jan 26, 9-11am)
• Insulating Liquids (Jan 26, 1-3:30pm)
• Oil Tests & Interpretation (Jan 27, 9-11:30am)
• Moisture in Transformers (Jan 27, 1-3pm)
• Dissolved Gas Analysis (DGA) & Furans (Jan 28, 9-11:30am)
• Electrical Testing (Jan 28, 1-3:30pm)
• Applied Transformer Maintenance (Jan 29, 9-11:30am)

All times Eastern Time.

TM1 is the first step in obtaining the Master Transformer Maintenance Professional Certification awarded by SDMyers. The Live Online version of TM1 is equivalent to the Traditional Classroom version of TM1 and is therefore accepted toward the professional certificate program. More information regarding the Certifications available from SDMyers can be found in the file repository section of each course.

Essentials of Validation – IQ, OQ, PQ

By Susanne Manz

January 27, 2021 / 10-11:30am Pacific Time

$150

Validation is an important element of the Quality System Regulations and ISO13485.

This course will cover the requirements the essentials of validation. You’ll learn about what processes needed to be validated and what steps you need to take to validate processes.

You’ll learn the essentials of validation planning, protocol writing, and change management. We’ll cover the steps of Installation Qualification (IQ),Operational Qualification (OQ), and Performance Qualification (PQ) including tips and best practices.

Implementation and Optimization of Preventive Maintenance – Practical Steps and Tools

January 28, 2021 / 8-11am Pacific Time

The open enrollment online training “Implementation and optimization of Preventive Maintenance ” has been prepared for managers and specialists of technical / maintenance management departments who want to learn about the scope of (among others) Development of effective Preventive Plan and KPIs for Preventive Maintenance.

​You will learn what preventive maintenance and technical asset management looks like in the most effective companies in the world. You will learn important facts about useful methodologies and tools.

5-Why DOs and DON’Ts

January 29, 2021 / 8am Pacific Time

A widely known tool that is regularly misused. An accurate 5-Why provides a simple way to start a cause-and-effect analysis. This Webinar covers some important DOs and DON’Ts that will explain how the technique is confused and how it should be used.

Topics will include:

• 5-Why Basics and Benefits
• Drawbacks and Misuse of a 5-Why
• Does a 5-Why align with a Cause Map®?