Reliability Engineering Articles
Failure Codes to the Rescue: A Reliability Engineer’s Experience with an Unsuccessful FMEA
I was recently asked to perform a Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) at a large food processing facility. This piece of equipment was similar to about 40 other assets and we were excited about being able to leverage this FMEA as a template. Furthermore, we were going to be able to extend this to other facilities that this client operated across the country.
Planning a Facilitation Strategy
A reliability engineer (RE) must have technical competencies like risk analysis, reliability modeling and root cause analysis, but that's not enough. In order to contribute to and influence the business, an RE needs to be capable of communicating and facilitating meetings effectively.
What is Mechanical Integrity and what are the requirements of an MI program?
Mechanical integrity (MI) is just one of the 14 elements included in Process Safety Management (PSM), driven by the the OSHA 1910.119 standard, but it is significant in terms of the asset coverage involved. For example, MI includes any and all equipment/assets used to produce products made from specific quantities of defined hazardous materials on the list covered by the PSM standard.
Reliability Engineers: Your Effectiveness Depends on Your Leadership Skills
Today’s Reliability Engineer (RE) must possess a thorough understanding of the Reliability Engineering Body of Knowledge1. Beyond acquiring the knowledge, one of the most difficult aspects of the RE’s job is building and cultivating a reliability-centered culture. This article explores opportunities for REs to develop leadership abilities by immersing themselves into the effort to transform an organization’s culture.
Choose the Right PM Task – and the Right Frequency
By Bill Barto, ASQ CRE, CMRP, Life Cycle Engineering
As appeared in RxTodayHaving a background in mechanical engineering, I have always appreciated the level of analysis necessary for many conventional engineering tasks. For example, when asked to consider a bearing carrying a particular load at a particular speed, the engineer’s job is not over after determining in which direction the load is being applied. An engineer should determine the amount of applied load and make the calculations to determine the size and type of bearing needed. In this sense, would it be enough for a reliability engineer to look at an asset’s failure history and simply point out that time-based maintenance should be performed?
Help Your Reliability Activities Earn the Respect They Deserve
Recently, I led a discussion panel on the topic of reliability and maintenance. The conversation eventually settled on the issue of demonstrating the value of reliability engineering and asset management in general. One young reliability engineer stood up to express his desire to learn a way to show the executives in his company that they should continue to support his group’s efforts. The group in attendance offered many great examples of personal success. My goal for this article is to share a few thoughts and provide some examples of how to get your reliability activities noticed.
Are You a Reliability Linchpin?
By Bill Barto, ASQ CRE, CRMP Life Cycle Engineering
As appeared in RxTodayThere is no lack of good information available on improving reliability in your organization. It usually comes in the form of tools to learn and tasks to complete. Learning the proper way to critically rank your assets or create a fault tree is important, but is only the start of making a real difference in your company. The hard work is finding ways to exceed expectations and make significant and meaningful cultural changes.
Infrastructure for Productivity
By R. Keith Mobley, Principal SME, Life Cycle Engineering
One thing that has always bothered me about most continuous improvement programs is that they ignore the impact of the plant’s infrastructure on productivity. If you stop to think about real factors that limit performance, infrastructure must be a primary consideration. Perhaps one reason that most continuous improvement programs ignore or covertly address infrastructure is that few of us like to be told that we are the reason our plants are ineffective.How can you tweak KPIs to improve performance?
By R. Keith Mobley, CMRP Principal SME, Life Cycle Engineering
As appeared in Plant Engineering magazine
Key performance indicators (KPIs) are the lifeblood of your company. They measure how critical functions and activities are performing relative to your business plan and the goals established to meet market and business demands. Selected and used properly, KPIs create a stretch model that empowers the entire workforce and drives a continuous improvement engine that assures meeting today’s goals as well as the company’s long range objectives.How Do You Measure the Effectiveness of Root Cause Analysis?
By Sam McNair, P.E., CMRP, Life Cycle Engineering
People often define the sole measure of success for Root Cause Analysis (RCA) as being able to "kill" the problem forever. But does that mean dead at any cost? How big are the problems we are solving? Are we trapping mice (forever chasing irritating little problems) or hunting big game (only responding to major events)? Forever is a long time. Is one re-occurrence per 100 years good enough? And is the true objective the analysis, or the actions that follow?
