Reliability Engineering Articles
Eliminate These Obstacles Before You Implement Predictive Maintenance
By R. Keith Mobley, CMRP, Principal SME, Life Cycle Engineering
As appeared in IMPACT e-newsletterImplementing an effective predictive maintenance program should be relatively simple and straightforward. After all, it’s simply a matter of selecting the right technologies, procuring a suitable system, building an asset database, acquiring a baseline or benchmark data set, and then maintaining the program. What’s the big deal?
Workforce Development Is No Longer Optional
By R. Keith Mobley, CMRP, Principal SME, Life Cycle Engineering
When considering the problems that limit reliability and performance, most people would agree that improving the skills of the workforce ranks very high, yet most corporations invest very little in workforce development.Eleven Elements of an Effective Management of Change Program
By Sam McNair, P.E.,CMRP, Life Cycle Engineering
As appeared in Plant ServicesAlthough the details of implementation vary widely, all truly effective Management of Change (MOC) programs start from the same foundation and will contain the same basic elements, either singly or in combination. The following steps will give you the basic functional guidelines.
What do you do if you can’t find the root cause of an RCA?
By Sam McNair, P.E., CMRP, Life Cycle Engineering
Sometimes when you just can’t find the exact root cause of an RCA, some might recommend finding an expert to help you solve the riddle or to help preparations to mitigate the consequence of the next occurrence, since it’s due to happen. What else can you do?The People Side of Root Cause Analysis
Has your facility started an RCA program, only to have it fall by the wayside? Or has a RCA program failed to take hold because of a variety of factors, all challenging to manage? This article will address some common pitfalls of RCA programs, and recommend some strategies to establish (or reestablish) a program at your facility that will bring lasting success.
What is the difference between AU and OEE?
In today’s competitive global environment, we are constantly being asked to do more with less. Now more than ever, companies are asking their employees to become more productive, more efficient…more “lean”. Strategic planning, value stream mapping, reliability engineering, loss elimination – these phrases have become popular from the board room to the shop floor.
The Top Six Reasons Why RCFA Initiatives Fail
There are many reasons why organizations expend precious resources to train their people in the use of RCFA only to realize very little gain after a brief burst of activity. Briefly, here are the top reasons that RCFA initiatives fail.
When Are OEM Recommendations Not Enough?
This is a commonly posed question in industry and is sometimes inversely worded as, “Are OEM recommendations enough?” It quite simply boils down to an evaluation of two underlying issues. Firstly, what do you get from Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) recommendations? Secondly, what does one consider to be enough or meeting the need? The knee-jerk response by many might be to challenge the validity of OEM recommendations for any and everything, but that leaves us to wonder how effective the alternatives might be and under what circumstances it makes sense to employ them.
Loss Elimination: Is Your Organization Living in Sin?
Waste. We all know it. We all have seen it. We are all responsible for it. Just how big of a deal is waste? How does it prevent us from achieving excellence in all that we do? A wise man once said that sin is a measure of the gap between what we are and what we could be – a measure of our potential. Now, we could get into a hypothetical discussion about what exactly that means – about who we are, or what we could be…but we don’t have that kind of time. So let’s add some focus, scope, and definition. Should any form of waste really be considered sinful?
Five Time Wasters for Reliability Engineers to Avoid
You’ve heard the catch phrases. You’ve read the success stories. You’ve seen the ROI calculations and the positive trending that reliability engineers bring. You’ve even lobbied upper management. Your argument has been so convincing that you’ve secured approval in this year’s budget to hire a reliability engineer. The hiring process has begun and you can’t wait for the results: more reliable equipment, fewer failures, increased availability and production.
