Speaking Of Reliability: Friends Discussing Reliability Engineering Topics | Warranty | Plant Maintenance

Robustness Abstract Philip and Fred discuss the idea of a robust design for a product or system. Key Points Join Philip and Fred as they discuss Topics include: To improve the ability of a product to withstand unexpected stresses, improve the robustness. Design techniques to improve robustness. Various methods to improve reliability like stress-strength analysis, derating, etc. Enjoy an episode of Speaking of Reliability. Where you can join friends as they discuss reliability topics. Join us as we discuss topics ranging from design for reliability techniques to field data analysis approaches. Download Audio RSS Show Notes   The post SOR 953 Robustness appeared first on Accendo Reliability.

Vintage Experience Abstract Philip and Fred discuss the value of the experience our co-workers may be able to share. How important is Mentoring in the Workplace? Should we all be mentors? How do we collaborate with a cross functional team that is built through the many generations and Leveridge the experience and foster the growth of a recent addition to your workforce. How do we build a team and best advantage the walking encyclopedia? Coporate knowledge and Cross pollination of great ideas through effective collaboration techniques. What techniques are best to merge grey haired knowledge with the arrogance of youth? Key Points Join Philip and Fred as they discuss Accumulated experience over time Average time on the job today is 3.8 years – so what happens when knowledge leaves? How is it that we all see a different reality even though we all see the same thing? Is there a better way to look at a problem in a neutral team way? Tips on helping others share their expertise in a valuable way Tip on effectively sharing your own experiences. Enjoy an episode of Speaking of Reliability. Where you can join friends as they discuss reliability topics. Join us as we discuss topics ranging from design for reliability techniques to field data analysis approaches. Download Audio RSS Show Notes   The post SOR 952 Vintage Experience appeared first on Accendo Reliability.

Shorter Lifespan of Newer Appliances Abstract Carl and Fred discuss an article from the Wall Street Journal describing how newer appliances tend to have more complexity and shorter lifespans, and what can be done to reverse the trend. Key Points Join Carl and Fred as they discuss the factors that influence reliability in large, complex appliances, and what conclusions can be drawn for other systems. Topics include: Does low reliability correlate to more features and complexity? Why are simpler systems more reliable? What can be done to increase reliability of complex equipment? How much of the shorter lifespan is driven by regulations? What should reliability engineers do to maintain high reliability with lots of complex features? Ask: how long should a product last so that customers will buy the same product? What is cost of low reliability to customers? Consider the life cycle cost of products; new features may dazzle the consumer, but have a hidden cost to the environment. What is entire cost of products, including development, test, environmental, regulatory, energy consumption, replacement due to poor reliability, and disposal? What is role of reliability engineer in the life cycle of the product? How does reputation enter into this discussion? Enjoy an episode of Speaking of Reliability. Where you can join friends as they discuss reliability topics. Join us as we discuss topics ranging from design for reliability techniques to field data analysis approaches. Download Audio RSS Show Notes   The post SOR 951 Shorter Lifespan of Large Appliances appeared first on Accendo Reliability.

Value of Design FMEA Abstract Carl and Fred discuss an interesting question from a listener about modeling the money value of Design FMEAs. Key Points Join Carl and Fred as they discuss whether it is possible to predict the cost savings due to design changes driven by Design FMEA. Topics include: The challenge of predicting warranty costs from FMEA, including pros and cons. How FMEA interacts with Model-based Engineering. Model-based FMEA Can FMEA be used to predict failure rates? Three categories of failure: from parts of the system that  are not changing, from known failures, and from parts of the system that have changes to environment or design. What are limitations to estimating warranty cost using occurrence ratings in Design FMEA? FMEAs are not done on all parts of the system. The purpose of Design FMEA is not to predict field failures. The purpose of Design FMEA is to improve the design. The occurrence rating in an FMEA is not designed to predict a failure rate. The purpose of the occurrence rating is to help prioritize risk for corrective actions. It is a subjective rating. FMEA should not be used to calculate reliability. Many good comments from listener were reviewed and discussed. Models can be useful, if assumptions are understood and taken into account. The language of business is money. FMEA can be input to reliability analysis, and system reliability models. FMMEA: Failure Mode, Mechanism and Effects Analysis. Enjoy an episode of Speaking of Reliability. Where you can join friends as they discuss reliability topics. Join us as we discuss topics ranging from design for reliability techniques to field data analysis approaches. Download Audio RSS Show Notes   The post SOR 950 Value of Design FMEA appeared first on Accendo Reliability.

Forecasting Returns Abstract Chris and Fred discuss how you go about forecasting returns … and understanding things like warranty reliability for products that are ‘shipped all over the place? … at different times? Sound familiar? Key Points Join Chris and Fred as they respond to a question from one of our listeners where he was struggling to understand how to forecast returns based on really simple data … essentially the number of things sold in a given month versus the number of returns for the same month. It was proposed that we simply use the exponential distribution, find the lambda and so on … but this really won’t work. Topics include: But we don’t have the data? Really? So you have absolutely no way of checking when your customers purchased your product so you can check if the returns are in the warranty period? You are happy to ‘assume’ that any customer returning a product will only do so if they have checked that the product is in the warranty period? I don’t think so. So the data is almost always there in your organization … it’s just that stove pipes, fiefdoms, and other human-made barriers exist to get access to it. It usually comes down to how your organization manages data. If you don’t believe me … then who (outside of your organization) is to blame for you ‘not having’ that data? Hackers? Spies? Aliens? You need to have sales data so you can complete your tax returns. It is entirely up to your organization to take managing data seriously. … and you can’t assume a constant hazard rate. This is tempting, as it deals with failure rates. And an easy way to calculate a number (that looks like a failure rate) is to divide the numbers of things coming in by the numbers going out. But of course, the easiest way to drive down this number (make it look good) is increase production for a month, which increases the number of things going out which makes the ‘number’ smaller. If you shut down for Christmas (for example) and have one or two products leaving your facility, then your ‘number’ goes through the roof. None of these numbers have anything to do with actual failure rates … So if your organization sucks at giving you the data? Fight for it. Manually chase it down. Ring the right people. Explain what’s going on. Perhaps get people in power to help. But don’t give up and just find a number that doesn’t mean anything. Enjoy an episode of Speaking of Reliability. Where you can join friends as they discuss reliability topics. Join us as we discuss topics ranging from design for reliability techniques to field data analysis approaches. Download Audio RSS Show Notes The post SOR 949 Forecasting Returns appeared first on Accendo Reliability.

Atlanta Airport Outage Abstract Chris and Fred discuss what happened during the ‘2017 Atlanta Airport Blackout’ where power was lost for 11 hours, hundreds of flights had to be diverted, passengers needed to be housed in hotels, and lots of other costly things. Surely this was due to some sort of unforeseeable event bordering on the ‘supernatural?’ Nope. Not even a little bit. Key Points Join Chris and Fred as they discuss the 2017 Atlanta Airport Blackout. What happened? An electrical fire took out the main power supply cables running through an underground tunnel. And why didn’t the backup power kick in? Because the backup power supply cables were run through the same tunnel, and were destroyed by the same fire. Really … Topics include: This is unambiguously dumb. And it happens a lot. The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (for example) had many of its emergency backup power generators located on hillsides out of the tsunami zone. But the control station for these generators were located within the tsunami zone. So after the 2011 tsunami, the generators worked fine, but couldn’t power the emergency core cooling systems. And when things go bad, other people tell you what needs to happen. So after the blackout, Georgia Power negotiated (as part of a legal settlement) to provide emergency backup generators to each terminal at the airport, at a cost of $ 100 million. Isn’t this great for Atlanta Airport? Not really. Georgia Power is not going to make $ 100 million manifest itself out of thin air. So energy bills moving forward (including those for Atlanta Airport) will be higher to recoup these costs. And none of this would have happened if those backup power cables went through a separate tunnel. But it wasn’t just about a single tunnel. The electrical fire showed how poorly equipped Atlanta Airport and/or Georgia Power were to deal with issues like this. There were no monitoring cameras, minimal fire detection systems, and inadequate fire suppression capabilities. It’s funny how the ‘simplest’ part of a system (like cables) are often overlooked in terms of their importance to functions like power provision … Always do big picture. If something ‘costs’ a lot of money, do you pressure the risk management team to look at the risk of not having that thing to an ‘acceptable’ level? I will bet a lot of money that something like that happened when a bunch of highly paid people concluded it was OK to run backup power cables through the same tunnel as the main ones … Enjoy an episode of Speaking of Reliability. Where you can join friends as they discuss reliability topics. Join us as we discuss topics ranging from design for reliability techniques to field data analysis approaches. Download Audio RSS Show Notes The post SOR 948 Atlanta Airport Outage appeared first on Accendo Reliability.

Customer Support Abstract Dianna and Fred discuss the challenges as a customer when calling for customer support. Key Points Join Dianna and Fred as they discuss customer support. Topics include: why current contact methods make it seem that customers are not a priority. the missing link: the problem the customer is facing. how changing the management metrics for customer support can significantly improve satisfaction and increase profits. Enjoy an episode of Speaking of Reliability. Where you can join friends as they discuss reliability topics. Join us as we discuss topics ranging from design for reliability techniques to field data analysis approaches. Download Audio RSS Show Notes Fred describes his latest ventures in calling companies to help him solve problems he’s having with a home audio system. He and Dianna talk about how customer support is a product in and of itself. They also explore some of the things that make for bad customer service, including the metrics used to measure their success. The post SOR 947 Customer Support appeared first on Accendo Reliability.

Getting Questions Answered Abstract Dianna and Fred discuss the challenges in asking others reliability questions and getting questions answered. Key Points Join Dianna and Fred as they discuss getting questions answered about reliability. Topics include: places to ask questions being able to say “failure” ways to look at asking questions to help you ask yours Enjoy an episode of Speaking of Reliability. Where you can join friends as they discuss reliability topics. Join us as we discuss topics ranging from design for reliability techniques to field data analysis approaches. Download Audio RSS Show Notes Getting questions answered about reliability can be a challenge for many reasons. Where do you go to ask questions? Some forums are useful. Internal company forums are an option. Accendo Reliability is yet another option for a place to ask questions! What do you ask, especially if there’s no NDA? Be thoughtful about phrasing your questions for feedback. A good starting point may be to check the assumptions. Include as much as you can about your goals and your scenario. Create your questions like you would a prompt for AI. Even if you have an NDA, you don’t have to hide the failures behind phrases like “thermal event” or “rapid disassembly”! Sometimes you don’t know what to ask, so be humble and start to ask what you’re curious about. This will at least start a dialogue where you may learn the information you need. The post SOR 946 Getting Questions Answered appeared first on Accendo Reliability.

Moose Lodge Syndrome Abstract Greg and Fred discuss how institutions can and should adapt, but often don’t.  The result is that even most Fortune 500 companies have a 10 year half life. Key Points Join Greg and Fred as they discuss the inability of organizations to change and pivot.  ‘Moose Lodge Syndrome’ is a metaphor for organizational resistance to change. Topics include: Why people and organizations can’t or won’t change. What happens when institutions and organizations don’t change. What are some tips and tools to facilitate and encourage change. Enjoy an episode of Speaking of Reliability. Where you can join friends as they discuss reliability topics. Join us as we discuss topics ranging from design for reliability techniques to field data analysis approaches. Download Audio RSS Show Notes   The post SOR 945 Moose Lodge Syndrome appeared first on Accendo Reliability.

Check Your (Decision Making) Bias Abstract Greg and Fred discuss how bias is a part of all of us.  Our challenge is that bias impacts our decision making from simple rules of thumb to complex decisions. Key Points Join Greg and Fred as they discuss heuristic and complex decision making.   Topics include: What are decision making or problem solving biases? Discussion of how confirmation, anchoring, and other biases impact how you see and respond to the world. Discussion on how you can understand your biases and alleviate your preconceived notions for effective decision making. Enjoy an episode of Speaking of Reliability. Where you can join friends as they discuss reliability topics. Join us as we discuss topics ranging from design for reliability techniques to field data analysis approaches. Download Audio RSS Show Notes   The post SOR 944 Check Your (Decision Making) Bias appeared first on Accendo Reliability.