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

Reliability Decisions Abstract Carl and Fred discussing some of their most memorable reliability decisions, and how the decisions came about. Key Points Join Carl and Fred as they discuss the importance of influencing decisions when managing reliability programs. Topics include: Fred and Carl each share stories where they influenced decisions when working on reliability projects The focus of good reliability programs is in influencing important engineering decisions 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 607 Reliability Decisions appeared first on Accendo Reliability.

Decisions and Problem Statements Abstract James and Fred discussing the need to focus on upcoming decisions and problems to solve. Key Points Join James and Fred as they discuss selecting the right tool or method for a particular situation. Topics include: What are typical questions or decisions that we may face The importance of focusing on influencing decisions Avoid the shiny object syndrome 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 606 Decisions and Problem Statements appeared first on Accendo Reliability.

Planning Ahead Guidance Abstract James and Fred discussing how to go about preparing and planning for the coming year. Key Points Join James and Fred as they discuss two types of planning for next year. Both personal growth and improving the reliability program. Topics include: Identifying areas for improvement by reviewing various certification programs Expanding what you and your team need to know Understanding the business objectives and needs of your organization 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 605 Planning Ahead Guidance appeared first on Accendo Reliability.

How We Prepare Future Reliability Engineers Abstract Philip and Fred discussing the importance of mentoring and reliability guidance. Key Points Join Philip and Fred as they discuss mentoring across the globe. What should we be doing to educate and prepare the reliability professional, asset manager, maintenance managers of the future to be fully prepared to enter this field. Topics include: Pathways to Reliability, Tools, Life Testing, Reducing Variability, Design for Reliability space, Design Engineers, Civil Engineers, et all. How do you become a Reliability minded person? Applying learning in the workplace. Experimentation in the workplace. Academic pathways – Central Queensland University – University of Maryland, University of Tennessee, et all. Reliability Thinking, Overdesign and effects of the cost cycle, tools and skills that can be taught to deliver a reliable system. Physics of Failure, Defect Elimination, Contributing to the body of knowledge, the role of universities, moving the art form. Manufacturing reliability into your products. Seeing the entire reliability work space. 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. University program creation guidance. Download Audio  RSS Show Notes   The post SOR 604 How We Prepare Future Reliability Engineers appeared first on Accendo Reliability.

Critical Few in Risk Management Abstract Philip and Fred discuss Risk management – internet challenges during COVID and how we analyse integrated systems that challenge traditional methods. Key Points Join Philip and Fred as they discuss Risk management – internet challenges during COVID and how we analyse integrated systems that challenge traditional methods. Topics include: Risk, the cloud, the internet robustness Challenging risk analysis on integrated systems of hardware, software and human interactions Getting into the right ball park with your analysis Emergent methodologies like STPA and STAMP. 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 Good Friends talking about Reliability Topics. After 2 days of internet woes we managed to connect around the world from Australia and San Francisco in the United States we managed to connect with enough bandwidth to discuss reliability in the COVID era. Reflections on the ways we used to do business and how we have evolved business in general as technology has advanced during our careers. As Reliability professionals can we apply these risk related notions to discover what can go wrong with a specific system, product or asset. What can we apply? Touching the end points of our interconnected systems that many people have a play in how it performs has become complicated. With the additional complexity – how does this affect a quantitative analysis and the calculation of a system’s probability to fail upon demand? As we progress into the cloud – is this a reliable solution for major hazard facilities and aviation? How does the cloud manage global access to the same content? Can it be replicated with enough reliability to ensure  real time cloud based processing? Do we have access to the tools we need to manage reliability in this evolving environment. FMEA has its variants and Fault Tree Analysis has its benefits, but what do we do when the total system involves virtualization, hypervisors, and server farms that process the intricate hybrid systems with humans, governance, software faults and a larger picture of issues. Nancy Levison’s STAMP model works on these selected intricate problems using STPA and integrates the notion that these are inter-related forces we need to deal with. When we focus on the quality aspects of Reliability, and impose the liability discussion including McDonalds’ hot coffee burning your leg in the drive through. How do we ensure product safety across multiple countries to a risk level as low as reasonably practicable whilst adjusting to a business headwind including return on investment and share holder influences. Risks are varied including space flight, aviation, and general industry the challenge is to provide an analysis that  delivers the most likely scenarios to affect the product, system or asset. Risk is a broad topic, but when we focus on a specific risk like safety, cost or reputation are FMEA topics that operate on differing scales including wildfire starts (bush fires in Australia). Getting into the right ball park in the right city is still a correct approach to defending second base. Safety is still number one. Balancing economic challenges with safety challenges across the total industry remains a challenge when trying to achieve a sustainably low level of risk. Join us and send in your thoughts as comments. We have a great many tools available to reliability professionals – what are you using fitting tools into your risk management challenges. What is working, what is not when we challenge interconnected systems?   The post SOR 603 Critical Few in Risk Management appeared first on Accendo Reliability.

Is a Test to Pass Useful? Abstract Kirk and Fred discussing the desire of everyone to “Pass the Tests”, which in reliability testing may not provide the best information on a products potential reliability. Key Points Join Kirk and Fred as they discuss testing beyond the “good enough” stress level and what can be found if testing to operational limits Topics include: Kirk discusses a the FA of a long term reliability issue found with a new AC-DC battery charger temperature cause failure that may only have been found with long  thermal testing. The testing strategy for finding the same failure would require power cycling and long term high temperature dwell times. There is a great amount of variable performance and parametric data that can be used for comparisons of lot to lot  and supplier components variations that may cause failures. 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 Click on this link to access the article “Reliability Prediction – A Continued Reliance on a Misleading Approach” For more information on the newest discovery testing methodology here is a link to the book “Next Generation HALT and HASS: Robust design of Electronics and Systems” written by Kirk Gray and John Paschkewitz. The post SOR 602 Is a Test to Pass Useful? appeared first on Accendo Reliability.

Checkbox Activities Abstract Kirk and Fred discussing those reliability procedures such as cookbook predictions that are “check the box” activities and do not add value and may be misleading Key Points Join Kirk and Fred as they discuss many reliability process that really are activities that may be required by the customer done because of tradition Topics include: Electronics technology keeps changing dramatically in time and increasing density which requires new approach that may not have been used in previous reliability testing As digital systems increase frequency the effects and reliability of the hardware interactions that can be shifted and skewed through thermal stress to operational limits that show a timing issue that may become intermittent in the field. Focusing on quantifying the reliability of a new product is difficult and difficult to measure from all types of stress testing as opposed to first finding actual weaknesses through testing to limits. Sometimes it is easier to complete useless reliability tasks than challenge managements reasons for doing so 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 Click on this link to access the article “Reliability Prediction – A Continued Reliance on a Misleading Approach”   For more information on the newest discovery testing methodology here is a link to the book “Next Generation HALT and HASS: Robust design of Electronics and Systems” written by Kirk Gray and John Paschkewitz. The post SOR 601 Checkbox Activities appeared first on Accendo Reliability.

How is Reliability Engineering Changing Abstract Fred discusses a couple of noticeable trends affecting our profession. Key Points Join Fred as he discusses the impact a changing world is having on the field of reliability engineering. Topics include: The recognition of the importance of reliable products and systems The increasing need to add value with every selected reliability task The connection between reliability engineering work and decision making The new emphasis on knowledge and capability, not the source of the degree or certificaiton 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 600 How is Reliability Engineering Changing appeared first on Accendo Reliability.

Better Performance not Just Fewer Failures Abstract Chris and Fred discuss what performance actually means. When it comes to reliability engineering … is this simply having fewer failures? NO! There is plenty more to reliability engineering than simply taking a ‘thing’ and simply making it work for longer. How can reliability engineering make more appealing, more functional, and less expensive products? Listen to this podcast for more! Key Points Join Chris and Fred as they discuss how many people simply see reliability engineering as decreasing the prevalence of failure. This is obviously very important … but what else does good reliability engineering do? Topics include: Reliability engineers ideally eliminate the need for … themselves! That’s right. When reliability engineering is functioning at its highest level, it is simply part of an organizations day to day decision-making process. And often – they won’t even realize it. This has plenty of obvious benefits (… beyond fewer reliability engineers!) If everyone just makes it happen … your production process doesn’t stop for ‘reliability to be added in.’ But reliability engineers can help your products not fail your customer. Which is different to ‘product failure.’ What if you are designing a smart lock – a smart lock that works perfectly. But … your smart lock doesn’t include external battery terminals, a USB port, or keyhole that allows customers to get from one side of the door to the other when they forget to change the batteries. Your product hasn’t failed. But you have failed the customer. And activities like FMEAs are great at identifying these fundamental functional shortcomings that will separate you from Don’t forget simplicity! Which is great for things like manufacturing. Reliability is often another word for simplicity. One manufacturer invested $ 30 000 in a manufacturing machine to deal with components floating up during soldering. Problem was … this machine had to be essentially thrown away after a could of hundred runs. Another approach? Thermally resistant bean bags that stay on top of the component. Simple. Repeatable. And it just works! So a group brainstorming session or FMEA is a great tool for identifying simple solutions like this. Maybe because organizations almost force reliability engineers to be reactive. If we wait until ‘late’ in the production process to get the reliability, quality, manufacturability guys involved … they are almost certainly going to see problems that could have been prevented – had they known. The definition of reactive! Instead, reliability engineering might involve adding functionality up front. It comes back to the customer. What does the customer think failure is? It is almost certainly a lot more than your specifications! 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 599 Better Performance not Just Fewer Failures appeared first on Accendo Reliability.

Standards and Intent Abstract Chris and Fred discuss how we use standards for reliability engineering, safety, and other similar fields. Standards have a place in everything we do. But issues come when we stop thinking about the thing we are creating and rely on the standards to guide really important decisions. Why is this silly? Listen to the podcast! Key Points Join Chris and Fred as they discuss Topics include: Safety Integrity Levels (SILs) and other arbitrary ‘measures’ of goodness. These are somewhat subjective categories of ‘safety’ as it relates to functional safety. Functional safety is the characteristic of a product that has the ability to ‘actively’ do something in response to an unsafe condition. But this is of course … subjective! So we, as humans, tend to create these levels and measures that help us say this is ‘good’ or otherwise. … which brings us to ‘standards.’ Standards bodies are the ones that enshrine things like SILs. But the problem with trying to standardize and formalize approaches to safety and reliability in a way that tends to be formulaic and NOT promote critical thinking. … for example? The 85-85 test. This is a test where we raise the temperature to 85 ̊ Celsius and 85 % relative humidity. This test was first created for early electronic components. But we now see it everywhere for things ranging from fully sealed electronic components (humidity doesn’t touch anything) through to plastics. Why? Because the standards bodies have stopped thinking about today’s challenges. Standard committees and bodies are 5 – 10 years behind. Minimum. And they are not keeping up with technology. Not even a little bit. … and they are written by people who pay to be there. That’s right. They are volunteers who have to give up their time, often pay for their own flights and hotels to meet to talk about what the next standard should say. Relying on paying volunteers is simply not going to attract pioneers, luminaries, the ‘younger generation’ or anyone else you might think should be represented in a standards committee. … and standards simply formalize what might have worked best in the past. So why are you doing a salt test for a product that is nowhere near the ocean? And all this is the reason that technologies like autonomous vehicles are on the road yet. Insane! 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 598 Standards and Intent appeared first on Accendo Reliability.