Blog2020-05-13T11:19:20-04:00

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Where you can find expert knowledge on Maintenance & Reliability best practices. Have a topic that needs to be covered? Let us know and we will get the topic up!
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The Role of Software In Reliability Engineering

Deciding if Software is Right For Your Program

Let’s face it, the field of reliability engineering is diverse and full of statistics, models and detailed analysis.  The detailed calculations, the building of models and analysis, have been performed with great success in the past and currently.  The models built through manual calculation have been successful and demonstrated the importance of reliability engineering.

In today’s environment where multiple models may be required for slight variants of a design or […]

The Role of Statistics in Reliability Engineering

This Isn’t Your High School Statistics Course

What does the word statistics bring to mind when you hear it?  Horrible high school classes that you sat through wondering why do I need this stuff?  Complex math problems what were almost impossible to figure out?  Or is it nonsense that is only used in political polls?

Statistics are used in every aspect of Reliability Engineering.  So if you don’t have a good relationship with statistics, I highly recommend that you are starting […]

What is Reliability Engineering?

An Overview of the Reliability Engineering Discipline

Almost all maintenance, reliability or asset management professionals have heard of reliability engineering.  But what is reliability engineering?  A quick google search will return the following definition “Reliability Engineering is engineering that emphasizes dependability in the lifecycle management of a product. Dependability, or reliability, describes the ability of a system or component to function under stated conditions for a specified period of time.”

This definition seems simple enough in the fact that the reliability […]

Focus on the Important Issues, Not the Many Issues

Utilizing the Pareto Method to Prioritize Improvement Activities

There is limited time, money or resources in every maintenance department.  Sometimes you have 2 of the 3, sometimes just 1.  So how do you prioritize the items or issues that will have the biggest impact on your facility?  There is a simple, yet vital principle that can be used in your facility to determine which issues to focus on.  This principle started in a garden in Italy while studying peas…  This principle […]

By |June 19th, 2017|Categories: Basic Root Cause Analysis, Continuous Improvement, Defect Elimination|Tags: , , |Comments Off on Focus on the Important Issues, Not the Many Issues

How to Deliver Sustainable Gains in Maintenance Planning

Utilizing the PDCA Methodology in Work Planning

It is well known that maintenance planning & scheduling can deliver significant improvements in the efficiency and effectiveness of the maintenance department.  Maintenance planning & scheduling seems simple enough, plan the work and schedule it to be done at the most opportune time.   However, why is it that organization seem to struggle with realizing the benefits of maintenance planning & scheduling?  In my experience, I have seen organizations that focus on the scheduling portion of work management, while not fully […]

By |June 12th, 2017|Categories: Work Management, Work Planning|Tags: , , |Comments Off on How to Deliver Sustainable Gains in Maintenance Planning

What is Prescriptive Maintenance?

Understanding What Comes After Predictive Maintenance

Imagine being able to adjust your maintenance actions on the fly to provide the exact maintenance where and when it is needed.  However, you are not reacting to significant changes in the condition of the equipment (like PdM), but instead, you are taking many sources of information in real-time from the equipment using Internet of Things (IoT) and using analytics to analyze and understand the condition of the equipment.  This allows for a flexible maintenance strategy in which maintenance is only applied when and where it […]

Should You Worry About IoT If You Don’t Have the Basics Down?

What Good Is The Data If You Don’t Know What To Do With It?

As maintenance, reliability, and asset management professionals, we are in an amazing time.  We can collect virtually limitless amounts of data on the condition of our assets.  With this data, we can determine the exact condition of the assets, predict when the next failure is likely to occur and how it will occur.  Besides, with all of this data, we can move to prescriptive maintenance, where the maintenance actions are determined based on the asset condition, not a predetermined […]

By |May 29th, 2017|Categories: Equipment Strategy, Reliability Engineering|Tags: , , |Comments Off on Should You Worry About IoT If You Don’t Have the Basics Down?

Insights into Preventive Maintenance Made Simple w/ Doug Stangier

I recently had the pleasure to interview Doug Stangier, co-author of Preventive Maintenance Made Simple.  This is another excellent book in the Made Simple series, published by ReliabilityWeb.  During the interview, Doug not only provides insights into his book but also into what world class Preventive Maintenance looks like.   Anyone new to maintenance and reliability, or seasoned experts can benefit from this great book.  Without further delay, here is the interview with Doug.

James: It is my pleasure to interview a fellow Canadian.  Welcome Doug […]

By |May 22nd, 2017|Categories: Equipment Strategy, Lean Maintenance, Reliability Centered Maintenance, Total Productive Maintenance|Tags: , , |Comments Off on Insights into Preventive Maintenance Made Simple w/ Doug Stangier

Taking a Lean Approach to PM Optimization

How You Have Your PMs Addressing The Right Issues, Make The Effective

In the previous articles, we looked at what type of analysis to use to evaluate the effectiveness of the PMs and if they are cost effective. Once the PMs have been optimized to ensure they are addressing the right failure modes, then they need to be made efficient. Below is an excerpt from a recent article in SMRP’s Solutions Magazine on how to make PM efficient using the lean tools.

PM Optimization is often thought of as an […]

By |May 15th, 2017|Categories: Continuous Improvement, Defect Elimination, Review RCM, Standard Work, Teamwork|Tags: , , , |Comments Off on Taking a Lean Approach to PM Optimization

Is Your PM Worth Doing? Use a PM Cost Benefit Analysis to Find Out

How To Determine If The PM Activity Being Performed Is Worth Doing

Would you spend $100 every week to prevent a possible issue that will result in a loss of $10?  Probably not, so why is that we do that with our maintenance programs every single day?  Often, PM and PdM activities are put into place without any thought to the economic impact of the activity.  While in theory the PM or PdM activities will prevent or mitigate the consequences of the failure, is implementing one of these activities the right thing to […]

By |May 8th, 2017|Categories: Equipment Strategy, Reliability Centered Maintenance, Zero Based Budgeting|Tags: , , , , , |Comments Off on Is Your PM Worth Doing? Use a PM Cost Benefit Analysis to Find Out