Visite nuestro sitio en Español: Confiabilidad.net    RSS | Contact

Articles

Skilled Workforce in the 21st Century

The purpose of this study is to explore the upcoming changes that are viewed by many as the ‘Skilled Workforce Crisis.’ The importance of the “Skilled Workforce in the 21st Century” research and study project is that it has been developed independently and without funding from any particular interest. Its authors felt that it was important to the Reliability & Maintenance industry to fully understand what we saw as the real issues related to the present evolution of business and R&M.

Smartphones & QR Codes Are Changing Physical Asset Management

Forrest Pardue and Chris Tyler

Smart devices and QR code technology offer an opportunity to simplify asset management by putting usable information into the hands of more plant employees needing the information. 

Snakes, Hazard Recognition & RPN - What Is a Hazard?

By Stan Moore

What Is a Hazard? Any situation that could result in a preventable injury or illness.

Expounding on that, a hazard is any situation or condition that could present a threat to equipment, the environment, limb, or life. Hazards can be caused by human actions, or they can exist in the environment and pose no safety issues until there is interaction.

Software Increases Confidence in Decision Making

Reaching 99.8% Reliability by Amy Davidson

The vast amount of diagnostic information available today about the condition of critical production assets - information that can be of real value to decision makers -- can be confusing and even overwhelming. However, when information from hundreds or even thousands of separate sources is consolidated and organized on a single platform, a more complete picture of the health and operation of critical assets, or an entire process, emerges.

 

Software Reliability

Software does not wear out but it does fail and most failures are due to specification errors and code errors with only a few errors in copying or use. The only software repair is by reprogramming and adding safety factors is almost impossible. Software reliability improves by finding errors and fixing the errors but estimating the number of errors which canse failures is extremely difficult as many branches of software code may lie dormant and unused until special events occur to make the latent failures obvious. Software failures are not often time related but are more software code page dependent. Software reliability is improved by extensive testing to disclose the failures and then fixing them to repeat the test all over again to validate the fix did not generate more failures and to continue the search of other latent defects.

Sound Collectors, Can You Hear Me Now?

I received an email from a reliability engineer and loyal subscriber to Uptime Magazine and the "Ultrasonic War Stories" newsletter. As an advocate of sound technologies, he knew I would be interested in some pictures regarding "sound collectors" that he found on the Internet titled, "Before Radar."

Sound collectors, such as sound mirrors and acoustic horns, were once used as an early warning system to detect approaching enemy aircraft. The mirrors were not parabolic, but actually spherical. Some were made of concrete, others spherical carvings cut from the side of a cliff or rock wall to collect sound. In Figure 1 (left to right), you have a rectangular 200-foot curved mirror, a 20-foot sound mirror and a 30-foot sound mirror. Note a vertical pole that held a microphone in the center of the sound mirror.

Squirrel Stores - How Much do Squirrel Stores Cost

By Phill Slater

The following example demonstrates the inventory effect of squirrel stores.

 

Squirrel Stores and Why You Would Be Nuts to Keep Them

by Phillip Slater

Breaking the locks was the only option. It was 2:00am and Line 1 had stopped completely.

Standardization of Absolute Vibration Level and Damage Factors for Machinery Health Monitoring

An attempt has been made to study the vibration level of various machine tools to explore the possibility of establishing the standard vibration level. Till today no vibration standards are available for determining the acceptable vibration level for specific machine tools. However there are some standards available that gives an indication of machinery health based on overall vibration level like ISO 2372 (RMS velocity in the frequency range 10 Hz to 1kHz) and Canadian specifications (RMS velocity in the frequency range 10Hz to 10kHz). But these standards are made for general purpose machinery like pumps, motors, generators and so on. The present study is aimed at establishing the vibration standards for precision machine tools. The machine tools are first segregated and then their vibration data are analyzed for determining the normal vibration level and damage factors (DF). After refining and fixing the vibration standards obtained, they can be used to assess the machinery health.

Start Early & Stick With a Plan - Developing Marketable Engineering Skills

For the foreseeable future, the "job of the future" will exist in a world that wrestles with issues of outsourcing, offshore design and manufacturing, and generally uncertain employment prospects. Among the job seekers, aspiring engineers need to develop effective ways of finding and keeping employment in this murky environment.

Guidance is helpful as you ponder the question of where you should be headed in this sea of instability. Today we live at a time when professed experts expound diametrically opposite views and often have the audacity of serving up their views with an air of infallibility. The answer as to where you should head is multi-faceted, but being balanced and learning a marketable skill instead of going after an ill-defined "education" is certainly a good start.

Strategic Advantages: Responsible Outsourcing in the New Asset Management Environment

Outsourcing as a Source of Competitive Advantage

Outsourcing is usually one of the more predictable suggestions of managerial consultants throughout the world. Generally these suggestions are made with either the intention of reducing direct costs, incorporating specialist knowledge , or avoiding the problems associated with hiring and keeping employees.

Strategic Maintenance Planning

By Brad McCully, ATS

Why do we need to do Strategic Maintenance Planning?

In today's global competitive environment every manufacturer feels cost and price pressure. Performance improvement is required and it must happen immediately. As companies implement Lean manufacturing, the challenge is that the assets must perform well and maintenance must accomplish this on a limited budget.

Strategic Planning For Asset Management – An Overview

The last great opportunity for enhancing corporate financial performance on a large scale. by James W. Davis, PE, Vice President, Strategic Asset Management Inc., Voice: 610-861-7472 E-mail: jdavis@samicorp.com

Stress: The Silent Killer - Part 1 of a 2 part series

By John Lambert

To properly install machinery, you must look at the whole process. Each component is necessary. Each technology has its place. Detecting faults plays a critical role in maintenance, but first you must install…and you must install properly.

Stress: The Silent Killer - Part 2 of a 2 Part Series

By John Lambert

Read Part 1 of this article.

What if…? You were installing a very large motor just back from repair onto a base and let's say the motor weighs one ton and the distance between the front and back feet is 38 inches. If the base frame was twisted by 0.010 inches, would you expect to find this twist using the traditional feeler gauge method, i.e. tightening and loosening the hold down bolts?

©2012 Reliabilityweb.com