View by category
Articles: Reliability Engineering
10 Things You Can Do Right Now To Improve Reliability
Publishers Note: We recently challenged our good friend and maintenance expert Ricky Smith to tell us 10 things we can do today - not 10 things we can buy today - to improve reliability at our plants. No new software, no new hardware, no new consultants. Ricky did as Ricky usually does and showed up with goods!
We admit he did include one “buy recommendation” but we let it pass because it falls under US$100. Here is what he came back with. - Terrence O’Hanlon, CMRP
5 Minute Audio Tip - Rules of Thumb for Maintenance and Reliability Engineers
Ricky Smith, CMRP explains Rules of Thumb for Maintenance and Reliability Engineers
Availability
A tool for measuring the % of time an item or system is in a state of readiness where it is operable and can be committed to use when call upon. Availability ceases because of a downing event which causes the item/system to become unavailable to initiate a mission when called upon. In the simplest view the metric is availability = uptime/(uptime + downtime). For many other definitions see MIL-HDBK-338, section 5.
‘Big M’ and the Performance Culture
Managing Maintenance for Production Reliability
by James Davis, PE, CMRP
About 30 years ago, the Plant Engineer of an ITT Rayonier paper mill in north Florida called me into his office and announced that, as a reward for a job well done, I was being given the position of Plant Maintenance Engineer. This was a bit confusing at first, as I was a mechanical/civil Project Engineer at the time, in a 38 year old facility that had never had a Maintenance Engineer.
Bathtub Curves
The concept is derived from the human life experience involving infant mortality, chance failures, plus a wear out period of life since data for births and deaths is accumulated by government agencies. Most equipment lacks the birth/death recording by government agencies and most non-human systems can be regenerated to live/die many times before relegation to the scrap heap.
Blast Off to Reliability
The RCM Process at United Space Alliance
by Catherine C. Kammerer
United Space Alliance, LLC (USA) is the Space Processing Operations Contractor (SPOC) for NASA at Kennedy Space Center (KSC), Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), and Johnson Space Center (JSC). In that role, United Space Alliance uses Reliability-Centered Maintenance (RCM) to optimize maintenance practices for the upkeep of tens of thousands of pieces of critical ground support, launch, and flight control equipment. USA has an institutionalized RCM process with a company policy, functional organization procedures, periodic review of performance, and metrics to track the performance.
Block Diagram Models
Reliability block diagram (RBD) models are graphical representations of a calculation methodology for reliability systems.
Building Steam
A Story of Hard Work, Dedication, and, Ultimately, Transformation
by Judith Charlton and Steve Lipscombe
Sembcorp UK, one of the leading suppliers of utilities to UK industry, is transforming its operations. Steam and power operations are vital to the success of Sembcorp UK and its customers in the petrochemical, power and biofuels sectors. Just five years ago the business was struggling to manage an aging power station and all its associated problems with limited resources. The challenges seemed insurmountable.
Capability
A measure of how well the product performance meets objectives. In short how well are the outputs actually accomplished against a standard? Capability is frequently the product of efficiency * utilization.
Configuration Control
Configuration control is involved with the management of change by providing traceability of failures back into the design standard. If the design details are not specified, the design will not contain the requirements and thus implementation of the project will be hit or miss for achieving the desired end results beginning with the conceptual design and resulting in the operating facility.
Contracting For Reliability
Say what you want and want what you say to your vendors. Provide explanations of the objectives in contracts in terms the vendors will understand.
Cooking Reliability with Gas
By Matt Parks, John Cox, and Bill Butterworth, NiSource Gas Transmission & Storage and Winston P. Ledet, The Manufacturing Game
System Reliability at NiSource Gas Transmission & Storage: Integrating Engineering Strategies and Defect Elimination to Achieve Organizational Reliability
It is estimated that natural gas transmission companies in the U.S. own and operate over 300,000 miles of interstate and intrastate natural gas pipelines and over one thousand compressor stations integrated with numerous strategic underground storage systems. Natural gas is a major fuel for multiple end uses: electricity generation, heating, industry, and other increasingly innovative options. The unconventional gas resource of shale formations in the U.S. alone is massive with current mean projections of recoverable gas estimated to be approximately 650 Tcf (trillion cubic feet).
Corrective Maintenance Task Generation
Maintenance cost or maintenance loss? Maintenance in today's plant is a dynamic function of the ability to adapt to quick changes and to new policies and management techniques. An inherent problem common to many maintenance programs is that manpower is one of the first things considered when cost reduction is sought. The loss of manpower poses continuous challenges to any maintenance manager who is striving for world class status. Corrective maintenance experience is one of the critical areas of expertise that is often lost.
Cost Of Unreliability
The cost of unreliability is a big picture view of system failure costs, described in annual terms, for a manufacturing plant as if the key elements were reduced to a series block diagram for simplicity. It looks at the production system and reduces the complexity to a simple series system where failure of a single item/equipment/system/processing-complex causes the loss of productive output along with the total cost incurred for the failure. If the system IS sold out, then the cost of unreliability must include all appropriate business costs such as lost gross margin plus repair costs, scrap incurred, etc. If the system is NOT sold out, and make-up time is available in the financial year, then lost gross margin for the failure cannot be counted. The cost of unreliability is a management concern connected to management's two favorite metrics: time and money.
Critical Items List
The critical items list is a top level summary of problems/cost used for discussions with management about key reliability issues. The summary list converts technical details to a summary of costs and time while placing the issues into a Pareto distribution explained in terms of money and the vital few problems to be solved for competitive reasons.

- Things To Think About and Do in 2012
- Uptime Magazine - April/May 2012 Index
- Reliability Polls and Quizzes
- Coaching Employees Through Change
- Book Review: Handbook to Achieve Operational Excellence
- Integrating Vibration and Temperature Measurements in Condition Monitoring
- Operator-Driven Reliability Best Practices Series: “Leadership Wanted”
(2) - When Decibels Aren’t Enough
- Strong Predictive Maintenance Program Boosts UPTIME to Meet Growing Demand for Recycled Papers
- Failure Modes: A Closer Look at Ductile and Brittle Overload Fractures
- Reliability Polls and Quizzes
- Things To Think About and Do in 2012
- Uptime Magazine - April/May 2012 Index
- Electric Motor Bearing Greasing Basics
(5) - Asset Management: concepts and practices
(8) - CBM 2011 Video Proceedings
(2) - Maintenance of Hydraulic Systems
(2) - The 5S Method of Improvement - Enhancing Safety, Productivity and Culture
- Reliabilityweb.com 100 Top Web Sites
- Aerial Infrared – An Asset Management Tool for District Heating System Operators

- Alignment and Balancing
- Asset Management
- CMMS and EAM
- Green Reliability
- Human Asset Management
- Infrared Thermal Imaging
- KPIs - Reliability Performance Metrics
- Lean Maintenance
- Lubrication
- Maintenance Management
- Motor and Power System Testing
- MRO - Spares Management
- Oil and Fluid Analysis
- Planning and Scheduling
- PM Optimization
- Predictive Maintenance and Condition Monitoring Management
- Reliability-Centered Maintenance
- Reliability Engineering
- Reliability Leadership
- Root Cause Analysis
- Shutdowns and Turnarounds
- Total Productive Maintenance (Asset Care)
- Training
- Ultrasonics
- Vibration Analysis

- IR Windows: Compare and Save with Exiscan
- Motor Testing Books
- Reliability Centered Maintenance for SAP Plant Maintenance
- Integrating Your CBM Just Makes Sense
- GPAllied Inspired Training: Hard-Hitting, Impactful Courses and Workshops.
- Belt/Sheave Alignment Laser, Custom Shim and Gaskets
- Become an Aladon Certified RCM2 Facilitator
- R300S for When Good Enough – Isn’t Enough!
- Request Your Des-Case Complimentary Breather Now
- MRO Inventory and Purchasing Books
- New AT33IND Perfect for QC & Troubleshooting
- Commtest - Affordable Vibration Analysis
- Job Postings for Maintenance and Reliability Professionals
- Total Productive Maintenance Books
- Join The Association For Maintenance Professionals
- The One-Stop Source for Lubricants & Reliability Solutions
- Reliability Engineering Services
- “Free eBook Download on Effective Problem Solving”

- Alignment and Balancing
- Asset Management
- CMMS and EAM
- Green Reliability
- Human Asset Management
- Infrared Thermal Imaging
- KPIs - Reliability Performance Metrics
- Lean Maintenance
- Lubrication
- Maintenance Management
- Motor and Power System Testing
- MRO - Spares Management
- Oil and Fluid Analysis
- Planning and Scheduling
- PM Optimization
- Predictive Maintenance and Condition Monitoring Management
- Reliability-Centered Maintenance
- Reliability Engineering
- Reliability Leadership
- Root Cause Analysis
- Shutdowns and Turnarounds
- Total Productive Maintenance (Asset Care)
- Training
- Ultrasonics
- Vibration Analysis
