|
By Terrence
O'Hanlon, Reliabilityweb.com
Those
who do not understand history are doomed to repeat it. You've heard
this old adage before, and perhaps you've even lived it. For
instance, how many times has your advanced condition-monitoring
program uncovered the same failure? With the use of the latest
hardware and software, condition monitoring analysts have become
proficient at detecting problems. Unfortunately, these technologies
do little to prevent the problem from occurring in the first place.
This is where the concept of reliability comes
into play. There are as many reliability philosophies as there are
maintenance philosophies. However, they all share some commonality,
such as using failure analysis techniques to discover the root
causes of problems. Failure analysis techniques focus not only on
what errors occurred, but also on why they occurred. These
techniques examine both human and non-human causes, the most common
of which include: poorly prepared workers, flawed or non-existent
procedures, lack of time for workers to perform a task with
precision, engineering errors, and poor communication.
Mike Drew, Director of ARMS Reliability
Engineers, explains that a reliability-based approach to maintenance
uses the probability of failure to select the most effective
maintenance strategy. The probability of failure can be determined
from past failures, knowledge and experience, or industry
references. Existing record systems and logs, for instance, often
contain a wealth of data that is typically underutilized when
predicting future performance.
The Web site of ARMS Reliability Engineers -- http://www.reliability.com.au
offers an on-line reliability assessment where users enter
failure and repair data. A suite of reliability software tools is
then used to perform a free analysis.
According to Charles Latino, founder and
President of the Reliability Center Inc., "When things go
amiss, they are caused by a multiplicity of errors. It is typical
for eleven to thirteen errors to occur prior to the one that
obviously caused the failure." The Reliability Center Inc. Web
site -- http://www.reliability.com
-- offers a virtual library of reliability-related articles that
are well indexed and easy to read. The site offers a free e-mail
newsletter and has a discussion board for posting questions.
An article that discusses including
reliability as part of a maintenance philosophy is available at the
Aladon Ltd. Web site -- http://www.aladon.co.uk/08ap.html
-- and is written by reliability-centered maintenance (RCM) guru
John Moubray. He replaces 15 old maxims with 15 new ones to help us
understand the RCM approach. Aladon is a consulting company that
offers RCM2, a specialized version that conforms to Standard JA1011
set by the International Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE):
"Evaluation Criteria for Reliability-Centered Maintenance (RCM)
Processes." This standard is not published on the Web, but it
can be ordered from http://www.sae.org/BOOKSTORE
-- the SAE on-line bookstore.
Another article, entitled "Equipment
reliability contributes to product quality" by Ricky Smith of
Life Cycle Engineering, can be accessed on the Web at http://www.engineersdigest.com
or can be found in the August 2000 issue of Engineer's Digest
(p.22 ff.).
A comprehensive directory of additional
reliability resources is published at http://www.reliabilityweb.com
-- an industrial consumer review site for plant reliability.
As Mike Drew states, "In today's
environment, where companies have gone through corporate takeovers,
privatization, business process re-engineering, and downsizing, the
positive impact of increased plant availabilities at lower
maintenance costs can have a significant impact on its
profitability." Applying reliability concepts can go a long way
toward achieving such gains.
Originally published in the
October 2000 issue
of Engineer's
Digest. Used by permission.
Copyright © 2000 Adams Business Media, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
Click
here for more Reliability Resources and Links |
