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Leadership Responsibilities in Reliability

By Terry Taylor PE CMRP
Reliability professionals normally talk about reliability in terms of reliability centered maintenance (RCM), preventive maintenance (PM), root cause analysis (RCA), computerized maintenance management system (CMMS), 5S and a never ending list of other acronyms. What we rarely talk about is the importance of leadership in the reliability effort. Is it because most leaders: View the reliability effort as someone else’s responsibility? View their participation in reliability as unnecessary? Have a lack of knowledge and understanding when it comes to reliability? All of the above No matter the answer, leadership’s involvement and participation is mission-critical ...
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The Dangers of a Set-and-Forget, Static Reliability Strategy

By Jason Ballentine
All organizations and their operations are in a state of flux. Things are continuously changing – assets, operating conditions, duty requirements, spare parts and componentry, technology and more all evolve, age and change. This change is constant. So why is it, then, that if operational environments are constantly changing, asset reliability strategies remain static? Why do so many organizations leave them in set-and-forget mode? Too often, reliability strategies are not given enough attention – even though reliability strategy is one of the biggest influencers of asset performance, and the deployment of an effective strategy presents a significant opportunity ...
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Ready When You Need It – Predictive Maintenance on Stand-By Equipment

By Manuel Lombardero
Implementing predictive maintenance (PdM) on equipment that operates intermittently, seasonally or not at all can be quite challenging. Most of the available predictive technology is designed to monitor equipment at a steady state with repeatable conditions so that users can compare current data with previous readings. Additionally, there is the problem that failure modes change depending on the operating profile of the equipment. The same type of equipment will have different failure mechanisms depending on whether it is constantly running, operating intermittently, in standby condition with only periodic testing or on long-term lay-up. The good news, though. ...
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Big Data, Predictive Analytics and Reliability – Moving Beyond Better Maintenance, Part II

By Gary West
This is the second-instalment of "Big Data, Predictive Analytics and Reliability – Moving Beyond Better Maintenance." Find part I here . The four pillars of reliability So how do these advances in data impact reliability. To better understand, let’s look at the four key pillars of reliability – Reliability in Design, Operate for Reliability, Preventive Maintenance Strategies, and Defect Elimination. Reliability in Design IIoT and big data already have a significant impact on design. In the past, equipment manufacturers sold equipment, and their most reliable sources of in-field performance data were warranty claims, spare part orders and customer ...
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Big Data, Predictive Analytics and Reliability – Moving Beyond Better Maintenance

By Gary West
There can be no doubt that the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and big data are reshaping how we think about maintenance and reliability. Often the push to capitalize on these technologies is driven by IT departments, who are happy to invest significant effort and funding to build the ‘data lake’ and then go looking for ‘swimmers.' In this two-part article, we will consider specifically how the abundance of accessible and consistent data, combined with applications to support visualisation, modelling, analysis and machine learning, are supporting the four key pillars of modern reliability engineering, namely: Reliability by Design Operating for Reliability ...
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ISO 55000, IIoT, and EAM: Putting Together the Puzzle, Part II

By Tracy Smith
This is the second installment of a two-part series on ISO 55000, IIoT and EAM. Find Part I here . Bringing in IIoT and EAM technology ISO 55000 provides a foundation for effective asset management. Once the foundation has been laid, it’s time to become more efficient and bring in information systems that collect, monitor, store, analyze, and report asset management data. An asset management operation has two layers of information technology. The upper layer is an EAM software system, which is the main repository for asset management data. The lower layer consists of IIoT devices and critical supporting applications such as SCADA, BAS, HMI, and others ...
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ISO 55000, IIoT, and EAM: Putting Together the Puzzle, Part I

By Tracy Smith
This is the first installment of a two-part series on ISO 55000, IIoT and EAM. After human assets, physical assets are a company’s most important resource. They have a huge impact on service delivery, business objectives, and the bottom line -- manage them poorly and the whole business suffers, manage them well and they become a cornerstone of value creation. Yet many organizations take their physical assets for granted, they are content to simply maintain their assets instead of leveraging their capacity to deliver business value. This represents not just lost potential but poor stewardship of stakeholder interests. Effective and efficient asset management ...
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SMRP Celebrates International Women's Day

By Savannah Lawandales
As today, Friday, March 8, is International Women’s Day, SMRP is recognizing two outstanding members – Shannon Ostendorff, Senior Manager of Maintenance at Lonza and Kristin Ruzicka, Vice President and General Manager of Reliability Services at Allied Reliability. Along with serving as leaders in their respective fields, both Ostendorff and Ruzicka are champions for getting more women involved in maintenance and reliability. As the need for such skilled talent touches every industry, SMRP is excited to encourage and support the next generation of female maintenance and reliability professionals to follow in the footsteps of women like Shannon and Kristin. ...
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Using Detection Technology to Enhance a Predictive Maintenance Program, Part II

By Robert Martin
This is the second installment of Robert Martin's article, "Using Detection Technology to Enhance a Predictive Maintenance Program." Find Part I online here . Strategies for implementing Detection Technology Determining which assets are candidates for implementing detection technology should be done in a logical and systematic way. To do this we have to first determine what kind of failure profile each particular type of asset has. The failure curve below denotes two specific times in a machines life. The first would be the point shown as P. This is the point where an impending failure is first detectable. The second point is F. This is the point where ...
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Using Detection Technology to Enhance a Predictive Maintenance Program, Part I

By Robert Martin
We live in challenging times. This is particularly true in the predictive maintenance world, and acutely true in the area of vibration analysis. Today, most manufacturing sites have active reliability programs in place with the means of measuring plant performance and processes to find and correct repetitive problems that effect plant uptime. While this is a positive development, it is also true that vibration analysis programs, which help provide the data necessary to achieve these results, find themselves understaffed as a result of attrition and retirements. Much to the surprise of plant management, these positions are not easily filled and yet the routes ...
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Is There a Direct Correlation Between Reliability and Safety, Part III

By Robert Latino
This is the third installment in a three-part series on the correlation between reliability and safety. So, Does a Correlation Exist? So far we have discussed the differing views of Safety and Reliability, and how they can result in differing conclusions. I often wonder if Safety were to define Reliability in the holistic manner that seasoned Reliability professionals do, would their perspectives be different? Figure #5 : Holistic Reliability: Equipment, Process and Human Reliability A holistic Reliability approach will include equipment, process and human Reliability. As Figure #5 shows, these critical elements of Reliability are inter-dependent. ...
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Is There a Direct Correlation Between Reliability and Safety, Part II

By Robert Latino
This is the second installment in a three-part series on the correlation between reliability and safety. Let’s now explore the Reliability practitioner’s perspective. The Reliability Practitioner’s Perspective Since optimizing Reliability has a great deal to do with thoroughly understanding gaps (expected and unexpected) in performance, RCA plays a big role in this understanding. If ‘shallow cause analysis’ is practiced, as opposed to ‘root cause analysis’, then such gaps in performance may continue to persist as failures will tend to repeat. So how we analyze deviations from an operational potential, is critically important. There is an emerging ...
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Motor Current Signature Analysis

By Riyadh Salih
Motor Current Signature Analysis (MSA) is one of the testing tools used to assess motor health, reliability and predictive maintenance. This tool allows professionals to establish a baseline and trend for P-F curve intervention to reduce motor failure and production downtime. The ideal tester should have the ability to do dynamic and static testing that is mean dynamic on line testing power quality, inrush current, current, voltage imbalance etc., This will also allow for testing polarization index resistive and inductive imbalances, quality control checks after receiving motors from repair. Other test than can be done through MSA include eccentricity air gap, ...
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Is There a Direct Correlation Between Reliability and Safety?

By Robert Latino
This is the first installment in a three-part series on the correlation between reliability and safety. Why Explore this Potential Correlation? I recently presented at a conference called the Human Performance, Root Cause & Trending (HPRCT) conference. I listened with great interest to a presentation on Human Performance Improvement (HPI) by Dr. Todd Conklin and Dr. Sidney Dekker, advocating a 'Learning Team' approach. I had come to the conclusion at this conference that these new learning teams were being viewed as the basis for Human Performance Investigations. These learning teams were certainly being positioned by the speakers as a replacement ...
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Chief Reliability Officer (CRO): Is It Time?

By Alan Ross
The following is an excerpt from the SMRP Government Relations' Update in the Vol. 13 Issue 6 of Solutions magazine. Find the full issue online here . Imagine you have just been promoted to the newly-minted position – Chief Reliability Officer (CRO). The title ‘chief’ of anything means the position is critical enough that an officer of the company is responsible for it and reports directly to the CEO. More importantly in this instance, it means the CRO will be the champion for reliability, which needs to be owned by every member of the organization in the same way safety is treated. Who owns safety? Everyone! Who owns reliability? Maintenance? Plant ...
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SMRP Honors Veterans with Resources and Support in Transition to Civilian Life

By Jane Robles
As we celebrate Veterans Day, SMRP honors and thanks the many members, both active and retired, who have served in the United States Military. With a significant number of veteran members who have successfully turned their military skills into successful civilian careers, SMRP recognizes the challenges involved with transitioning from active duty to civilian life. Many of the skills, certifications and levels of proficiency reached within military ranks do not have direct civilian equivalents – making it hard for veterans to find career paths that best suit their skills or expertise. Largely, the skills veterans possess from their military service– technical ...
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Asset Complexity is Creating New Dynamics in Asset Ownership & Maintenance

By Jason Kasper
The new reality of maintaining complex assets The requirements for having complete ownership of critical assets is changing. Technology infusion has increased at a furious pace for all types of assets, enabling more information analysis and generating new insights for maintenance. However, as these new assets come in the door Owner/Operators find they don’t know how to take advantage of some of their modern capabilities. Why? They simply don’t have the skill sets required, or the technology footprint needed to digest this information. Maintenance departments have focused their efforts on the maintenance skill sets required over the previous 50 years, ...
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Your IoT Devices May be Weaponized – And What to Do About It

By Howard Penrose
Recently, I’ve been presenting a series of presentations and articles surrounding the theme “Your IoT Devices May be Weaponized,” with the primary focus on cybersecurity awareness, simple steps to implement a basic level of security and how to select the right Internet of Things (IoT) devices. My presentations are based upon the work the SMRP Government Relations’ cybersecurity subcommittee has done since 2015. This even includes live demonstrations of how accessible systems are through vulnerability search engines. As October is National Cybersecurity Awareness Month , we will cover some of the basics that will help you protect your systems. Why is this important? ...
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Major Component Lifecycle Improvement Case Study, Part II

By Gabriel Pistone
This is the second installment of "Major Component Lifecycle Improvement Case Study, Part I." Read the first part this case study here . Replacement Strategy. Minimization of Downtime. Once the curves that identify the component are obtained, a model is intended to be used to determine the optimum replacement age of valve housing while minimizing the downtime per unit of time. There are two probable operating intervals that valve housing can show: first, when the component will reach the optimum replacement age; and when to cease functions due to a failure before reaching the desired age. In each case the replacement interval is different. While one ...
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Major Component Lifecycle Improvement Case Study, Part I

By Gabriel Pistone
Maintenance objectives improve an enterprise’s performance through actions, efforts and oriented decisions. They guarantee systems and assets work efficiently and effectively, with minimal environmental incidents and at minimum costs. One way of achieving objectives is to give sustenance to these maintenance actions and decisions, knowing and modeling the behavior of an asset’s mayor components. Once a model is verified, the continuous improvement process can take place. The objective for this two-part article is to illustrate this process through the valve housing of a high pressure positive displacement pump. THE PIPELINE In 1997, Minera Alumbrera commissioned ...
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