Josh, what exactly does Myers-Briggs personality indicators have to do with problem solving?

Are you thinking perhaps of Kepner-Tregoe instead?

Kepner-Tregoe Problem Solving

As far as personality, I am an engineer, but in every personality test I've ever taken, I was always "on the fence" between left-brain (logical) and right-brain (artistic) characteristics. It's what allows me to take data in such a way that I nearly always place my feet in exactly the same place (my boot prints are usually the only ones around), but I can't find anything in my office (they said "filing system".... I heard "piling system").

My belief is the best analyst is both a scientist and an artist. Industrial vibration analysis is certainly not a pure science.

As josh and Steve points out, some machines can be shut down and others can't. Steve is correct that sometimes machine vibration is very complex and case and prox readings may not be enough. As Steve mentioned I have a centrifugal compressor vibration problem posted that is very complex. Case and prox readings indicate high vibration and identifying how it is vibrating was the easy part, understanding why will take much more data. My theory is that there is a rotation stall or aerodynamic instability in the compressor and the acoustics is being amplified in a section of the discharge piping. I took dynamic transducer readings in the suction and discharge pipe and have found the primary frequencies causing the problems. Big deal, I found the forcing functions, now what is causing the forcing functions. I calculated the pipe natural frequency acoustics based on performance testing data done a couple of days ago. The first and second acoustic natural frequency match those in the dynamic pressure test with 10% error. If the compressor is the source of the problem, the OEM may have to do some extensive calculations on our compressor.

Case readings and prox readings were not enough. Sure, they pointed me in the right direction but the solution will take some complicated calculations beyond my expertise.

Anyway, this is an example of not having all the data to accurately make a call.

So look like vibration is still subjective in some areas with many possibilities, making it a bit of art and science. This makes it difficult for vibration program to be sustained in reality because it's not definitive and/or not reliable diagnostics especially when there are changes in personnel in charge of vibration. This subjectivity also scares off some internal personnel to do vibration monitoring because the analysis and interpretations could be wrong even in the process of cause elimination. Thus, outsourcing to external consultants seems to have some contigency plans.

Also, it appears the approach to vibration analysis will be influenced by 'intuition' which is the first personality dimension (thinking vs intuition). That's why I referred to it.

Yes, the KT method is the more direct problem solving analysis method based on deviation/change and Is vs Is Not which can be used for trending and comparison.

Thus, analysis seems not only calculation but some other thinking processes when identifying causes of vibration.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Josh,

Josh,
That was a great psychological explanation of how we attach problems. I use the same systematic approach to solve vibration problems from small process pumps to large critical turbo machinery. Basically I let the data tell me what's wrong rather then having a theory and changing or only looking at what suits my theory. This is very difficult because we are human after all and at times I find myself doing that very thing.

As far as vibration being subjective, I disagee. It is only subjective when at first someone tells you thier machine is vibrating a certain way. After that, its the analyst job to not be subjective and interprete the very non-subjective vibration coming from a machine. The machine does not wish to trick us. The machine will vibrate depending on the forcing function, all else is a symptom of the primary forcing function. More the analyst knows with experience and training the less subjective vibration will be.

Terrence:

The problem as I see it is that legacy companies had a clear vision and focus upon what they wanted to accomplish and were driven to produce, either proactively or reactively. Also, mid-upper level management of the legacy companies, until the late 1980's early 1990's, understood the industry.

Upon being acquired by larger companies whose core business was not specifically condition monitoring oriented, that vision and focus was lost somewhere in a spreadsheet, giving rise to the smaller product innovators of today.

Gary M. Forsythe