We are pleased to create a new "beginner's only" forum where you can feel free to post and not worry about looking right to the veteran posters in this community.

We want to encourage beginner's to post questions and beginner's to post the replies here.

I hope this works out and I am interested to hear from you of you like or dislike this idea.

Terry O

Hi Terrance,

It's good to know that senior members and moderators care about the troubles of newcomers such as myself to the PDM world.

I've been here for a brief while, but the dynamics of the forums are great for me, because you can give as well as receive help and guidance.

I salute and congratulate the moderators of the forums and all of those that most contribute selflessly to enhance the knowledge of this community.

Thumbs up in this effort to promote participation of the newest members!. I'm sure we will use it eagerly and wisely.

Terence, great move that you have made.

Now, to ask some basic questions, so as not to get lost along the way
1. What is reliability and how does it differ from the Maintenance work that we normally do.
2. what deliverables do we expect by undertaking a reliability program.
3. what are the common metrics used to evaluate the impact of a reliability intervention on a plant.
4. what is the minimum set of tools needed in order to set up a functional reliability program.
5. What are the accompanying skills and educational requirements for a reliability practitioner

Ecky

quote:

1. What is reliability and how does it differ from the Maintenance work that we normally do.
2. what deliverables do we expect by undertaking a reliability program.
3. what are the common metrics used to evaluate the impact of a reliability intervention on a plant.
4. what is the minimum set of tools needed in order to set up a functional reliability program.
5. What are the accompanying skills and educational requirements for a reliability practitioner

Ecky

I certainly have ideas and opinions and I usually like others to share here but I really liked the questions so I am jumping in.

1) To me, reliability is the concept of ensuring that the assets will provide the function at the desired output specified or desired by the asset owner. In some cases - you will use maintenance actions to ensure that function (monitor the asset with vibration, have a spare in stock and be efficient at replacing a planned failure, lubricating an item etc...)

2) To me this is the most important question because business is all about results. The result of a reliability based approach is higher availability, higher uptime, better quality, less MRO spares consumed, less rejects, and LOWER COST. Lower cost is the outcome of a reliability driven approach (in general). I say in general as there may be some added cost but with reliability - you will be able to determine if the added cost that buys you added availability is economically "worth it".

3) KPIs are great and needed but we should start a separate thread in how they are misused as leadership tools. Anyway - the KPIs used will depend on the level being examined (i.e. equipment level, line level, plant level, enterprise level). Remember that most KPIs are lagging (the events have already happened) so are outcomes - not causes. I will do search of useful KPI discussions already at the forums (it is a deep subject) and link them here. I really like the KPI of revenue (in cases of "sold out" production) and maintenance cost as a percentage of revenue. Many will argue with me because of the short term swings but over time this should settle. It cannot be fudged. If your company needs to be a "low cost" producer then you would need better KPis for cost etc... It is context driven and cannot be approached with cookie cutter mentality.

4) The minimum tool set for creating reliability are people who have an understanding of reliability and a desire to achieve it. It also required that people means upper management as well. It is very useful for rewards to be in place and lots of blame free communication opportunities. (I'll bet you were you were looking for software and hardware answers or which philosophies - RCM - TPM etc...) Everything is a result of people and process but people are the most important - and educated people (about the subject) can improve the processes.

5) Again - I do not see a cookie cutter approach here but to answer simply - Reliabilityweb.com has defined 24 "knowledge bases" we think are required for reliability. I have seen LCE's arch with each brick labeled with an element, SAMI's pyramid also labeled with elements as well as dozens of other representations. There are reliability approaches, human asset management, Information management, condition monitoring and predictive techniques and precision skills that are all required. Above all is effective leadership at all levels.

I hope those replies are enough to get you thinking and enough to get others to answer in there own terms so we can expand understanding.

Thank you again for posting them as I think many would have liked to ask those exact same questions.

Terry O

Thanks for the reply, Terry
however:
some authors say that the objective of a reliablity program is to monitor, observe and take some non intrusive actionsuntil a condition signals that corrective action is necessary.

I remember as an apprentice, using a screw driver as a stethoscope by placing the sharp end against a bearing and placing my ear on the other end, to detrmine the condition of a bearing. As elementary form of non-intrusive action
But, it is non recordable and very subjective.
It is the equipment like thermographic cameras, vibration recorders, etc, that I was interested in defining for one to establish a starting point for reliabilty actions in a company.

May be my original question was not very clear

Ecky

Hi Ecky,
I'm goning to try to answer your questions from my point of view.

1) Strictly speaking, realiability is fundamentaly based on statistical studies to predict the chances of failure of equipments/systems on a given period of time. Recently, Reliability has become more of a philosophy, in wich we basically maintain our machines when they really need it, not when we think they need it.

2)The big aim is to take control of your machines, and allow them to fail when its convenient to you. This is difficult to achieve as it requieres a lot of discipline (data management mainly), but with hardwork, anything's possible!.

3) As I said, reliablity is a probability of failure, hence is expressed in porcentage (%), but what our bosses and administrators really like to see is how much money and downtime you can save when you detect a problem before it becomes a failure.

4) As much as you require. It depends mostly of the type of process your machines runs and the goals you set. In my case, I put toghether a predictive maintenance routine based on realibity philosophy, and selected non-invasive technologies. I ended up with a combination of vibration monitoring, IR thermography and lube analysis.

5)I don't think there is a 'Reliability Technician' degree, but I think you should have a solid statistical basis (learn how to 'do the math'), as well as communication skill, etc., etc. If you inted to run different techniques you should check the different training programs that are available. You have the Vibration Institute's certification, for example, and in thermography you have the certification programs of the ITC (infrared Training Center).

Thanks Mechanical Pawn.
Quote:

quote:

Strictly speaking, realiability is fundamentaly based on statistical studies to predict the chances of failure of equipments/systems on a given period of time.

The major challenge for anybody who wants to do any statistical analysis is the gathering of the data itself. In this endeavour, there are two challenges, namely

• Selecting a representative sample of data points from a population.
  
• Identifying appropriate equipment to enable the data points to be read

I had begun my enquiry by requesting to be informed of the appropriate equipment that one must have before he can attempt to do a reliability investigation, say, for a gold mine using Boilers, hoisting gear, rotary kilns and ancilliary equipment

Ecky

Well this is just a response and not an absolute answer to question 1.

To me Reliability is Knowing my assets are capable of operating at the manufactures specified output. However RCM aka Reliability Centerd Maintenance and the differences between it and "Noramal Maintence" you must first know what is considered to be "Normal Maintenance"

I would consider normal maintenance as your everyday walk through (visual inspection, setup, start up, tear down, and cleanup). Something that is done Daily.

I'd sure like to get some response's as to what others think is considered to be Normal Maintenance is ...

Does it include PM's?

Reliability Maitenance ... In Short I would just say that it requires tools that allow us to repetitiously capture measurements. These measurements along with known standards allow us to then deretmine health of an asset, and place corrective actions on assets that have been "Flagged" as out of spec and returning it to Maufacture's Operating Specifications before failure has occurred.

Failure... Thats another thread

I think this is an excelent idea ... Having a forum that even I can responed without fearing the slam of being Incorrect. Believe me I've had more than my fair share of mistakes, but it never keeps me down long

No Worries

Terrence, am I missing something, or is it OK for some "non-beginners" (namely, you) to answer questions posed here, but not others?

Why is it better for beginners to have their questions answered by other beginners here, rather than by veterans on the other forums?

quote:

Terrence, am I missing something, or is it OK for some "non-beginners" (namely, you) to answer questions posed here, but not others?

Why is it better for beginners to have their questions answered by other beginners here, rather than by veterans on the other forums?

I might ask the same question as Rusty. i teach hundred of people each year (for the last 15 years) many at beginning level. I would be hapyy to offer my expertise and experience as necessary if it will help. I can see that experienced people sometimes intimidate with their questions and answers (not my stlye), so maybe it is best to throw out the baby with the bathwater (sometimes).

quote:

I can see that experienced people sometimes intimidate with their questions and answers

Yes, I would probably be one of those people. Partly because of that is my personality type, and partly because that's how I was "trained" as an engineer by the old guys where I broke in back in the 80's. Being "challenged" on most everything I said or did was the norm, even if they thought you were right. You had to 'earn' the right to be heard, and earn their respect.

I got my feelings hurt a lot at first, but then I realized that it was a man's world (still is mostly) and I'd better learn to 'take it like a man' if I was going to make it.

I think we coddle folks to much today, especially the young ones, in an effort not to offend anyone. Just my opinion.

RELIABILITY - I see it in this manner: How reliable is my car to get me from point A to point B without having (say) a flat tire on the way, or a major engine failure, or a rusty door falling off making the car unsafe.

I think you can take this plain thought to most industrial machines. Point A to point B would be the scheduled outages that are planned and the driver (or analyst) would look at all his instruments (PDM technologies) along with the visual inspections of the tire/belts/fluids (PM's) to decide if Point B can now become point C and so on. Bringing the machines back to its original manufacturer's specs should happen only when the instruments say "CHECK ENGINE".

Why get so complicated?

Rusty & Bill, it's good to hear you are willing to help. It would be frustrating to ask questions and not answered properly or even worst, being ignored because regarded as mosquitoes!

In view of this, I guess it would be alright if non-begineers answer questions asked by beginners because it's the normal teacher-student relationship and yet still encouraging beginners to participate in this forum.

This is a great idea. Not as intimidating for new bees.

I've been doing VA for a few years now and have a level II certificate, and consider myself very much a learner/beginner at this game, and have added (novice) to my posting name (in response to this thread)so that all will know, if it isnt already obvious from my questions and rarely offered suggestions.
I will continue to ask questions in the "seniors" area as this is where the best advice will come from, If it doesnt get answered its probably too basic to get a response, to this point I've only had one ignored post, and find the "seniors" always helpful.