Philip and Fred discussing How to get started in Reliability, Building your Network of Advisors, Using Mentoring to uncover Gold, Thirst and passion for getting better, teamwork and making the inevitable mistake.

Key Points

Join Philip and Fred as they discuss how to get started in the Reliability role s available today.
Topics include:

• How to get started in Reliability yourself – or how to unleash the power of a great new mind.
• What are the key secrets for the next generation of Reliability Engineers?
• Quenching your thirst for getting better – What to do if you are alone, multi-site of part of a large Reliability minded effort.
• Understanding the business dynamics, Communication, and achieving technical soundness by continually learning.

So, Enjoy an episode of Speaking of Reliability. Where you can join friends as they discuss reliability topics. Join us as we discuss topics ranging from design for reliability techniques to field data analysis approaches.

Philip and Fred discuss a myriad of topics relevant to getting started and succeeding in the Reliability profession. As reliability professionals we get to work on everything from the smallest micro circuit to the largest of machines ever built. This show discusses how we got our start into the field of reliability back when it wasn’t a defined field of specialization. Salient points are made for the next generation of Reliability professions that include continual learning, the need to have a great mentor who helps guide your development and having a thirst or passion for getting better everyday. Fred and Phil speak to the technology trap, the need for effective communications, the value of technical soundness and the need to approach reliability as a people process.

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Philip and Fred discussing several salient reliability and maintenance pitfalls and the role of continuous learning and solid mentoring for new reliability engineers.

Learn how craft bread making, pickle failures, and physics guessing teach us how to recognize the impossible and why being a keyboard jockey is a good place to start, but a bad place to finish.

Key Points

Join Philip and Fred as they discuss:

Join Philip and Fred as they discuss the advanced interrelations between making craft bread, pickle fermentation and applied Physics based guessing applied to Reliability & Maintenance practical topics.

Fred and Phil muse and poke some fun at real issues that include:

• Software Jockeys – the Shiny new coin effect
• Knowing your answer is wrong – applying the “sniff test”
• Recognizing the Impossible
• Parameterized Regression pitfalls
• Applications of MTBF to RAMS Studies
• Forward Asset Predictions with confidence
• The never ending cycle of continuous learning.

Enjoy an episode of Speaking of Reliability. Where you can join friends as they discuss reliability topics. Join us as we discuss topics ranging from design for reliability techniques to field data analysis approaches.

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Philip and Fred discussing a few things we’ve noticed while working from home full time.

Key Points

Join Philip and Fred as they discuss:

• One can get a lot accomplished working online as we all learn how to make it happen.
• Sometimes a photo or video just isn’t the same – especially when doing failure analysis
• So, will this event shift our balance to more working remotely to support teams?

Enjoy an episode of Speaking of Reliability. Where you can join friends as they discuss reliability topics. Join us as we discuss topics ranging from design for reliability techniques to field data analysis approaches.

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Philip and Fred discussing why we need to think when we work with reliability in a light hearted discussion that topics like the speed of light, way back when in physics class, spinning hands, Ben Franklin, Super conducting submarine engines, keyboard jockey’s blind bliss, plug-n-chug – Spec & Dump, Universities role in teaching thinking.

Today’s reliable software, using the right tool for the right job, balancing today’s dynamic workload, water fountain statistical process control, the value of a great mentor, and social invisibility.

Key Points

Join Philip and Fred as they discuss a range of topics related to the central point that we need to think when we work with reliability and cannot blindly accept a software result.

Topics include:

• 10 Hazards and Traps for the keyboard jockey to fall into
• Social Invisibility and Problem solving
• The sustaining value of a great work place mentor

Enjoy an episode of Speaking of Reliability. Where you can join friends as they discuss reliability topics. Join us as we discuss topics ranging from design for reliability techniques to field data analysis approaches.

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Critical Few in Risk Management

Abstract

Philip and Fred discuss Risk management – internet challenges during COVID and how we analyse integrated systems that challenge traditional methods.

After 2 days of internet woes we managed to connect around the world from Australia and San Francisco in the United States we managed to connect with enough bandwidth to discuss reliability in the COVID era. Reflections on the ways we used to do business and how we have evolved business in general as technology has advanced during our careers.

As Reliability professionals can we apply these risk related notions to discover what can go wrong with a specific system, product or asset. What can we apply? Touching the end points of our interconnected systems that many people have a play in how it performs has become complicated. With the additional complexity – how does this affect a quantitative analysis and the calculation of a system’s probability to fail upon demand?

As we progress into the cloud – is this a reliable solution for major hazard facilities and aviation? How does the cloud manage global access to the same content? Can it be replicated with enough reliability to ensure  real time cloud based processing? Do we have access to the tools we need to manage reliability in this evolving environment. FMEA has its variants and Fault Tree Analysis has its benefits, but what do we do when the total system involves virtualization, hypervisors, and server farms that process the intricate hybrid systems with humans, governance, software faults and a larger picture of issues.

Nancy Levison’s STAMP model works on these selected intricate problems using STPA and integrates the notion that these are inter-related forces we need to deal with.

When we focus on the quality aspects of Reliability, and impose the liability discussion including McDonalds’ hot coffee burning your leg in the drive through. How do we ensure product safety across multiple countries to a risk level as low as reasonably practicable whilst adjusting to a business headwind including return on investment and share holder influences.

Risks are varied including space flight, aviation, and general industry the challenge is to provide an analysis that  delivers the most likely scenarios to affect the product, system or asset. Risk is a broad topic, but when we focus on a specific risk like safety, cost or reputation are FMEA topics that operate on differing scales including wildfire starts (bush fires in Australia).

Getting into the right ball park in the right city is still a correct approach to defending second base.

Safety is still number one. Balancing economic challenges with safety challenges across the total industry remains a challenge when trying to achieve a sustainably low level of risk.

Join us and send in your thoughts as comments. We have a great many tools available to reliability professionals – what are you using fitting tools into your risk management challenges. What is working, what is not when we challenge interconnected systems?

Key Points

Join Philip and Fred as they discuss:

Join Philip and Fred as they discuss Risk management – internet challenges during COVID and how we analyse integrated systems that challenge traditional methods.
Topics include:

• Risk, the cloud, the internet robustness
• Challenging risk analysis on integrated systems of hardware, software and human interactions
• Getting into the right ball park with your analysis
• Emergent methodologies like STPA and STAMP.

Enjoy an episode of Speaking of Reliability. Where you can join friends as they discuss reliability topics. Join us as we discuss topics ranging from design for reliability techniques to field data analysis approaches.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download