November 01, 2007
Maintenance 101 Tip
Reliability engineers are free.
Well, not exactly “free” – but certainly at zero net cost to your organization. The primary role of a Reliability Engineer is to drive out sources of repetitive failure, through effective design of the maintenance strategy and through root cause analysis when failures do occur. When one considers the financial impact of critical equipment failures on labor, materials, and production loss, it is easy to see that this position can pay for itself. In fact, it may be the only position in the organization that can make that claim. Many organizations have set a performance objective on this position to return the equivalent of twice their annual salary in savings due to higher reliability.
In order to be successful, however, the Reliability Engineer must be able to focus on his core responsibilities. Many organizations divert the effort by assigning ancillary duties to this individual, such as managing capital project installations. Reliability Engineering is a completely different discipline than Project Engineering and requires a different set of skills. Project engineering requires strong project management skills and the capability to do system designs. Reliability engineering requires strong data analysis skills and the capability to use tools such as Root Cause Analysis, Reliability Centered Maintenance, Weibull Analysis, and the like.
Unfortunately, there are very few four-year institutions that offer undergraduate degrees with a Reliability focus. Most successful Reliability Engineers entered industry in another field and gravitated toward the discipline because of supplemental training. Although sometimes difficult to find on the outside, Reliability Engineers can be created, and can be one of the most valuable positions in your organization.
Tip provided by Management Resources Group, Inc.
203.264.0500 x136
http://www.mrginc.net
November 01, 2007
Oil Analysis Tip
Viscosity of oil is always regarded as its most important property. This phrase, however, makes reference to fresh or new oil.
In testing used oils one looks at viscosity with importance, but with the caveat that a normal viscosity could very easily mask one or more problems signified by other tests.
Consider a diesel engine with a fuel dilution problem and a dribbling injector or two. The fuel dilution, of course, lowers viscosity, but the dribbling injector results in over-fueling, causing excessive soot formation, which tends to thicken oil. Because viscosity is driven in two directions by these simultaneously occurring problems, it is possible that viscosity could test quite normal, masking the issues at hand.
Tip provided by Jack Poley, CMI
Tel: 305.669.5181
http://www.cmiglobal.biz
iPresentation Tutorial invitation: Auto-Evaluation of Oil Analysis Data (16 minutes)
