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R. Keith Mobley
R. Keith Mobley
Executive Advisor, Reliability, Operating Dynamics Modeling, Predictive Analytics & Risk Management
Published Feb 17, 2020
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Over the past few weeks, we have had a running dialogue about failures and related topics. Perhaps its time to tackle reliability.
If you asked one hundred people to define reliability, ninety-nine would respond with something like, “The ability of an item to perform a required function under stated conditions for a specified period of time.” This definition can be sources to the Dictionary of Military and Associate Terms, published by the Department of Defense in 2005. Since then it has morphed into the go-to definition for any discussion of reliability, but is this the real definition of reliability?
If you look up the root word of reliability, the definition is “Consistently good in quality or performance; able to be trusted. A person or thing with trustworthy qualities. It also means dependable, well-founded, authentic, valid, genuine, trustworthy, committed, unfailing, infallible, and constant. The definitions are the same, but when interpreted carry different meanings.
Since the majority of readers are focused on capital or tangible assets, let me couch true reliability in this way. First, we will stipulate that your assets are perfectly designed for reliability; have been installed and commissioned with absolute adherence to best practices. Now what must you do to sustain their reliability and prolong that reliability for their full economic useful life.
I am reasonably sure that you would respond with proper operation and maintenance are necessary, but is that enough? What about the production planning and scheduling function’s decision to run a non-standard product that will cause significant damage; or the sales department promising short delivery that forces, production scheduling to defer maintenance windows; or procurement’s decision to substitute non-spec. materials or parts; or the executive leadership’s decision to reduce operating costs and headcount.
Do any of these decisions impact the inherent reliability of the tangible assets? Of course, they do, but when we discuss reliability decision-making and the way work is planned, scheduled and executed is not included in the conversation. The only way that a plant, company or enterprise can be reliable is when everything from the way individual employees think through how they work together as a team must be consistent, repeatable, well-founded—in other words reliable.
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Josh S.
Independent Oil & Energy Professional
4y
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Are you alluding to the asset management strategy?
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Abdulrahman Alkhowaiter
Machinery & Reliability Industrial Consultant. Unconventional Solutions to Machinery Failure; Finding The Failure Mice. All Opinions are the authors personal opinions.
4y
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Thank you for raising a good question on basics. Here is an article on how to define Equipment Reliability by Mike Sondalini:http://www.lifetime-reliability.com/free-articles/reliability-improvement/What_is_Equipment_Reliability_and_How_Do_You_Get_It.pdf
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Sundar Kumar VasanthGovindarajulu (V. G.)
Director, Sri Balaji Maintenance Services
4y
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Very well enunciated. The reasons mentioned for reliability erosion due to abusing (performing jobs which need higher capacity), avoiding scheduled maintenance due to pressure from PPC or due to decrease of head count, are definitely important. Needs to be addressed for the sake of better ROI.
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JD Solomon
How to Get Your Boss's Boss to Understand by Communicating with FINESSE | Solutions for people, facilities, infrastructure, and the environment.
4y
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Reliability, availability, and dependability are all closely associated terms that are often confused by technical professional. The public usually uses reliability and dependability interchangeably, and if you notice commercials in appears that reliability is most in vogue now. In qualitative surveys, two key principles are validity and reliability, and reliability in this case means repeatable. Not sure the world will ever get to a single universal definition. Good discussion topic.
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Robert (Bob) Latino
Principal at Prelical Solutions, LLC.
4y
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Great, practical post as usual R. Keith Mobley. I thought this article may interest you on this related topic, "What is Reliability Engineering?". This is from the perspective of people outside of our Reliability 'bubble' that we live in.https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-reliability-engineering-robert-bob-latino/.I would be interested in your take on this perspective?
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