The Missing Ingredient in RCA: Willingness to Accept Our Own Faults
No matter where we work, we will experience failures or ‘undesirable outcomes’ of some kind. As long as we work with other humans, this will indeed be the c... Read more.
Solving Lubrication Degradation Starts with Asking the Right Why
Can Oil Fail?
Within the industry, there has always been a great debate: it is not the oil that fails, but rather the machine. When considering the failure of a... Read more.
How to Champion Frontline Success for Greater Reliability
A realization that appears to be taking hold in corporate America today is that the answer to increased productivity and higher profits lies not in simply downs... Read more.
The RCA Interview Method That Builds Trust and Gets Honest Answers
The role of a trusted advisor is similar, whether you serve as the lead for a Root Cause Analysis (RCA) team or advise an executive. In all forms of communicati... Read more.
Why Components Break: A Logical Look at Common Fatigue Failures
Recently, I have explored the basics of Erosion, Corrosion, Fatigue, and Overload. We emphasize creating an awareness and appreciation for the value of failed c... Read more.
Why Your RCA Effort Is Doomed (Unless You Fix These Issues)
Most of us have all worked at places with some degree of a Root Cause Analysis (RCA) effort. They likely all defined and practiced 'RCA' differently, but noneth... Read more.
How to Prevent Root Cause Analysis from Becoming a Money Pit
Properly conducted RCAs are time-consuming and resource-consuming, so when we are not getting the expected ROI from our efforts, we have to consider why we are ... Read more.
Does High Reliability Automatically Lead to a Safer Workplace?
Reliability and safety are often discussed as inherently linked, but the reality is more complex. While a highly reliable system reduces unexpected failures and... Read more.
Boiler Feed Pump Failure: Tracing the Steps of a Forced Outage
The failure occurred in a turbine-driven boiler feedwater pump (TDBFP) at a fossil fuel power plant. Specifically, the outboard boiler feed pump unexpectedly sh... Read more.
Why Reliability Experts Annoy the Rest of the World (Without Even Trying)
I am writing this as a reality check to see if it's just me. Do my peers in the reliability profession have the same problems I do when communicating with non-r... Read more.
How to Recognize Basic Gear Fatigue Failure Patterns
Understanding gear fatigue failures begins with mastering the fundamentals of how materials behave under stress. When mechanical components like gears face repe... Read more.
How to Examine Rolling Element Bearings: Prep for Root Cause Analysis
This will be metallurgy 101 for seasoned analysts but intended for those on the front lines. You are the ones who will determine if the analysts get these rol... Read more.
Root Cause Analysis: Cost Center or Profit Driver?
In times that promise to be a financial challenge for some corporations, we must decide where to invest our scarce dollars and where to cut from our current ope... Read more.
The Four Physical Failure Mechanisms of Component Failure
This article targets the 'first responders' who arrive immediately at the failure scene. These people must ensure the area is safe, preserve the scene for inves... Read more.
