Maintenance and Reliability for Chemical Engineers - Part 3: The Tools of Reliability

To compete in the marketplace, manufacturers require a greater return on their assets by having them produce the most, for the longest time, and for the lowest cost. Asset management methods, tools, and practices are applied throughout an asset’s life in order to achieve availability and operating cost goals. The strategies employed to achieve these goals are based on our understanding of machine failure mechanisms. With its origins in the airline industry, the understanding of machine failure made significant advances. Reliability-centered maintenance has allowed us to design and to apply the appropriate maintenance care. Reliability engineers have many other tools to determine failure causes, understand how to deploy resources, and determine the best approach to reliability improvement that impacts their business.

“Maintenance and Reliability for Chemical Engineers, Part Three—The Tools of Reliability” covers root cause analysis, defect elimination – the 5 Whys, failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA), criticality, reliability-centered maintenance, and bad actor management.