Reliability Engineering in Design

Best in Class Performers effectively implement Reliability Engineering in Design for assets. This method has proven to be essential in minimizing the total life cycle cost while maximizing capacity, profits and return on asset reliability.

Consider the following:

A Society of Maintenance and Reliability Professionals (SMRP) survey estimates over 80% of manufacturers do not utilize lowest life cycle modeling when designing new capital equipment projects.

• Similar studies have shown that nearly 90% of the life cycle cost of an asset has been committed prior to its intended operating and maintenance activities (Figure 1)
• There are seven Reliability Engineering in Design elements that can be applied to help maximize the return on asset reliability:
  Equipment Maintenance Plan (EMP)
• Reliability, Availability and Maintainability (RAM) Modeling Life Cycle Costing (LCC)
• Design for Maintainability
• Purchasing Specifications
• Human Factor Engineering
• Commission Procedures
  

Figure 1

Using Availability/Capacity Modeling tools we can isolate equipment improvement gains from asset utilization improvement gains (equipment available to perform its intended function). The Reliability Block Diagram (RBD) (Figure 2) is the basis for capacity modeling.

Figure 2

Inputting data about equipment failures and the resulting consequences can produce a model that generates capacity expectations. The relative losses caused by equipment (Assets) versus losses caused by underutilization and inefficiency (Process) can be examined using the Process Reliability Analysis.

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