Reliability Leader with Adam Bahret

In this episode, FMEA guru Carl Carson and I discuss the challenges of conducting an FMEA session virtually in the age of remote work. Does it bring the same value as in-person meetings? How do you engage members? Listen to this episode for 3 major tips that we discuss.

Today's episode is about Accelerated Life Testing (ALT). This is considered one among the three testing methods that are considered the Holy Trinity of Reliability Testing. Why do this test? How to do? What are the benefits?

Jeff Gould joins the podcast again - this time to share his stories on different Management styles practiced in the industry. Management is a key part of Reliability Engineering projects & this episode gives insights to explore & experiment.

Adam sits down with Guest Miki Rosenberg, VP of Strategic Technologies, Medtronic Surgical Robotics. In this episode, they discuss how to introduce & effectively execute Reliability Testing in a high-priority, fast-paced development program.

Guest Nelson Rego shares his perspectives on how to bring Reliability Culture into product development. Adam & Nelson discuss how to tie in specific outcomes of tasks to program goals, what to measure, and how to balance development with Time-to-market pressure.

Charles Jablonski from Mueller Water Products talking about Accelerated Life Testing (ALT). Example cases, Learnings, and how it ties within the Product development program.

Episode Guest Leyla Mirmomen shares her journey to starting Optimuos and how her Engineering background has helped identify & provide services to clients. Adam explores how physics-based simulations could be applied to Reliability Engineering.

In this free flowing conversation, Dan Burrows shares his knowledge on Design of Experiments (DOE). What are the fundamentals & how is it being used in Relibaility Engineering.

How do you approach Reliability Testing for a bearing on a Robot System? This short episode discusses the different aspects to consider. L10 life is commonly quoted as a metric for bearing life. But to measure Reliability with confidence, individual operating conditions & system layouts should be considered.

A quick refresher on Weibull Analysis for Reliability Engineering. What is a Weibull plot? How are the results used in understanding the failure rates of the population? The episode explains a simple way to understand the complexity of the plots.

Red Cell is an idea used in the military to create an elite unit of outsiders to intentionally launch an attack on oneself to uncover weakness. Similar techniques are used in hacking competitions, Bug finding bounties, & banking sector security. How can we adapt this for Reliability Engineering & use it during product development? The episode explores some of the ways it can be used to improve product reliability.

Andre and Adam discuss how reliability engineers grow in their careers and find sources for educational content. Andre shares how RAMS conference is different, how to teach reliability, and what has been his own journey. Andre Kleyner is a renowned author and editor for the Wiley series on Reliability & Quality. 

Neil Dotenbaugh from ESPEC shares real stories of how Time-to-market pressures teams to release the product without completing reliability tests and how HALT test results can inform the design team. We also discuss how to accelerate the parameters in accelerated testing and his latest conference paper: Doing HALT with fewer samples. 

In this eye-opening episode, Dr. Kishor Trivedi from Duke University shares how software is a major cause of failures in complex systems. Shares ideas on how to treat software as a wearing-out component, how to test for failures, identify improvement areas, and plan software maintenance. He also stresses the need for more research on software reliability failures. 

 Resource: Book "Handbook of Software Aging and Rejuvenation"

Felix Chen talks about how he got into the Reliability Engineering field and his current experience managing product failures. What metrics to use for reliability? How to best describe it to other stakeholders? How do metrics drive the program? He also highlights the importance of Statistics, and how it can be used to quantify the uncertainty in predicting Reliability. 

Lots of resources are available to learn Reliability Engineering, how do you choose the best Reliability program to train your team? In this episode, Chris Jackson breaks down the factors to consider when choosing to invest in training programs, insights on whom to train among Organizational teams, and spills the beans on his next educational project. 

Cam Page takes some time from her exhibit at the RAMS conference to discuss HALT testing and how it has grown in multiple industries.

I was very fortunate to have Dr Wayne Nelson as a guest on Reliability Leader.  We both attended the RAMS conference in Orlando this year and he was gracious enough to discuss his upcoming new edition of his 2003 book "How to Analyze Recurring Events Data."

Setting out to build a new reliability department taught me a lot about the right way to integrate reliability into product development.  I almost learned the really hard way, but luckily corrected my path in time.

Rick Sprenkle and I discuss how different personality types handle unforeseen issues when they arise.

Rick and I discuss some of the common personality types we find on design teams.  The dynamics and interactions that unfold have a lot to do with how well a program runs.

The Motto for the Lightening Fast Reliability method is "Robust Ready and Risk Guidance."  In this episode, we discuss what Risk Guidance is.

The Motto for the Lightening Fast Reliability method is "Robust Ready and Risk Guidance."  In this episode we discuss what Robust Ready is.

Tom Dutremble, CEO of Acorn Product Development, joins us to talk about common pitfall and best practices in electro-mechanical product design. More about Acorn Product Development can be found at www.acronpd.com

Do we consider all the ways preventative maintenance can effect design strategy?

So often we identify leadership talent in technical people. They are marked for advancement but not always given the training needed to succeed.  Henry Chidgey and I discuss how this process can be done different.

Nancy and I share a passion for reliability.  We also share a passion for maximizing performance of individuals.  There is no way around the fact that how people operate effects how machines operate.

Jessica shares a personal story about the experience of receiving poor field service as a consumer.  Together we brainstorm on how the company could have improved the experience. 

In this episode I discuss the reliability anchoring methodology from the Reliability Culture tool kit.  The anchoring tool ensures we are tracking if changes to a planed test will effect ROI in a manner that justifies cancelling or postponing that test. 

In this episode my guest Dan Burrows, Director of Quality and Reliability at Solecta, discuss the difference between quality and reliability engineering.  It's not as easy as you would think, and there is surely more than one answer.

"The target area is only two meters wide. It's a small thermal exhaust port, right below the main port. The shaft leads directly to the reactor system."

Do you know what that quote is from?  If you do you are an awesome geek.  if you don't I still think you will enjoy this episode about how reliability engineers think a little different from design engineers.

My guest Carl Carlson and I discuss FMEA's and how they are best incorporated into product development programs.  Carl is a thought leader in FMEA and the author of "Effective FMEAs". He can be contacted at cscarlson3@gmail.com

Design Failure Mode Effects Analysis (DFMEA) is one of the most important tools in a reliability program. If implemented correctly it will significantly improve efficiency in the design process.  Implemented incorrectly it can be a devastating detour in what could have been a great produce development program.  Let's talk about both.

How do we go from a prototype to robust design?  There are a few easy steps ranging from correctly assessing what drives robust performance to testing driven design change.

After reading a NASA guide on best practices for fastener retention (lock washers, nylock nuts, tapered threads, chemical bonding) I was surprised to find out that that the method used most in everyday life was effectively useless.  Got me thinking, what else do we do in product design as a "best practice" only because we've always done it that way?

What is the most effective and fastest reliability program? It is simply the golden trinity of HALT, ALT, and RG.  In thsi episode I dicsuss how to apply these tools with an extremely high ROI.

In this episode my guest Bill Williams and I discuss the probability of one woman being hit twice in the stands while watching a baseball game.

Achilleas Dorotheou, of Parker Hannifin, shares with us the journey of transforming a team of bright young engineer into a mature team that creates highly reliable products.