"Practical Reliability" Newsletter

Charles J. Latino President and CEO Reliability Center, Inc. www.reliability.com Since this is the first edition of Reliaviews(TM), I thought I would pick the greatest thought leader I know in the area of Maintenance and Reliability.  His name is Charles Latino and I am proud to call him both my Father and Mentor .  Having worked with him for nearly 15 years I learned the foundation for what Reliability actually means in industry.  Charles has over 55 years of experience in the field of Maintenance and Reliability.  Have spent nearly 35 years working in the chemical industry for Allied Chemical Corporation.  He served in various roles in Maintenance and Engineering until he was promoted to create the first corporate Reliability organization in the company’s existence.  This is commonplace today, but in the early 1970’s this was a groundbreaking event.  Charles spent nearly 13 years improving the performance of dozens of the facilities within Allied.  His team was responsible for inculcating the Reliability culture throughout the corporation.  In 1985 Charles decided to retire from Allied and promote these concepts and techniques throughout industry.  He formed a company called Reliability Center, Inc. in Hopewell Virginia to facilitate this process.  Since then, RCI has trained literally thousands of Reliability professionals, in all different types of industries, around the globe.  We are very excited to have been able to bring you this interview in our first edition of RELIAVIEWTM.  Enjoy!   Read the complete interview

Utilizing RCA for Process Related Issues
Ken Latino - Managing Director - Practical Reliability Group

Normally when we think of Root Cause Analysis (RCA) we think of a machine that has failed.  Perhaps a drive shaft has fractured on a critical piece of equipment and we need to find out what happened.  Although this is a common use of RCA there are other types of events that lend themselves to this type of analysis.  These include process issues, quality defects, customer complaints and many others. 

In actuality, process issues that cause daily upsets are perfect candidates for RCA.  Whether you are having trouble removing moisture from a product, shutting down a production line due to continual conveyor trips, exceeding the limits on critical process variables or anything in between, RCA can help.  These issues tend to be very costly to a plant because they are ongoing and can cause significant losses in production, product quality issues and ultimately customer dissatisfaction.   

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Failure Analysis of Mechanical Components
Neville Sachs -  President of Sachs, Salvaterra & Associates

Examples of failure analysis are almost everywhere. Whether it is a minor maintenance failure or a disaster of national significance, anyone can learn from analyzing mistakes.
Can you imagine professional football teams not using videotapes to improve their performance? Baseball players or golfers not analyzing their swing? Or a manufacturer not trying to improve its product?

We first became involved in failure analysis as part of a large-scale predictive maintenance program in 1974. Using vibration and shock pulse monitoring, we routinely defected failing motor bearings and many other problems. However, motor life did not actually improve until we began a program of failure analysis. The rewards were tremendous; in a plant with 2200 motors, average motor life more than doubled.

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CUTE PDF - In my work, I am often asked to leave files for clients in the form of a PDF.  This usually requires a license for Adobe Acrobat Writer software.  However, if you do not need the full toolset of Adobe Acrobat Writer you can download a free tool called Cute PDF.  This tool allows you to create PDF files from any file that you can print on your PC.  For instance, if you have a report in MS Word and need to share this via a PDF file, all you need to do if print the file to the Cute PDF printer driver and it will create an exact duplicate of the document in the form of a PDF. 

The tool requires two downloads, Cute PDF and Convert.  Once both of these applications are installed you can begin creating you own PDF files for free.  There is no advertising or spam associated with this tool.  I have been using is for over a year and it works flawlessly.  Give it a try at the CutePDF website.