Reliability Engineering – A Life Cycle Approach is based on the author’s knowledge of systems and their problems from multiple industries, from sophisticated, first class installations to less sophisticated plants often operating under severe budget constraints and yet having to deliver first class availability. Taking a practical approach and drawing from the author’s global academic and work experience, the text covers the basics of reliability engineering, from design through to operation and maintenance. Examples and problems are used to embed the theory, and case studies are integrated to convey real engineering experience and to increase the student’s analytical skills. Additional subjects such as failure analysis, the management of the reliability function, systems engineering skills, project management requirements and basic financial management requirements are covered. Linear programming and financial analysis are presented in the context of justifying maintenance budgets and retrofits. The book presents a stand-alone picture of the reliability engineer’s work over all stages of the system life-cycle, and enables readers to:
- Understand the life-cycle approach to engineering reliability
- Explore failure analysis techniques and their importance in reliability engineering
- Learn the skills of linear programming, financial analysis, and budgeting for maintenance
- Analyze the application of key concepts through realistic Case Studies
This text will equip engineering students, engineers and technical managers with the knowledge and skills they need, and the numerous examples and case studies include provide insight to their real-world application. An Instructor’s Manual and Figure Slides are available for instructors.
Reliability Fundamentals
The Importance of Reliability
History
Definitions
Acronyms
Basic Statistics
Probability
Regression Analysis
Analysis of Variance (ANOVA)
Design for Reliability
Examples from Civil Engineering – Bridges and Structures
Examples from Mechanical Engineering – Pressure Vessels
Design for Maintainability
Factors of Safety and Probabilistic Design
Assignments
Case Study: Weibull Analysis at the New Era Fertilizer Plant
Case Study: The Life History of a Hillman Vogue Saloon
Case Study: The Woodruff Key Problem
System Reliability
A Note of Caution
System Configurations
System Reliability Prediction
Availability and Maintainability
The Maintainability Equation
The Equations for System Availability
Storage Capacity
Reduced Capacity States
Other Forms of System Reliability Analysis
Interconnections
Laplace Analysis
Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA)
Assignment: FMEA of a Scraper Winch
Fault Tree Analysis
Assignments
Maintenance Optimisation
Why Maintenance?
Know your Plant and Keep it Good as New
How Maintenance Actions Affect Failure
Data Collection
Maintenance Optimisation
Total Productive Maintenance, TPM
Semantics in Maintenance Management
ISO 55 000
Wrench Time
Estimating Job Times
Case Study: Maintenance at Automotive Pressings
Case Study: RCM at Dragon Peak
Case Study: RCM at Tiger Substation
Case Study: Crowning a Hangar Queen
Case Study: A Strange Case of TPM
Case Study: Challenger
Case Study: Electric Motor Maintenance Regimes
Condition Monitoring
The Four Kinds of Maintenance
The Major Types of Condition Monitoring
Vibration Monitoring
Oil Analysis
Thermography
Incident Investigation or Root Cause Analysis (RCA)
Introduction
Scope
Applicability
Authority
Definitions
Abbreviations and Acronyms
Root Cause Analysis
Incident Investigation Techniques
The Nature of Failure
The Black Decades (the 1970’s and the 1980’s)
Human Causes of Failure
Case Study: Chernobyl
Case Study: Piper Alpha
Case Study: Flixborough
Case Study: The Hyatt Regency Hotel, Kansas City
Case Study: The Embraer 120 Aircraft Crash
Case Study: Three Mile Island
Other Techniques Essential for Modern Reliability Management - I
Configuration Management (CM)
Case Study: Poor CM
Codification and Coding Systems
Short Description
Long Description
Technical Dictionaries
Advantages of the NATO system
Master Data
ISO 22745
Non-military Applications of Master Data
Coding by Colour or Stamping
Modern Trends in Codification
Lubrication
Reverse Engineering: The Importance of Reverse Engineering
Case Studies
Other Techniques Essential for Modern Reliability Management - II
Financial Optimisation: I
Use in maintenance budget optimisation and retrofit justification
Case Study: The Pulveriser Tender
Financial Optimisation – II
System Simulation
Simulation Example: Stock Control to Optimise Availability
Monte Carlo Simulation using Random Number Generation
Reliability Analysis Software using Monte Carlo Simulation
Linear Programming
Case Study: Optimisation of Maintenance
Design for Operability and its Effect on Human Reliability
Integrated Logistic Support (ILS) – the Interface with Reliability
Queuing Theory: Its use in setting maintenance staff numbers
Project Management: Its use in Retrofits and Outage Management
Biography
Edgar Bradley is a Consultant, specializing in Benchmarking, Human Capital Evaluation and RAM work (Reliability, Availability, and Maintainability). His qualifications include a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa (1964) and a Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Akron, Ohio, USA (1969) as well as an MBA from Cranfield University, in the UK (1975). For over 40 years he has also served as a lecturer in the Faculty of Industrial Engineering at the University of the Witwatersrand, lecturing and developing courses on the MSc programme on inter alia, Reliability Engineering, Maintenance Engineering, Project Management, Industrial Marketing and Systems Engineering. He has also lectured in Reliability Engineering at the University of Pretoria. In 2013 he was appointed as lecturer in Quality at the Namibian University of Science and Technology. He has commenced lectures in Reliability Engineering this year at North West University as well. For the past seven years he has worked as a Mechanical Consulting Engineer, giving consulting and training to the petroleum and other industries in the Middle East and in Southern Africa.
"Unique approach between theory and practice throughout the life cycle, with many real case study examples from all branches of engineering. An ideal text at the post graduate level for all engineers responsible for maintenance management."
—John Sheer, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa"This is an excellent introduction to the subject of reliability for the non-technical reader. In addition, it’s also a very good, and quite thorough, review and reference for the technically proficient. The authors descriptions of the various operations involved in reliability calculations were clear and precise. I was particularly impressed with the use of numerical examples of calculations as this allows the student and/or reader to check himself out on these procedures. The use of graphics was excellent as I believe this contributes much more to understanding concepts than are paragraphs of words alone."
—John M. Berner, Applications Research, Inc., USA
