Reliability Bytes™

The first hurdle in establishing anything remotely superior in terms of practices, or correction of established methods in any plant, remains the too often shoddy quality of information derived from inaccurate, biased, incomplete or even lost data.

In a recent discussion regarding the age-old approach of first dealing with high maintenance cost assets, the sad realization that these could only be identified through subjective impressions of personnel left us perplexed: the problems of old are still alive and well.

Simply put, you can not manage what you do not measure, and measuring (metrics or performance indicators) can fall short of the target if the proper controls were never established from the start (or some time in the past).

© 2009 by François Gagnon

“The society that scorns excellence in plumbing, because plumbing is a humble activity, and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy, because philosophy is an exalted activity, will have neither good plumbing nor good philosophy – neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water.”
–John Gardner, former Secretary of HEW

Management apologizes to fans everywhere: the week should prove difficult for posting, but several articles (should they warrant such a name) in progress should be finished (and posted) by next week-end.

A brand new conundrum baffles us as Dr. P.Hish, professor emeritus at the dept of inventions of the engineering faculty of the University of Mensa-Cola, succeeds where no other man has ever had any success: his tribble-driven sensor delivers an instantaneous and 100% accurate self-contained diagnosis of the machine every time something is wrong with the monitored asset.

Within the scope of this effort, it is believed many consultants will be put out of work as the “tribblesensor” delivers its extraordinary assessments instantaneously, quite exceeding any need for a similar judgment from external contractors.

Only a few primitive analysts dispute the claims of accuracy by saying that a diagnosis of “Something is wrong with the machine” does not suffice in this day and age…

If you have any doubts as to the accuracy of the information, please note the date of posting!

© 2007 by François Gagnon

Not that Vibra-K is new to the reliability or predictive maintenance games, but the title merely announces a “soon to be expanded launch” for this entire domain.

 After so many years of running the gauntlet in the belly of the plant beast or within the much more comfortable surroundings of the classroom (wherever it may have been found at any point in time: many will fondly remember the Phoenix Wyndham as a peak of the comfortable compounded by an unreasonable cornucopia of delectable food offerings), all the bits and pieces that are lying around should be assembled into a cohesive (I wish) whole and be put to good use by the curious (at least where technical tips are concerned, as this writer reserves the rights to his own ramblings; linking back to us IS permitted though).

© 2007 by François Gagnon

Almost like the groundhog belatedly peeking from his not so natural environment… Vibra-K is alive, and well, and still “armed and dangerous”! What, do tell, is a “Vibra-K”?

 Since its inception, after a precipitous launch in the then not so Orwellian 1984, Vibra-K Consultants Ltd. has provided diagnostic and analytical service excellence, applying cutting edge technology and advanced know-how in mostly industrial vibration matters, with an occasional foray into commercial and consumer product environments.

Our condition-monitoring, analysis and reliability consulting activities have reached the far corners of the globe. Still, Australia and Africa elude us. Training activities are held in English, French, Spanish and even Portuguese. This site could be more colorful, but we think the serious seeker of information may well find herein a slowly accumulating offering of items of interest.