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by Bob Latino
Updated: May 25, 2023Root Cause Analysis vs. Shallow Cause Analysis: What’s the Difference?
Reading Time: < 1 minute
Does regulatory compliance with RCA guidelines ensure operational reliability? Operational Reliability involves the aggregation of Equipment, Process and Human Reliability methods and techniques. What is the difference between troubleshooting, problem solving and root cause analysis? Are the outcomes different when we use The 5-Whys, The Fishbone or a Logic Tree? Can deficiencies in our approach to RCA increase the risk
by Bob Latino
Updated: January 5, 2022‘Fantasy’ Maintenance: The Illusion of Best Practices
Reading Time: 4 minutes
The following article was published in Plant Services earlier this year with the title, “Don’t get stuck in reactive mode – The world of fantasy maintenance is calling you”. The alias of the author is Captain Unreliability, so all credit should go to the Captain :-).
by Bob Latino
Updated: May 2, 2024Fatigue & Overload: Part II, 4 Mechanisms of Component Failure
Reading Time: 4 minutes
Author’s Note: I want to reiterate that this Series about reading the basic fracture surfaces, is for novices who often come into contact with such failed components. This Series is about the basics (101), and is intended to give readers an appreciation for the value of such ‘broken’ parts to an effective investigation/RCA. While this information will be rudimentary to
by Bob Latino
Updated: April 23, 2024Root Cause Analysis (RCA) Management Best Practices
Reading Time: 8 minutes
RCA management is a structured and methodical approach to problem-solving, and it helps organizations learn from their mistakes and continuously improve their processes and systems to prevent recurrent issues. If managers knew what the overall power of a well-supported Root Cause Analysis (RCA) effort meant for their bottom line, they would be breaking down doors to implement the process. In
by Bob Latino
Updated: January 5, 2022Trending Data Is Important to Predictive Activities
Reading Time: 4 minutes
This case history takes place in a packaging facility in Virginia. The packer on module E5 was checked for vibration integrity during a pre-machine care evaluation. A problem was detected in the folding arm gearbox. The frequency characteristics indicated a bearing was deteriorating. This seems very straight forward but let’s put the reality of the situation into the problem detected.
by Bob Latino
Updated: March 14, 2024Saving $1 Million for Inland Steel
Reading Time: < 1 minute
For some time now, Inland Steel has been committed to improving the reliability of our plant operations as a way to reduce costs, downtime and increase productivity. Recognizing that substantial savings could be achieved by reducing or eliminating chronic system and equipment failures, the company provided extensive training in Root Cause Failure Analysis (RCFA) to 50 reliability engineers and more
by Bob Latino
Updated: November 17, 2023Accepting We Could Be Part of the Problem
Reading Time: 6 minutes
Abstract: No matter where we work, we will experience failures or ‘undesirable outcomes’ of some kind. As long as we work with other humans, this will indeed be the case. These failures may surface in the form of production delays, injuries, customer complaints, missed deadlines, lost profits, legal claims and the like. In order to prevent the recurrence of any such undesirable outcome,