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by Bob Latino
Updated: January 5, 2022Become An Equipment Reliability Detective: Preserve Failure Data
Reading Time: 6 minutes
It’s amazing how quickly failure data (evidence) can disappear after a ‘failure’ has occurred. Following such an unexpected incident, there is sometimes a lot of confusion. Most sporadic/acute incidents occur on off-shifts or on weekends which can add to the confusion. Statistically, for a continuous manufacturing operation, there are more night and weekend hours than normal single-shift operating hours. Nobody
by Bob Latino
Updated: January 5, 2022Nylon Plant Case Study
Reading Time: 2 minutes
This case study took place at a nylon plant in Virginia which at the time provided major amounts of nylon to the tire and carpet industries. The plant was incapable of achieving design capacity of 334,000,000 lbs. annually.
by Bob Latino
Updated: November 3, 2023How to Select the “RIGHT” Root Cause Analysis (RCA) Vendor?
Reading Time: 4 minutes
With RCA being a buzzword of the weeks, companies are faced with a slew of new vendors with numerous RCA methods and practices to help provide you attain quantum results. How do you decide who is going to help you get the most ROI from your RCA? What are your criteria for choosing an RCA Company? Programmatic analysis, barrier analysis,
by Bob Latino
Updated: January 5, 2022Reliability.com: Ammonia Plant Case Study
Reading Time: 3 minutes
This case study takes place in a Louisiana ammonia plant. The plant had above industry average downtime (116 Days of downtime compared to an industry average of 49.5 Days (worst record in the world for this type of facility).
by Bob Latino
Updated: November 17, 2023What is the Difference Between Failure Analysis (FA), Root Cause Analysis (RCA) and Root Cause Failure Analysis (RCFA)?
Reading Time: 3 minutes
Recently, Reliability Center, Inc. received an inquiry from one of our web visitors asking the differences between three confusingly similar Reliability acronyms. We thought others in the Reliability community may also wonder what the differences are between Failure Analysis (FA), Root Cause Analysis (RCA) and Root Cause Failure Analysis (RCFA) so we decided to share with you our view on
by Bob Latino
Updated: January 5, 2022Root Cause Analysis (RCA) – Death of an Acronym?
Reading Time: 4 minutes
As another well-known acronym has saturated industry today, it has been retired to the pasture of “dilution” farm. The term RCA is used to cover such a spectrum of meanings and significance, that the term itself has become de-valued. Can the value that RCA once stood for be revived to obtain the benefits that it is capable of producing?
by Bob Latino
Updated: January 5, 2022Electronic Field Data Collection: The Bridge to the Connected Plant
Reading Time: 4 minutes
The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) has created immense excitement and promise for industrial facilities. Having connected assets that continuously monitor their own health and feed that information back in a way that is timely and actionable will drive business outcomes and help organizations achieve loftier goals. The challenge today is that many of our assets are not yet “connected”
by Bob Latino
Updated: November 17, 2023Can you be Proactive in a Reactive Environment?
Reading Time: 4 minutes
If you are like most people who work in a manufacturing or process plant, you have a plan for your day when you arrive in the morning. As soon as you walk through the gate, you are hit with the equipment failures from the night before. You immediately spring into action to help find parts, drawings, millwrights, fitters and anything
by Bob Latino
Updated: October 22, 2024How Can vs Why: What’s the Difference?
Reading Time: 9 minutes
When facilitating a Root Cause Analysis (RCA), the proper questioning process will make or break the effectiveness of the entire analysis. When we hear of the 5-Why’s as a valid RCA approach, is simply asking ‘Why?’ 5x good enough….or IS IT JUST OK?
by Bob Latino
Updated: December 9, 2024Defect Elimination 101
Reading Time: 8 minutes
In recent years, “Defect Elimination” has become a hot topic in the reliability world. But what exactly does defect elimination mean? How does it differ from other maintenance practices? Is it more than just a new way to describe planned and predictive maintenance? This article will seek to answer these questions in a very practical manner.
by Bob Latino
Updated: April 23, 2024What Does RCA Mean To You?
Reading Time: 6 minutes
We have all heard the term Root Cause Analysis (RCA) and we all likely interpret its meaning in a different fashion. This is the primary reason we see for the ineffective use of “RCA”, lack of communication or miscommunication amongst the users. If we are all using various forms of RCA, then when we compare our results we are not
by Bob Latino
Updated: June 13, 2024A Beginners Guide To Root Cause Analysis (RCA) 2024
Reading Time: 4 minutes
When issues arise within a company, there are a number of ways to problem solve. Root Cause Analysis (RCA) is an effective method to identify and solve problems in business by determining the underlying inefficiencies or imperfections and taking the necessary steps to address them to prevent the problem from arising again. Root Cause Analysis (RCA) can be an effective