This article develops the theme of Reliability Engineering through a preventive rather than a corrective approach. Reliability applied to industries is a failure analysis tool in the various systems that the organization contains, as well as allows correcting and preventing future incidents that could even claim human lives. Reliability engineering not only benefits the organization or internal customers, but external customers receive these results directly or indirectly, a fact that allows improvement in their satisfaction and loyalty.
Introduction
The global challenges of business competitiveness require levels of organizational functioning in all areas of the company that allow it to be kept in the right place, that is, in meeting its goals and profitability in its operations.
Competitiveness is the skill that a company has to satisfy, produce and sell its product to the client, adapting itself in a sustainable way over time through competitive advantages that allow efficiency, effectiveness and differentiated innovation that maximizes the economic value of the reflected company in its profits and management efficiency, all without causing environmental or social damage, or detracting from customer service since it is this, finally, who, when acquiring what the organization produces, maintains it in a constant exchange of interests, mainly of a lucrative nature, as is the end of societies.
In this sense, there are a variety of tools that contribute to ensuring customer satisfaction, theories and techniques, among them is reliability engineering, reliability is understood as the probability that a system satisfactorily performs its specific function for which it was designed., for a specified period of time and under a given set of previously defined technical, operational, safety and environmental conditions.
Reliability is a function of the design of the system or equipment; of the manufacturing process, of the operation and maintenance that is carried out to the equipment or system; and other considerations inherent to the process, said subject; Reliability engineering will be developed throughout this research, when addressing this topic, it will focus first on defining it to understand what it is and what it implies, the topic will be developed providing the generalities of its calculation and finally some related topics will be touched.
Background
The origin of reliability comes from the 70's, being the pioneers for the Department. Defense Department on the theme of the performance of the United Airlines (American Airlines), in 1980 Moubray implemented Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) in multiple industries around the world and in 1990 applied the new developments of RCM2 to the industry. of aviation. The eighties and nineties were characterized by extensive research in this area.
The first generation starts from the Second World War, a time characterized by having a very artisanal industry, with little mechanization, where downtime was not important, which meant that prevention of equipment and / or system failure had no priority either. for administrators at that time.
The equipment designs were simple and normally with high safety factors (oversized), and when one of them failed it was easily repaired or simply replaced by a new one, for this reason, the implementation of systematic maintenance was not necessary and sophisticated. The characteristic technique used in maintenance was to repair in case of breakdown. After the Second World War, the demand for goods and services of all kinds increased considerably, giving opportunity to the introduction of new developments in science and technology in all sectors of the economy, which implied greater mechanization and less use of labor in all production processes.
Towards the 1950s, the increase in increasingly complex and diverse machinery designed and built made the industry begin to depend on them to such an extent that downtime due to failures became so critical that it forced the development of new strategies to counteract this situation, leading to develop the idea that equipment failures could be avoided, originating the concept of preventive maintenance. Starting in the 60s, this maintenance consisted mainly of overhalls (complete and detailed general maintenance) that were scheduled with a previously established fixed frequency, which resulted in a considerable increase in maintenance costs compared to other operating costs, giving rise to more planning,programming and control of maintenance systems and techniques.
The information was initially carried manually, since at this time the first robust and slow-processing computers were being developed. Another characteristic of the time was the amount of lost profits accompanied by a sharp increase in the cost of capital, which forced the design of new techniques and strategies to maximize the life of the facilities and equipment. In the mid-1970s, the industrialization process had such accelerated growth that it was necessary to project new expectations based on research and innovations that made possible more advanced developments with higher degrees of technification, and as a consequence a greater demand on the management of your processes. The nineties,they were characterized by a considerable increase in mechanization and automation of processes and machines integrated with developments in software and hardware; multidisciplinary working groups; safer and less harmful designs for the environment; more expensive, more efficient, more productive technology, among other aspects, which are reflected in levels of quality and high global competitiveness, which required greater reliability and availability of equipment and production plants with a greater emphasis on the sectors health, data processing, communications and building management.more efficient, more productive, among other aspects, which are reflected in levels of quality and high global competitiveness, which required greater reliability and availability of equipment and production plants with a greater emphasis on the health sectors, data processing, communications and building management.more efficient, more productive, among other aspects, which are reflected in levels of quality and high global competitiveness, which required greater reliability and availability of equipment and production plants with a greater emphasis on the health sectors, data processing, communications and building management.
The new paradigm to be solved is that "the higher the level of automation, the greater the probability that failures affect quality standards", and as a consequence of this, the level of knowledge and experience of the plant operators and engineers has risen.. Maintenance techniques developed during this time have focused on condition-based plans (maintenance prediction), risk analysis, failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA), and projects focused on reliability. According to Reliability Center & the Woodhouse Partneship LTD, Inc (Sojo, 2003), the latest advance in reliability arises in the 21st century, precisely when all companies globally face a highly competitive environment,with a high development in software and hardware technology interconnected in line with equipment and production plants around the world, with a high degree of automation, self-diagnosis, with optimal designs that satisfy the most advanced failure patterns.
These companies are surrounded by different productive philosophies of continuous improvement focused on spending less money achieving greater production with fewer resources at minimum total costs (operation, maintenance, quality, among others), which implies greater profitability, greater productivity with optimal efficiency, effectiveness and quality. Greater global efficiency of the plants that implies greater reliability, availability and less unproductive downtime. Optimum maintainability for a longer service life (better performance) with the highest statistically possible 'comprehensive safety' (human, environmental and industrial safety).
Basically, Reliability engineering is related to products and is often applied in the industrial field, the purpose of reliability engineering is to try to eliminate product failures and instead generate confidence in their functionality.
Reliability makes a company more competitive, there are different levels of trust; An example of an industry with high reliability is the Japanese industry.
Definition
Reliability of a piece of equipment, system, installation or product is defined as its ability to function in the way and when it is required. Reliability is a collective term used to globally describe the Availability of an element or asset and its operational characteristics: Reliability, Maintainability and Maintenance Logistics (UNE-EN 62347 standard).
In this way, the reliability achieved will condition the profitability of the production process, due to its close relationship with generated income, operating cost, operational inefficiency and business continuity.
Reliability is achieved by defining, planning, implementing and monitoring a set of activities throughout the entire life cycle of a product that, structured in processes, make up the corresponding Reliability management system. For all these reasons, the efficient management of Reliability becomes an imperative need with a complexity that requires having a properly trained staff capable of implementing appropriate methods and processes.
How to evaluate reliability?
The inherent reliability of a system or equipment is the maximum reliability that it can achieve based on its design and its manufacturing process. Maintenance can increase reliability but not its inherent reliability.
Regardless of the type and complexity of the system under study, three essential steps are required to assess the reliability of a system. First, a model must be built for the analysis, then the analysis of the model and the calculation of the appropriate reliability indices must be made, and finally, an evaluation and interpretation of the analyzed results must be made.
Globally, reliability is used to measure the performance and / or behavior of individual systems, equipment and / or components, in order to guarantee: the optimization of design, maintenance, quality and production costs; human, industrial and environmental security; the quantity and consequence of the failures; the quality of the products, among other aspects. Obtaining reliability normally means saving money and preserving the integral security of the production system, a reason that leads to maintaining an "economic balance" that allows setting optimal levels of reliability.
For a company that manufactures reliable products, it is necessary that the workers are well trained, in addition to having a reliability engineer who is in charge of analyzing the production process without stopping it since the information it needs is obtained from the finished products.
Reliability engineering is a tool that makes use of statistical resources to establish error models. One characteristic of reliability is that it is handled quantitatively since it uses numerical data to generate its models and its results are a probability ratio.
From the faults that can be found, the product processes are analyzed. reliability engineering can be applied to all types of companies.
Reliability models
As an example of a product with reliability, we can refer to a motor chain, it works at 99.995%, that is, it is very reliable in its performance.
A reliability model basically requires three parameters:
Required function: this is a numerical definition of the performance expectation of a product or equipment. (Otherwise if it implies or means a fault)
Indicated Conditions: This refers to the product's usage specifications, so if used improperly, reliability may vary.
Time period: refers to the warranty.
Reliability tests.
In general there are two tests to measure the reliability of a product these are the "High Accelerated Life Test" or HALT for its acronym in English. This test is used to measure the reliability of Innovation products.
On the other hand, there is the Highly Accelerated Stress Screening or HASS test; This test allows finding opportunities to improve an existing product, they are strong tests in short periods. an example of the HASS test output is Windows updates.
HASS tests are carried out by the producer and are based on feedback from end users for example when making improvements in the efficiency of a car engine.
Reliability models.
In general, there are two types of models to make a reliability measurement, these are the serial model and the parallel model, the latter generate greater reliability but also a higher cost.
Graphical representation of the times
Below is a graph that represents the times in which a process is in service, when it has failures and the time it is out of service with their respective formulas to calculate the time out of service and the time between failures.
Maintainability and reliability.
Operational reliability
Operational Reliability is the ability of the company, through processes, technologies and people, to fulfill its purpose within the limits of design and operational conditions.
Operational Reliability considers a series of continuous improvement processes that systematically incorporate diagnostic tools, analysis methodologies and new technologies, to optimize the project, management, planning, execution and control, associated with production, supply and industrial maintenance. In order to seek Operational Reliability, it is necessary to act in an integrated manner on the assets, from their design to their operation, as well as on aspects related to processes and people, this is how the components that comprise it and that act in an integrated manner are the Process reliability.
Operational Reliability has five axes that must be considered and on which action must be taken if a long-term reliable installation is desired in terms that operates as projected.
These axes are: human reliability that is related to the involvement, commitment and competencies that people have with the activities that correspond to them and the organizational structure to achieve it; the maintainability and reliability of the assets that is linked to the design of the equipment and its logistical support, to reduce the average time to repair and to the maintenance strategies of the equipment and the facilities and to the effectiveness of maintenance, for the increase in their mean time between failures, respectively; the reliability of the process that is associated with the harmony that exists between the process and the procedures used to operate the facilities, with the operational parameters that must be used, in order to respect the established conditions;and finally the reliability of the supplies that refers to the integration between the different processes or internal units, such as operation, maintenance, supply, development, and the suppliers of inputs, energy, goods or services of
In order to ensure supply in terms of quantity, quality, timeliness and cost through established processes that facilitate inbound logistics and allow third-party management, efficient contract administration, and supply analysis, where appropriate. The adequate management and maintenance of assets, mainly in industrial activities intensive in the use of equipment, has a significant role in Operational Reliability. Its effect on competitiveness is not always assumed within companies mainly due to an organizational culture that is still characterized by considering maintenance as a cost unit rather than an alternative to improve business results.as well as by limiting its task to the operation stage without identifying the importance that this function has in the design of new projects and equipment to improve operational safety with its effect on costs, the environment and people.
conclusion
Reliability engineering is determined by different processes along the value chain of the product or service, as presented above, therefore, each sequence and resources are essential and have the same importance because if any were neglected it would bring consequences in effect dominoes, a fact that would generate monetary losses, preferably of the client and even human losses when the machinery was involved. It is highly significant that efforts are made preventively and ultimately correctively, since preventing them reduces the margins of loss and, on the contrary, increases the possibilities of action if necessary later, since various scenarios can be proposed. Reliability engineering should be taken as a way to save resources and prevent incidents,not as a cost, rather it is an investment that allows the optimal operation of the company in the short and long term.
Thesis proposal.
Reliability analysis of "Easy restaurant" restaurant management software.
Objective: To offer the owners of MIPYMES of the food service business a highly efficient and economical administration system.
Thanks
Thanks to the Orizaba Technological Institute for providing the necessary resources for the development of this article, to Dr. Fernando Aguirre y Hernández for assigning the topic and to Engineer Monserrat Jiménez Hernández for her valuable contributions.
References
• Acuña A. Jorge (2003). Reliability engineering. Editorial Tecnológica de Costa Rica,
• UNE-EN 62347: 2010. Standard of guidelines for system reliability specifications. Edition Date 2010-04-14. • Patrick DT O 'Connor, JW (1991). Practical Reliability Engineering. Fourth edition.
• García Monsalve G. (2006). Introduction to the theory of reliability and its application in the design and maintenance of industrial equipment in a renovation process. National university of Colombia.
• Moubray, John. Reliability Centered Maintenance. USA, Industrial Press Inc., 1997. 423p
• Sojo, Luis (2005). "The fourth generation maintenance." VII International Maintenance Congress.
Bogota
• Kumar, D. (2006). Reliability and Six sigma. New York: Springer
Science + Business Media.
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