14 Ways to Acquire Reliability Engineering Knowledge
By: Fred Schenkelberg
Tags: Musings, Articles, Career

14 Ways to Acquire Reliability Engineering Knowledge

Maria Popova recently wrote about the work of James T. Mangan and his book You Can Do Anything!

, published in 1936. In particular she focused on one section titled 14 Ways to Acquire Knowledge

The article is about learning anything, which had me thinking about how to learn reliability engineering. So, without apology let’s explore 14 ways to learn about reliability engineering.

1. Practice

Dr. Ericsson, et. al. paper The Role of Deliberate Practice in the Acquisition of Expert Performance, discusses the need for practice with feedback and deliberation in order to improve.

Essentially, working the sample problems in a CRE primer is not sufficient to learn reliability. You need to deliberately practice, which means check you answers, was your approach efficient, examine ways to solve similar problems faster in the future, etc.

‘Practice makes perfect’ if you ferret out and understand the flaws along the way.

2. Ask

There is no reason for the wonder of curiosity to stop. If you have a question, ask. Most likely someone knows the answer or may provide a way to find an answer.

For reliability engineers we often work alone (no other reliability professionals on the team). Today there are forums, groups, email lists, and you list of professional contacts that are all available for a question.

You are not alone — find the group or list of your choice and ask away. It may help others to learn a bit more, too.

3. Desire

There is an old joke about how to eat an elephant. The response is ‘one bite at a time.’ It’s an analogy for those facing a large project or challenge. How to get the job done — one step at a time.

We all dream. What if I really understood reliability statistics? (well I do!) Or, other career or technical goals.

It’s essential to have the desire to learn. Sure I could learn to read music, yet without desire I probably won’t retain what I learned nor put it to use.

If you want to be a reliability engineer, then you have the desire and it’s time to start that journey.

4. Get it from yourself

When you think about all the classes we have taken though school and our professional lives, it’s amazing how much we’ve been exposed to across the fields of science, math, language, etc. We really should know quite a bit.

Refine and refresh what you know. Review, recall and relive what you already know. For reliability engineers this may include reflection, journaling, and discussions about your favorite topics from your past.

You probably have a treasure trove of experiences that may provide continued insight and inspiration.

5. Walk around it

Mangan is saying keep an open mind, consider both sides, all angles. Examine each new object or situation with an open mind and be willing to learn from the many points of view.

For reliability we often see a rush to solution during failure analysis work. Stop, walk around the problem, examine all the angles. Fully understand before selecting a solution. You will no doubt learn something, plus find a better solution.

Same advice applies for your colleagues. While literally walking around them with a steady gaze may be inappropriate, you can learn about them by exploring how they see the world. What is important to them about reliability? How do they fit into the reliability program?

Keep the bigger picture in mind and be ready to see what is all about.

6. Experiment

This is my favorite. One my best bosses encourage everyone on the team to do an experiment every day. We worked as manufacturing engineers and he encouraged us to learn every day.

He knew most of the experiments would not be useful, yet each one taught us a bit more about the factory and how it operated.

Sure running good experiments is a skill, one with deliberate practice you can improve. Yet even simple experiments, like using a new technique for brainstorming during your next FMEA may reveal a great new tool, or at least an opportunity to learn.

7. Teach

As a reliability professional, we often have to explain the tools, techniques, findings, etc to our colleagues. We are teachers.

If you can explain something to someone else, you first have to master the subject.

Years ago I learned design of experiments by signing up to teach it to our engineering group. I was barely one step ahead of my classmates, yet, by the end I had mastered the topic and continue to draw on that knowledge.

8. Read

A lot of the world’s knowledge is written down — find it and read it.

For reliability professionals, there is a growing collection of books, blogs, newsletters, and websites that have great information. You can find the listing at www.reliabilitycalendar.org/reading/

9. Write

Like teaching and walking around it together, writing let’s you capture and see what you know. Writing allows you to explore a subject, ponder, question, theorize, and discuss.

I highly recommend writing a daily journal. And, if you’d like, contribute to the reliability community with a blog. For those more dedicated or motivated, write articles or a book.

I find writing uncovers what I know and don’t know quickly. It helps me focus my reading and encourages more experiments.

10. Listen

I and I know others at times seem to only stop talking to recharge the arguments for the discussion. Not really listening. And, missing a chance to learn.

If we really stop and hear the person speaking, we may see a new point, make a new connection, or learn something. We should be open to really listening as other people have a different life path than we do — and certainly have learned much that we haven’t.

For reliability engineering, we need to listen. To customers on what is and isn’t a failure and why. To engineers on what is and isn’t technically possible and why. To managers on what is and isn’t supported (funded) and why.

11. Observe

One of the best parts of being a reliability engineer is everything fails. All around us, lamps, desks, chairs, books, computers, heating systems, cars, etc. are all products that have a finite lifetime.

We can see the environments these products are used and how those stresses affect the product and it’s performance. We can see people using products, appropriately and not so. We can see the impact of failure.

Just by observing we can learn a lot about how different designs work in a wide range of environments. Running our observations though a reliability engineering filter can be fun. Unless you are boarding a flight home — at that point I suggest just relax and enjoy the movie.

12. Put in order

Mangan advisees putting your knowledge in order. Collect like pieces of information, sort knowledge by field or interest. Create a card catalogue of your knowledge. This permits rapid recall and clear use of what you know.

If find organizing and finding meaningful relationships or patterns a learning experience. For reliability this would include sorting field failures, understanding user environments, etc. We deal with a lot of information, by putting that information in order we often create knowledge.

13. Define

This is about being exact with your knowledge. Think though and completely define the concepts and terms in reliability engineering. Mastering what is and isn’t <MTBF, ALT, Life Data, Censoring, etc.) helps us to know our subject.

14. Reason

We can create new knowledge. Deductive and inductive logic lets us examine our world and learn.

For reliability, we are often faced with new situations. Compare the situation, say a new failure mechanism, with ones you already know something about. The similarities and difference each provide insights for new knowledge.

We can reason and should. Reliability engineering is a thinking person’s game. Learning to assembly knowledge and use logic to find patterns, solutions, or innovation, let’s us continue to grow the world’s knowledge.

Summary

School is really only the start of our learning process. We can and should continue to learn throughout our careers. As reliability professionals we have many options and opportunities. I for one am looking forward to each day and discussion as another chance to learn and improve my reliability craft.