A reliability engineer wears a lot of hats.
Some of the jobs that fall on a reliability engineer’s plate includes:
- Data analysis, trending and other data mining to find solutions to chronic problems.
- Manage asset risk as related to health, safety and environment (HES), production, quality, regulatory compliance and cost.
- Work with the ergonomics or industrial engineer to improve maintainability using human factors.
- Take a systems-thinking approach (machinery, equipment, controls, processes, utilities, safety, environmental, people and more) to ensure reliability.
- Establish test procedures and perform reliability testing.
- Develop a reliability and maintainability (R&M) plan with measurable goals.
- Be an integral part of the design, installation and buy off of assets – for new assets and major changes to assets. This is important because over 90 percent of the lifecycle cost is decided early in a project.
- Monitor production and maintenance losses to improve throughput and reduce cost (reduce MTTR, increase MTBF and improve availability).
- Conduct a failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA).
That said, The primary role of the reliability engineer is to identify and manage asset reliability risks that could adversely affect plant or business operations. This broad primary role can be divided into three smaller, more manageable roles: Loss Elimination, Risk Management and Life Cycle Asset Management (LCAM).
Many feel the most important part of the primary role is overseeing LCAM. Studies show that as much as 95 percent of the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) or Life Cycle Cost (LCC) of an asset is determined before it is put into use. This reveals the need for the reliability engineer to be involved in the design and installation stages of projects for new assets and modification of existing assets.
LCAM is an integrated approach to optimizing the life cycle of assets beginning at conceptual design continuing through shut down and decommissioning. For the reliability engineer this means focusing on thorough planning, analysis and timely execution to deliver the best organizational structure as well as operating and maintenance strategies and work control/planning and scheduling processes.
This holistic approach to life cycle asset management enables vast amounts of asset data to be effectively managed and leveraged at a practical day-to-day business level. With this methodology, companies can institutionalize asset management and make it a focus of the day-to-day business.
While the list of responsibilities is substantial, so are the rewards. Reliability engineers are in great demand and receive substantial salaries. According to payscale.com, an entry-level reliability engineer with less than five years of experience can expect to earn an average total compensation of $79,000.
Reliability Engineering Training
Tonex can help provide substantial education for someone trying to become a reliability engineer or for those already in the field who wish to stay current.
Tonex offers several courses in Reliability Engineering Training such as:
- Reliability Engineering 101
- Reliability Engineering Principles Training for Non-Engineers
- Reliability Engineering Training for Non-Engineers
- Reliability, Availability and Maintainability Crash Course
- Risk and Reliability Engineering Training
- Applied Reliability Engineering Training
- Software Reliability Engineering Training
A wide spectrum of topics are covered in these courses including:
–systems engineering
–product life cycle engineering
–hazard analysis
–reliability management training
–strategic management
–quality function deployment (QFD) and failure analysis.
Who Should Attend?
These Reliability Engineering Training courses are perfect for production supervisors, project managers and product managers. They can also be beneficial for just about anyone who would like to learn the foundation of reliability engineering through hands-on activities and directed classroom discussion.
Why Tonex?
- For over 30 years Tonex, while presenting highly customized learning solutions, has worked with organizations in improving their understanding and capabilities in topics often with new development, design, optimization, regulations and compliances that, frankly, can be difficult to comprehend.
- Reasonably priced classes taught by the best trainers is the reason all kinds of organizations from Fortune 500 companies to government’s most important agencies return for updates in courses and hands-on workshops
- Ratings tabulated from student feedback post-course evaluations show an amazing 98 percent satisfaction score.
Contact us for more information, questions, comments.