Failures, engineering costs

It should be clear that a complete FMEA approach is not practical for the evaluation of production facility safety systems. This is because (1) the cost of failure is not as great as for nuclear power plants or rockets, for which this technology has proven useful (2) production facility design projects cannot support the engineering cost and lead time associated with such analysis (3) regulatory bodies are not staffed to be able to critically analyze the output of an FMEA for errors in subjective judgment and most importantly, (4) there are similarities to the design of all production facilities that have allowed industry to develop a modified FME.A approach that can satisfy all these objections. 

Any major materials development programme, such as that on the eutectic superalloys, can only be undertaken if a successful outcome would be cost effective. As Fig. 20.10 shows, the costs of development can be colossal. Even before a new material is out of the laboratory, 5 to 10 million pounds (8 to 15 million dollars) can have been spent, and failure in an engine test can be expensive. Because the performance of a new alloy cannot finally be verified until it has been extensively flight-tested, at each stage of development risk decisions have to be taken whether to press ahead, or cut losses and abandon the programme. 

A few of the above-menti I solutions to cavitation are almost. cal even cost effective. The idea is that they would work to reduce and stop < and the resulting seal, bearing and pump failure. Too many maint. (engineers and mechanics) are running around in circles, wring their h jumping up and down, trying to deal with cavitation. Who would have there are so many solutions, practical or not ... 

With the Industrial Revolution, life became more complex but it was not until World War II that reliability engineering was needed to keep the complex airplanes, tanks, vehicles and ships operating. Of particular concern was the reliability of radar. Prior to this time equipment was known qualitatively to be reliable or unreliable. To quantify reliability requires collecting statistics on part failures in order to calculate the mean time to failure and the mean time to repair. Since then, NASA and the military has included reliability specifications in procurements thereby sustaining the collection and evaluation of data build statistical accuracy although it adds to the cost. 

The failure of the caloric ship and the financial losses incurred by his backers did not diminish Ericsson s enthusiasm for the air engine. The stationary steam engine had weaknesses It required skilled operators and incurred heavy insurance costs. Ericsson again successfully raised funds to develop a small open-cycle stationary caloric engine with only a rudimentary regenerator. For Ericsson and his backers it was a financial success. Marketed as requiring no water, it could be operated by unskilled labor and, perhaps most important of all, would not explode. 

So, summarising the situation, the company s management on the strategic control level, had to decrease their costs under pressure from stockholders. Both, the current information and historical information from the transformation and its deviations were not available. These three types of latent conditions led to the ineffective observation on the strategic control level, i.e. the failure to realise the necessity that engineers with the necessary expertise should be present on site. So, the latent conditions that caused the ineffective observation element on the strategic control level, are transformation, history, and external environment. ... 

Process Reliability Simulation VIP The process reliability simulation VIP is the use of reliability, availability, and maintainability (RAM) computer simulation modeling of the process and the mechanical reliability of the facility. A principal goal is to optimize the engineering design in terms of life cycle cost, thereby maximizing the project s potential profitability. The objective is to determine the optimum relationships between maximum production rates and design and operational factors. Process reliability simulation is also applied for safety purposes, since it considers the consequences of specific equipment failures and failure modes. 

Given such large investment costs and risks, very little innovative pharmaceutical research would take place in a free market system. The reason is that an innovator would bear the full cost of its failures, but would be unable to profit from its successes because competitors would copy or retro-engineer its invention (effectively free-riding on its effort) and then drive down the price close to the marginal cost of production. This is a classic instance of market failure leading to a collectively irrational (Pareto-suboptimal) outcome in which medical innovation is undersupplied by the market. 

Deciding upon the length of time that each test point should be monitored for adequate data collection is something that even a well-trained engineer has to struggle with at times. Ideally, you would want to continue tests until the actual cause shows up. This is not always feasible, and the approach can be quite costly. In power quality tests, you are looking not only for the actual failure mode to repeat itself (which would be ideal) but also for any event that might show a tendency toward failure. 

The "Seminar on Tank Failures" was completed in 1993 for use in universities by SACHE (.Safely and Chemical Engineering Education) members. To in< uire about cost and delivery, call l-SOO-AICbeniE from out-side ( f the United Slates, call (212) 705-8100 or by e-inail—ccps aiche.org. 

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