#371 – AGILE, AGILE 2 AND AGILITY, PART 1 – HOWARD WIENER

Featured

If you are running a business today using Agile methods, it’s likely that you are not getting the productivity boost from it that you should, and your time to market for new features is probably not what it could be either.

Is that the end of the world?  By and large, yes!  The problem is that your impaired delivery capabilities have a substantial impact on your business agility.  How is that?  Your digital development process is at the center of your product management capability and if you can’t iterate quickly enough it will limit the opportunities for your product managers to redirect the evolution of your products while they’re in development.  When you are in a hurry to get new or updated products to market, they will be less evolved, less marketable and less competitive. Continue reading

#364 – FRAMEWORK FOR UNDERSTANDING TRANSFORMATION – PART 2 – HOWARD WIENER

Featured

In Part I of this series, we discussed the VUCA environment in which business are operating and the impact this has had and will continue to have on how businesses are run, discussed the need for business agility and introduced the EA model that Agile ERM employs.  In this article, we will look at three models that help to understand your company and inform decisions you will have to make about how to transform it to achieve sustainability. Continue reading

#363 – WHAT SHOULD I LEARN AS A RELIABILITY ENGINEER? – FRED SCHENKELBERG

Featured

Ran across this question the other day from someone just starting in the role of reliability engineer. I wasn’t smart enough to ask this question when I started in the field, yet looking back I’m sure to have found the list of what one should learn and apply daunting.

You should learn how electronics fail. And this may involve:

  • design errors in specific component technologies.
  • assembly errors in specific component processes.
  • material and process variability.
  • environmental stress conditions.
  • use stress conditions.
  • software interactions with hardware.
  • and, the same range of topic at the subsystem and system level, too.

Continue reading

#353 – IDENTIFYING ZONE 0, ZONE 1, AND ZONE 2 HAZARDOUS AREAS – BILL POMFRET PH.D.

Featured

Hazardous area classification (HAC, formerly electrical area classification) impacts the design and operation of petroleum, chemical processes, and other industrial operations that utilize flammable materials in potentially ignitable atmospheric concentrations in air by requiring ignition source controls.

Uncontrolled ignition of in air can result in loss of life, property damage, business interruption, a negative impact on communities, and legal liabilities. There are numerous regulations used in a variety of industries to address hazardous area classification. Not only is it important to select the appropriate code, but the findings of the classification analysis need to be documented.   Continue reading