Resources for maintenance and reliability

Make Maintenance More Efficient with Equipment Bills of Materials

2013-06-19T10:41:53-05:00

Most computerized maintenance management systems (CMMS) have the ability to create bills of materials (BOMs) for equipment or assets. These would include the components needed for a piece of equipment. All types of asset-intensive industries, from oil drilling and automotive manufacturing to food and pharmaceutical manufacturing, can benefit from equipment or asset BOMs.

Perhaps, like me, you’ve experienced life without BOMs. To find parts, you either had to use cheat sheets or refer to drawings from the machine builder in order to find a manufacturer’s part number. I can recall being called out of bed in the middle of the night when a piece of equipment was down and the spare part could not be located because the manufacturer’s part number could not be found. You had to look in drawings, schematics and catalogs to find a part number.

In the early days, not everyone had access to the documentation, especially the nightshift. Everyone had their own lists

Bombardier Announces New Aircraft Maintenance Plan

2013-06-06T11:05:46-05:00

Bombardier Aerospace recently announced a new maintenance plan that targets CSeries aircraft line maintenance checks at intervals of 850 flight hours and base maintenance checks at intervals of 8,500 flight hours.

The proposed maintenance plan will allow operators of CSeries aircraft to benefit from minimized downtime and more competitive maintenance costs, all while ensuring the inherent safety and reliability of the aircraft.

Bombardier has been developing a maintenance program for the CSeries aircraft since October 2010. Throughout the design evolution phase, the company determined that line maintenance and base maintenance task intervals could be achieved at or in excess of 850 and 8,500 flight hours, respectively.

"These proposed intervals will provide our operators with a leading maintenance program for the CSeries aircraft," said Bombardier vice president Todd Young. "We believe that this offers further evidence of our commitment to provi

4 Essentials for Reliability Excellence

2013-05-22T08:20:30-05:00

In this 6-minute, 19-second video, Bill Wilder of the Life Cycle Institute describes the four competencies required to achieve reliability excellence. Understand how to build the business case, why it is important to apply the science of change management, what kinds of metrics are driving the results and behavior you seek, and why you should be looking constantly at the processes and technologies that are available in the marketplace to see what is and isn’t working.

Implementing Risk-Based Asset Management

2013-05-09T10:25:47-05:00

In this 5-minute, 6-second video, Mike Poland of Life Cycle Engineering explains the first phase of a simple implementation model for a risk-based asset management system. Learn how to properly classify your assets and why it is important to consider the financial relationship, the control strategy and how assets relate to one another.

The Value of Reliability as a Service

2013-05-01T09:32:08-05:00

The success of condition-based maintenance programs depends on the ability to drive collaboration among users and experts, and distribute results to decision-makers while having a dependable infrastructure to ensure security, reliability and flexibility. Cloud-based business infrastructures like software as a service (SaaS) can play a significant role, making it easier to share information and support a stable, actionable and sustainable program.

While cloud computing is sweeping through enterprises for just about every application, condition monitoring and predictive maintenance (PdM) is no different. In fact, the PdM industry potentially stands to gain more from the cloud revolution than most any other industry. To date, PdM systems have been primarily isolated to individual laptop and desktop computers. PdM was completely left behind in the client-server boom of the 1990s. By moving to the cloud, PdM systems are gaining the advantages associated with the cloud, including cost sa

Reduce Costs with MRO Data Cleansing

2013-04-24T11:28:11-05:00

As competition and technology continue to evolve in today’s industrial and manufacturing industries, companies are faced with the ever-increasing challenge of reducing costs and improving efficiency while maintaining production quality. These manufacturing companies often have multiple sites spread across large geographic regions, each with thousands of maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) spare parts on hand to keep operations running. In such large organizations, several different employees enter items into various enterprise asset management (EAM) systems at each site, with little or no standard guidelines, and often in multiple languages. Over time, this lack of standardization causes materials data to become inconsistent and inaccurate, resulting in many negative effects that can be felt throughout all units of the business.

The most common effects caused by corrupt materials data include:

Unidentifiable items
Excess inventory

Stay Focused to Sustain Reliability

2013-04-10T10:26:45-05:00

A terrorist with a bomb passes through airport screening undetected on Christmas day. If not for a failure to detonate, many lives would have been lost.

When this brazen attack occurred, one of the things made evident was that many of us had let our guards down since 9/11. We had grown less interested than we once were.

I recognize this in a related area of my professional life. When I am not working on maintenance systems, part of my consulting practice is in "food defense," the concept of keeping the bad guys from intentionally contaminating our food supply.

There was significant interest in this topic after 9/11, as you might imagine. I regret to share with you that today there is far less interest, at least in the United States. Paradoxically, workshops I have taught in Peru, Thailand, Panama and the Caribbean have received considerable interest from their governments, universities and food industry (factories).

I have a couple of theo

SKF Launches Online Maintenance Network

2013-02-20T09:56:24-06:00

SKF recently launched an online maintenance network that enables maintenance professionals to connect with other maintenance experts globally, get their feedback on specific problems and find potential solutions.

With today's ever-challenging business environment, increasing uptime in manufacturing operations can make the difference between staying competitive and struggling to survive. Consequently, maintenance departments play a crucial role in finding fast answers to equipment breakdowns and thereby minimizing downtime.

Every hour of downtime costs the company money and causes high stress levels. In many cases, the fix is only a partial solution that allows production to go on, while the real problem is not tackled until the next maintenance shutdown. The new SKF network service is designed to help find more long-lasting solutions.

The website includes discussion rooms where people can discuss hot topics as well as specific problems and take advantage o

Using CMMS to Achieve ISO Certification

2013-01-09T11:50:06-06:00

It's one thing to claim customer satisfaction in marketing literature and Web content. It's another to achieve it by precisely measuring customer specifications and winning ISO 9000 certification.

Midland Metal Products (MMP) designs and fabricates permanent advertising display fixtures using sheet metal, wire and tubing for a vast array of consumer goods and products. As a fourth-generation supplier, MMP noticed that many of its processes had simply grown with the business. While going through certification audits, it became clear that the company needed to modernize its maintenance management process. Part of that certification process was to implement a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS).

Measurements Count

Because MMP builds advertising displays for ad agencies that serve hundreds of consumer retail brands, it receives specifications from ad agencies to fabricate displays from scratch.

"Because we do custom displays

Improving Maintenance in the New Year

2012-12-26T09:08:31-06:00

Let's assume you have an average plant and the economy is tight. You can't travel, and you must save money. What should your New Year's resolution be? Here are some suggestions:

1) If you are going to cut maintenance cost, you cannot focus on cost itself but rather on what drives cost. Perhaps use an analogy in safety. You can't just send out a memo or shout "improve safety." You need to fundamentally change the way people behave. Another analogy is energy cost. How would you reduce energy cost? You have to focus on things that save energy and drive that cost such as leaks, insulation, etc. When it comes to maintenance cost, often it is just slashed without considering the effects of that cost cutting. Again, focus on what drives maintenance cost, not the cost itself.

2) Get a common understanding between operations and maintenance on what constitutes good maintenance. I recently worked in a plant that has tried

Create a Learning Organization

2012-12-10T08:32:44-06:00

Before you attempt to ask people to learn something new, you should take a few minutes to diagnose their needs and how they might learn best. Not everyone learns the same way, at the same rate, or has the same background or experiences that you do. At the end of the day, you aren’t the one learning; they are. Let me share a few experiences with you to highlight the point.

I’m often asked to engage with individuals or groups in a coaching fashion to help them address or overcome some issue that the organization is facing. It was during one of these sessions that I was sitting with two front-line supervisors who were discussing the lack of motivation of some of their team. As a side note, when supervision and leadership issues like this come up, I always try to get people to look in the mirror first. This provides a moment of reflection to see if they themselves are the issue.

Anyway, they went on to cite how they had developed a ton of procedural documentation

Partnering for Continuous Improvement

2012-10-04T13:17:57-05:00

A major U.S. manufacturer of fabricated steel and metal products was experiencing a troubling and ongoing series of bearing failures on a dual line used for coating operations. A critical bearing located on the outboard roll of the dual line’s cleaning section would fail, necessitating repeated replacement. This occurred six times over the short period of four months, resulting in unscheduled downtime (to replace a failed bearing time after time) and lost productivity.

The bearing was the subject of frequent monitoring, with vibration analysis showing no readily detectable problems (all spectra appeared good). Nevertheless, it was only a matter of weeks before the latest replacement bearing took its turn for the worse and for reasons unknown.

Determining the root cause of the problem and arriving at a solution ultimately resulted from a unique three-way relationship between the steel manufacturer, on-site reliability engineers

Allied Reliability Group Acquires ABB Reliability Consulting Business

2012-09-25T09:11:53-05:00

Allied Reliability Group recently announced the acquisition of ABB's reliability consulting business in North America, originally known as HSB RT. The reliability consulting business consists of 20 remote employees, all of whom will be fully integrated into GP Allied, which is the reliability consulting and training arm of Allied Reliability Group.

The consulting business will complement GP Allied's current reliability consulting offerings, which include expertise in the fields of lean, reliability engineering, six sigma, change management, maintenance planning and scheduling, workforce development, and maintenance craft skills training.

With the acquisition, GP Allied will add business units in the disciplines of work execution management, equipment maintenance plan development, preventive maintenance, computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) integration, and planning and scheduling.

"All of us at Allied Reliability Group are extremely e

University of Kansas Offers Course in Managing Shutdowns

2012-09-14T08:11:56-05:00

In response to the millions of dollars of production that companies lose in poorly planned shutdowns, the University of Kansas has launched a new certificate course, "The Basics of Shutdowns, Turnarounds and Outages."

This online class will address the basic issues of shutdowns and is designed for heavy maintenance environments including refineries, power plants, chemical plants, mines, large factories and other large facilities.

"Attendees will gain anew and deeper understanding of how to effectively manage large maintenance jobs such as power-plant outages and refinery refits," said Joel Levitt, course instructor and author of Managing Maintenance Shutdowns and Outages. "This will result in an increased ability to plan for and manage such projects."

The course will be delivered in three modules, beginning on Oct. 23, 2012. The live online webinar sessions meet on Tuesday evenings at 7 p.m. (Eastern Time). During the one

Foster Teamwork for Better Results

2012-09-10T08:32:39-05:00

A major mail-processing plant in Philadelphia with approximately 2,000 employees on five floors was experiencing unscheduled absences greater than 7 percent along with poor quality and high expenses. Its reputation was questionable. If you walked the plant floors, you would have trouble seeing farther than 50 feet. You would also notice deplorable restrooms (not a custodial issue), an absence of supervision, paint peeling from the walls and lots of red-tagged rolling stock on the floor. In spite of this, the maintenance department was held in high esteem as it managed to keep the equipment operating. You can imagine the magnitude of union grievances, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEO) complaints and letters to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

The new plant manager, Al LaRiviere, had a challenge. His first actions were to remove all red-tagged equipment as well as the equipment that was not being used. The number of items that were placed in the p

Motion Named Supplier of the Year

2012-09-05T08:14:19-05:00

Motion Industries, a distributor of industrial maintenance, repair and operation (MRO) replacement parts, was recently named supplier of the year by Heinz North America. The award is the most prestigious honor that Heinz offers to its suppliers.

During the 2012 fiscal year, Motion exceeded in delivering Heinz’s key objectives of cost savings, quality, efficiency and innovation. It was the only company to receive a supplier of the year award in the indirect procurement category, marking the first time that any Heinz indirect supplier has won the award for two consecutive years.

"Out of the hundreds of indirect suppliers to Heinz, Motion had to make a huge impact to Heinz to be nominated and selected for this award, given the competitive environment and quality suppliers managed by indirect procurement," said Keith Nasse, indirect procurement senior buyer at Heinz North America. "Motion has clearly partnered with Heinz to help us improve our effi

Seize Opportunities to Improve Processes

2012-08-31T09:15:16-05:00

Lean efforts used to be 100-percent directed at the shop floor. What we have seen recently is that lean is moving into non-traditional areas of business. A lot of our recent work has been in maintenance, procurement, distribution, engineering, the office and even the company kitchen.

A friend of mine recently sent me an article about how Starbucks is realizing benefits from lean efforts in its stores. The coffee-shop giant is doing spaghetti charts, videotaping the work effort and working to reduce the time it takes to process an order. If Starbucks can shave 20 to 30 seconds off an order process that takes 1 minute, 45 seconds, that is a 23-percent improvement. Multiply that by 1,000 orders and you have saved nearly seven hours of effort. That’s certainly enough to save overtime, do more with less and spend more time making customers happier.

However, please keep in mind that the goal of lean is never to rush the process and make the quality worse but merely to el

Predictive Service Named One of America's Fastest Growing Companies

2012-08-30T10:31:00-05:00

Predictive Service was recently named one of the fastest growing companies in America by Inc. magazine. This marks the sixth year in a row Predictive Service has appeared on the Inc. 5,000 list, which is a compilation of the nation's 5,000 fastest growing private companies.

Based in Cleveland, Ohio, Predictive Service provides reliability consulting, integrated predictive maintenance (PdM) and maintenance repair solutions.

Of the 5,000 companies on this year's Inc. 5,000 list, Predictive Service is one of only 355 companies to have been included on the list the past six years in a row.

"We were very pleased to learn that our company has been named to the well-regarded Inc. 5,000 list once again," said Predictive Service president and chief executive officer Don Frankel. "For the past several years, we have been honored with a spot on this prestigious list because of our sustained growth, and this year

Employ Standard Work in Maintenance

2012-08-24T08:29:40-05:00

In many organizations, the focus on maintenance tasks is too general in nature, trusting the craftsperson to do the right thing. While we should trust our people, most of whom are highly competent and skilled, we also should set the expectation for the work to be accomplished in a precise manner. Otherwise, how do we improve if there is no one method of "standard work"?

Recognize that if we leave it up to individuals, we will have as many methods as we have individuals who do the work. As a team using the continuous feedback process, we want to determine the most effective and precise method to perform any given task.

Why, might you ask? Using precision maintenance, you reduce or avoid early life failure due to resonance, unbalance, soft foot, contamination (i.e., moisture, chemical, particle), poor lubrication, excessive heat or friction, looseness, imbalance or misalignment. Remember that roughly 89 percent of failures occur in early life or during the consta

SKF Opens Factory in Ohio

2012-08-23T10:08:05-05:00

SKF recently announced the grand opening of its SKF Solution Factory in Highland Heights, Ohio. Designed to equip customers with value-added solutions and industry knowledge, the new factory will serve a wide range of industries, including machine tool, food and beverage, mining and metals.

"The SKF Solution Factory is another way for us to provide customers with the resources they need to meet machinery performance and operating efficiency goals," said Poul Jeppesen, president and chief executive officer of SKF North America. "We are pleased to bring this state-of-the-art facility and its unique portfolio of services to this region."

The new SKF Solution Factory will provide access to SKF’s technical resources for machine productivity solutions. The facility offers an extensive range of services, including bearing application support, customized machined sealing solutions, spindle and ball screw repair, mechanical equipment services, engineerin

Minimize Waste with a Smooth Work Flow

2012-08-13T08:55:00-05:00

One of the most common performance metrics is planned vs. unplanned work orders. The benchmark goal has been 90 percent planned (preventive maintenance and other planned activities) and 10 percent unplanned corrective/breakdown maintenance. In reality, with most organizations the ratio is anywhere from 10 to 30 percent planned maintenance to 90 to 70 percent unplanned. This is indicative of operating in a reactive mode, which contributes to waste, reduced equipment life and lost productivity.

A thorough understanding and analysis of a maintenance work process flow makes it easier to identify and eliminate waste. The goal is not only to eliminate waste but to develop an improved work process flow that is more effective and productive. As the flow is thoroughly reviewed and analyzed, the entire process flow becomes visible and wasteful activities such as delays, unnecessary travel and the like are easily identified.

Following are some ways to minimize wasteful activi

Developing the Abilities of the Maintenance Manager

2012-07-23T09:15:36-05:00

In today’s environment of reliability excellence, integrated maintenance/operations teams, new technologies and constant pressure to make maintenance more effective and elevate it to a prominent value-added position, the maintenance manager must become a business unit manager with equal footing with other plant functions.

Maintenance managers operate a business within a business. They have 24-hour/seven-days-a-week responsibility, a product to deliver, customers, resource allocations, planning, people development responsibilities, political acumen, accountability and drive. They also have the highest-trained workforce with a lot of untapped talent and creativity. What should this professional manager have in his backpack?

For the last 10 years of my career at the United States Postal Service, I sponsored a maintenance leadership mentoring program that was designed to improve and expand the abilities of our managers to meet the demands of today and tomorrow. We stri

Follow-up is Key for Greater Efficiency

2012-07-18T08:48:33-05:00

Many organizations are using their computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) as a record-keeping tool. If that’s all they want, a spreadsheet perhaps can suffice. A correctly used CMMS is a tool that goes way beyond record-keeping. By not fully utilizing the CMMS, maintenance operations are missing out on opportunities to save time and money. As the utilization of CMMS increases, overall productivity and profitability also increases.

Make sure you know the full functionality of your CMMS and plan ways to improve your use of it in the future. A CMMS gives you the ability to look at a massive amount of data that can be tracked over time, enabling you to make meaningful decisions.

Full utilization of the CMMS begins with the process flow.

The Ideal Process Flow

There are eight components of a good maintenance work process flow: notification, approval, planning, scheduling, dispatching, executing, follow-up and performance matrix. In my

Sprayon Launches Real Men of Maintenance Contest

2012-07-12T08:28:48-05:00

Sprayon Products and Krylon Industrial recently announced a new contest designed to recognize industrial maintenance professionals.

The “Real Men of Maintenance” promotion will be accepting nominations from July 2 to Sept. 30 for the best maintenance professionals. The top three entries (based on the number of votes and the quality of the nomination story) will win a $2,500 Bass Pro Shops gift card and a year's supply of Sprayon and Krylon Industrial maintenance products for their facility.

Nominations are submitted online in the form of a written story about why the candidate deserves to win, including how he solved a specific problem that affected the facility/organization in a particularly inventive/creative manner, how he employs best practices on a daily basis or implemented continuous improvement processes within the facility/organization, or how he demonstrates a comprehensive skill level, persistent attention to safety, proven leadership qualities

Streamline Your Maintenance Operation for Optimum Performance

2012-07-09T08:33:06-05:00

If your backlog is piling up or you feel like you don’t have enough resources in terms of labor and parts, it may be time to work toward lean maintenance.

Lean maintenance is the application of lean philosophies, methods, tools and techniques to maintenance functions. It has the fundamental goals of eliminating waste associated with labor, inventory, procedures and techniques, resulting in improved productivity and reduced costs.

Lean maintenance does not imply a slash and dash approach to cutting costs and jobs. This common method will not reduce waste or lower costs. Instead, lean maintenance philosophy decreases costs by getting rid of waste that can be defined as “anything that doesn’t add value to the maintenance process or service.”

Following are a few areas where wastefulness and sluggishness can crop up in the maintenance department.

Overproduction

Overproduction in the maintenance environment means doing

Using Overall Equipment Effectiveness

2012-06-29T09:22:26-05:00

I became a skeptic of overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) when I saw the performance on the midnight shift at a well-run plant nosedive. The low OEE was on the shift performance dashboard and attracted undue attention. Local plant management blamed maintenance, and the maintenance manager called me to support him.

An investigation showed that operations had decided one employee could operate a machine that regularly required two employees. In fact, sometimes they assigned one employee to operate two machines. Usually, one employee would keep the machine fed and cull out poor feedstock, while a second would remove the processed product and clear the jams that occurred every 10 minutes for about 30 seconds.

OEE was down to about 40 percent for equipment that usually achieved 70 to 80 percent. Further investigation revealed a wider batch-processing window than on the other shifts.

The bottom line was that the labor cost per unit processed was reduced by nearly

Reliability is a Green Initiative

2012-06-27T10:22:11-05:00

Demand for products has declined in many parts of the world, and with more manufacturing being shipped overseas, reliability of our existing processes is even more important than before. Many of my friends in different industries have told me about all of the initiatives being done to “green up” their facilities and processes. Going green and being environmentally responsible is a great thing, and I think we should be pushing to move more in that direction. With that said, the interesting thing that I have been hearing is that reliability is getting lost in the green push.

I think reliability is the first green initiative we should invest in. Some people will argue that reliability is not a green initiative, but I assure you that it is. It’s no mystery that part of being green is doing more with less. Improved reliability will mean a decrease in demand of raw materials and storage space for those materials.

A benefit in decreased use of raw materials me

Prioritizing Maintenance Work Orders

2012-06-22T08:16:03-05:00

One of the challenges that many organizations face is maintaining work order priorities in the wake of the emotional squeaky wheel that yells the loudest. Remember the phrase, “In God we trust. All others bring data”? It applies here as well. Reacting to false priorities exacerbates the reactive spiral that diverts resources from efficient work practices.

At the end of the day, I don’t know of many organizations that are overwhelmed with maintenance resources to do work. Reality is that maintenance activities are all about lessening or mitigating risk or the consequences of failure. The challenge for all involved in determining the potential risk is to estimate the probability of the breakdown occurring within a period of time. To succeed, it is important that maintenance and operations have a proactive partnership where they work together to understand and communicate the risk probability via the work order system.

In order to effectively accomplish th

Enerpac Introduces New Dozer Lift System

2012-06-21T11:26:16-05:00

Enerpac recently introduced the DLS Series Dozer Lift System for servicing and maintaining 250,000-pound dozers in various mining and construction applications. Designed specifically for the CAT D11 and D10 dozers, the lift system is ideal for track and side-frame maintenance while utilizing single-operator lifting.

The dozer lift features a four-point custom synchronous lift system for safe load control, with two separate lifting units that can be moved into position at opposite ends of a dozer. Each lifting unit includes two hydraulically operated jacks with motorized locking rings for safe operation. The jacks are bolted to a rolling cart with fork pockets and retractable wheels for easy and precise positioning of the units.

The front and rear lifting jacks are driven by a hy

SKF, Fibria Sign Maintenance Contract

2012-06-19T10:26:13-05:00

SKF has announced a five-year contract with Brazilian pulp and paper company Fibria. The contract is one of the largest SKF has received for its Integrated Maintenance Solutions.

As part of the contract, SKF will supply bearings, predictive and lubrication services, training, engineering, condition monitoring, operator driven reliability (ODR) and maintenance products.

"We have worked with Fibria for around 12 years and have developed a partnership that has helped them reduce costs and increase productivity by better managing their assets," says Vartan Vartanian, president of SKF’s industrial market, regional sales and service. "This contract renews our partnership and extends the scope for the two existing plants and adds the mill at Tres Lagoas."

The performance-based contract includes jointly defined indicators that are aligned to Fibria's business strategies. These include indicators connected to the operational stability, inc

Is Your Plant Organization Shipshape?

2012-06-18T09:55:18-05:00

You are in the engine room of the USS Lincoln. Your job as an oiler is to perform the cleaning and lubrication routes for the steam turbines. You are watching a control panel that monitors all of the ship’s mechanical functions. You have trust that the folks up on the bridge are in agreement about where and how the ship is to travel. All 2,000 sailors rely on the functional teams working in concert to make this voyage a success. You also have faith that this is the finest ship ever built.

From Robert Williamson’s NASCAR model of teamwork to this very large aircraft carrier, there are well-coordinated activities and responsibilities that are carried out in world-class style. Hopefully, this article will cause you to pause and examine the possibilities for you and your organization.

In m

Reliable Processes Eliminate Surprises

2012-06-15T09:59:53-05:00

Surprises have their place, but they are not welcome in a manufacturing operation.

“One of the goals for manufacturing in our organization has to be to eliminate surprises,” a CFO of a U.S. manufacturing company said recently. “We don’t seem to be able to prevent ugly surprises from disrupting our production schedule and, consequently, our deliveries to our customers.”

There are two primary goals for any manufacturing operation today: 1) deliver the proper products at the proper time with the expected quality and 2) continually reduce the entire cost of delivering on goal No. 1.

To achieve both of these goals, the organization has to be focused on getting their processes reliable and consistent. As the processes become more reliable and consistent, cost-reduction activities can be implemented and focused on specific parts of the product or process.

Without a reliable or consistent process, efforts are spent trying to so

How to Attain Reliability and Maintainability

2012-06-13T08:59:22-05:00

Do you have double vision? I hope you do, but not in the sense I bet that you are thinking. No, I’m not talking about having one too many or that splitting headache that sometimes results in double vision. I’m talking about driving availability. It’s a measure that is made up of two component measures — mean time before failure (MTBF) and mean time to repair (MTTR).

The equation is: Availability = MTBF / (MTBF + MTTR).

I hope you would agree that MTBF is a measure of reliability. Isn’t that one of the primary visions that you have for your organization, driving improved reliability? I recently worked with a client in the heavy industrial sector on just that, an equipment reliability improvement effort that involves failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA) and other techniques.

What about MTTR? It’s a measure of maintainability, or the average (mean) amount of time required to complete the repair or restoration of a fai

Expert Tips for Planning a CMMS Project

2012-06-08T08:18:30-05:00

A well-planned and executed computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) project can yield a maximum return on your investment. This return is realized through increased efficiency, productivity and profits. However, a poorly planned and executed CMMS project can result in a loss of revenue. These losses can be measured in terms of the overall investment in the project, as well as from wasted time and lost projected revenue forecast tied to the successful installation and implementation of a CMMS.

Planning

Properly planning the CMMS implementation project is one of the key elements. In the planning phase, you determine the “what,” “why,” “who” and “how.”

Equipment Data

Developing a plan for equipment data is a good first step because it will provide a CMMS with a foundation of hard, verifiable data. Some maintenance departments may already employ an equipment numbering scheme that is effective

How Reliable is Your Training?

2012-06-06T08:35:22-05:00

Training is the backbone of preparation to perform the assigned duties in any position you hold. I cannot think of a single job in the world that does not require some kind of training to at least improve performance of the task.

The question then becomes, “What kind of training do I need for this job?” Throughout the years, I have attended and provided many different types of training, and every instance was different. Some training seemed lackluster and really did not provide much benefit for the time spent, while other training sessions were the winning ticket.

What does this have to do with reliability engineering?

Reliability engineers have to deal with a lot of different failure causes, including the human-related kind. Many times the human-related cause of the fail

Ensure Planning and Scheduling Success

2012-06-04T08:25:20-05:00

How do you initially train someone new to the planner/scheduler position? First, let’s talk about the selection process, as I see this as an issue in many organizations. Ideally, the planner/scheduler should be one of your best craftspeople. You have to compensate the position at a level at least equal to your first-level supervision. The compensation should include accounting for the average overtime earned as a craftsperson if you expect them to apply for the position. You will not get many applicants if you are asking them to accept a significant reduction in their pay.

In addition to being a highly skilled craftsperson, the candidate should have good computer skills, a positive attitude, people-oriented and be self-motivated.

After you have identified the right person, the obvious next step is to get that person trained. You generally have a couple of choices here. You can send them off to a class, or you can host an on-site course.

This brings us to

How to Start a Reliability Program

2012-05-31T09:16:03-05:00

Where do I start? I have heard this question many times, and there is no easy answer other than “pick a spot.” What I mean is that normally when a company decides to start a reliability program, there are a lot of improvements to be made in other areas as well. I have never heard of a facility in which everything is perfect and the only thing they need to do is start a reliability program to become world class.

Reliability is tied to almost every other area in a facility, and so when one area is at a low point, other areas are also suffering. I would call on all of the experienced reliability veterans to offer their suggestions to help those who want to start a reliability program.

Pick a Spot

Gather all of your best people, including the top people

Reduce Waste to Improve Reliability

2012-05-29T08:43:57-05:00

It seems as if new weight-loss programs and products come out every week. One of the latest is a plastic wrap you place around your stomach. If you strap it around your stomach, you will sweat and lose weight. Brilliant! Of course, you’ll probably sweat if you wrap anything air-tight around your stomach.

Perhaps the more interesting thought is to wonder why we fall for this stuff over and over when we all know the basic concepts in weight loss, such as:

Less energy intake will reduce fat
More exercise will burn fat
More muscle mass will increase metabolism

If you know and understand these basic principles of weight loss, you can apply them and become very successful in losing weight. You will learn that it takes hard work to improve your metabolism and that it is a long-term lifestyle commitment, not a short-term project. This sounds awfully similar to reliability improvements, doesn’t it? Perhaps that

How to Maintain an Equipment Registry

2012-05-25T09:20:21-05:00

The equipment registry is one of the most important tools in your kit when it comes to maintenance and reliability. It can be the foundation of your planned maintenance, lubrication, training and repair programs, as well as help with regulatory compliance and safety programs.

Your spare parts management program depends upon a complete and accurate registry with the requisite analysis for regular service parts along with the insurance spares identified through failure modes and effects analysis. Don’t forget that your financials are also tied in through depreciation, amortization and cost center assignments.

Equipment history gets tied to the registry along with manuals, drawings, procedures, labor costs and reports. That is why it is the foundation upon which so much is built, and that is why it is so vital that you get it right and work to maintain its accuracy.

While it has an initial cost and a maintenance cost, the payback can be significant and cont

Lack of Training Threatens CMMS Project

2012-05-23T08:13:19-05:00

Training for users of a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) is a multiple-phase process. There are three areas of training needs: basic training, application (CMMS) training and internal training.

Basic Training

Make sure people who will operate the CMMS are familiar with computer basics and the operating system. If not, provide them with basic training so they are ready for CMMS application training.

Application (CMMS) Training

This can be done in two different phases — initial training to get the system up and running, and advanced training after spending a period of time with the CMMS. Long training (five to 10 days) is not recommended, since most people forget the majority of the items learned. Timing of the training should be kept in mind. Don’t train too early in the day. Training should be coordinated with implementation. Trainees should leave the class and use what they have learned immediately.

Inte

Reliable Plant 2012 Conference Highlights

2012-05-21T10:13:56-05:00

Watch this brief video for highlights of the 13^th annual Reliable Plant Conference and Exhibition held in Indianapolis on May 1-3, 2012. The international conference, which is the premier event for lubrication, oil analysis and reliability professionals, drew nearly 1,000 industry experts, decision-makers and practitioners from around the world.

Be sure to save the date for Reliable Plant 2013 on April 16-18, 2013, at the Greater Columbus Convention Center in Columbus, Ohio.

Employ Smart Redundancy for Reliability

2012-05-21T08:39:51-05:00

Nuclear submarines are high-reliability designs that have redundancy built into them. Many of these systems are split into two halves (port and starboard), and each system has two pumps (a total of four). Each side could run fully on one pump. Then the two halves are cross-connected, so the entire system could run at partial capacity on a single pump.

All of this redundancy comes at a cost — about $1 billion in this particular case. Naturally, one of the comments I hear when describing these systems is that we could never afford such redundancy in our profit-making companies. I challenge that there is a place for what I call “smart redundancy.”

Smart redundancy has to do with taking a critical look at your systems, looking at risks and searching for opportunities where a little redundancy may pay big dividends. Utility and packaging systems are ripe for this kind of review.

One utility case in point is a fresh-water supply I inherited. After

A Better Way to Buy Maintenance Parts

2012-05-16T08:30:55-05:00

During a recent maintenance-management seminar, the topic of purchasing cards (P-cards) being taken away for misuse almost created a riot among the group. One of the more frequent complaints from maintenance people is that they just want the parts to do their job right. While P-cards help enable this, they can be a curse at the same time.

Typically, many organizations do not have a good partnership between the maintenance, materials management and purchasing functions. The illusion of a partnership exists, but not a real partnership. As such, maintenance uses the P-cards as a method to navigate around the difficulties of purchasing parts and materials through the normal channels. Face it: We enjoy the freedom of just running or calling down to the local supply house to get what we need. Needless to say, there are lots of issues embedded here, but let’s just focus on one part of the P-card curse.

If we are using the P-card to navigate outside the normal purchasing a

How to Enable Process Redesign and CMMS Success

2012-05-14T10:57:10-05:00

If you desire to implement a world-class effective reliability/maintenance process in your plant, two sequential projects must be performed.

First, map/document the how, what, where and when of what is happening today — not as the manuals say it is to be performed, but what is actually happening. This should be done with a facilitated team with full disclosure and comments allowed from all concerned. Avoid calling it re-engineering; it is an effort to gain full understanding of “today.”

The team should be representative of the maintenance organization (include crafts and operations). This will take several months and should not be secretive. The working lives of many people are going to be affected.

Much of the mapping tools come from total quality management (TQM). Some process flow charts and fishbones can cover the walls. What is being documented is the work order from inception to sign-off by the customer and archiving.

From th

Information Management is Key to Maintenance Performance

2012-05-07T11:11:58-05:00

Information management is one area that is often overlooked. It’s actually one of the more important areas, but it lacks glamor and excitement. It requires steady, regular and planned effort, so we naturally gravitate toward the areas that give us the periodic rush of adrenaline that most fix-it types crave. Unfortunately, if you ignore the benefits of information management, you get more opportunities to work long hours under stress to fight the fires and “be the hero.”

My personal idea of a hero is someone who quietly and consistently does the unglamorous drudge work behind the scenes that prevents those breakdowns and lays the groundwork to reduce their effects when one does occur. This unsung hero grinds through the manuals, reads the spec sheets, peruses the trade magazines and spends hours asking the vendors questions about their products and services.

Our information hero then spends more hours compiling the information gleaned into usable format

Reliability Begins with the Essentials

2012-04-27T10:03:40-05:00

There’s a really great documentary that shows up periodically on public television. It describes the building of the Boulder (Hoover) Dam on the Colorado River back in the early 1930s. (Like many, I was never really sure if these were two separate dams.)

This was a project of truly incredible size at the time, one that needed and brought out some really innovative engineering, construction and logistical processes. However, there were some negatives brought out in the documentary. One of them being that if OSHA had been in existence at the time and visited the site, the project would have been shut down pretty much immediately.

Some of the work was incredibly dangerous. A premier high-paying job, for example, was lowering yourself by rope down the sheer 700-foot canyon wall, where the concrete would eventually bond to the rock, knocking free any loose rock that would affect the concrete bond (and, of course, avoiding loose rocks knocked free by your co-workers).

Meltric Offers Replacement Tip for Safety Switches

2012-04-27T08:35:51-05:00

Meltric Corporation now offers Decontactor switch-rated plugs and receptacles for retrofitting obsolete safety switches that would otherwise be repaired or replaced.

The plugs and receptacles, which are UL- and CSA-approved for motor-circuit and branch-circuit disconnect switching, eliminate the need for expensive interlocks. They feature a switching mechanism that not only ensures contacts are electrically dead before the plug can be removed from its receptacle, but also the safe make or break of live connections.

The Decontactor’s dead-front design provides safety when re-inserting the plug into the receptacle, as the male contacts do not engage the live female contacts until after they are fully enclosed inside the device’s arc chambers, thus preventing exposure to a

The Value of Autonomous Operator Maintenance

2012-04-25T09:13:58-05:00

What does autonomous operator maintenance mean? The “autonomous” means “me alone performing the maintenance tasks for which I am trained and qualified.” Is it something new? To those of us who knew cars before electronic ignition and computers, owning a car fostered a do-it-myself approach toward keeping it running. I always pumped my own gas, changed my oil and filters, and sometimes changed my belts. I could check the levels of fluids, read gauges and listen to the running engine for anomalies. Technology has given me diagnostic tools to at least identify engine problems. Prior to the industrial age, the operator set up, ran and maintained the equipment. The industrial revolution introduced specialists, and we redesigned the operator out of maintenance and planning.

You say those are not operator duties? Why not? There are too many answers to that, which when really analyzed, cannot be supported. I cannot defend the indefensible. Rather than look at the &l

Productivity Inc. Sponsors TPM Manager Certification Program

2012-04-24T09:45:16-05:00

Middle- and top-level executives can now obtain certification in total productive maintenance (TPM) through a program sponsored by Productivity Inc. and the Fisher College of Business at Ohio State University.

The TPM manager certification program is designed for executives at any company interested in increasing process capability, improving equipment reliability and establishing a culture of teamwork, which are all critical components of an effective continuous improvement initiative.

“TPM enables a company to move from being a reactive to a proactive maintenance organization focused on preventive, scheduled and corrective maintenance activities,” says Maureen Fahey, managing partner of Productivity Inc. “Moving from fix and repair to equipment management provides the flexibility necessary to substantially reduce costs and generate additional income by increasing overall capacity.”

Over four non-consecutive weeks, pa

Maintenance Strategies for Special Tools

2012-04-23T08:43:46-05:00

We all accumulate special fixtures, lifting frames, carts, transport pallets and piping inserts that are infrequently used but save time and enhance safety when their time comes. What you do with these special tools in between determines whether you get that savings and safety boost again or if you have to make the same investment over and over.

What kind of an investment? If you do the job infrequently, you have to retake the measurements, find the stock material, fabricate the pieces and verify the fits. None of this is cheap, and it usually happens in the middle of a job when you can least afford the time or diversion of labor. It’s obviously not cost effective to do it over and over again, so why not make the first time count?

Even if you aren’t sure that it will ever be used again, wait until things calm down and then evaluate the item. If it was a once-in-a-century affair, trash it and move on. If it looks like something that will be used again, record

The Dirty Secrets of Total Productive Maintenance

2012-04-20T09:12:50-05:00

Several years ago, a group called the Maintenance Excellence Roundtable met on the West Coast to present what it had accomplished during the previous year and where it was headed for the coming year. We were privileged to have Robert Williamson in attendance, and he told us a story that stuck with me, as this was the time of “empowerment of the workforce.” It is called the “White Glove Story.” I have added a bit to it to give you a mental picture of some of the action. When Williamson tells it in person, he does likewise, although the story comes from the real-life experience of one of the characters.

A manufacturing plant had several lines manufacturing the same products. Each had an operator, and several were supported by the same maintenance technician. The operator’s responsibilities were to operate the machine, and the maintenance tech was to perform maintenance, even some of what we would call adjustments.

The operator on Line 3 was Mi

Is Proper Torquing Part of Your Standard Work?

2012-04-18T08:53:44-05:00

Read enough original equipment manufacturer (OEM) recommended procedures and you will notice that a common thread is proper torque values for fasteners. Many standard work (and standard operating) procedures in industrial facilities list recommended or required torque values for jobs like gasket replacements, motor alignments, bearing installations and gearbox rebuilds, yet we often see technicians performing these functions without torque wrenches on the jobsite. Availability and management reinforcement both play a major role here. Both need to be addressed.

Availability is the first to attack since you can’t very well require a technician to use a torque wrench if none are available. If you list torque values on your procedures but don’t have torque wrenches available, you lose credib

How Ladders Enhance Safety, Reliability

2012-04-16T08:56:04-05:00

Everyone can remember a time when they needed a stepladder to get nameplate data, but with none around, climbed on top of something nearby instead. As we become more aware of safety in all of our daily activities, this behavior raises a red flag. The opportunity for a slip and fall injury here is too high to ignore, and yet human nature says it will happen too often.

When you consider the initial costs against the potential benefits, having enough ladders staged at handy intervals in your plant is a good return on maintenance dollars. You leverage those dollars by getting multiple advantages from the ladders, such as increased safety, better labor utilization and improved work quality.

Safety improves when technicians use the ladders instead of climbing on motors, oily gearboxes, handrails and u

Can Maintenance and Operations Coexist?

2012-04-13T14:04:18-05:00

Most of us come from traditional plant organizations with an operations group and a maintenance group with their own supervisors and specialized skilled crafts.

One of the major European postal services decided in the late 1990s to make a change in their plant maintenance organization. In my own U.S. Postal Service, there had been talk for years of combining the operations and maintenance supervision and reducing the supervisory ranks. It is easy to say, but how do you do it? Be careful of what you wish for.

They negotiated with their union to change the working condition of “supervision” (changes in hours, wages and working conditions are negotiated contractual obligations) to put the operating equipment technicians under the operations supervisors. In doing so, they split the maintenance craft workforce and established a plant facilities maintenance support function separate from the operations maintenance function.

The facilities function had re

The Link between Reliability and Safety

2012-04-11T13:32:57-05:00

Over the last year or so, the question of reducing the cost of reliability has been ever present. Many maintenance budgets have been slashed without due process or reflecting on the true cost over time. I recently attended a conference where this was a topic of conversation. Out of all the discussions that I have heard, the most effective statement was to respond to that request from a CEO or plant manager with the following question: “How much are you willing to reduce the amount spent on safety?”

Unfortunately, not everyone makes the tie that reliability and safety go hand in hand. I am reminded of a letter that Dave O’Reilly, the CEO of Chevron Corporation, sent to employees where he said, “Reliability, like safety, is a critical element of operational excellence and requires our constant attention.” I couldn’t agree more.

Reliability drives safety and vice versa. Consider that most accidents don’t occur when things are runnin

Best Practices for Maintenance Supervisors

2012-04-09T09:30:17-05:00

I had the privilege of visiting a large pharmaceutical plant in North Carolina several years ago. It was in response to a presentation I had made on just what should supervisors be doing. My organization was undergoing a work sampling on our 2,800 maintenance supervisors to help us get a handle on what they were actually doing.

Most managers felt that we had burdened the supervisor with too much administrative work and, as a result, kept them from being on the floor interfacing with operations, providing assistance to the craftsperson and evaluating reliability performance. I wondered if our supervisors comprehended the need for face time and what that meant. I personally needed to get a handle on what I was to define as “face time.”

We were introduced to the plant’s maintenance management team and the dayshift maintenance coach. He had a team of 18 facilities craft persons who maintained the building and environmental equipment for a million-square-foo

How Signage and Labeling can Improve Reliability

2012-04-04T08:24:53-05:00

The importance of signage and labeling is often underplayed or even ignored when a maintenance program is being discussed. Since we are visual creatures and the visual workplace is the direct application of this, we should take a few minutes to go over some reasons and applications for signage and labeling to get more attention in our programs.

Signage can be for several reasons, such as:

Regulatory compliance (e.g., personal protective equipment, arc flash, Department of Transportation placarding)
Access control, such as “Authorized Personnel Only”
Fire safety, such as extinguisher locations and fire exits
General safety (e.g., cautions about fork truck traffic)
Behavior and training purposes (safety reminders and CPR how-to directions)

Labeling is usually more specific but is also varied in use. Examples include:

Piping labels per ANSI standard

Signs You are in the Real World of Maintenance

2012-04-02T08:59:42-05:00

Anyone who has ever done plant maintenance improvement work is inevitably accused at times of just not knowing what it’s like in the “real world” of maintenance. So, here are some of the things I remember from that “real world” of maintenance.

You can’t ever get on the paging system because it is always tied up with people paging for maintenance help.
Maintenance personnel have to carry more than one beeper because one is always busy.
Maintenance personnel really need to work on their responsiveness because they have trouble responding to more than one page at a time.
Maintenance personnel are constantly driving by in really fast yellow carts with bright flashing lights and sirens. (Some are actually dressed in blue tights with red capes.)
Everyone really supports the planning and scheduling of maintenance work, as long as they can get a one-day turnaround on their work orders.

What’s Missing in Overall Equipment Effectiveness?

2012-03-30T08:36:01-05:00

One of the issues with overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) is that it is an output process metric (speed performance x quality x uptime). It’s great as a process metric for measuring machine performance, but it ignores the resources consumed in the process. Given enough money, I can improve any or all of the factors and reach any machine OEE goal on which I am measured.

In past articles, I’ve pointed out the fallacies of equal weighting of the three factors of OEE and explained one plant’s efforts to make the cost impact of quality an impact on OEE by increasing a quality change by seven-fold. A 1-percent decrease became a 7-percent penalty.

I submit that the rework cost was, therefore, rolled into the equation; however, it’s still a performance metric. OK, so what if it is a performance metric? Would this be a metric taught to a finance person, an accountant or the treasurer of your company? What meaning would it have? How does it relate to the

LumaSense Introduces Dissolved-Gas Analysis Monitors

2012-03-29T10:48:46-05:00

LumaSense Technologies Inc. has introduced a new line of dissolved-gas analysis (DGA) monitors that allow electric utilities to more effectively reduce outages caused by faulty load tap changers (LTCs) and transformers.

The new SmartDGA platform uses non-dispersive infrared (NDIR) gas-sensing technology and features a unique hardware design that reduces installation time. It is designed to help utilities achieve widespread condition monitoring across generation, transmission and distribution assets at a cost significantly less than traditional DGA monitors.

The first monitor in the new line, the SmartDGA Gauge, will be the industry's first dedicated online gas monitor for LTCs. It requires no carrier gas, no frequent calibrations and can be retrofitted to LTCs to provide asset condition status.

"We believe a smart grid begins with an optimized supply network in the utility grid," said Vivek Joshi, LumaSense CEO. “This means having reliable

Use Checklists for a More Efficient Plant

2012-03-26T08:52:15-05:00

Over the years, I have spent much time in discussion over the use of checklists for equipment changeovers and startups in plants. I have explained, reasoned, rationalized, cajoled, appealed, beseeched, entreated, implored, pleaded, urged and even cried real tears in my efforts to get people to use checklists.

So it was great to see a recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine that found (amazingly) that hospitals using checklists in their operating room procedures suffer a much lower death rate than those that don’t.

I was glad to see the study, but my very first reaction on reading it was outrage, along the lines of “Operating rooms don’t routinely use checklists? What?” Hopefully, the study will ratchet up awareness and perhaps drive some improvement.

But experience has absolutely convinced me that there is something in the human psyche that fights back desperately against using checklists.

“We need

Are All Equipment Factors Truly Equal?

2012-03-23T08:45:23-05:00

The traditional formula for overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) — including speed, quality and uptime — treated all three factors as equals and OEE as a measure of equipment effectiveness over a 24-hour period, assuming 24 hours was the required performance window.

Most companies have refined the calculation to fit the actual required performance window. Robert Williamson’s example was the window when a racecar was required to operate at peak performance. In your plant, it may be continuous operation for only one shift.

The metric began to be useful as a plant-floor performance measurement and, from analyzing the three factors, an analytical tool to determine improvement opportunities. All three factors are really at the mercy of the operator, who is the most i

Selecting Reliability-Improvement Tools

2012-03-18T21:06:30-05:00

When I started in maintenance, I loved looking at the tool catalogs and, of course, imagined how nice it would be to have one of those gigantic tool sets. You know, the tool set with something for every job. Similar to most of the other new guys, I couldn’t afford to purchase that kind of tool set and had to settle for a much smaller one.

Over time, purchasing tools to increase my toolbox capability was based on need and understanding of the function of the tool. This proved to be a great way to learn how to use my toolbox.

If in the beginning I was able to purchase the dream set, I probably would not utilize half the tools because I would find myself overwhelmed and sticking to the core tools I understand and only occasionally running across something that I might find a use for. That would have not been a very good investment. By investing in tools as I understand their function, I am able to get the most out of them, and they will get used because I am more awar

Mobius Introduces Machine-balancing Training Software

2012-03-13T08:39:35-05:00

Mobius Institute has announced the release of iLearnBalancing, a computer-based training product that teaches maintenance professionals how to perform in-place dynamic balancing of industrial machines. The training is delivered by DVD or through the Web via the iLearn-online learning portal and is run on a personal computer.

The software is designed to provide complete understanding of the different types of unbalance, including static, couple and dynamic unbalance, as well as what is needed to correct them. It also offers ways to ensure that you are not chasing the wrong solution during the balance process, how to tell if a machine is truly out of balance and whether there’s another fault condition with similar symptoms.

As part of Mobius Institute’s iLearnInteractive product line, iLearnBalancing features extensive 3-D animations and simulators to make the subject more interesting and understandable. The interactive course is fully narrated, making i

Maintenance Supervisor Coaching

2012-03-12T14:04:54-05:00

In this 3-minute, 3-second video, Dave Berube of Life Cycle Engineering discusses how to coach a maintenance supervisor to be more effective. Learn the three areas of concentration for maintenance supervisors and how using a coaching card can help maintain focus on these three areas.

3 Ways to Achieve Successful Reliability

2012-03-07T08:10:25-06:00

Reliability is important to every manufacturing operation. Successful reliability requires communication, cooperation and coordination. To learn the importance of these three Cs, let’s examine how your organization is structured and how it operates.

How much does unscheduled downtime cost and where does the responsibility for that unscheduled downtime lie? Is the unscheduled downtime because someone unilaterally decided to run to failure, or is it because the work request was in the “system” but not responded to in a timely fashion to preclude the unscheduled downtime caused by an unscheduled failure?

Does a competent operator know when there is an anomaly with the equipment? Since a good operator is a living, breathing data-acquisition machine, the answer is a resounding “Yes!” In the state of normal operation, good operators are cognizant of anomalies in the equipment they operate approximately one-fourth of the week.

A follow-u

People Make the Difference in Maintenance and Reliability Improvement

2012-03-05T10:27:27-06:00

Many people may have gravitated to the maintenance and reliability industry because of the desire to work with machinery. I was trained in engineering and understand how machines operate and work. Machines behave in logical ways. They all follow the mechanical and electrical laws of nature. Engineers are immersed in those laws in their years of schooling. People in the maintenance field thrive on knowing that machinery works and behaves in logical ways.

In a previous article for Reliable Plant, I pointed out the thought similarities between an organization’s safety improvement effort and a maintenance and reliability improvement effort. The idea that zero injuries are possible is a key concept for any safety effort to gain momentum, but how does a plant or an organization really improve safety results?

What I have experienced over the past 30 years is a continual and steady safety improvement effort. In the early years, much of the emphasis was on identifi

What Can You Do to Advance Maintenance and Reliability?

2012-02-27T12:10:18-06:00

In his inaugural address to the United States on Jan. 21, 1961, President John F. Kennedy presented one of his most famous quotes: “And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.”

This simple statement was a challenge for all to get off the sidelines and not wait for others to accomplish things for you, but rather to volunteer and complete things that benefit our country. This challenge was needed at that time, but I believe it is needed even more today in our country. I also believe we can apply this idea to our present situation with organizations in which we are involved.

During this time, I have had many discussions with individuals in our industry, our organizations and the communities in which we live. I hear that we need our organizations to do this, we need our organizations to do that, and we just need all these organizations to do more for us. Many of the ideas are very good suggestions t

Toyota Named Company of the Year by Columbus Chamber of Commerce

2012-02-23T10:14:01-06:00

Toyota’s Columbus, Ind., manufacturing plant, Toyota Industrial Equipment Mfg. (TIEM), has been named “Company of the Year” by the Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce. TIEM was presented the award at the chamber’s recent annual meeting.

“Toyota is very honored by this recognition,” said Toshiya Yamagishi, president of TIEM. “As a company, we are committed to enhancing our associates’ quality of life and contributing to the overall success of our community.”

Each year, the chamber bestows a number of awards of distinction in order to foster a culture of excellence. These awards recognize extraordinary contributions from the business community that reflect positively on the quality and expertise of the Columbus, Ind., community. TIEM was se

Achieving Zero Failures is Possible

2012-02-20T12:15:37-06:00

In his book, “Making Common Sense Common Practice,” Ron Moore of the RM Group explains that plant safety and reliability are linked and interrelated. He acknowledges that you can get better safety performance by solely focusing on improving safety practices (e.g., wearing personal protective equipment (PPE), implementing better permitting, using proper lockout/tagout procedures, etc.). However, Moore is also of the firm belief that best-performing plants are very disciplined about all their practices, and from that get a synergistic effect in all of their performance measures.

Figures 1 and 2 show examples from a larger set of data that demonstrate the strong correlation between reliability (asset utilization capability) and safety (injury rate). This supports the statement that a more reliable plant is a safer plant.

3 Keys for Improved Plant Performance

2012-02-13T08:49:44-06:00

The people who work for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) in airports know what it is like to be in a fishbowl. They always perform to an impatient, critical, assessing audience, as most of us are forced to watch them work for much longer than we want. Of course, if you’re just standing in line impatiently waiting, then observing and criticizing is really all you have to do (or you can talk loudly on your cellphone).

Most of us standing there usually can identify some individual who might be better suited to another line of work. Some of the frustrated folks standing around me have been pretty obnoxious and verbal about this on occasion. There are, however, many TSA workers who clearly feel that they’re dealing with customers and try to make the process smoother, quicker and even friendlier for them.

This started me thinking about all the various plant maintenance and manufacturing assessments I’ve been involved in over the years, and the

Electrivert Introduces Manufacturing System Analysis

2012-02-09T10:26:54-06:00

Electrivert Inc. recently introduced a new cabling and termination (C.A.T.) scan process to help customers achieve increased efficiency, reliability and serviceability.

The four-phase process is an in-depth analysis of a company's machines, systems and processes that identifies opportunities for improvements in the following key areas:

Cabling selection and consolidation
Connector selection and consolidation for a more modular design
Streamlined build processes
Reduced manufacturing and installation costs
Increased reliability
Greater serviceability
Modifications to meet UL and NFPA regulations

"The Electrivert C.A.T. scan enables us to help our customers streamline their designs, reduce costs and improve overall efficiencies," said Jody Williquette, Electrivert’s business development manager. "Our services identify ways to improv

Reliability Reduces Waste of Time, Talent and Resources

2012-02-06T08:45:11-06:00

Waste is seen in many different forms in manufacturing. Some of these wastes include physical, time and talent.

Physical waste is anything that is left over from the process that has to be discarded, recycled or sold. For every process, there is an expected amount of waste that is unavoidable. However, the waste that we will focus on is the excess waste that is produced because of equipment or process reliability issues. There are many processes that are a one-shot process, where if it is interrupted during the process, all of the materials become waste.

Time waste also directly relates to equipment and process reliability. Any time that the system is down for unplanned maintenance, that means there is extra time required to make up the work, idle manpower and manpower required to correct the deficiency. In many cases, the extra time required to make up the work falls into overtime or extra shifts.

Talent waste is the use of time and education to repair or cor

Get More Maintenance Work Done with Proper Planning

2012-01-30T11:43:23-06:00

Famous financier Bernard Baruch was often quoted as saying, “Two and two still and always will equal four.” This, some would say, quaint concept has fallen out of favor more and more in recent years, as clearly the restrictiveness of basic arithmetic is not something that should continue to bind us in today’s brave new world.

It’s much more useful if two and two can equal:

Whatever analysts are expecting it to be (or better).
Whatever your boss wants it to be.
Whatever will make this current project justifiable.

Keeping this in mind, some odd-looking math that actually works in plant maintenance is the rule that:
“10 minus 1 equals 16.5.”

This rule is a huge help with another rule that is always pretty much true:
“In most plants, there are never enough maintenance people.”

If I have 10 maintenance mechanics and

Ultrasound World VIII to be Held in Florida

2012-01-26T08:46:59-06:00

Ultrasound World, a forum for ultrasound technology, has been scheduled for May 14-17, 2012, at the Clearwater Hilton in Clearwater Beach, Fla. Entering its eighth year, Ultrasound World has grown into one of the top conferences for reliability and energy conservation. This year’s program will feature presentations and short courses by users of ultrasound technology and will cover a wide range of topics for condition monitoring and energy conservation.

Among the presentations offered include “No More Equipment Failures! Can You Say That?” by Todd Fraser of Procter and Gamble, who will describe how his department dramatically reduced bearing failure incidents using ultrasound technology. The short course “Clean, Green and Reliable” will explain how equipment reliability delivers low-cost, energy-efficient assets at plants around the world. Other important topics, such as effective energy conservation practices and detecting and a

Solving Maintenance Problems with Mobile Collaboration

2012-01-25T08:41:27-06:00

Time is money. For companies with operations spread across the globe, delays in equipment maintenance issues or production line problems can kill the bottom line. If the most skilled engineer is located in New York or Detroit and the most important machinery is in Mexico or China, costs mount quickly when decisions are delayed. Typically, the expert (or a whole team of experts) would board a plane to go and try to solve the problem, causing further delays and incurring expensive travel costs. With mobile collaboration, no one leaves their desk, let alone the country.

Secure Mobile Video

The standard form of video collaboration facilitates face-to-face meetings in video-conferencing boardrooms. However, for manufacturers, the heart of their business is often the plant floor —

Boeing to Close Wichita Facility

2012-01-06T08:36:44-06:00

The Boeing Company recently announced that the Boeing Defense, Space and Security (BDS) facility in Wichita, Kan., will close by the end of 2013. The facility currently employs more than 2,160 employees.

"The decision to close our Wichita facility was difficult, but ultimately was based on a thorough study of the current and future market environment and our ability to remain competitive while meeting our customers' needs with the best and most affordable solutions," said Mark Bass, vice president and general manager for BDS' Maintenance, Modifications and Upgrades division. "We recognize how this will affect the lives of the highly skilled men and women who work here, so we will do everything possible to assist our employees, their families and our community through this difficult transition."

Boeing Wichita is the base for the company's globa

5 Time Wasters for Reliability Engineers to Avoid

2012-01-05T08:19:19-06:00

You’ve heard the catch phrases. You’ve read the success stories. You’ve seen the return on investment (ROI) calculations and the positive trending that reliability engineers bring. You’ve even lobbied upper management. Your argument has been so convincing that you’ve secured approval in this year’s budget to hire a reliability engineer. The hiring process has begun, and you can’t wait for the results: more reliable equipment, fewer failures and increased availability and production.

If only it were that easy. Building a reliability program led by competent professionals takes work. It requires setting expectations properly. Most of all, it requires time. How do you accelerate the process to ensure the maximum benefit in the shortest time? Avoiding these top five time wasters could help.

Lack of Vision

No, we aren’t talking about whether your reliability engineer could have been a fighter pilot or whether

Lockheed Martin Awarded Operations and Maintenance Contract

2011-12-16T10:50:19-06:00

Lockheed Martin has been awarded work by the U.S. Army's Product Manager, Joint-Automatic Identification Technology organization to provide operations and maintenance for the Radio Frequency In-Transit Visibility (RF-ITV) system. If all options are exercised over the course of five years, the contract is valued at $126 million.

RF-ITV sites exist worldwide in support of combatant commands and must be maintained at optimal levels of operational readiness to support joint forces. Through RF-ITV technology, the system provides last-known locations and in-the-container visibility for shipments that have active RF tags attached to pallets, containers or equipment.

"With the government's and Lockheed Martin's focus on affordability, the RF-ITV system is critical to manage military shipments such as cargo, supplies and unit movement," said DeEtte Gray, Lockheed Martin IS&GS-Defense vice president for enterprise IT solutions. "The Lockheed Martin t

Using Dynamic Electric Motor Monitoring to Identify Mechanical Issues

2011-12-14T08:50:54-06:00

Dynamic electric motor testing is often called on-line testing because it requires the motor to be running and generally assumes the motor is in its natural environment. Dynamic testing involves the connection of voltage probes and current transformers. Connecting dynamic test equipment is safe, quick and non-intrusive. Data is acquired and results are displayed in a summary format. The collected data is compared to the user-entered nameplate information and is presented in a pass/fail format with both current test data and trending logs displayed after each successive test.

The Need for Motor Testing

Every reliability technician knows that costs associated with motor failures can be devastating to any business operation. Finding that a motor is operating with conditions that create excessive heat or stress is a guide to the technician to make changes in the motor’s operation and to monitor its insulation. Knowing that a motor is in imminent dang

5 Keys to Maintain Equipment Reliability

2011-12-05T08:55:44-06:00

There is so much similarity in all that we do within the maintenance planning and scheduling world that compares to other separate and distinct functions. Let me explain. Borrowing from root cause analysis process methods, I trust you are familiar with Ishikawa diagrams (also called fishbone diagrams or cause-and-effect diagrams). These diagrams are one method that is used for product design, quality defect avoidance or variation, or to identify factors that lead to some event, hence the use in root cause analysis.

The categories typically include:

Man (people)
Methods: How the process is performed and the specific requirements to perform the tasks, including time estimates
Machines: Any equipment, tools, etc., needed to do the job
Materials: Consumables, parts required
Measurements: Data generated from the process

All of these items combine together to create some output or event. In

How to Implement an Effective Chain-wear Monitoring Program

2011-11-16T09:34:54-06:00

Chain-wear monitoring has been a part of equipment reliability programs since the first link was forged. It is such an integral part of an organization’s reliability program that it has become part of industry slang as in the phrase, “A chain is only as strong as its weakest link.”

Chains are a part of almost every industrial process. They are found in a plant’s material-handling transportation system, key components in the operation of hoists and cranes, or as a part of the connection that controls a safety stop device.

Regardless of its function, the failure of any component that makes up a chain is costly to the owner, if not disastrous. Even though we would all agree that a chain failure is undesirable, modern industry’s chain-wear monitoring has remained varied in its approach and frequency.

Typically, chain reliability inspections are applied through a periodic inspection sampling procedure or replacement schedule. Visual in

6 Techniques to Error-proof Your Plant

2011-11-10T08:59:05-06:00

When faced with the task of improving plant efficiency, the average plant manager breaks the task down by the five or six existing "departmental silos." Each silo leader subdivides responsibility, repeating the mistake, and passes it on to individuals. As a result, we see young, intelligent engineers overwhelmed by the task handed to them of "get out there and improve maintenance." The situation is not so bad for the less intelligent or those who have become automatons; they just keep repeating what has gone on forever and collect another paycheck.

What the plant manager needs is a better way to visualize his situation, a method that will allow him to develop a new strategy. The following insights are based on work done at MIT and by many other professors in "human error" at international centers of learning. The "Error Pyramid" is unique, but the remaining techniques and technologies have been established for 15 years or more.

How to Reap the Benefits of Parts Standardization

2011-11-07T10:49:04-06:00

Nothing leverages your parts and training budgets like standardization. It is one of the key areas of the 5-S process. The more you can standardize, the fewer parts you need to maintain and the further your training goes.

Some plants have dozens of manufacturers represented on their production floor with the subsequent glut of critical spares in the storeroom, shelves full of manuals and lost time while technicians re-familiarize themselves with troubleshooting procedures. It can also mean extra money spent on special tools, calibrators and handheld programmers, as well as maintaining extra vendors on file with the insurance, credit and shipping requirements that go with them. It takes some time and effort up front to establish standards, but the payoff can be continuous. The flavor of the month may be sexy and/or cheaper at the time of purchase, but you will probably pay for it later.

Here are some simple guidelines to get you started. These are just a few places to loo

Unleash the Power of Your CMMS

2011-11-02T09:30:46-05:00

A properly configured and utilized computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) is a foundational element of every successful maintenance and reliability program. However, implementing this technology by itself will not ensure that users will achieve greater efficiencies or maximum value from their investment. Trying to obtain value from technology alone is like trying to stand on a three-legged stool that is missing two legs. The other two critical items (legs to this stool) are well-designed work processes and engaged people.

We as a maintenance and reliability community need to educate our management and co-workers on the benefits and potential value a CMMS brings to the entire organization, not just the maintenance department. Empowering and encouraging the plant staff to learn how to use this critical tool can pay huge dividends in improving plant performance and increasing the efficiency of maintenance and reliability programs. Through better analysis of asset failures,

How to Keep Maintenance in a Proactive Mode

2011-10-31T08:38:36-05:00

I stumbled across some music trivia lately, that the old rock band Chicago finally had its album “Stone of Sisyphus” released a few years ago. One of the more famous “lost” albums, it was originally recorded in the early 1990s but had languished for years, available only in illegal bootleg copies.

That reminded me of when I used to use the story of Sisyphus in maintenance training sessions.

I never encountered a great number of serious Greek mythology students in those sessions, but was always amazed how mythology suddenly grasped attendees’ attention when I started telling about Sisyphus showing up in an episode of the TV series “Xena: Warrior Princess.” A statuesque, obviously very strong gal who always wore a brief, Roman-style leather outfit, Xena

Konecranes Launches Remote Crane Maintenance Services

2011-10-25T10:50:05-05:00

Konecranes recently launched its Truconnect remote services to ensure that cranes used in industrial processes are up and running at all times. The first two products being offered are the Truview data-reporting service and the full-service package Trucare solution.

Based on remote connection between the crane and a Konecranes remote center, Truview provides customers with a realistic view of their crane’s operating conditions through continuous data collection.

“All information from the crane is automatically sent to the remote center to be further processed and finally concretized in sophisticated reports,” says Tuomo Härkönen, head of Global Technical Services. “In the remote center, we have a dedicated organization and enough resources to operate the r

Improve Equipment Effectiveness by Targeting 11 Major Losses

2011-10-24T08:30:38-05:00

Everyone wants a silver bullet to address the competitive environment pressuring profits and, ultimately, jobs in North America. Having transitioned from a controls engineer to a maintenance manager to an operations manager, I can attest to the quest for that silver bullet. The reality is that few levers exist for you to pull that will radically improve the profitability of your organization. With global markets and price supports, commodity costs are generally fixed. The same applies to prices received for your company’s products or services. Labor markets and costs are somewhat fixed as well. With the exception of fuel surcharges, logistics costs are generally set.

As a maintenance or operations manager, your span of control is bound by the four walls of your site. With energy prices, some opportunities exist for cost reduction in pursuing energy audits and savings activities. The largest opportunity is focusing your efforts on improving equipment effectiveness by targeting

Keep Maintenance Simple: Use Senses and Sensibility

2011-10-17T09:05:59-05:00

What good is it to have advanced maintenance techniques if they have no real benefit over simple basic maintenance? Now I am not saying go and throw away all of your fancy toys. What I am saying is that you don’t have to have advanced tools for every maintenance task. I have seen many maintenance groups that have adopted certain maintenance techniques and, in turn, overuse them on everything they can be used on. The point is, why use them if they are not cost effective?

There are many cases in which a failure can be detected with an operator’s or technician’s built-in test equipment that takes no special training to use. This equipment is his or her senses — sight, sound, feel and taste (not recommended). These are all skills that should be taken into account when performing any kind of maintenance analysis. In many cases, a technician or operator can detect a potential failure in adequate time to mitigate the consequences of a functional failure.

How Proper Training Can Increase Reliability

2011-10-12T09:24:45-05:00

I recently had the opportunity to make a first visit to a new client’s site. As you would expect, upon arrival I was required to attend the contractor/vendor safety orientation training before I could be set loose in the site facilities. This client site was in the Deep South, and our instructor for the training was the site safety coordinator, a local gentleman who had been employed in or around the area all his life. With his Southern drawl, he said everything about three times. (I could never quite figure out if he wanted to make sure we “got it,” or if he just liked saying everything at least three times.) I recall that the training was very good and to the point, and everyone in the training session was fully aware of all the safety rules and all the potential hazards of the site.

Why was this safety orientation training required by the client site? First, there is an OSHA requirement that everyone be trained in the real and potential hazards of the sit

How to Set Frequencies for PM Inspections

2011-10-03T09:10:04-05:00

For those of you who want to indulge in the details of setting preventive maintenance (PM) inspections, let’s begin with defining what I mean by inspections. Inspections include all objective inspections (we measure something) using an instrument – for example, a vibration analyzer, an infrared camera, a volt meter, a flow meter or ultrasonic equipment. Inspections also include all subjective inspections (look-listen-feel-smell). In order to set inspection frequencies, we need to understand what a failure-developing period is.

The failure-developing period (FDP), also called the Pf Curve by some, is the time period from when it is possible to detect a failure until we have a breakdown. A failure is when a system or piece of equipment is operating correctly within given parameters, but it shows signs of problems. For example, a centrifugal pump may be cavitating, but it is still providing the required flow for the operation. We have a failure but not a breakdown. The cav

Quick Guide to PM Development and Execution

2011-09-19T09:18:41-05:00

In many organizations, groups are often trying to chase the latest buzzwords of the day and yet have never established the foundation required to support those efforts. PM development and execution are classic examples. For this discussion, when I refer to PMs, I am talking about both preventive maintenance and condition-based maintenance tasks. This is by no means an exhaustive explanation of all of the considerations necessary for a comprehensive PM program. It is intended as a rough guide to foster continued discussion into the topic.

Stop doing non-value added PMs or task steps within the PM. We can never seem to find time to update or correct the PM tasks or frequencies but can always find time to continue doing the wrong work (go figure! ).
Assuming that you already have a PM program in place, start with the equipment where you are bleeding or hemorrhaging the most. This is often not your most critical assets.
Identify the failu

How Kitting Can Enhance Reliability

2011-09-14T08:13:15-05:00

In the world of manufacturing, we are looking for better, more efficient ways to improve our production uptime and quality, reduce the cost per unit, improve human capital utilization and create a higher quality of work life for our personnel. Kitting for maintenance crafts to perform their tasks is one of the easier and more effective ways to allow quality completion of the job with minimal productivity impact, especially when accompanied by a well-planned and functionally scheduled job.

Understanding the value of kitting in relation to the value of the time lost requires asking and honestly answering some questions:

Does the job have to be done now or can it wait to be planned and scheduled at a time that minimizes production loss? Will we be able to schedule it at a time that will reduce the amount of product lost through the equipment downtime for the repair?
What materials should be kitted for the job(s)?
Is there a

Why Reliability Excellence is Imperative for Safety

2011-08-16T08:20:22-05:00

We tend to speak about financial issues more than moral issues in the business world. Safety is an issue that has significant ramifications from both moral and financial perspectives.

Safety is a financial imperative in today’s business world. According to a 2010 Liberty Mutual study, the annual documented direct and indirect industry cost of U.S. workplace accidents totaled $240 billion per year. The average cost to industry for a fatal accident ranges from a low estimate by the National Safety Council of $1.27 million to the enormous average of $8.6 million per fatality paid out by BP after its refinery explosion.

According to an Air Force study, the average cost of a permanent disability is $1.3 million, while a partial disability costs $210,000. Workers’ compensation premiums, which correlate directly to your accident and incident rate, amount to millions of dollars per year in even a modest-sized company. Any way you look at it, accidents are expensive.

The 10-second Measure of Maintenance Effectiveness

2011-08-15T16:09:17-05:00

Two decades ago, I worked in the Florida citrus industry. Near the end of each growing season, the fruit became softer. This promoted increased damage during handling, especially in the bins where the fruit was temporarily stored during testing.

This, of course, wasted money, as juice literally went down the drain.

We built and automated a system that would allow us to bypass these storage bins while still allowing us to meet all of the necessary testing requirements. But this system came with its own costs and risks, so it was only economical to operate late in the season when fruit quality was diminished.

Our company had sophisticated measurements in place, including comparative values across the state. We could use these measures to determine at what point in each season we should convert to this system.

But, we didn’t need those comparisons.

My engineering office was on one side of those elevated fruit bins. The business offices

Let Risk and Your Equipment Determine Your Maintenance Strategy

2011-08-11T14:38:02-05:00

When I attend conferences and workshops and read articles on maintenance and reliability, more and more I hear people touting that preventive maintenance is more costly and not the right approach. When we talk about preventive maintenance, we are primarily talking about time-based inspections, but it can include overhauls/rebuilds as well. But before we take statements like these as the gospel and apply them carte blanche to all of our equipment, we need to understand the basis for that reasoning and when to apply it.

From the Reliability-Centered Maintenance side, we know that we can’t apply the single bathtub curve to all equipment failures. We recognize that six separate failure curves exist, and greater than 80 percent of all failures occur outside the infant mortality or end-of-life wear-out zones, meaning the failures are totally random in nature. No doubt that condition-based monitoring using various tools like vibration or temperature monitoring is better and a less c

What Plants Have Failed to Learn in 25 Years

2011-08-04T16:54:44-05:00

Twenty-five years ago, I left the U.S. Navy nuclear submarine program.

As I gained experience in civilian industry, I began to appreciate the Navy’s aplomb for reliable engineering, exceptional training and consistent operations. Their penchant for comprehensive preventive maintenance programs also impressed me.

What I found in industry 25 years ago was quite different.

There was almost no redundancy in design; the failure of a single small pump could shut down an entire plant. Sanitary systems had been modified over time, introducing unsanitary attributes. Many components were chosen solely on initial cost, not reliability or life cycle cost.
Operator training was limited to “hit the green button in the morning, the red button at night, and call mainte

The Maintenance Supervisor Enigma

2011-08-04T16:32:12-05:00

In my pre-retired life, I managed the development of maintenance procedures, PM programs, methods and service tools for all deployed equipment within the U.S. Postal Service. We also monitored our maintenance procedures manuals which incorporated support policies for the maintenance management information system. Any local changes were to be approved on a trial basis by my shop.

At that time, we were scratching our heads on how to get the supervisors out of their desks and out on the floor for more face time with the craft employees. I received a call from a plant maintenance manager requesting to stop recording the employees’ work order time on the daily work schedule forms. This was accomplished at the end of each shift by the supervisors from completed work orders. Each supervisor spent

Quintessential Asset Management: The Road to Reliability-centered Maintenance

2011-07-13T14:24:10-05:00

Asset-management programs and software are getting a lot of press these days. Every maintenance engineer and his site manager are writing a white paper and/or book about the value of asset management to a company’s bottom line. There are measuring tools and concepts galore, all intended to provide an instantly successful maintenance process. Much of this content makes achieving reliability-centered maintenance (RCM) and condition-based maintenance (CBM) sound relatively easy and commonplace. This fosters a misguided concept that RCM and CBM are commodities that can be purchased and implemented in short order.

In order to explain how to gauge where a company’s maintenance program stands and where its goals need to ultimately lie, we need another catch phrase that is all encompassing of the total maintenance-management-process approach and ultimate goal. How does Quintessential Asset Management (QAM) sound?

In this article, I’ll outline the five levels of

RobotWorx Debunks Used Robot Myths

2011-06-23T12:40:13-05:00

All too often companies are reluctant to consider used industrial robots as a viable automation option, despite their lower cost. Common misconceptions of used robots paint them as slow, finicky and unsupported. However, not every used robot is created equal. Robotics integrator RobotWorx debunks the used robot myths, offering its customers reliable, high-performance and fully warrantied used robots.

“At RobotWorx we’re focused on bringing automation within reach and changing the way used robots are perceived. We take robot reconditioning and customer support very seriously,” RobotWorx President Jarrod Bichon said. “Hopefully more and more companies will give used robots a chance and take advantage of the excellent performance and affordability they offer.”

The secret behind RobotWorx’ top-quality used robots is attention to detail. Prior to reconditioning, the acquisitions team is careful to select only robots with low hours and minim

Lubricant Market Expands to Wind Turbines

2011-05-17T09:08:35-05:00

First Oil Reprocessing Plant in New England Almost Complete

2011-05-16T08:50:44-05:00

YRC Worldwide Launches Initiatives to Reduce Emissions, Cut Costs

2011-05-13T10:30:36-05:00

Valvoline Launches New Line of Recycled Oil

2011-05-13T09:01:53-05:00

Oil analysis provider unveils new services

2011-04-25T15:02:37-05:00

Expanded Lubrication Oil Monitoring for Gas Compressors

2011-04-12T14:13:57-05:00

Worldwide Industrial adds grease, oil and lubricants to its marketplace

2011-04-08T08:49:06-05:00

Mobile lubrication system now available

2011-04-07T08:35:03-05:00

Universal Lubricants set to recycle used oil for Colorado company

2011-04-06T16:59:01-05:00

Ashless extreme pressure additive offered for greases

2011-04-05T14:53:48-05:00

Automotive industry pursuing new technology, techniques

2011-04-05T09:44:06-05:00

Maintenance is not a cost: How to justify an investment in maintenance and reliability

2011-03-04T11:48:30-06:00

As many of us strive to improve the reliability of our plants, several comments bemoan how challenging that is to do in an era of continuous deep cost cutting. They say that in their operation, maintenance is seen as a cost, and is one of the first things to arbitrarily cut.

Some think their operations have cut too far! What they seek is a way to justify a strong maintenance capability.

I submit that one approach is to speak of maintenance as an "investment in capacity." Use the language that plant managers, controllers and senior management understands: capital investment and return on investment (ROI).

“When you substitute your own estimates, the resulting comparison will be different in the details, but it will almost always favor an approach that improves reliability.”

Before I continue, this article is NOT intended for factories with clearly wasteful practices. We do need to cut costs where doing so will

The power of a clear, concise vision to improve M&R results

2011-03-04T11:30:22-06:00

One of the first responsibilities of leadership (of an organization, company, team or country) is to provide a simple, clear view of what the future can and should look like. Visionary leaders throughout history have done this in different ways. Many leaders that were effective used short, simple vision statements to allow people to clearly see what the future state can be. This provides huge momentum and propels the organization, country or team to aggressively pursue the vision.

Several examples are:

"Give me liberty or give me death."
- Patrick Henry, United States Revolutionary War leader, 1776

"We shall never surrender."
- Winston Churchill, England prime minister, 1941

"By the end of the decade, we will put a man on the moon."
- John F. Kennedy, United States president, 1962

"A computer on every desk and in every home."
- Bill G

Educating corporate executives on importance of SMRP

2011-01-20T09:03:08-06:00

This video was made to attract corporate executives to the Society for Maintenance and Reliability Professionals and its Certified Maintenance and Reliability Professionals exam.

Using iPad application for vibration analysis

2011-01-19T13:49:44-06:00

Are you overlooking your plant's maintenance issues?

2011-01-19T07:43:22-06:00

Are you overlooking your plant's maintenance issues? Are you covering them up or Band-Aiding them? This video slide show features photos from one plant that shows the myriad of maintenance issues that remain to be addressed.

Do you know how much it costs to run that equipment?

2011-01-17T16:17:34-06:00

Decisions have to be made – to save energy, to save dollars. Having hard data on which to base those decisions removes the “guess factor” and ultimately has a positive effect on the bottom line. Can recording data, analyzing results and then making intelligent decisions really have that large of a dollar effect, though? The answer is “Absolutely yes!”

Equipment ownership for maintenance technicians

2011-01-17T16:10:05-06:00

As a maintenance technician, do you believe having responsibility for specific equipment is the best way to perform your job? By responsibility, you are the only one that conducts preventive maintenance tasks and major repair work on that specific equipment. Do you believe it’s the right answer for the organization? As a maintenance manager, is this approach to equipment ownership the right answer for you or your stakeholder partners like operations? This facet of maintenance is traditionally a struggle for many organizations.

How Solutia uses the Optalign Smart shaft alignment system

2011-01-17T16:07:56-06:00

A sales engineer at Ludeca Inc. introduces the Optalign Smart shaft alignment system. He then speaks with Nihal Raval, a maintenance reliability engineer from Solutia Inc., about how Optalign Smart helped him.

Animation explaining laser shaft alignment

2011-01-14T08:55:56-06:00

Up to 50 percent of the damage to rotating machinery is directly related to misalignment! So just see the advantages of laser shaft alignment and increase your machine availability, productivity and machine lifetime

How to laser align rotating shafts

2011-01-14T08:50:23-06:00

This video shows how to laser shaft align rotating shafts as quickly as possible with Fixturlaser's "True Position Sensing", available on the Fixturlaser XA and the Fixturlaser GO. Laser shaft alignment with Fixturlaser's dual laser, dual sensor design means the system tracks the shafts' true positions, allowing alignments to often be completed with just one set of measurements and adjustments. The XA and GO laser shaft alignment tools are available in the United States from VibrAlign Inc.

Creating effective and sustainable maintenance work procedures

2011-01-12T08:36:53-06:00

You may not know how work procedures really work and their impact on asset reliability or asset integrity.

‘Pruning’ your inventory: Setting MRO stocking levels

2011-01-10T13:36:44-06:00

Is three widgets enough? Is six gizmos too many? Author Doug Wallace often get asked: “How do we determine the right stocking levels for our parts?” People want to know what the “magic formula” is. Unfortunately, the answer often is: “it depends.” Throughout this article, Doug will address some of the considerations involved in making these difficult decisions and then suggest one method for helping to determine the appropriate stocking levels for your own materials.

Making sense of electrical measurement

2011-01-10T13:13:41-06:00

Clamp meters really are the way to go in a wide range of measurement scenarios, especially if you’re working with higher amperages – or if you need a comprehensive motor test in one device.

Bearing protection rings help cement plant boost uptime

2011-01-10T12:56:21-06:00

It seemed as though nothing could stop the squealing. Not that the Monarch Cement Company’s huge ball mill wasn’t already loud. Powered by a 5,000-horsepower motor, it pulverizes 100 tons of clinker per hour. But the squealing was not what Randy Riebel wanted to hear. As electrical supervisor at Monarch’s plant in Humboldt, Kan., he knew the noise meant the motor’s bearings were going – again. What was the solution? Read this case study to find out.

AC drives: Choosing the correct motor

2011-01-10T11:42:11-06:00

This seminar video was written by AC drive and motor expert James Shumberg. This seminar introduces induction motor theory and offers tips on proper motor selection for motors used on AC drives. AC drive are sometimes called variable frequency drives, or VFDs. Reasons for avoiding high efficiency and NEMA Design A motor are explained. Motors rated for inverter duty are discussed.

Wireless condition monitoring for rotating equipment

2011-01-06T15:59:36-06:00

Ron Kittle, a senior product analyst for the Timken Company, talks about the StatusCheck wireless condition monitoring system.

GE acquires remote monitoring and diagnostics firm SmartSignal

2011-01-06T13:44:45-06:00

GE Intelligent Platforms on January 6 announced that it has completed the acquisition of SmartSignal, a privately held, analytics software company based in Lisle, Ill. SmartSignal specializes in providing remote monitoring and diagnostics solutions to the Power Generation, Oil & Gas and other industrial sectors. SmartSignal is a leading provider of predictive diagnostic software and monitoring services used to anticipate, prevent, and avoid equipment failure. The company has more than 40 product and technology patents, and has won more than 25 awards for product excellence.

Tips on maintaining the maintenance spare parts database

2011-01-05T14:10:50-06:00

Groups really struggle with managing their spare parts data due to years of neglect and lack of ownership. On the initial CMMS implementation, the data may have been properly described with a noun/qualifier/qualifier approach for the short text description. As time passes, people move on and someone else takes over the database. They may not receive training or understand the naming concepts. Soon, the users of the data can’t find the parts housed in the storeroom due to the way items have been named. The storeroom inventory value goes up, too, as parts become duplicated since no one could find the stocked item. How do you straighten this mess out?

Performing maintenance at a high level (literally)

2011-01-05T11:10:51-06:00

Think you have a challenging maintenance job? Try performing maintenance high off the ground. Laing O'Rourke has recently been awarded the next contract for the continued maintenance and inspection of all aspects of the two Severn Bridges in the United Kingdom for the next seven years. Paul Lane, Inspection and Maintenance Manager for Laing O'Rourke, talks about the challenges of maintaining these busy bridges.

A poem about plant maintenance (you need to read this!)

2011-01-05T09:50:45-06:00

"Maintenance evangelist" Joel Leonard forwarded this poem to us at Reliable Plant. We thought it important enough to share it with you. Enjoy!

ARC examines MRO inventory rationalization and optimization

2011-01-04T09:24:36-06:00

Inventory optimization directly affects C-suite metrics by providing a positive impact on the P&L statement (lower inventory carrying costs and reduced spend) and balance sheet (less inventory and increased cash). Making your boss look good is always a good career move.

Guohua wind turbines choose SKF for remote monitoring

2011-01-03T07:32:58-06:00

When the fourth-biggest wind farm operator in China increases its installed capacity by 50 percent within one year, that indicates a company that knows its business. And one of the business aspects that all wind farm operators need to take care of is “turbine reliability” – keeping the turbines turning as much as possible and keeping maintenance activities down to a minimum. Reduced or controlled maintenance is always a valuable contribution to bottom-line profitability, but when you’ve got 2,000 megawatts of installed capacity, the target by end 2010 for Guohua Energy Investment Company, based in Beijing, China, then you are talking about huge amounts of money.

GE notes its favorite monitoring and maintenance apps of 2010

2010-12-29T12:39:32-06:00

GE has been in the app fast lane — from consumer-friendly apps such as healthymagination’s Morsel, which helps people chip away at unhealthy habits, to GE Lighting’s Mood Cam app, which let’s you snap a picture of a room and see how different lighting styles might look to CNBC Real-Time, the only free app that offers real-time stock quotes from the NYSE and NASDAQ before, during, and after market hours. (The professional version gives real-time information and analytics on over 100 international markets.) But three that particularly caught our eye this year are the ones that most people might not at first think of when it comes to apps — as they’re for planes, trains and electric utilities.

8 traits to look for in an assistant manager

2010-12-28T17:06:00-06:00

Great companies are populated by great employees. While a top general manager is necessary, it’s not sufficient for the genuine long-term success of any company or major operating division. Businesses that genuinely succeed and flourish over the long run have general managers who possess the vision, wisdom and courage to identify, attract, hire and mentor great assistant managers.

PdM software innovations lead to improved operating margins

2010-12-28T16:57:45-06:00

The capability of today's predictive software provides immediate answers, not merely data. By proactively using predictive maintenance, one automobile manufacturing plant realized savings of up to $112,000.

What reliability-improvement tools should I invest in?

2010-12-28T16:37:09-06:00

Successful M&R programs start with the choice of one or two core tools and then add on as function and need permit. This allows people time to get to understand the tools and develop habits that are effective in application of the tools. As time goes along, those people are better equipped to be able to adapt to more tools in the toolbox.

Lean shutdowns: 10 ways to cut fat and do the right thing

2010-12-28T16:21:09-06:00

For most companies that run continuously, shutdowns and outages consume a lion’s share of both the maintenance and capital budgets. By its very nature, the shutdown is fat. The reason for this is the skewed balance between the cost of downtime and the costs of shutdown resources. In some cases, the costs of having extra resources (such as extra cranes) are dwarfed by the avoided cost of downtime. In this article, Joel Levitt offers 10 concrete ideas that will lean up the shutdown event without compromising safety or environmental security.

A common asset management context through international collaboration

2010-12-21T09:11:27-06:00

This month, the Global Forum on Maintenance and Asset Management (GFMAM) held its third face-to-face meeting during the Gulf Society of Maintenance Professionals (GSMP) inaugural conference in Manama, Bahrain. Attracting 748 registered delegates from 15 countries, the conference presented a program that included 57 papers and panel discussions.

Maintenance and sustenance at a Tata Steel plant

2010-12-20T09:51:53-06:00

This video provides a brief explanation of maintenance project performance at a Tata Steel plant.

How a printing plant uses infrared thermography to detect issues

2010-12-20T07:47:19-06:00

This video shows how a printing plant utilizes infrared thermography cameras to detect issues on press equipment.

Sappi Fine Paper completes $49M worth of capital projects at Maine mill

2010-12-16T14:15:17-06:00

Sappi Fine Paper North America announced December 16 that it has successfully completed capital projects totaling $49 million at its Somerset Mill in Skowhegan, Maine. The investment was comprised of a major capital project that upgraded recovery cycle equipment at the Somerset pulp mill, as well as 17 other related projects that improved manufacturing processes, all of which were completed on time with no interruptions to the mill's paper production.

When troubleshooting equipment, first impressions are important

2010-12-16T09:17:27-06:00

When troubleshooting a machinery problem, whether for an unusual vibration problem or a component failure such as a bearing or seal, first impressions from the initial machinery inspection are very important. Any troubleshooting exercise should begin with a thorough investigation of machine history - process, design, operation, maintenance, and all available machine details. These first impressions are necessary to make sure the troubleshooting team is fully armed with important data and minimize the chances of a misdiagnosis.

Eaton agrees to acquire Tuthill Coupling

2010-12-16T08:52:40-06:00

Diversified industrial manufacturer Eaton Corporation on December 16 announced it has agreed to acquire the Tuthill Coupling Group, a division of Tuthill Corporation. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Vibration analysis at an AkzoNobel plant

2010-12-15T07:45:10-06:00

Structural vibration monitoring of wind turbines

2010-12-15T07:43:03-06:00

This video explores the subject of structural vibration monitoring of wind turbines.

How the Oglethorpe Power Plant uses vibration analysis

2010-12-15T07:40:20-06:00

Progress Energy targets uptime, costs with infrared cameras

2010-12-15T07:38:03-06:00

See how FLIR's P640 infrared camera is used by Progress Energy, a power transmission company, for predictive and preventative maintenance to ensure constant supply.

Orlando to play host to 2011 infrared thermography conference

2010-12-15T07:35:57-06:00

Organized by the Infraspection Institute, IR/INFO is the most important conference of the year for infrared thermographers. This year, the infrared conference will be held at the Disney Boardwalk Conference Center in Orlando, Fla. For infomation, visit www.irinfo.org.

Infrared cameras provide benefits for utility companies

2010-12-15T07:33:29-06:00

This video shows FLIR cameras in the field and why infrared thermal imaging has become a key tool for predictive maintenance programs for utility firms everywhere.