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Articles: Maintenance Management

Breaking Through Glass Ceilings

Thoughts on Implementing Organizational Change

by R. Keith Mobley, MBB, CMRP

Have you ever been involved in an attempt to improve the performance of your department or one function, such as maintenance or quality, in your plant or corporation?  Ever wonder why the attempt did not work at all or failed to reach its full potential?  If you have, the reason was probably a list of deficiencies or omissions, or perhaps it was because cosmic forces  preordained that improvement is not possible.  Sound familiar?

Building Steam

A Story of Hard Work, Dedication, and, Ultimately, Transformation

by  Judith Charlton and Steve Lipscombe

Sembcorp UK, one of the leading suppliers of utilities to UK industry, is transforming its operations.  Steam and power operations are vital to the success of Sembcorp UK and its customers in the petrochemical, power and biofuels sectors.  Just five years ago the business was struggling to manage an aging power station and all its associated problems with limited resources.  The challenges seemed insurmountable.

Business Focused Maintenance

Building services are the engineering plant and equipment which provide environmental comfort and process conditions. Some building services are more critical to the core business of an organisation and the consequences of their failure can have a significant impact on the business.

Choose Your PdM Partners Wisely

Or Discover Another Reason Why PdM Programs Can Fail

by Alan Friedman

Whether you are considering starting a new program, revamping a dead one, outsourcing or looking for someone to become a long term partner to step in when needed and step back when not needed, make sure you pick the correct partner.

Continuous Improvement on a Budget

Continuous improvement is a broad term used frequently in today's business world. Most companies strive for continual improvements in their processes but many come up short when it comes to actually making sustainable gains. Outside consultants typically do a very good job of bringing the continuous improvement process into a facility and there are times when their services should be employed. The subject of this paper on the other hand attempts to expose the various steps involved, should a company choose to conduct such an event in house using their own personnel. Nearly every company in the world stands to benefit from a well focused continuous improvement event utilizing an in-house facilitator.

Contract Maintenance or Not?

With few exceptions, most mills I visit ask me what I think of contract, or outsourcing, of maintenance. In this month's column I would like to elaborate on what kind of maintenance should or should not be contracted out and the reasons for choosing either option.

Contractor Management Controls

by Bob L. Harrell, Jr. 

There's a great story about a town with a clock tower that rang every day at exactly noon. The man in charge of the tower called City Hall each morning to confirm the exact time before adjusting the clock. Everyone in the town knew for certain when the tower clock rang; it was straight-up 12:00 noon. One day, after many years on the job, the bell tower man happened to ask the city hall clerk how he always knew the exact time. That's easy, the city hall clerk replied, I rely on the clock tower.

Detective Maintenance

When we think about maintenance strategies, the words predictive, preventive, corrective, and breakdown spring to mind. There is however an important class of tasks that we do to ensure that our equipment and Plant remains safe and productive. These tasks are based on a Detective Maintenance strategy. They help us win our licence-to-operate and ensure long term viability. With machinery and Plants becoming increasingly more complex, the proportion of such tasks in the total maintenance program is growing.

Managing a business efficiently means that we have to manage risks well. In turn, this requires that our safety devices and systems work on demand. It is possible to arrive logically at the required availability of the items in question and find suitable detective maintenance strategies. While analysis is relatively easy, there are several hurdles in implementing their results. These challenges can be met by a range of solutions. They are not universal and need to be tailored to each situation.

The word pro-active is very popular, especially in the maintenance context. Detective Maintenance strategies are pro-active. More importantly, they are essential to long term success.

 

Do Not Be Misled by O.E.E.

Measure of Equipment Effectiveness Often Misused

By Robert M. Williamson, president of Strategic Work Systems

Overall equipment effectiveness (O.E.E.) has been used as one of the more important "maintenance metrics" since Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) came to the U.S. in the late 1980s. O.E.E. is the primary measure used in TPM to identify and quantify the major equipment-related losses and a metric for rating "equipment effectiveness." O.E.E. has become widely used in many plants with or without the elements of TPM in place since the early years of TPM to quantify equipment effectiveness losses. This usage has also caused some confusion and has led to many misuses of the O.E.E. percentage calculation.

 

 

Do We Really Need More Capacity (and Reliability)?

With the economic downturn, and the resulting reduction in consumer spending, the world is awash in manufacturing capacity. With capacity being a key goal of reliability practices, and the anticipated long road back to where markets require full capacity, does this mean that reliability is of little importance in the coming years, or no longer meaningful? Why should we focus on creating more capacity when we're already awash in it?

Effective Maintenance Structuring - Do It Now

by John Ross

I'm hoping that this is an original quote, "you are where you are by doing exactly what it is that you've been doing"? Said another way, "how can you expect to be better than you are, based on what you've been doing?" It really is a definition of insanity to believe that you would accomplish more by merely doing more of the same. In regards to equipment reliability, and the driving need to continually improve; the status quo just isn't getting the job done.

 

General Bearing Handling And Inspection

 

This article has been excerpted from the Industrial Bearing Maintenance Manual by The Timken Company.  Click here to request your own copy.

 

Bearings are a vital component in major industrial equipment. Bearing problems can result in costly downtime, equipment damage and breakdowns. In addition, large industrial bearings represent a significant capital investment.

Getting on Top of Maintenance Costs

Principal Consultant Stuart Carlile explains a process to assist with better Maintenance Cost Management.

Heinz Bloch Recommended Reading List

Process Reliability expert Heinz Bloch, P.E. has been a long time supporter of Reliabilityweb.com and is a regular contributor to Uptime Magazine.  He is strong advocate for professional development throughout your career and has offered his recommended reading list here.  When possible we have linked titles to the MRO-Zone.com bookstore and to Amazon when not.  We hope you find this resource useful.

Help Wanted

By Cliff Williams

How many 10 year olds who, when asked at school “What would you like to be when you grow up?” replied “A Maintenance Manager”. A safe bet is that the answer is none. How many 10 year olds would have any idea what a maintenance manager is or how many 20 year olds, 30 year olds, 40 year olds…. you get the picture? When you think about it, there is no real reason, or way that those not directly involved in Maintenance management, could understand what it is. When was the Last time you saw that a super hero’s alter-ego was a Maintenance Manager, or what was the title of the last romantic movie you took your significant other to see where the romantic white knight came in the guise of an Asset Reliability Professional? I’m looking forward to a new television series entitled “Miami (or New York) RCM” where teams of investigators rush out and carry out vibration analysis. The team gets together to examine infra-red footage and I just can’t wait for the close –up of the oil analysis slide under the microscope.

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