Articles: Maintenance Management

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1 Minute Maintenance Tip - Effective Work Procedures

1 Minute Maintenance Tip

Effective Work Procedures

2009 PdM Program of the Year Award Winners

Primetime Programs receive award from Uptime Magazine

5 Minute Audio Tip - Maintenance Function Tip

Click the play arrow below tp hear Ricky Smith CMRP discuss the maintenance function.

 

 

A Business-Based Approach to Developing an Effective Program

by Krzysztof (Kris) Goly

Over the last decade, there has been a general consensus throughout the industry that modern maintenance and plant asset management require the implementation of predictive maintenance techniques. In most instances, predictive technologies are implemented in the form of a Predictive Maintenance (PdM) Program.  PdM programs are designed and implemented through various approaches.  This article presents a business-based approach that has been utilized successfully by Siemens throughout the world and across various industries.

A New Activity Matrix - Why Being Proactive is No Longer Enough

by Phillip Slater

It was about ten minutes before anyone noticed the smoke. The wiring had been heating up since the most recent planned maintenance activity. Apparently, the electrician didn't quite tighten up the joint and hadn't properly cleaned away the built up dust. The result was a hot joint and this heat quickly spread into the cable. The casing began to smoke and by the time the smoke was noticed the cabinet was actually on fire.

Are the Improvement Tools Working? A Survey of Practices

Over the past year I've worked with Terry O'Hanlon to do a series of webinars on the most popular tools in the market place for improving manufacturing/operational performance in industrial plants. As part of these webinars, we've asked participants to answer a set of questions related to their practices to get a sense of how well they were working. Many of their responses were encouraging - 42% are working to apply lean manufacturing principles, of which 70% of those say its working; many are using the various tools in a sustainable way. And, more than 95% rated safety as a top priority.

Benchmarking a Better Understanding

Benchmarks Shed Light on Maintenance & Reliability Perceptions

by Klaus M. Blache, PhD

This interesting study compares data collected in 2008 to data collected in 1991 to chart the trends in reliability and maintenance over the last 17 years.

Benefits of the Planned Domain

By Winston P. Ledet
The Manufacturing Game

We have spent considerable time in the Manufacturing Game newsletter focusing on the benefits and execution of the precision domain - removing the defects at the source (Figure 1). Our philosophy has evolved based on working with clients and modeling reliability; most organizations would be advised to focus first on eliminating defects and then on making the defect removal process more efficient with a planning and scheduling process. However, there are significant benefits to the Planned Domain and this article focuses on the specific benefits that are generated through the Planned domain and the keys to a successful transition to the planned domain. Using our Dynamic Benchmarking model and data from a hypothetical chemical plant we modeled at DuPont we were able to calculate the benefits.

Book Review: Maintenance and Reliability Best Practices

Whether you are an old hand with many punishing years in the Reliability and maintenance arena or a newbie facing your first bout, "Best Practices" is a must read.

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.

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.

 

 

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