Articles

Augmented Decision-Making: When Data Replaces Experience

The evolution of OT is meteoric. Today, a proliferation of connected devices can monitor asset condition and performance, along with operational conditions. The information captured from these devices enables operational optimization. It can also prevent unplanned downtime through early detection of impending failures, allowing corrective actions to be planned.

Leadership for Reliability

Moving Down a Reliability Continuum in Pursuit of Excellence

Southern Gardens has embarked on a journey in pursuit of achieving excellence in reliability. The key is perseverance because the road is often bumpy. Continuous improvement moves you down the continuum, so when you think you are at the end, you realize there is always room for improvement.

Work Execution Management

Battle of the Work Types

Terminology used by maintenance departments produce a wealth of information when performing an Internet search. World-class maintenance status, cost benefits of preventive maintenance vs. corrective maintenance, 6:1 maintenance golden rule and maintenance effectiveness are just a few examples. As you scan through search results for terms such as these, you’ll come across professional articles, opinions, exercises and infinite calls to action inviting searchers to contact an organization for additional information. You will likely find guarantees to improve your maintenance operations and overall bottom line by following recommendations. However, what you likely won’t find is a clear-cut understanding of the differences between these maintenance terms due to a lack of consistency among sources.

Work Execution Management

How to Improve Your PM Program in 10 Steps

If you currently have a preventive maintenance (PM) program in place and want to improve it, there are 10 steps you can follow to do so. Following these steps will uncover inefficiencies, including over- and under-scheduled PMs, equipment with PMs that don’t need them, and noncritical equipment that is prioritized over critical equipment for preventive maintenance.

Asset Management

Improving Asset Contributions to the Bottom Line

What are your contributions to the bottom line? Many asset managers are often put in an awkward position when confronted with this question, which refers to the triple bottom line of people, planet and profit. This question is not necessarily demanding to know the asset manager’s individual contributions to the bottom line, but the contributions and input of the maintenance system and the assets he or she manages to the overall bottom line.

Internet of Things Digitalization (IoT)

The Impact of Federated Manufacturing on the Industrial Sector

When considering the future of production in the era of Industry 4.0, there is a truism that applies to any revolution: It is much easier to recognize when it starts than to predict how it will end. Within the hype zone of digitalization, the topic of federated manufacturing has, thus far, gained relatively little attention.

Reliability Engineering for Maintenance

How the Quest for Better Pumps Came to (Almost) Nothing: Part 1

Pumps are fluid machines that move liquids over short and/or long distances. They were invented well before the industrial revolution and even Archimedes tinkered with pumps, on or about 250 B.C., somewhere near the historic city of Siracusa in Sicily. Without pumps, modern process plants would not exist. But not all pumps are well constructed, well maintained, correctly installed, or properly operated. And while some pumps have stayed on-line without interruption for six years, others continue to experience random failures several times in the course of a year. Pump improvement can be both a career enhancer and a value-adding proposition, as this two-part article will show.

Articles

85% of RCM Recommended Improvements Are Never Implemented: Is There a Better Solution?

Augmented Decision-Making: When Data Replaces Experience

Moving Down a Reliability Continuum in Pursuit of Excellence

Battle of the Work Types

Why Machine Learning and AI Are the Future of Oil Analysis

Featured Reliability Leader: Ramesh Gulati

Why Your Digital Twin Approach Is Not Built to Last and What to Do About It Now

Are You a Maintenance Hero or a Reliability Leader?

How to Improve Your PM Program in 10 Steps

Improving Asset Contributions to the Bottom Line

The Impact of Federated Manufacturing on the Industrial Sector

How the Quest for Better Pumps Came to (Almost) Nothing: Part 1