Articles

Thinking Sustainability? Think Asset Management

There is an overwhelming focus on sustainability these days. Issues related to carbon emissions, global warming, exponentially growing landfills, rampant energy wastages, etc., which seemed conceptual a decade or two ago, are a reality hitting everyone harder than ever before. Most people are yearning to play a role in contributing to the world’s sustainability goals, which is a very good step!

Reliability Engineering for Maintenance

Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) Project Manager’s Guide

The Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) Project Manager’s Guide uses a clear, flexible process and set of criteria so an organization can assess what it takes to successfully conduct and implement an RCM project and avoid pitfalls along the way to experiencing measured results that add significantly to the bottom line.

In addition, the guide includes a primer on RCM fundamentals, a section dedicated to sustaining benefits while continuously improving, and a glossary of key terms. The appendices offer useful resources to gain commitment for success.

Asset Management

Digital in Utilities – Hype or Hope?

Digital is one of the common buzzwords in the market. It combines capabilities of the latest and greatest technology stack, like social, mobile, analytics and the Cloud (SMAC), the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence and virtual reality and, most importantly, amplifies them by encompassing a seamlessly connected enterprise experience.

Leadership for Reliability

Reliability - A Holistic Effort

The foundation of any great reliability effort is the reliability culture within the organization that sustains it. Everybody within the organization must be aligned with its ultimate goals and mission for the reliability effort to succeed. Therefore, the mission and values must be clearly communicated, with reasonable expectations for compliance.

Asset Management

Warning: Intelligent Infrastructure Ahead

Seldom do railways have the resources to maintain their infrastructure at a level that ensures steady-state performance. Rather, they are faced with prioritizing maintenance actions to optimize safety and reliability under the burden of constrained resources. Given this reality, railway operations are finding the solution to work more efficiently lies in using information technology. By harnessing the vast amount of existing rail corridor data in a prioritized plan and then assigning the work and monitoring the execution and results with software, many railways are doing more with less resources. This strategy is called linear asset decision support (LADS) and it not only results in steady-state asset performance under constrained resources, it also can improve the asset condition and provide a positive return on investment.

Reliability Engineering for Maintenance

Asset Criticality Ranking: Value for Each Management Level

Asset dependent organizations need to be continually educated and diligent about the importance of classifying assets in terms of the impact of asset failure on the organization. By using a prescriptive method to identify and classify failure consequences, organizations can most effectively allocate asset care resources within their enterprise asset management (EAM) model. Within the reliability-based maintenance (RBM) asset management model, this prescriptive means is a facilitated process called asset criticality ranking (ACR).

Asset Condition Management

From Screwdrivers to Testers: Vibration Analysis Comes of Age

Most machines have rotating parts and those rotating parts vibrate. Measuring how and how much those parts vibrate can tell you a lot about the health of a machine. Whether it’s the rumble of worn bearings or the shaking, shimmying, or thumping of loose, misaligned, or unbalanced parts, machines have a tale to tell those who are willing and able to listen.

Leadership for Reliability

Corbion Ushers in Change with a Focus on Reliability

Large manufacturing facilities depend on heavy equipment. But without a proper maintenance strategy, these assets can lead to countless issues, often expending or exceeding budgeted resources. Any manufacturing organization looking to successfully bridge this resource gap must implement an organization-wide reliability program to save money, time and frustration. This program must develop into or from a cultural basis to evolve into a sustainable business strategy.

Asset Management

How to Develop an Industrial Internet of Things Solution Phase 1: Providing a Solution

As a follow-up to “How to Develop an Industrial Internet of Things Solution” in the Feb/March 2016 issue of Uptime magazine, this article introduces a series that provides further details about the approach to develop Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) solutions. The series of articles is based on firsthand experiences of designing, developing and delivering (IIoT) services.

Leadership for Reliability

Maintenance Is Really Not the Problem

In late May, Uptime Publisher Terrence O’Hanlon posted on LinkedIn that attendance at maintenance conferences has dropped significantly. Responses to his post offered plausible reasons, including budget constraints, lack of or recurring content, and total saturation. While these are no doubt contributors, there may be one more growing reason for this decline: more and more organizations are finally recognizing that maintenance is not the source of their competitive or financial problems. This article provides proof for why this reason may be on point.

Work Execution Management

Work Execution Management Project Manager’s Guide

If one considers asset management as caring for the assets of an organization, then it is true that Work Execution Management enables asset management. If one considers that reliability engineering for maintenance and asset condition management generates the work to be performed, then Work Execution Management is the process in which the work is accomplished.

The Work Execution Management (WEM) Project Manager's Guide is your recipe for success. This report reflects best practices common to all major Work Execution Management approaches and captures lessons learned from organizations deeply involved with Work Execution Management. The future of Work Execution Management is about to change!

Please enjoy this complimentary guide download.