Articles

How Smart Connected Assets Will Impact Your Uptime Elements

Whether you call it the Internet of Things (IoT) or the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), the simple fact is everyone is talking about the technological shift taking place today that is creating previously unimagined connectivity between myriad of devices. Many say IIoT isn’t actually new, as sensors have talked to controllers and other systems for decades and maintenance technicians have used tablets for at least 15 years. However, there is a different viewpoint, which this article explores.

Work Execution Management

Solving the Mystery of Integrated Supply for MRO: What Is It? What Is It NOT?

It is becoming increasingly evident that the lack of world-class support from the maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) stores is having a significant and detrimental effect on maintenance reliability programs. Fill rates (i.e., availability of needed parts from stores) average less than 75 percent. This means the availability factor of parts needed is not reliable. A reliable plant requires all functions in maintenance’s lean reliability programs to be reliable. Since availability of parts needed is a component of the reliability program, an unreliable MRO storeroom becomes detrimental to reliability goals.

Asset Condition Management

Ultrasonic Superheat Bypass Valve Inspection

If you’ve attended ultrasound training courses, then you most likely learned about how to use a four point inspection for valves, no matter the valve type. However, the discussions within this practice or application always lead to other valve inspections. Among them is the use of ultrasound to listen to a valve through non-contact, or simply aiming the instrument at the valve to determine its condition. This would be like having an inverted bucket steam trap that has a “blow-by” condition (steam blow through). By simply aiming the ultrasound at the inverted bucket trap, the user would be able to hear the steam rushing through the valve and creating enough high frequency to determine its condition. However, a more favorable practice is making contact with the trap.

Asset Management

The Pursuit of Continuous Improvement in Asset Management: Merck & Co., Inc., West Point’s Journey

As an organization, Merck & Co., Inc.’s core values are driven by a desire to improve human life, achieve scientific excellence, operate with the highest standards of integrity, expand access to its products and employ a diverse workforce that values collaboration. To support these values, Merck & Co., Inc. strives to deliver strong operational performance supported by cost-effective asset utilization over the entire asset’s lifecycle. Merck & Co., Inc., in West Point, Pennsylvania, is a multi-divisional, 397-acre site that produces a diversified portfolio of vaccines and sterile products. As such, asset management is critical to successful, sustainable performance.

Leadership for Reliability

A Journey to Shape Reliability Excellence at Bristol-Myers Squibb - Part 1

The journey of reliability at Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (BMS) is not unlike that of many other companies. We have seen great successes, missed opportunities, supported reliability efforts and a focus on various initiatives. Like others, our journey continues as it always has….or not. There is a changing atmosphere developing. A paradigm shift, if you will. The culmination of many small changes coming together to create something special. Our global community of reliability professionals, a talented and special group of people, were ready when the opportunity presented itself. Ready to take the next step in our journey to excellence. Ready to collaborate on our direction as a community. Ready to transform from reliability professionals into reliability leaders. Ready to provide a sufficient benefit to fellow employees, shareholders, the environment, our community and the patients we serve.

Work Execution Management

10 Ways to Reduce Reactive Maintenance

This article provides 10 distinct actions you can take to become more proactive. As you will see, the asset management system (AMS) plays a major role. Typically, users struggle to leverage the AMS in support of asset reliability, but the reason for this simply may be because you need a more encompassing set of instructions. So, here they are.

Asset Condition Management

10 Components of a Successful Vibration Program: Part 1

Understanding the 10 components of a condition monitoring (CM) program is the first step in making them work to support you and your organization’s goals. The 10 main components comprising a condition monitoring program are shown in Figure 1. Each of the components relates to and affects all of the others. Like the supports of a structure, they all must be balanced for the structure to stand. This is the introduction to a 10-part series covering each of the 10 components of a successful program. A more in-depth handling of the subject matter can be found in the book, Audit It. Improve It! Getting the Most from Your Vibration Monitoring Program by Alan Friedman, available at the MRO-Zone Bookstore.

Reliability Engineering for Maintenance

Why Are People Afraid of RCM?

It’s been nearly 20 years since I first learned about reliability centered maintenance (RCM). As part of the Kodak Park Maintenance and Reliability Team, I was one of a few people who volunteered to take a few courses in RCM and report back to the team on the viability of the tool. I had no idea at the time that two decades later, I would be facilitating and instructing RCM at companies in nearly every country around the world. It’s strange sometimes how quickly things change; one minute you’re a maintenance team leader and the next you’re facilitating reliability centered maintenance for a living.

Reliability Engineering for Maintenance

RPM Method + RCM = Reliability

Picture this: It’s Monday morning and you’re the maintenance manager of an industrial plant. On your desk is a printout of 432 open work orders and the operations manager is screaming because air compressor #2 just tripped for the third time this month. To make matters worse, you just remembered two of your technicians went fishing for the week. The question is: “What can this maintenance manager do to improve this situation?” The obvious answer is to go fishing with the two technicians. Maybe a better question to ask is: "What can be done to improve plant performance?"

Leadership for Reliability

Repair vs. Replace: How to use Lifecycle Cost Analysis to Determine the Threshold Limit

“If maintenance costs get high enough, we’ll just replace it.” This phrase represents the prevailing attitude about asset management that is taught in graduate business schools and heard in conference rooms in most, if not all, manufacturing and production facilities around the globe. From the perspective of reliability concepts, the phrase is a manifestation of a belief system that represents an inaccurate understanding of where high maintenance costs come from and what the proper method for reducing them would be. From a financial perspective, the phrase is correct at face value, but the actual threshold limit for the replacement decision point is substantially higher than what is commonly used in industry. This article contains an explanation of the logical pitfalls of the commonly held beliefs, as well as an explanation of the calculation of the threshold limits for the replacement decision.

Asset Condition Management

Proactive Maintenance Saves NIF Shot Time and Money

At Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's National Ignition Facility (NIF), the world's largest laser system, we treat our assets the way a good medical doctor treats patients. We are proactively keeping tabs on the health of the equipment using asset condition management (ACM) techniques. We do not perform any intrusive maintenance until asset conditions require it.