Crises, such as the ongoing economic crisis in the US and world, will compel change. As we all know change can be good, or bad. We can take a positive approach to these times and use the situation to bring about radical, yet positive change, that while painful at times, will assure our future prosperity. There is great risk in this approach – we can overreach and make bad decisions that damage the prospects for that same prosperity. The challenges that most manufacturing businesses face are huge, and they will be compelled to change, particularly those who have long languished under poor management.
Lessons We Can Learn from Australian Companies in Their Journey Toward Reliability and Operational Excellence
Ron Moore
IMC-2012 Conference Speaker
Introduction My first trip to Australia was in May 1995. It was exciting and rewarding. I found Australians to be friendly, fun loving, open to new ideas and very interested in reliability. And still do. We have much in common with Australians. I've been going there now three to four times per year ever since then, making four trips per year most years and have now been there more than 60 times. It's a long trip, but every single trip has been very gratifying and rewarding. If ever I were kicked out of the United States for some bizarre reason, I would go to Australia first and ask if they would let me in. More importantly, while all the companies there continue to have considerable opportunity for improvement, their industrial operations have made remarkable progress in their journey toward reliability and operational excellence.
At the 2013 Reliability 2.0 Las Vegas (produced by Reliabilityweb.com and Uptime Magazine) conference, attendees voted on whether their MRO stores operation is a constraint or a catalyst to a reliable plant. Voting was in real time using live text message polling technology and paper ballots at the trade show booth. During the course of the show, the majority – 76 percent – of voters said MRO is a constraint rather than a catalyst to a reliable plant; only 24 percent said MRO was a catalyst.
"It's OK to get Excited about Maintenance" has been the introduction that I have given on every presentation related to maintenance, reliability, and asset management. Those presentations go on to say that the reason for this is the business case associated with doing it right. Asset Management initiatives have been documented to have Returns on Investment (ROI) ranging from 4:1 to 50:1. In fact, many organizations have found that a Total Equipment Asset Management (TEAM) initiative has proven to be the best investment that they have ever made in their facility.
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Westar Energy began changing its approach to power plant maintenance more than a dozen years ago. The transition from a traditional utility culture to a modern, reliability- focused organization is still a work in progress. Today though, the company makes use of predictive maintenance technologies, data and reliability tools to drive strategic improvement.
Greenville, SC - - February 19, 2013 - - Global PTM, an industry leader in Maintenance Operational Improvement (MOI) solutions with a focus on Oracle Enterprise Asset Management (eAM) implementations, announces the completion of a successful Oracle eAM implementation project for Alpha Natural Resources. Under the leadership of Global PTM, Oracle eAM was implemented at numerous recently acquired Massey Energy coal preparation facilities and existing Alpha sites. The system was implemented with the existing Oracle E-Business Suite applications and asset management tools used by Alpha Natural Resources, which is the third largest coal producer in America, and fifth largest coal producer in the world.
By Dave Bertolini, Managing Principal, People and Processes
Being the self described humorist that I like to think of myself as, I have pulled together my "Top Ten" money wasting things I have seen, heard, and regrettably even witnessed. Living in the "consulting world," I have been exposed to a lot of things: good, bad, evil, and just downright funny things. Hope you get a chuckle or two from my collection, but more importantly, you take away the messages buried beneath the humor.
The emergent understanding of asset management across all industry sectors has triggered a subsequent need for a standardised approach. The Institute of Asset Management (IAM) in collaboration with the British Standards Institute (BSI) and other industry groups first developed PAS 55 - Part1: Specification for the optimized management of physical assets in 2004. This was developed in response to industry demand for a standard for asset management and was recently revised in 2008 following international collaboration from industry and asset management associate groups.
New Mobile Solution Leverages Widely Used Technology to Improve Asset Tracking, Visibility, Reporting and Automate Data Collection for Fixed, Capital, Physical Assets
It has long been recognized that adopting an effective, predictive/condition-based approach to maintenance can significantly reduce cost when compared to more traditional preventive methods. Savings of up to 50 percent are considered very realistic.
Publishers Note: We recently challenged our good friend and maintenance expert Ricky Smith to tell us 10 things we can do today - not 10 things we can buy today - to improve reliability at our plants. No new software, no new hardware, no new consultants. Ricky did as Ricky usually does and showed up with goods!
We admit he did include one "buy recommendation" but we let it pass because it falls under US$100. Here is what he came back with. - Terrence O'Hanlon, CMRP