Set-up Tank Agitator Gearboxes for a Long Life at Low Cost

What you will learn from this article.

The types of forces developed in a turning agitator.
Gearbox position and configuration for long-life.
Bearing arrangements to minimise gearbox loading.
Simple, strong agitator support arrangements.
Vapour seals are needed to stop fumes escaping.
Lots of low maintenance selection and design tips.

Agitated vessels and tanks are common throughout the process and chemical industries. A properly sized agitator with correct proportions to suit the tank will deliver well-mixed product. A correctly sized gearbox with well-chosen bearings and bearing arrangements will need only regular lubrication while giving years of trouble free service. [Read more…]

by Greg Hutchins Leave a Comment

Real World Volatility

Guest Post by Geary Sikich (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)

Introduction

In the risk-neutral world, all business and government continuity planning would be risk-balanced. However, in reality, risks, threats, hazards and their consequences change depending on an organizations exposure, sensitivities to impact and other factors. For instance, a natural disaster, can occur without much warning and can have direct and indirect impact on an organization. Complicating the Business Continuity Planners life is a simple fact, events have unforeseen consequences that can rarely be planned for. [Read more…]

by Robert Allen Leave a Comment

Lessons from Scrum for Opportunity Champions

In a previous article we compared and contrasted the role & responsibility for a scrum master vs. project manager/core team leader (CTL/PM).

In this article, we’ll take a closer look at the scrum product owner role and compare it with the product development team’s “opportunity champion”.

[Read more…]

by Adam Bahret Leave a Comment

Maybe we can fall in love again

We’ll the boat saga continues. As I shared she has turned out to be a cruel mistress. Enticing and a thrill at times and then without warnign I get the cold shoulder. So I am going to take a well known reliability strategy with her. Hopefully we can just be in love again with all of our interactions being nothing but bliss. it’s the oldest reliability trick in the book. “Less is More” The less parts you have the less there is to break.

The more I have gone through this fuel injection system the more amazed I am it has worked this long. The main power relays on the motor are automotive i.e. not for a very wet and humid application. Then !!!(this is infuriating) they are mounted upside down so the seams for the protective cover are on top. This is a boat motor compartment. It has water in the bottom that get’s heated up when the motor runs. Then cools off, condensates after use. Over and over again. That is basically a humidity cycling chamber.

[Read more…]

by Dennis Craggs Leave a Comment

Sample Size – Measuring a Continuous Variable

Introduction

When planning a test on a continuous variable, the most common question was “How many should I test”? Later, when the test results were available, the questions were “What is the confidence?” or “How precise was the result?” This article focuses on planning the measurements of a continuous variable and analyzing the test results.

[Read more…]

by Perry Parendo Leave a Comment

3 Cs of Communication

Communication is essential for coaching and team success. This framework has helped us work with players in the short time of a basketball camp. A similar approach is used when working with business clients. [Read more…]

by Greg Hutchins Leave a Comment

No. 1 Business Risk for 2018

#1 Business Risk for 2018

What do you think is the #1 business risk in 2018 according to the World Economic Forum?

Weapons of mass destruction? It’s #29.
Natural catastrophes? It’s # 19.
Cyber attacks? It’s #8. We’re getting closer.

Guess again? [Read more…]

by James Kovacevic Leave a Comment

Using the Maintenance Data You Already Have

Leverage the existing data in your CMMS to make sustainable improvements to your maintenance program

Let’s face it, your technicians have been entering data into the CMMS for years, but you haven’t been able to use it to make improvements. Is it because the data isn’t codified or it doesn’t have the right data points? Generally, this is how most maintenance managers will view their data, but it is incorrect. The CMMS does have data that you can use almost immediately. [Read more…]

by Mike Sondalini Leave a Comment

Control Loops — Masters of Automatic Control

What you will learn from this article.

Control loops automatically correct unwanted changes in a process.
A control loop consists of components to detect and adjust the process.
Control loop complexity reflects the accuracy and speed of control.
Explanation of ‘open loop’, ‘closed loop’, ‘feed back’, ‘feed forward’.

The sole purpose of using process control in, say, the making of beer, is to detect what is happening during manufacture and to decide if something needs to be changed to insure the beer meets the necessary specification. The key words are ‘to detect’, ‘to decide’, ‘to change’ and ‘to meet specification’. A control loop can do all these things automatically. [Read more…]

by Robert Allen 2 Comments

Lessons from Scrum for Product Development Teams

In a previous article, we explored agile product development with a focus on early product validation.

There are additional key enablers from agile/scrum that can be borrowed and applied to any product development process, however.

In this article, we’ll compare and contrast the role & responsibility for scrum masters vs. project managers/core team leaders.

Let’s start with (all) the basic scrum roles:

[Read more…]

by Doug Plucknette Leave a Comment

Stop Wasting My Time! The War on N-VAN!

Some incredible things seem to happen as you get older. When I was in my early twenties I had very little patience for small children. They were always making noise making a mess and demanding attention. I had all kinds of patience for work related things, if we were having a meeting on what caused our chemical reaction times to drift more than a full standard deviation outside the control limits, you had 100% of my attention. [Read more…]

by Greg Hutchins Leave a Comment

Who Wins: The Machine or the Human?

There is a huge fear around the globe that:

The Machines Are Coming!

How much is this reality, fear, or over hype?

Upcoming Machine and robot wars are posed this way.

The machines are fully functional robots that can out-think and out-do all humans. Where has this fantasy been created? TV. Movies. Books. And frankly most media make a robot a villain who kills and takes over humanity.

Now, they are seen as job killers and we all need to be afraid.

So, what’s going on? This is: Part myth. Part reality. [Read more…]

by Perry Parendo Leave a Comment

How Many Parts Do I Need?

How does someone address the critical question of how many parts are needed for a test? We cover the balance between math and experience. [Read more…]

by James Kovacevic Leave a Comment

How to Sustain the Culture Change

The key to keeping a culture change from going back

One of the reasons that culture changes fail to change and stay that way is because there is nothing put in place to sustain it. When there is no plan to sustain the change, it will be a flavor of the week and revert back to the old ways. This is the final installment of a series on culture change and if you haven’t already, please go to the first post and start there. [Read more…]

by Mike Sondalini Leave a Comment

Root Cause Analysis Answers Your Problems

What you will learn from this article.

An explanation of root causes analysis (RCA)
An overview of how it is applied at your work place.
See the result of a sample RCA.

Root Cause Analysis is a step by step method that leads to the discovery of a fault’s first or root cause. Every equipment failure happens for a number of reasons. There is a definite progression of actions and consequences that lead to a failure. An RCA investigation traces the cause and effect trail from the end failure back to the root cause. Much like a detective solving a crime. [Read more…]