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on Maintenance Reliability

A listing in reverse chronological order of these article series:


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Using Governance & Accountability To Improve

How to Drive Performance Improvements in your Organization

Oftentimes, plans and strategies are developed and implemented.  Many times the implementation is handed off and the team left on their own to implement.  And many of the times, the implementation fails or the results are not delivered.

Why is this?  It is because there is a lack of governance and accountability.  These are more than just words.  They are a system, process and a sense of ownership throughout the organization to ensure that the plan is implemented and any roadblocks are dealt with. [Read more…]

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The Link Between RCM Facilitation and Effective Maintenance

The Link Between RCM Facilitation and Effective Maintenance

These are challenging economic times and opportunities abound with many of our customers to add new business value. They are turning to us and asking: “You’ve brought great value to our Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM-R) program through knowledge capture, personnel education, laying the foundation for a ‘living’ maintenance program and so on. However, what additional value can you provide us beyond what you have already done?”  One answer: “Focus on writing high-value, asset maintenance tasks. i.e. Tactical PM Program Implementations”. [Read more…]

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A Personal History of the Art and Science of Reliability

A Personal History of the Art and Science of Reliability

By Charles J. Latino

Foreword By Robert J. Latino: I wanted to dust off this impactful paper written by my father before he passed, and ask for your opinions about how far we have really come in the field of Reliability Engineering, based on your experience?

You are the ones that carry on the Reliability torch today. Based on Charles’ reflections about his Reliability career, how far has your facility come and what hurdles do you still face? [Read more…]

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Get Stuff Done: Utilizing a Workshop Approach to Educate, Decide and Plan

How a properly plan and utilized workshop can move your reliability program forward.

Business Strategic Planning Framework Diagram

Many organizations often struggle to move plans forward.  This may be due to the decision-making process and the people involved in the process.  Often times the various decision makers are scattered across the company and may be distracted by issues in the plant.   In other circumstances, the organization may know what the end goal is, but may not be aware of how to get there. [Read more…]

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Increase Productivity and Competitiveness

Increase Productivity and Competitiveness

Contributed by: David A DeCastro (Salvador, Brazil).

In traveling the world in search of excellence in MRO Materials Management (indirect materials / spare parts), I noticed two curious facts. First, even in developed countries, both the industrial companies and providers of ERPs (enterprise management systems) are often technologically quite backwards outside the realm of their product specialization. Secondly, those typically smaller companies or subject matter experts who have developed differentiated technology, tend to keep it as a safe and guarded trade secret, failing to commercialize their brilliance. [Read more…]

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The Top 5 Signs That Your Storeroom is Broken

A simple way to see how effective your storeroom is at providing the right part, at the right time, in the right quantity.

Storerooms are a critical part of any maintenance and reliability program, but they are often overlooked.   When a storeroom is operating at best in class levels, the right parts are available at the right time.   The storeroom is only able to achieve this when it its into the maintenance department.

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Trick Question: Do You Want Value or Low Costs?

Trick Question: Do You Want Value or Low Costs?

If you can’t sell all you can produce, then reducing costs is often the only way to improve margins, but that simplistic accounting perspective is not always the case. Cost control is often thought to be key to attaining profitability but it the case of maintenance it can get you into trouble. Cost control can have a big opportunity cost if you don’t take advantage of the opportunities you have. Consider that what you might really want is greater value – more for less, no just less. [Read more…]

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Root Cause Analysis: Investment or Expense?

Root Cause Analysis: Investment or Expense?

In times that promise to be a financial challenge for many corporations, we must make decisions as to where to invest our scarce dollars and where to cut from our current operations.  When faced with these decisions, we must be realistic and pragmatic about how short-term decisions impact our long-term goals.  Yes, when times are hard, how well positioned will we be when the economy picks up (and keep the faith, it will pick up)? [Read more…]

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The Top 3 Analysis Techniques To Use When Performing a PM Optimization

Performing a PM Optimization is not always as simple as it sounds.  Often a Maintenance Planner will assemble a team of technicians to ask what is value-added and what is missing from a PM Routine.   While these may be good questions to ask before diving into an analysis, or after an analysis, it does not base the answers on data.   Basing the PM Routine on data, not intuition is critical to the long-term success of any organization.

To perform a PM Optimization, there are three main types of analysis to focus on the effectiveness of any PM Routine.  The specific analysis used will depend on how mature (or effective) the current PM Routine is, and on the specific type of failures that the PM Routine is trying to address.

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The Impact of Industrial Automation on Machine Reliability

The Impact of Industrial Automation on Machine Reliability

Setting up industrial operations is part of the capital expenditure a business has to undertake. Businesses now analyze the lifetime cost of any capital expenditure before making a decision. This includes the inventory cost, labor expenses, maintenance costs, cost incurred due to expected downtime, and expenses for upgrades. This tilts the decision in favor of options that provide long-term machine reliability and reduced maintenance.

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