In the 1960s the failure rate of jet aircraft was high even with the extensive maintenance programs that were put in place to prevent the failures. The programs required overhauls, rebuilds and detailed inspections which required the various components to be disassembled. All of these activities were based on an estimated save life of the equipment. [Read more…]

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Uptime: Managing Failures Before They Occur

Being proactive with your assets is all about managing failures before they occur. You can reduce or eliminate the consequences of failure by forecasting what is likely to happen and deciding in advance about what to do about it. The advantage to doing this is that major business impact due to equipment breakdown can be avoided. High performing companies manage proactively – they foresee and avoid problems. It’s good for business! [Read more…]

by Mike Sondalini 1 Comment

Fibreglass Construction and Repair

Fibreglass construction and repair. Fibreglass is a glass fibre reinforced plastic composite with excellent chemical resistance properties. Its physical properties, selection of resins and glass, method of construction and fabrication and peculiar repair requirements must be appreciated when using this material.

Keywords: laminate, backing layer, structural layer, corrosion barrier, crack repair, winding angle. [Read more…]

by Doug Plucknette Leave a Comment

The 5 Worst Inventions Ever!

Something to Make You Smile on a Monday!

Something light to read on a Monday afternoon.

I’m beginning think that one of the worst side effects of growing older has nothing to do with the fact that you are not as active as you should be, but that you spend that time where you should have been walking, running, riding a bike or chasing the kids thinking about crap that might have little significance to the rest of the world. [Read more…]

by James Kovacevic Leave a Comment

3 Ways to Improve Profitability with a Criticality Analysis

Making the criticality analysis work for you and drive improvements in the maintenance strategy

Most manufacturers do not have an up to date criticality analysis and those that do have one, do not use it to drive decisions. Having a criticality analysis facilitates improved decision making and prioritization within the site and business.

How many times are there debates regarding which work needs to be done, which PMs will be dropped from the schedule because the planned downtime was reduced? These debates occur regularly, but to not have to occur. A criticality analysis drives improvements in the business by: [Read more…]

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Capital Asset Management: Setup part 3

What is added to the capital investment?

Your upfront capital investment must go beyond engineering, procurement and building costs. Additional activities that will need to be done that fit within the 2 – 3 % of capital cost figure are:

RCM analysis on the new design (preferably at both concept and detailed design phases so you can incorporate design change recommendations easily) [Read more…]

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How to Trick Operators (and everyone else)

What readers will learn in this article.

Operators cannot second-guess plant designer’s intent.
The plant designer is responsible of successful plant
operation.
Operators need true indications of plant conditions to
make the right decisions.
Select and locate sensors that provide foolproof
indication of plant operational status.

[Read more…]

by Doug Plucknette Leave a Comment

Hiring a Consultant? Choose Great Over Good!

A Simple Method To Ensure You Get the Best!

Several weeks ago a customer I worked with back in 2005 called me to ask some questions about a specific Root Cause Analysis process they were using as well as the facilitator they were working with. While I was familiar with the RCA process they were using I admitted to them I had never attended the formal training program offered by the company and while I did know the facilitator I had never seen him facilitate a formal RCA.

My customer then asks me a more difficult question; “Would you recommend we use this methodology as our select supplier for Root Cause Analysis training?” [Read more…]

by James Kovacevic 1 Comment

What is Criticality Analysis? How Does it Work?

Understanding the risks allow effective mitigation plans to be put in place

Where is your biggest risk to the site? If you can’t answer that, than your maintenance program is most likely not adequate. As previously discussed, an effective maintenance program must align with business and its needs. A criticality analysis allows the site to understand where there are risks that must be managed. [Read more…]

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Capital Asset Management: Setup — part 2

The rest of us are missing the boat!

Check out part 1, too.

RCM has two potential uses – to set you up for success or to regain success from the jaws of failure.
Regardless of when you use it though, RCM alone isn’t enough to get all the benefits. Applying it after the systems are in service, to recover shortfalls in performance, and then failing to follow up on RCM’s results only delivers part of the benefit. That’s where the aircraft and nuclear industries and the military have it right – they take those extra needed steps. The rest of us don’t! [Read more…]

by Mike Sondalini Leave a Comment

Preventative Maintenance Stops Breakdowns

Preventative maintenance stops breakdowns. Preventative Maintenance requires people to regularly walk around looking, feeling, listening, smelling (sometimes even tasting) and thinking about their equipment’s operating condition. The three foundations of classical Preventative Maintenance are regular lubrication checks, drive train monitoring and equipment mounting inspections.

Keywords: work order, inspection, watchkeeping, CMMS, computerised maintenance management system. [Read more…]

by Doug Plucknette Leave a Comment

10 Things You Can Do To Get More Enjoyment Out of Business Travel

Several weeks ago, I wrote an article titled the 10 Worst Things About Business Travel. Anyone who has traveled extensively for business will tell you that life on the road can become both mundane and exhausting. Run into me on my third week of travel in an airport, and I’m likely to be a touch grumpy. I’m ready to go home, spend time with my family and sleep in my bed.

After reading the article, a friend of mine asked me why I continue to travel for a living, “You could get a job at 50 different companies in Rochester, if the travel is so bad, why not stop?” [Read more…]

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Capital Asset Management: Setup — part 1

Plan to Get Capital Asset Management Right

This is the first of a three part series.

Except for a few industries where mistakes can have high costs in terms of human life or massive environmental impact most of us do a poor job of setting ourselves up for success. We build or acquire new capital assets making little or no provision for spare parts, training of maintainers and operators in new skills and knowledge. Most of us do a very poor job of providing technical documentation to the support disciplines – project engineering often simply files whatever it has gathered and often in a file scheme tied to contractor contract numbers rather than using the asset hierarchy that everyone else will use in one form or another. Commissioning activities rarely push the new assets hard enough – they ramp up slowly, almost gingerly, because so few really know much about how it all should work. They are unprepared for any semblance of normal operations. [Read more…]

by James Kovacevic Leave a Comment

Is Your Maintenance Program Aligned With The Business?

Providing the right level of service to production will ensure the profitability of the business.

Using a Business Needs Analysis will ensure that your maintenance program is on the same page as the goals of the business. Often times the two are not aligned, which leads to excess costs for the business, reducing the ability to be profitable. For example, does your operation require 99.9% reliability? It would be nice but that level of reliability is extremely difficult & costly to achieve. Think of the various industries that require that level of performance. NASA, the Armed Forces, Nuclear Power, etc. require 99.9% reliability and to achieve so, the effort in design and in operation is extremely intensive. [Read more…]

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Angular Contact Bearings

They are used on shafts that encounter axial forces or combined loads (both axial and radial forces). Examples are centrifugal and helical rotor pump shafts and helical and worm gear shafts in gearboxes. Their design only permits axial forces in one direction. For alternating axial loads they must be installed as a bearing set to accommodated the forces from both directions. When set back to back, and less so when set face to face, they act to stiffen the shaft and handle larger bending moments such as overhung components or high midpoint shaft loading.

Keywords: floating bearing, preload, clearance, tolerance. [Read more…]