There are many internal & external pressures on our operations. Many we don’t even think about, or are even aware of. These pressures greatly influence our ability to be profitable, and therefore sustainable. Being aware of these pressures & barriers will allow us to head them off and ensure our profitability.

I remember when I was unexpectedly asked to cut my maintenance staff by 30%. What I wasn’t aware of was one of the largest external pressures, the shareholders. They were not impressed by the returns and demanded immediate action. [Read more…]

by Mike Sondalini Leave a Comment

Maintenance Planning– Make your Planner successful!

The efficient use of men, materials and external resources requires coordination and preparation.

When a job starts everything needed to do the job must be at hand and must be right to use. The maintenance planner does the preparation required prior to the start of a job.

The planner’s focus is to prepare everything needed to execute a job through to its successful completion and have it ready and on-hand before the job starts.

How well the planning job is done directly affects how efficiently the men do the work and how long it takes for it to be done.

Keywords: job scheduling, breakdown work. [Read more…]

by James Kovacevic Leave a Comment

Are You Struggling with Reliability & Maintenance?

If you are like me, then you have at least once found yourself struggling with Reliability & Maintenance(R&M) in a plant. Whether you are trying to implement planning & scheduling, manage spare parts or develop effective PMs, it can be frustrating. Not to mention how difficult it is to tie all of the different pieces together and making it stick.

The intention of this blog and website is to provide information on not only the different parts of a R&M program, but how they all tie together. This is what separates the profitable manufacturers from the ones that close. Preventing these closures is what High Performance Reliability and myself want to do. [Read more…]

by Mike Sondalini Leave a Comment

Making a World-Class Asset Management Organization?

The very best asset managers have maintenance under control.

Their entire organization’s systems and methods are tuned to preventing unplanned stoppages. They only do that which has first been thought through and prepared for.

But most importantly they understand the key factor to excellent asset care and work toward it continuously and energetically.

Keywords: preventative maintenance, reliability-centered maintenance, RCM, total productive maintenance, TPM. [Read more…]

by Mike Sondalini 2 Comments

Preheating Welds

Weld preheating is the purposeful application of heat to warm metal to a desired temperature prior to welding.

Preheating slows down the cooling rate of the weld and gives the metal more time to form a good microstructure, release internal stresses and dissipate hydrogen from the weld.

Keywords: thickness, weld puddle, cooling rate, temperature. [Read more…]

by Mike Sondalini 2 Comments

The Connection Between Nut Torque and Bolt Tension

(Why threads strip and bolts break)

When a bolt and nut is tightened to draw the bolt head and nut together it stretches the shank, deforms the threads and loads the object trapped between the bolt head and nut.

The bolt shank acts like a spring being pulled apart and it tries to return to its unloaded condition.

The amount of tension developed in the shank is dependent on the number of turns of the nut.

The size of the torque required to turn the nut has little to do with the tension applied to the bolt shank.

Rather the amount of torque needed to turn the nut reflects the slipperiness of the threads.

Keywords: bolt tension, yield stress, the coefficient of friction.

[Read more…]

by Mike Sondalini 7 Comments

Experiences with Belt Bucket Elevators

This article covers some of the problems that can occur with bucket elevators and provides possible remedies.

Bucket elevators lift bulk materials from one level to another.

They are used on powders, granules, grain, chip shaped products and lumpy materials.

They function well when designed properly for the duty, and used as designed. [Read more…]

by Mike Sondalini 3 Comments

The Importance of Fit, Tolerance & Clearance

Many equipment breakdowns and stoppages occur because of improper clearance between holes and shafts.

The shaft is too tight in the hole; the center of the hole is not at the center of the shaft making it off-center; one part is loose on another and slips out of place or does not seal as it should. [Read more…]

by James Reyes-Picknell Leave a Comment

Entropy and Maintenance

Entropy is a thermodynamic concept that represents chaos and degradation. It occurs naturally in any physical system and will naturally grow (i.e.: become more chaotic) if we don’t do something to arrest its growth. Doing something requires the expenditure of energy, so energy is what counters entropy. We don’t speak of these thermodynamic terms and concepts in everyday language and conversation, but they are at work behind the scenes. We are well advised to remain aware of them and act accordingly or nature will steadily and relentlessly increase the state of chaos in which we exist. [Read more…]

by Mike Sondalini Leave a Comment

Keep Gearboxes Running

A gearbox is used to control the operating speed of industrial equipment.

It converts a high input speed to a lower output speed and so permits one driver element, such as an electric motor, to do numerous duties.

Failure of the gearbox causes the equipment and associated plant to stop.

Proper selection, care, and maintenance of gearboxes is critical to your company’s continued profitability. [Read more…]

by James Reyes-Picknell Leave a Comment

Economic Considerations

Our simple 3 legged stool model from part 1 will deliver high performance at low cost and risk – i.e.: high productivity. It is important however to keep the legs intact! Doing so requires a bit of investment. In thermodynamic terms we need to put some energy into the system to keep the entropy from growing. That energy is investment in maintenance and the payoff comes in the form of steady, predictable revenues with a high margin for profit. Those words should be music to accountants’ ears. [Read more…]

by Mike Sondalini Leave a Comment

Corrosion in Agitated Conditions

Chemical corrosion occurs at increased rates in agitated conditions.

Typical iso-corrosion curves for alloy metals no longer apply. These curves only show corrosion rates at various chemical concentrations and temperatures in stagnant conditions.

A typical curve is shown below. The curves are available from alloy metal suppliers on request.

When metals are selected for agitated corrosive conditions the curves can only be used in a relative sense.

They help grade the metal selection but they cannot provide absolute corrosion rates. [Read more…]

by James Reyes-Picknell 1 Comment

Fundamentals

We all want high productivity – maximum output for the least input, the most blast for our buck! We know that high payback will entail a level of risk, but again, we want to minimize our downside risks and maximize the opportunities that may be available to us. We need practical ways to achieve this. Good Capital Asset Management™ will deliver that – how? Well, here’s a simplified scientific explanation of how that works. [Read more…]

by Mike Sondalini 2 Comments

Benchmarking using Replacement Asset Value

A benchmark is the end distance point from the start.

In the world of maintenance, it is the name for the targets that an organization sets for itself in an improvement program.

Benchmarking is often against world-best practice and it is used to provide direction and focus in an organization’s efforts to improve.

When RAV is chosen as the benchmark it means that the annual cost of maintaining the plant will be measured against the value of the plant.

RAV is a percentage of the cost to replace the plant. The lower the RAV the more effective the maintenance effort. [Read more…]

by James Reyes-Picknell 1 Comment

Maintenance and Finance – Similar Roles of Sustaining the Assets of our Companies

Let me first say that this is not a slam against accountants or the accounting profession. This is intended to help put what they do in perspective and to show the similarity of what they do with what we, as maintainers, do. [Read more…]