Articles

Find all articles across all article series listed in reverse chronological order.

The “new normal” can be much better

The “new normal” can be much better if we choose. Why go back to the same-old, same-old?

As we emerge from the 2020 pandemic and all the measures to contain it, your workforce will be returning to a “new normal”. What’s that? None of us really knows the details, but aside from being a cool phrase, it means being smarter and doing things differently with a great deal of awareness about disease transmission. Keeping our distance, wearing masks when ill, avoiding crowded venues, and patiently waiting for vaccines, will be a part of it, but what else will characterize the “new normal”?

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by Carl S. Carlson Leave a Comment

Facilitation Skill #3: Asking Probing Questions

FMEA facilitators can generate deep discussion and stimulate creative ideas by asking probing questions.

“A good question is never answered. It is not a bolt to be tightened into place but a seed to be planted and to bear more seed toward the hope of greening the landscape of idea.” – John Ciardi

The Oxford English dictionary defines “probe” as “seek to uncover information about something.” [Read more…]

by Steven Wachs Leave a Comment

Where do the Typical Control Chart Signals Come From?

The purpose of control charting is to regularly monitor a process so that significant process changes may be detected. These process changes may be a shift in the process average (Xbar) or a change in the amount of variation in the process. The variation observed when the process is operating normally is called common cause variation. When a process change occurs, then special cause variation occurs. [Read more…]

by George Williams Leave a Comment

Deeper Dive into AMS

This video provides a more in depth understanding of Asset Management Systems.

Questions About Coefficient of Friction in Fasteners

I recently received an interesting LI inquiry that I felt others could learn from the answers that I was able to get. This is not my expertise so I sought out answers from some colleagues who were more familiar with fasteners.

Here is the original inquiry (translated from Portuguese so I hope Google Translator did a good job):

“I would like to know if you can help me clarify my doubts about:

The purpose of conducting a study of the coefficients of friction in screws, threads and nuts?
Is there an accurate standard for such testing?
What methods can be perfected in projects that target this type of trial and application?
Can surface treatments influence changes in results?
Who is responsible for such testing (the manufacturers and suppliers of raw materials, the assembler and/or its various final assembly applications)?

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by Doug Lehr Leave a Comment

Failure Analysis – Informational Needs

In failure analysis, the collection of information is a tedious but necessary step that determines success in the root cause analysis (RCA), simulation, and mitigation phases. In Article 2, the SME identified five areas of possible root causes for the SP failure, further explained in Table 1.

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by James Kovacevic Leave a Comment

The Importance of Documentation in Precision Maintenance

Why Proper Documentation Will Lead to Sustainable Improvements

Imagine being able to look back and see what settings the equipment was last ran at for a particular SKU. Or being able to look back at the last three alignment inspections and see that slowly the alignment is drifting. What could you do with this type of information? You could perform Root Cause Analysis to see why the alignment is drifting, or trend the drifting to know when it will be out of acceptable tolerances.

Having the right information is critical to making informed decisions and driving systematic improvements in the performance of the equipment. This information is typically captured in a report or work order and should be linked to the asset and easily searchable. However, most organizations that I have worked with do not record the right information, which would allow them to make informed decisions. This documentation is a critical piece in precision maintenance, so what is required for documentation? [Read more…]

by Greg Hutchins Leave a Comment

Schedule Risk is a Major Reason for Project Failures

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

Studies show most projects fail due to poor management of known risks. The known risks on a project are:

Scope.
Schedule.
Cost.
Quality.

How to minimize the schedule risk on a project is addressed in this paper. The approach to do this is based on my 30 years of project and project risk management experience and knowledge.

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by James Reyes-Picknell Leave a Comment

Maintenance and Reliability Maturity – 2

In part 1 of this 2 part series, “Maintenance and Reliability Maturity”, I point out that achieving the maximum value from your physical assets will require excellence in 2 main dimensions, efficiency, and effectiveness. Those are described more fully in our recent book, “Paying Your Way“. I also promised a Maintenance and Reliability Maturity Assessment tool. That tool is now available to you, our readers.

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by Larry George Leave a Comment

Help! They Lost the Data

What can we do without reliability function estimates? FMEA? FTA? RCA? RCM? Argue about MTBFs and availability? Weibull? Keep a low profile? Run Admirals’ tests? Look for a new, well-funded project far from the deliverable stage?

Ask for field data; there should be enough to estimate reliability and make reliability-based decisions, even if some data are missing. Field data might even be population data!

[Read more…]

by Steven Wachs Leave a Comment

Ten Ways to Improve Your Measurement Systems Assessments

Why Measurement Systems Assessment (MSA)?

Effective use of data to drive decision making requires adequate measurement systems. For example, when implementing statistical process control charts, we assume that a signal represents a significant change in the process and we react as such. However, inadequate measurement systems may result in inappropriate signals or even worse, charts that fail to detect important process changes. Thus, it is incumbent upon us to ensure that measurement systems are adequate for their intended use via proper assessments prior to their use. Only capable measurement systems should be utilized in data based methods such as Statistical Process Control, Design of Experiments, Inspection activities, etc. [Read more…]

by George Williams Leave a Comment

7 Steps of Clean, Inspect, & Lubricate

Through daily inspections, cleaning, and lubrication practices we can measure, prevent, and restore deterioration to our equipment. The expectation is that a team is put together made up of maintenance, operations, and leadership employees to roll out strategy beginning with one piece of equipment. They will implement the following 7 steps:

Initial Cleaning
Eliminate sources of dirt and hard to clean & inspect areas
Create and maintain cleaning, inspection and lubrication standards
General Inspection
Operator Inspection
Activities standardized
Team Development and Operator Driven Reliability

Recognizing Basic Gear Fatigue Failure Patterns

Lets start with a fresher on general Component Fatigue.

Fatigue occurs when a material is subjected to repeated loading and unloading.
When the loads are above a certain threshold, microscopic cracks will begin to form at a material’s surface.
Cracks always begin in high stressed areas of a material.
Eventually a crack will reach a critical size, and the structure will suddenly fracture.

[Read more…]

by Doug Plucknette Leave a Comment

Allowing Wrong To Become Normal

I’ve seen it twice this year and it concerns me. In twenty years of working with companies to improve manufacturing reliability I would like to believe that those of us who care are leaving a mark. It’s the days I’m about to describe that make you wonder.

I created RCM Blitz™ over twenty years ago as a tool that would help companies identify a complete maintenance strategy to improve and achieve the inherent designed reliability of their critical assets. Prior to entering the world of consulting, I had completed and implemented several RCM (Reliability Centered Maintenance) analyses on critical assets at Eastman Kodak company. With each analysis we completed, I gained knowledge and confidence that the process when adhered to and implemented, could improve the reliability of even our worst assets. In the same two years of proving the process I also learned something very important.

[Read more…]

by James Kovacevic Leave a Comment

Learn to Speak Finance

The Key To Gaining The Ear Of Your Executives

As a maintenance professional, you spend a lot of time explaining how a proper maintenance & reliability program will improve uptime, safety, etc. But why is it that there is a hard time gaining support for the improvement initiatives? Well, senior executives are focused on how the company is being a measure of performance from the shareholders, financial analysts, or owners. Most of these measures are financial in nature, and while there are others, the primary measures are financial. [Read more…]