Search Results for: Change Management

Lubrication Cleanliness & Filtration

When oil in gearboxes become contaminated there is a rapid loss of bearing operating life. It is critical that metal particles, dirt, sand, oxidisation products, etc be removed from the oil before they gouge and tear-up the finely toleranced machine parts. Oil replacement, contamination prevention and oil filtration are common practices religiously adopted by the best in the equipment reliability management business. This article explains the fine requirements for successful contamination control to insure long trouble- free equipment life. [Read more…]

by James Kovacevic Leave a Comment

SMRP18 – Power Monitoring with Alex Desselle

Condition-based monitoring is one of the best ways to proactively approach the solution to the problems. When you are looking at the equipment for expected failures, it is very important to check the power conditions. There are a lot of failures that can be captured ahead of time if you have the power quality checks in place. When we talk about Power monitoring, the maintenance managers have to look for voltage spikes, current flow, and thermal changes in the operating environment of the equipment. This can be done by using thermal sensors but there are specific solutions for doing it in efficient ways.
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by Doug Plucknette 1 Comment

10 Sure Signs That Safety Isn’t First

In nearly 40 years I’ve seen it all, from those who are proud to be the best to plant sites that are in such a deplorable state, you hope you get through the tour without some type of injury, fire or explosion.

The first thing I learned when I began providing Asset Management and Reliability Centered Maintenance services as a consultant was how lucky I was to have worked my first 19 years for a company who took Employee Health, Safety and Environment seriously. In that time, I don’t remember ever wondering if the people I worked with or the Managers I worked for considered Health, Safety and Environment as the top priority. It was stated almost every day and reinforced with every job we performed through lock-out, tag-out procedures.

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by Greg Hutchins Leave a Comment

Communication Failure: What to do?

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

“Communication failure” is an often cited reason for project failure or cancellation. All too often it is only recognised after the fact even though ‘poor communication’ will almost inevitably have been included on the risk register.

Communication is the transfer (and receipt) of the right data, information and knowledge to the right party(s), at the right time, in the right place, and in the right medium. Information provides the power to make the decisions that are needed to make a project successful and resolve and overcome difficulties.

Effective and efficient communication allows the right decisions to be made and the correct action to be taken. However, the conscious or unconscious spreading of misinformation is miscommunication and has the opposite effect. [Read more…]

by Doug Plucknette Leave a Comment

5 Common Questions on the IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things)

In continuing this year’s theme regarding common questions on relevant topics, today I have the 5 most common questions people have been asking me about the Industrial Internet of Things. Like every other article or Blog I have posted in the past I encourage you to all to jump into the conversation by asking questions or providing comments to my questions and answers. [Read more…]

by Mike Sondalini 1 Comment

Conductivity Meter Operation & Use

The electrical conductivity (and its opposite, resistivity) of water based solutions indicate its electrical current carrying ability. High conductivity occurs when many charged atoms and ions are in the water. This typically means the presence of dissolved metals, salts, acidic or alkali chemicals. Conductivity probes are used to measure the total level of charged particles present. This article explains how conductivity probes work and their application in boiler water treatment and management. [Read more…]

by James Kovacevic Leave a Comment

SMRP18 – Is It Time for a CRO with Allan Ross

Is It Time for a CRO with Allan Ross

It is a common practice in the organizations to spend money on the maintenance of the equipment. They bring in a lot of people on board to fix the machines and every time a failure occurs, the maintenance guys do a temporary fix, and on and on it goes. In this process of fixing machines, if the organizations paid as much attention to the reliability of the assets rather than divert all their resources towards maintenance side of things, they might finally have a sustainable maintenance and reliability program. Maintenance and Reliability go hand in hand. You can’t just focus on maintenance alone.
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by Greg Hutchins Leave a Comment

Was BP’s Catastrophe in the Gulf a Defining Moment for the Oil Industry?

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

1. Introduction

The BP Deepwater Horizon catastrophe cast a shadow on the oil industry and its senior executives. Has the industry learned its lessons or will it be forced to repeat the same mistakes over and over again? Oil company executives and board members should have seen the Deepwater Horizon event is as a wake-up call for the industry. [Read more…]

by James Kovacevic Leave a Comment

SMRP18 – Planning and Scheduling with Jeff Shiver

Planning and Scheduling with Jeff Shiver

Planning and scheduling is a term often used in the organizations. It might be used together but there is a difference in ‘planning’ and ‘scheduling’. Planning is when you determine what jobs you have to do, develop a procedure to execute the job, assign resources, and then utilize those resources in the best way possible. Only when you have successfully planned a work-order, you can decide when to do it in the scheduling part. So both the processes go together and one can’t be completed successfully without the other. Only scheduling something is not going to help you successfully implement it.
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by James Kovacevic Leave a Comment

135 – Implementing a CMMS with Jeff O’Brien

Implementing a CMMS with Jeff O’Brien

When an organization decides to replace or transition all of their storage data onto a CMMS, it is not just about making the work easier and efficient. You can’t just buy a software online and the expect it to solve your maintenance issues and reduce cost. CMMS is just a tool to improve your work order by properly integrating it with your current data systems and then plan your work so that you would not have to make uninformed decisions anymore. You will have all the data to help you make an intelligent decision, save time, and reduce your maintenance cost in the end.
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by Christopher Jackson Leave a Comment

Your organization sucks at reliability if (#1) … it could be on ‘that’ Fatboy Slim album cover.

Alright … this needs a lot of context. English electronic music artist ‘Fatboy Slim’ released his ‘You’ve come a Long Way, Baby’ album in 1998. Its cover art was a photograph of an attendee at the 1983 ‘Fat People’s Festival’ in Danville, Virginia. And perhaps due to its ‘heritage,’ the album’s cover was changed to an image of a bookshelf for North American listeners. But the rest of the world got to bask in its magnificence.

So what is particular about this photograph? The subject is a larger than average human (as you would expect noting where it was taken). And he is wearing a shirt emblazoned:

I’m #1 so why try harder?

I am not writing this as a commentary on human value versus instinctive stereotypes. Far from it. There are plenty of people who are ‘better than all others at something’ that do not have sleek chiseled physiques. [Read more…]

by Doug Plucknette Leave a Comment

How To Create An Environment of Innovation

I found myself seated next to a corporate executive in a recent flight out of Atlanta, while I was attempting to read a book, he was yammering away on his cell phone about quarterly results and the need for a reduction in head count. Hearing this, my hopes of becoming engrossed in a good book was now over. Now I’m just upset at how some folks seem to make life changing decisions with such little regard or emotion. [Read more…]

by Doug Plucknette Leave a Comment

Reliability Centered Everything?

I get mad at Stan Nowlan and Howard Heap from time to time. Twenty years ago their work titled Reliability Centered Maintenance became the focus of my life when I first discovered the impact that RCM could have on manufacturing reliability. Since that time, I have authored somewhere around fifty articles on the subject, been a featured speaker at nearly three conferences a year and several years ago I even completed a book on the subject, describing what I see as the most effective way to complete a RCM analysis as well as the impact it can have on equipment and process reliability (Reliability Centered Maintenance using RCM Blitz™). For those who have taken the time to become educated in what a good RCM analysis is all about, they know power of this tool and where it applies. I know from experience, Reliability Centered Maintenance can and will deliver incredible results. [Read more…]

by Greg Hutchins Leave a Comment

Ugly Communications

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

Good communication; the effective and efficient issue and receipt of the right information, by the right parties, at the right time, and in the right medium allowing both timely responses and decisions. It’s easy on paper and in theory but oftentimes the ‘noise’ in the communication channels are blamed for ‘bad’ communication. [Read more…]

by Greg Hutchins Leave a Comment

Risk Modeling and Business Continuity

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

Risk modeling is a useful tool for business continuity managers, but over-reliance and flawed approaches can create difficulties.

Introduction

Fundamental uncertainties derive from our fragmentary understanding of risk and complex system dynamics and interdependencies. Abundant stochastic variation in risk parameters further exacerbates the ability to clearly assess uncertainties. [Read more…]