June 08, 2006
Electrical Inspection Tip
Pre-infrared scan inspection
Avoid possible arc flash situation by taking the load off of electrical cabinets and inspecting the components for possible problems.
Loose or broken wires, signs of arcing or flashing, animals or bug nests, loose components such as breakers, transformers etc., a pre inspection could save your life.
Reader Tip provided by Jim Barker, Maintenance Technician, Phelps Dodge, Morenci Arizona
Thanks Jim - your Maintenance-Tips hat is on the way!
June 08, 2006
Maintenance and Management Tech Tip
The most common methods that Reliability and Maintenance (R&M) personnel use for justifying recommendations and needs is cost avoidance and simple payback. Individual findings reported by these R&M groups are often presented as over-conservative numbers as R&M technicians often become concerned and cautious about the high calculated values. As a result, significant findings that can have a positive financial impact on business and operations are ignored as decision-makers, who may deal with values far more significant that those reported, have to make financial risk-based decisions. Technicians, in the meantime, often end up frustrated with management because the decision makes common sense to them and they cannot comprehend why management cannot see the importance of the recommendation or request.
Tip provided by Howard W. Penrose, Ph.D., CMRP, SUCCESS by DESIGN
June 01, 2006
Change Management Tip
• Culture change is an essential part of what we do and who we are
• Without change we stagnate and die – as companies and as individuals
• With change – we are able to constantly renew ourselves and continuously improve
• Change is not easy
• Change takes persistence, commitment and a good sense of timing
• Change requires an overriding desire to do what is right, often in the faced of insurmountable odds
• Your motto needs to be “never give up trying” because once you do – all is lost
• Then one day you will find you have reached the mountain top and successfully achieved the changes you sought to implement
• And on the horizon, I guarantee that you will find another mountain because the journey of the change agent never ends
Tip from “Improving Maintenance & Reliability Through Cultural Change” by Steven J. Thomas, published by Industrial Press ISBN083113190X
June 01, 2006
Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) Tip
RCM analyses are best conducted at off site locations that allow the RCM team to focus on completing the task at hand. Interruptions for day to day plant issues slow the progress of the RCM analysis and often disrupt the entire team. If the expense of off site rooms is an issue with your plant you need to learn to be creative. I have conducted RCM analyses in Fire Halls, Legion Halls, Town Halls and Elk Lodges. We have even arranged to have other local companies share conference rooms at no expense. One of the great values of having a Reliability Centered Maintenance culture is the learning that there is a solution to every problem.
Tip provided by Doug Plucknette
Reliability Solutions
Tel: 585-349-7245
http://www.reliabilitysolution.com
June 01, 2006
3 Courses on CD by Maintenance Expert Terry Wireman
Effective maintenance and reliability professionals use continuous training to acquire new knowledge and skill sets. MasteringMaintenance.com offers a body of knowledge that allows you to prosper in today’s world of increased performance requirement with fewer resources.
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Courses by Terry Wireman include:
• Achieving Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) - by Terry Wireman CPMM
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• Developing Key Performance Indicators - by Terry Wireman, CPMM
For more details please call toll free (888) 575-1245 ext 118 or email
Learn more and watch a preview for each course online
June 01, 2006
Maintenance Planning Tip
3 KPIs Everyone Needs to Know for Planning Maintenance Work whether you have a planner or not
KPIs or Key Performance Indicators are indicators which are “key” to measuring some element of your maintenance function against known “Best Practices”. In the Planning Element of maintenance you need to measure specific task to ensure your planning element provides what is required no matter the level of planning and scheduling you are currently operating. If you do not currently have planner/schedulers you will still need to monitor these KPIs. These KPIs will increase maintenance work efficiency and thus will result in reduced scheduled and unscheduled downtime.
KPI #1: “Percent of On-time Delivery by All Vendors” – The definition is self explanatory and you will want all vendor %s combined in order to calculate this number (KPI). If this specific KPI percentage is below 99% then you will need to look at the % of On-time delivery by specific vendors. (on time means 1 minute late is late no excuses however the time delivered must be agreed upon by vendor and person needing the part) Typically 20% of your vendors cause 80% of your problems. This one KPI will have a big impact on the execution of on time maintenance work. Vendors do not like this KPI but who cares. You have to run a business.
KPI #2: “% of time the Right Part or Item is Delivered as Ordered” (no substitutions unless agreed upon by person needing the part or item). This definition is also self explanatory and you will want all vendor %s combined in order to calculate this number (KPI). If this specific KPI percentage is below 100% then you will need to look at the % for each specific vendor, identifying the source of your problem. Less than 100% is unacceptable from your vendors.
KPI #3: “% of Planned Work for the Week with Job Plans”. This KPI is important because if you do not have job plans (work procedures, specifications, tools, etc) then you will never have consistency in your work execution and equipment breakdowns will never drop to the level production requires without spending a lot of money to provide you the capacity production needs. In case you are not aware, 70-80% of equipment failures are self induced. Maintenance work execution is the source of many of these self induced failures.
Remember these KPIs are measurements of “Best Practices” which have been demonstrated by the best companies in the world. I mentioned earlier these KPIs do not require you to have planner/schedulers in place in order to measure them. Someone is planning work in all maintenance departments, how efficient and effective maintenance work planning is being executed may be another question.
Tip provided by Sam Slade
Please post Planning & Scheduling questions at MaintenanceForums.com
June 01, 2006
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June 01, 2006
Reliability Improvement Tips
Leading an improvement project for maintenance and reliability can be tricky business. Avoid some of the common mistakes such as:
“Part-Timing” the project - working on an important project in your “spare time” is sure way to make sure it will not gain traction any time soon. You had a full time job prior to the improvement project. For best results - dedicated a full time effort to the project.
Lack of a clearly defined leader - With endless meetings, consultant visits, training sessions, posters and banners, many projects fail simply because they fail define a leader who sets direction, steers progress and takes full responsibility for the result.
Attempting global change - Do not bite off more that you can chew. Remember - most organizations are perfectly designed to resist change. Start small in a clearly defined area and demonstrate the benefit of your improvement project on one system with one group of people. Everyone loves a winner and success begets more success. Soon after your first success, you will begin to gets request from other areas of the plant to start the next phase of the project in their area.
Failing to go global - after you demonstrate the initial success of your improvement project - drive it hard throughout the rest of the organization to gain the true benefit. If your vibration analysis program is only applied to 5% of the potential monitoring points it will not deliver the true rewards that are possible.
Exaggerating your gains - saves are great - but an event that never happened does not show up on the Profit and Loss statement. Avoided costs can be easily exaggerated. Be careful to align our program measurements with the ones that have the most meaning in your company like increased availability, reduced scrap, lower maintenance cost, lower spares cost and possibly actual energy savings.
Failing to use technology - index cards, spreadsheets, visual tracking boards and other manual systems can work fine however do not overlook opportunities to deploy technology to make everyone’s job easier and better.
Tip provided by Terrence O’Hanlon, CMRP
June 01, 2006
Motor Testing Tip
Determining MCA Test Frequencies for PdM
Nowlan and Heap, in the 1976 document “Reliability-Centered Maintenance,” identified the optimum frequency for condition-based testing as one half the point of detection to the point of failure. This means that if you can detect a winding short six months prior the short actually occurring, you would select half of that time with a result of three months. Therefore, in that instance, the optimum time would be quarterly testing.
In all cases, periodic testing involves some level of risk. This means that in equipment that has less of an impact on safety, operations or has a low repair/replace cost can either be tested less frequently, if at all. In the case where the equipment has a significant impact, testing would be performed at least at the optimum frequency.
The operating environment, number of starts and stops and other issues all have an impact on the time of failure detection. As a result, they must also be considered, as well as the history of types of faults in the type of machine.
So, if a machine has a history of winding contamination and that can be detected with MCA six months in advance, it is a critical machine that will impact operations, and is operating in a relatively clean environment (indoors), then it may be tested at least quarterly. Because this case is winding contamination, and there is potential corrective action that may be taken (clean, dip and bake), it may be determined to evaluate the machine every 1-2 months. If, however, the same motor is determined to have a problem with developing winding shorts, evaluating it every 2-3 months may be satisfactory because the only action on a developing winding short is rewind or replacement.
Tip provided by ALL-TEST Pro, LLC
http://www.alltestpro.com
Tel: 860.395.2988
