The 21st International Maintenance Conference
“Manufacturing & Process Reliability”
December 5-8, 2006 - Daytona Beach Florida

IMC-2006 includes practitioner delivered real world reliability case studies by Alcoa, Kennecott, Seminole Electric, Johns Manville, Praxair, Invista, Southern Company, Timken, Eastman Chemical, American Airlines, BP, Suncor, Nova Chemical, Saint-Gobain, GE, Coors, US Air Force, Chevron and more.

If you prefer to learn from your peers, these presenters share the solutions they used for the same issues you face on a daily basis.

You can also register for workshops by subject matter experts like Ron Moore, John Mitchell, Terry Wireman, Joel Levitt and Steve Thomas.

Watch for full program details in the next issue of Uptime Magazine.

Massive discounts apply for early bird, group or International registrations. Please call toll free (888) 575 1245 or…

Request a brochure at the IMC-2006 Web Site

In the “old school view” of human error they believed that there were a few “bad apples” in good systems that led to failures.

In the “new school” train of thought we now believe that we have good people in bad systems that result in such failures. Human error is merely a symptom of deeper, more underlying systemic causes.

Tip provided by Reliability Center Inc.
http://www.reliability.com

In short, human error is not the conclusion of an investigation but the starting point.

“Human Reliability. We break down just like machines“ (PDF)

By Joel Levitt

Is your maintenance program stuck in low gear? Are you interested in a common sense approach to improve your maintenance activities? Join Joel Levitt, one of today’s leading maintenance trainers as he reveals 20 steps to world class maintenance in this 2 part lecture series.

This audio program traces the road from reactive to proactive maintenance strategy. It is designed for maintenance managers, supervisors and support staff. Organizations frequently use this narration to introduce maintenance concepts to top management, production, purchasing, accounting and stores.

World class maintenance departments are so good at maintenance that they contribute to the effectiveness of the overall organization.

Track 1: Why human nature works against good maintenance practices. Maintenance supports the productive output of the organization. Control of maintenance more effectively supports the customer, limits catastrophes and cuts costs. The first step to world class maintenance is when top management realizes the importance of maintenance to the overall goals of the organization. Other steps covered on this side are mission statement in maintenance, constancy of purpose, patience, customer focus, pro-activity, root cause analysis

Track 2: Team concept, fading of inter-departmental barriers, bring the maintenance user into the department, cross training, continual retraining, people rather then technology, people before economic results, run experiments, statistical tools, self motivated crew.

In stock for immediate delivery. Click here to order

Today’s environment in some cases has trimmed maintenance staffing to below minimum staffing requirements. We are trying to “do more with less”. Here are a couple of simple tips that can help re-vitalize a maintenance team without spending a bunch of money or going out of your way.

1) Surprise your group with something as simple as a 5/1 screwdriver to reward your team for their hard work. Doesn’t seem like much but the acknowledgment of a job well done goes a long way. Include your less ambitious employee, this could be a good way to get them on board with your mission.

2) As a supervisor; occasionally take a break from your busy day to actually go out to the job site or to the shop and see if you can do anything for your maintenance techs. Top it off with a cold sports drink, they will appreciate the fact that you were concerned enough about them to stop in the middle of your many administrative tasks.

When your maintenance staff realizes you are human and care about more than “how much longer” or “have you finished all your jobs”, you will find that productivity increases.

Reader Tip provided by Martin Ford. CMMS Administrator/Maintenance Supervisor, USEC Inc., Piketon, OH

Thanks Martin - your Maintenance-Tips hat is on the way!

More Maintenance Tips

A few weeks ago you published a tip about hydraulic cylinder piston seals. (A popular misconception about hydraulic cylinders is that if the piston seal is leaking, the cylinder can creep down.) Piston seal leakage can be tested by plugging the cap end port, and applying compressed air or hydraulic fluid to the rod end port. (Note - Use the medium the system is designed to use - seals for hydraulic applications may be different then seals for pneumatic applications. Also,observe system operating pressure limits to prevent overpressure)

If the seals are leaking enough for the rod to move under load, the rod should EXTEND during this test. (This is because of the difference between piston area exposed to pressure - the rod side has less surface area, therefore net force applied is smaller.) Because the rod doesn’t move may not eliminate bad piston seals, but if the rod DOES move outward, the seals are bypassing.

Reader tip provided by Edward Allen, CFPS, Assistant Manager - Maintenance, Six Flags Great Adventure, Jackson NJ

Thanks Edward - your Maintenance-Tips hat is on the way.

Revisit the original Tip with comments to date

As SMRP metrics are published, they are made available for viewing and download. Each of the metrics is mapped to the SMRP Body of Knowledge (BoK), The numbering system used for the metrics corresponds to the major subject area within the BoK.

Published Metrics include:

1.4 Stocked MRO Inventory Value as a Percent of RAV

1.5 Annual Maintenance Cost as a Percent of RAV

3.2 Total Downtime

3.3 Scheduled Downtime

3.4 Unscheduled Downtime

4.1 Rework *NEW*

Download SMRP Best Practice Metrics

Don’t take ISO 9001 registrations of your vendors as a cure-all.

Many people procuring materials from ISO 9000 registered vendors often assume that the ISO registration “guarantees” a very good product. This is not always true. A company with a ISO 9000 registration has the basis (i.e., foundation) for starting out with making a quality product. But the ISO registration is not the final answer or the “paper” that covers everything. A quality system has to be implemented correctly each day, which requires attention to detail by the supplier’s employees and managers. These are the critical actions that must be executed beyond the ISO registration. The buyer should check these things out, such as through vendor qualifications and surveillances.

Reader Tip provided by Catherine French, Certified Quality Engineer and Auditor (American Society for Quality), Los Alamos NM

Thanks Catherine - Your Maintenance Tips hat is on the way!

Learn more about the American Society for Quality

I would like to respond to Mr. Cannatelli. Especially since he quoted me.

The Challenge of Maintenance

I agree all departments, personnel, manager, supervisors and corporate staff should have the usability of assets in the future as a consideration. I wouldn’t be in maintenance if I didn’t believe that. However, that IS NOT WHAT IS GOING ON. People focus on the right now. As Janet Jackson sings “What have you done for me lately!”

This is the challenge of production. If you don’t satisfy the customer today then you will not have them tomorrow. The customer wants it now. Have you ever left one store because they did not have an item, drive across the street and buy it at a different store?

Revenue is the driver of the facility. How do we maximize the return of the shareholders assets? I have seen some maintenance departments that stop doing preventative and predictive maintenance. This lowers costs in the short term. The maintenance manager, production manager and plant manager get promoted in three years due to their significant revenue increases and the next leadership inherits significant problems because the equipment is falling apart.

I have seen production refuse to give up equipment to maintenance due to production needs. Maintenance allows this to happen. The plant leadership allows this to happen. Why? Because they want and need to satisfy today’s customer in order to maximize revenue today. In addition, maintenance has not described how the return on investment (yes ROI) works to production. Maintenance is ill suited to give this description. We can say that if we do this the machine will be better. Unfortunately that logic is not understandable to production. By giving the equipment up for maintenance how many more products will production be able to produce over what they could produce if they didn’t give it up. This is the question maintenance has to answer.

Why would production want to change? Why would the plant leadership want to change? The customer wants it and he wants it now. This is how production is measured and plant managers are measured. This is what drives the revenue. The only way they will change is if Maintenance shows them the value of changing and with investment in maintenance they can better serve the customer now and tomorrow. This is the challenge of maintenance.

What is the Purpose of Maintenance? (read this entire thread)