The Enterprise Asset Management Summit
April 3-6, 2007
Sheraton Waikiki Honolulu Hawaii

Workshop 11

Maintenance Planning and Scheduling by Joel Levitt, Author, Managing Factory Maintenance

Well-planned, properly scheduled, and effectively communicated jobs accomplish more work, more efficiently, and at a lower cost. This work will disturb operations less frequently, and be accomplished with higher quality, greater job satisfaction, and higher organizational morale than jobs performed without proper preparation.

Maintenance Planning and Scheduling focuses on and deals specifically with the preparatory tasks that lead to effective utilization and application of maintenance resources. It is a vital training document for planners, an educational document for those to whom planners are responsible, and a valuable guide for those who interface with the planning and scheduling function and are dependent upon the many contributions of planning and scheduling operational excellence.

The Workshop:

• Addresses maintenance management, performance, and control

• Clarifies the scope, responsibilities and contributions of the Planner/Scheduler function and the support of other functions to Job Preparation, Execution, and Completion

• Covers the basics commonly contained within world-class programs for effective execution of maintenance work: planning, parts acquisition, work measurement, coordination and scheduling

• Aids organizations that pursue Maintenance Excellence that state of maintenance management and performance that effectively applies the leading edge policies, procedures, systems, structures, methods, and technologies to maintenance

Seating is limited so register early. Early bird hotel discounts end March 1.

Call +1 (305) 735-3746 or…

Find out more about workshops and case studies at the EAM-2007 web site

In the absence of a much more expensive ultrasonic flaw detector, I am inspecting steering pins and shaft ends for cracks using a UT thickness tester. The theory was that the UT wave will bounce back from a crack if present as opposed to the end of the pin or shaft, as expected. The tester will show the correct pin or shaft length (or no readings if longer than the tester limitation) if there are no cracks.

I have used this very successfully to find several cracked steering pins before catastrophic failure. The limitation with using only a simple straight probe is that I can only scan the area of the smallest diameter and cannot address diameter changes (for example the taper of our pins or step ups on a shaft). Typically the cracks will propagate into the area that I can “see” before complete failure.

Not a replacement for a proper UT flaw detector or better probes but a cheaper, albeit rougher, alternative as long as the limitations are understood.

Tip provided by Kevin Byrne
Reliability Engineer
Wabush Mines
Newfoundland and Labrador
Canada

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

Submit your own Maintenance Tip here

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Find Out More About Lawson EAM

Typically recommendations from Root Cause Analyses (RCA) are not seen as urgent when placed in the Computerized Maintenance Management Systems (CMMS) queue.

Therefore when it comes to prioritizing needs and resources, the RCA recommendations tend to sit on the back burner. If an organization is going to get the most from their intellectual capital that went into an RCA, then they will have to modify their current reactive systems to accommodate recommendations from an RCA.

This may mean initially allocating a small % (10% – 15%) of their available resources to handling RCA recommendations as if they were an “E” ticket (Emergency). This is the only way to break out of the reactive rut that is consistent with short-term thinking

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

Download the Root Cause Analysis Benchmarking Report

Our fairly new PDM department has been shooting infrared, effectively for 6 months. We also have the equipment and training for Vibration. We are also looking into Airborne Ultrasonic devices and Oil Analysis. As far as infrared is concerned…

Tip 1 is “Plan the work and work the Plan...do quality shoots and be patient ...downtime goes down.”
In the case of infrared ..we layout the route of equipment to be shot and accumulate the information in a data base as you shoot it. After shooting 3500 files of infrared information on a small percentage of our most important equipment, We have learned to drop off Monthly shooting of some equipment and change it to Quarterly. This allows us to gradually pick up new areas to shoot as our original areas have been repaired.
Our records of Thermal problems started with around 5% of equipment that we shot and has slowed to 2% or less on that same equipment. Our downtime goals for mechanical is floating downward toward 2%. Plant wide.

Tip 2 is “...shoot infrared 80% of the time on 20%of your most important equipment,...This should coincide with your planned layout.

Tip 3 is “...Show cost savings to plant...We accomplish this by showing 1st level of cost of repair, parts and labor, 2nd level includes production associates out of work during repairs, 3rd level is overall cost to plant while the line is down for repairs ( includes missing on time deliveries and weekend overtime production to make up for lost time/downtime.). This becomes an important tool for cost justification and budgeting for next years expansion of the PDM department.

Tip 4 is “...sell PDM to all, take steps to make sure all are on board with how important PDM is to their jobs, I am getting ready to do an article for the company news paper to explain the guy with the funny looking camera...thanks..

Tips provided by John Reid
Barber Foods

Thanks John! Please email me your address and we will send you a Maintenance Tips hat!

Sign up for free PdM Managers Web Workshop Feb 23

What are the Uptime PdM Awards?

Uptime Magazine is a monthly magazine devoted to Predictive Maintenance and Machinery Condition Monitoring. Part of our mission is to promote and acknowledge best practices. We have created the Uptime PdM Awards to provide positive exposure and acknowledgement for predictive maintenance professionals from around the world.

What categories are available?

• Best Vibration Analysis Program Award
• Best Ultrasound Inspection Program Award
• Best Infrared Thermal Imaging Program Award
• Best Motor Testing Program Award
• Best Lubrication/Oil Analysis Program Award
• Best Precision Maintenance (alignment/Balancing) Program Award
• Best Overall PdM Program Award

Who can enter?

Any company with an active PdM program can enter. We expect that you have been performing some sort of PdM for at least one year. If you are just getting started – you should consider entering at this time next year!

How much does it cost to enter?

Nothing. This is not a commercial activity – it fulfills our mission to promote excellence in predictive maintenance. International entries are encouraged.

What do the winners get?

Find out more about the 2007 PdM Program of the Year

Check those filter head bypasses

Are the filters lasting longer than usual? Are particle counts up and changing filters does not help ?

If the filter head has a spring loaded bypass valve…. check it. Vibration can cause the spring, plunger or bypass plate to quickly wear through, putting the filter in continuous bypass or at least partial bypass with little or no indication in pressures. We had to replace 6 applications due to this. We finally went to filter heads with no bypass function.

Tip provided by Jerry Baker
PdM Team, Lubrication
Tate & Lyle
Loudon TN

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

Benchmarking Invitation: Lubrication Best Practices Part 1 - Selecting a Vendor

What is the relevance of Reliability Analysis when your too busy fighting fires?

Sometimes we hear the analogy: “When you’re too busy fighting fires it is no good talking about reliability analysis”.

This can be True- but often the role of Reliability Analysis is misunderstood – The Reliability Engineer is not there to put out today’s fire.

When talking about the role of a Reliability Engineer perhaps the analogy of a bushfire is more applicable.

When you’re fighting a bushfire you don’t go to the front line fire fighters and talk to them about the strategy of fire breaks and containment lines.

This role is better suited for someone else mapping the fire, predicting where the fire will go based on winds, topography and expected weather forecast. This is a back room person looking at all the data available to set the strategy for the front line effort.

This backroom strategic role is similar to the role of the Reliability Engineer in a reactive plant. The Reliability Engineer looks at the available data, identifies trends, makes predictions and sets the strategy for the front line maintenance workers.

Backroom roles are essential to provide the forward strategies to improve. Without them, our front line workers get overwhelmed and swamped by the fire.

Tip provided by Michael Drew, Managing Director, ARMS Reliability Engineers.

Michael Drew is also one of the International Guest Speakers at the RCM2007 conference in Hawaii presenting two workshops “Reliability Tools for Maintenance Managers” & “SAP PM and RCM Enterprise Reliability Management.”
http://www.maintenanceconference.com/rcm

Find out more about the tools & workshops available for the Maintenance & Reliability Professional