August 16, 2007
IMC-2007 Brochure - Hot Off The Press!
The 22nd International Maintenance Conference
December 4-7, 2007 - Daytona Beach Florida
- More Practitioner Presentations
- More “Real World” presentations from those who do the same job that you do
The World’s Best Maintenance Programs Start with The International Maintenance Conference.
For the past 22 years, this annual event brings 1000 of the best and brightest maintenance and reliability professionals from around the world to share knowledge experience with each other in a facilitated environment.
At IMC-2007 you will:
• Learn the systems you can use to improve reliability
• Discover the causes of failure
• Gain knowledge to appreciate what is required for
reliability
• Understand the people you who will create reliability at your company
Special Hotel & Early Bird discounts - please call (888) 575 1245 or…
August 16, 2007
Maintenance Management Tip
Preventive and predictive maintenance is the most important work you can do.
There is a big difference between “urgent” and “important”. PM/PdM activities are not urgent, but they are important. If you defer these tasks because some urgent activity is allowed to take precedence, the consequence will be a failure at some point in the future. The future failure will very likely cause more PM/PdM to be deferred, resulting in another failure, etc., etc. It’s a vicious cycle that has no end!
Keeping up with scheduled proactive activities is the only way to break the cycle. You must make PM/PdM work a high priority and make sure the tasks get done according to the schedule. A good way to do this is to populate the weekly work schedule with some portion of low priority work on equipment that does not require a process outage to execute. This is the work you can defer if an emergency occurs. If your schedule contains only high priority work, you will be forced to make a decision to defer something of equal importance. And, if you defer PM/PdM work, your organization will quickly come to the conclusion that you’re not serious about the proactive maintenance environment.
Another way to show the importance of PM/PdM is to audit the program periodically. Since the routine can get somewhat boring, there is a tendency for crafts people to be “less than diligent” in their execution. However, if the manager spot-checks after a PM has been done and provides prompt feedback if something is amiss, the expectations become very clear. Also, an equipment failure is a great time to audit the PM/PdM activity. One of the first questions that should be asked after an equipment failure is “Why didn’t our PM/PdM program prevent this?”
Tip provided by Management Resources Group, Inc.
203.264.0500
http://www.mrginc.net
August 16, 2007
Vibration Analysis Tip
Are Transient Events Causing you Headaches?
As a vibration analyst or maintenance professional we’ve all received that awkward call in the middle of the night. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve arrived at the plant, grabbed my instrument and arrived at the problem machine only to find that there is no evidence of a problem. I walked away no better off than before with the only answer to give the plant manager is “Couldn’t duplicate and troubleshoot”. These transient events (or gremlins) haunt manufacturing plants all around the world.
From a troubleshooting perspective we often wish we had an online surveillance system that we could just plug in and walk away in hopes of capturing a repeat of the transient event. However, online systems aren’t always a feasible option for non-critical assets. There is an alternative available to help combat the “middle of the night” gremlins. Some portable data collectors have enough onboard memory and applicable functionality of the “long time waveform” function. With these data collectors analysts can set up the analysis point as a “long time waveform” measurement based on the particular trouble machines characteristics and data can be captured for hours or possibly even days so that when the gremlins resurface we can troubleshoot the defect and put into place the necessary defect elimination strategy.
Tip Provided By Commtest
Mike Howard, CMRP, CSSBB
http://www.commtest.com
August 09, 2007
PdM-2007 Workshop: Electrical Predictive Maintenance Basics
Predictive Maintenance Technology Conference & Expo
September 11-13, 2007
Las Vegas NV
Workshop #3
Electrical Predictive Maintenance Basics
Part 1 Electrical Inspection using Infrared Thermography by John Snell
Part 2 Electrical Inspection using Airborne Ultrasound by Jim Hall
Reliability managers and technicians should attend this one day course to learn more about electrical applications for infrared thermography and ultrasonic detection. Whether you already own equipment, are “shopping around,” deciding to add the technology or just want to find out more, spending a day to learn about infrared and ultrasound will pay large returns.
Some of the topics John Snell and Jim Hall will discuss include:
• Motor control centers, panels, and components
• Exterior substations and components
• Distribution and transmission systems
• Transformers, circuit breakers, and buswork
• Infrared inspection windows
• Ultrasonic inspection ports
The workbooks for this course consists of the presentation slides (in color) and several useful background articles.
The only conference with a 100% Satisfaction Guarantee or your money back!
Call toll free to register or learn more (888) 575-1245 or ...
August 09, 2007
Root Cause Analysis (RCA) Tip
When one is considering whether what they are doing is really Root Cause Analysis (RCA) or not, ask yourself if you are expensing data collection efforts (evidence) for the sake of time?
If you are pressured into providing quick conclusions, this usually means that you will not be permitted to collect the necessary evidence to prove that what you say is correct or not.
Traditional Quality tools such as “5-Whys” and “Fishbone Diagrams” are often attractive to managements because they are timely and inexpensive. However, when pressured for quick results, they often are not “accurate”!
Tip provided by Bob Latino
Reliability Center Inc.
http://www.reliability.com
iPresentation Invitation: When time is of the essence, is evidence expensed?
August 09, 2007
InfraMation 2007: Register by September 30th and Save!
Sign up by September 30th for InfraMation to happen on October 15-19, 2007 in Las Vegas and receive 1 free hotel night and a guest pass. Hosted by FLIR, InfraMation will explore using IR for predictive and preventive maintenance applications.
Register online below or call 1-800-254-0632.
August 09, 2007
Maintenance Tip
After tightening a hose clamp you have the band sticking out. This is very dangerous and can cause very deep cuts. Cut a piece of rubber tubing the length of the band. Squeeze it flat and slide it over the band.
This will protect arms and hands when reaching into tight areas where there are many clamps.(Rotary Liquid fillers)
Reader tip provided by Tom Keenan
Engineering Manager
Seviroli Foods
Garden City, New York
Thank you Tom - your Stainless Steel Diamond Plate Reliabilityweb.com Coffee Mug is on the way!
August 09, 2007
Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) Tip
When adding failure modes to the FMEA part of an RCM study ensure that the failure mode is the physical cause of the loss of function. After all it is the physical failure mode behaviour that we seek to change when deciding what maintenance to do.
So for the failure modes associated with no flow:-
- don’t say pump stopped, say broken shaft or seized bearing, or collapsed impellor or similar. In other words if you can relate the physical mode of failure to the loss of function, maintenance technicians will know exactly what happened and the maintenance task can be quite specific.
Building an effective FMEA provides an excellent troubleshooting guide for both operators and maintainers, and a side benefit is that it can be used to build reporting codes in work order management systems.
Tip provided by Mick Drew, Director ARMS Reliability Engineers
August 09, 2007
One Day Oil Analysis Training - Las Vegas Speedway - September 10 by Insight Services
ARE YOU HEADED TO PDM 2007 - The Predictive Maintenance Conference and Expo?
You are invited to spend Monday at the track with Insight Services before the conference starts and take advantage of this unique opportunity.
Those attending PDM 2007 SAVE $50 off the normal $199 price. Those who are not attending PdM-2007 are still more than welcome.
WHAT YOU RECEIVE
* Track-Side Training
* Free Catered Lunch
* Informative Track Tour
* Free Hat
* Course Material
* Great Raffle Prizes
The venue alone makes your experience worthwhile. Insight Services look forward to seeing you at the LAS VEGAS SUPERSPEEDWAY.
August 09, 2007
Vibration Analysis Tip
Vibration Analysis (Statistical Analysis) Tip
Statistics – the science of collecting and interpreting numerical data (Webster Dictionary – Third Edition)
Analysis – the separation of a complex material or concept into its elements (Webster Dictionary – Third Edition)
By putting these two elements together “Statistical Analysis”, you come up with a very powerful tool that can be used to aid you with your day to day vibration analysis duties. Specific techniques can range from setting meaningful vibration alarms for equipment in existing condition monitoring programs, determining which similar machines in a one-time vibration survey are the outliers and need more in-depth analysis, detailing the variances in vibration signals from point to point in a given machine or system, or aiding companies with “identical” machine types at various locations to set real world target vibration amplitude levels or standards.
How can you deploy these techniques in your programs? There are software packages available that will run various routines on defined data sets and many of the most popular Vibration Analysis / Condition Monitoring Systems offer additional software packages just for this purpose. Another way to perform these routines would be to develop custom worksheets that give the user total control over the process of performing all mathematical routines on the data being studied.
This last choice (building custom worksheets) is one of the more time consuming ways to perform Statistical Analysis on vibration data, but has proven to be one of the most reliable / beneficial methods available. Many software providers do not give the user total control over the applications of the mathematical formulas used to perform these studies. Additionally, the most common Vibration Analysis / Condition Monitoring Systems’ software packages are typically linked to the vibration database in such a way that any “Bad Data”, overlooked baselines, or known mechanical faults will create “FALSE” results in the end calculations. By having “TOTAL” control over which machine data sets you use to for analysis, what tolerances or targets you set for your outliers, and how you run your mathematical routines, a wealth of knowledge about your plant’s rotating equipment can be uncovered.
Tip provided by IVC Technologies Inc.
800-525-1269 Toll Free
http://www.ivctechnologies.com
