Section » Maintenance Excellence
Skimping on the training puts your CMMS project at risk
Training for users of a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) is a multiple-phase process. There are three areas of training needs: 1) Basic training - Make sure people who will operate the CMMS are familiar with computer basics and the operating system. If not, provide them with basic training so they are ready for CMMS application training. 2)
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Turn around your company by following lean model
Is anything working? Are you in trouble yet? Is it you, or is it the economy? The fact of the matter is, IT’S YOU! Why? You are the one that has to survive. It is your responsibility. Without change, things will stay the same. So, how do you go about initiating change? On a recent Business901 podcast,
Information management is the key to maintenance performance
One area that we often overlook is that of information management. That’s actually one of the more important areas, but it lacks glamour and excitement - plus it requires steady, regular and planned effort - so we naturally gravitate toward the areas that give us the periodic rush of adrenaline
P-cards are a help that also hurts; here’s how to reverse the curse
I recently was facilitating a maintenance management seminar, and during the course of discussions, the topic of purchasing cards (P-cards) being taken away for misuse almost created a riot among the group. One of the more frequent complaints I hear from maintenance people is that they just want the
The root cause just isn’t that important
Root cause analysis and root cause failure analysis are commonly used terms. I have always felt that these terms are somewhat misguided. I say so for some really simple reasons. First, there is not really such a thing as a “root cause” to a problem. If you try to find a definition for “root
10 – 1 = 16.5; with maintenance planning, it’s possible
I’m a big fan of podcasts, and one I listen to regularly is a financial/economic podcast put out every month by Bill Gross of PIMCO, the giant bond fund house. He was one of the few over the last years voicing serious concern about the huge financial house of cards being built. Although always
How are you dealing with increasing complexity of automation movement?
To be more competitive, efficient and cost-effective, more and more companies are implementing automation and remote condition monitoring systems, sensors, alarms, PLCs, accelerometers, human-machine interface panels, etc. Now many are implementing wireless networks to monitor equipment globally at remote
Lessons from Boulder Dam: Maintenance Achievements Begin with the Essentials
There’s a really great documentary that shows up periodically on public television. It describes the building of the Boulder (Hoover) Dam on the Colorado River back in the early 1930s. (Like many, I was never really sure if these were two separate dams.) This was a project of truly incredible size
How to reap the benefits of parts standardization
Nothing leverages your parts and training budgets like standardization. It is so important; it is one of the key areas of the 5-S process. The more you can standardize, the fewer parts you need to maintain and the further your training goes. Some plants have dozens of manufacturers represented on their
Why PM attainment needs to be a shared metric at your plant
Preventive maintenance (PM) is a cornerstone of reliability-based maintenance. It’s no surprise then that PM attainment has become a key performance indicator (KPI). But it may surprise you that in many organizations, maintenance is NOT primarily responsible for this KPI! Maintenance always has
Maintenance is not a cost: How to justify an investment in M&R
As many of us strive to improve the reliability of our plants, several comments bemoan how challenging that is to do in an era of continuous deep cost cutting. They say that in their operation, maintenance is seen as a cost, and is one of the first things to arbitrarily cut. Some think their operations
