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What our plants have failed to learn in 25 years
Twenty-five years ago, I left the U.S. Navy nuclear submarine program. As I gained experience in civilian industry, I began to appreciate the Navy’s aplomb for reliable engineering, exceptional training and consistent operations. Their penchant for comprehensive preventive maintenance programs
The rise of autonomous operator maintenance and work redesign
My blog entry on the “White Glove Story” got close to the idea of operator maintenance. My study on the coal gasification generating plant was about the ultimate vision of the one employee who has the skills and ability to do whatever is necessary to keep the process operating effectively. What
The 10-second measure of maintenance effectiveness
Two decades ago, I worked in the Florida citrus industry. Near the end of each growing season, the fruit became softer. This promoted increased damage during handling, especially in the bins where the fruit was temporarily stored during testing. This, of course, wasted money, as juice literally went
The ‘White Glove Story’ and dirty little TPM secrets
Several years ago, a group called the Maintenance Excellence Roundtable met on the West Coast to present what it had accomplished during the previous year and where it was headed for the coming year. We were privileged to have Robert Williamson in attendance, and he told us a story that stuck with me
Plant maintenance: Is it just like the tale of Sisyphus?
I stumbled across some music trivia lately, that the old rock band Chicago finally had its album “Stone of Sisyphus” released last year. One of the more famous “lost” albums, it was originally recorded in the early 1990s but had languished for years, available only in illegal
Let risk and your equipment determine your maintenance strategy
When I attend conferences and workshops and read articles on maintenance and reliability, more and more I hear people touting that preventive maintenance is more costly and not the right approach. When we talk about preventive maintenance, we are primarily talking about time-based inspections, but it
Keep maintenance simple: Use senses and sensibility
What good is it to have advanced maintenance techniques if they have no real benefit over simple basic maintenance? Now I am not saying go and throw away all of your fancy toys. What I am saying is that you don’t have to have advanced tools for every maintenance task. I have seen many maintenance
Important considerations for CMMS data entry
When implementing a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) into a facility, one of the largest tasks involved is entering the data into the system. This is a two-part task that first requires the one-time entry of the initial data that has been gathered. The second task is the entry of the
Is proper torquing a part of your standard work?
Read enough OEM recommended procedures and you will notice that a common thread is proper torque values for fasteners. Many standard work (and standard operating) procedures in industrial facilities list recommended or required torque values for jobs like gasket replacements, motor alignments, bearing
Can maintenance and operations coexist? A radical process change story
My previous blog described a plant with no supervisors and with self-directed work teams that handled maintenance and operations. Most of us come from traditional plant organizations with an operations group and a maintenance group with their own supervisors and specialized skilled crafts. One of the
