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Is there life after the death of predictive maintenance?
It is sad how quickly a good predictive maintenance program dies, even though the program has gotten a manager promoted, convinced you and others that there is a lot of value in doing PdM to improve maintenance practices, saved money and gained credibility. The demise of a good program is usually due
The power of a clear, concise vision to improve M&R results
One of the first responsibilities of leadership (of an organization, company, team or country) is to provide a simple, clear view of what the future can and should look like. Visionary leaders throughout history have done this in different ways. Many leaders that were effective used short, simple vision
In the M&R business, good enough never is
About 15 years ago, I was fortunate to attend a conference where the keynote speaker’s focus was quality. This person was a successful entrepreneur and had built a top-flight company over the past two decades. The company’s success was based on making the best-quality, best-tasting cookie
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
You need to take care of your customers, your operators and your techs!
The customer is the end reason that the plant exists. However, the people who interact with the customer are employees. Management’s focus must be on those interfaces. They cannot get to the customer otherwise. Therefore, I would direct management to focus on employee development, training, behavior,
P-FIRST: Success in plant reliability is in the hands of the people
Thermal scanning, automatic balancers and levelers, predictive equipment, fluid scans, ultrasonic testing, PM programs, reports and logs, more reports and logs, and yet even more reports and logs. These are all great ways to track, detect or predict possible real, and future failures. I know many companies
Questions, comments and random thought triggers on maintenance
I evaluate maintenance operations on the existence of effective PM programs, a working and meaningful work order and information system, effectiveness of the stockroom, and the processes in place to support the technician. Are there contingent processes in place for handling emergencies? Are there seasonal
How do you justify the investment made in PdM?
“How do I quantify my PdM finds? Where do I go to establish my credibility?” Grow a thick skin, fast. You have to develop some way of bringing some sense to the finds you have made in your predictive maintenance program. Now that trust has been established and your routes are being executed,
A walk in the machine park or quality inspections?
Detailed inspections require the right type of person with the right mind-set, attitude and training. Most mills/mines/plants have some type of inspection program but, unfortunately, the inspections are often ineffective. There may be many reasons why inspections often aren’t effective. But, one
The Rodney Dangerfield of predictive technologies
In the past decade, the capabilities of many condition-based assessment tools, sometimes called predictive technologies, have significantly expanded. The hardware has become more compact, more rugged and much easier to use. The companion software applications have become more powerful with exponentially
