Doug Plucknette — inactive contributor

I get mad at Stan Nowlan and Howard Heap from time to time. Twenty years ago their work titled Reliability Centered Maintenance became the focus of my life when I first discovered the impact that RCM could have on manufacturing reliability. Since that time, I have authored somewhere around fifty articles on the subject, been a featured speaker at nearly three conferences a year and several years ago I even completed a book on the subject, describing what I see as the most effective way to complete a RCM analysis as well as the impact it can have on equipment and process reliability (Reliability Centered Maintenance using RCM Blitz™). For those who have taken the time to become educated in what a good RCM analysis is all about, they know power of this tool and where it applies. I know from experience, Reliability Centered Maintenance can and will deliver incredible results. [Read more…]

Thirty-three years ago, I graduated as a Journeymen Pipefitter from a three-year skilled trades apprentice program and went to work as a Journeymen at Eastman Kodak. At that time in my life I had no idea where this training would take me. I was simply honored to work alongside those who in mentoring me, passed on a set of skills that would last a lifetime. [Read more…]

Discipline, look it up in the dictionary and you will find the following definition; the practice of training people to obey rules or a code of behavior, using punishment to correct disobedience.

People tend to get nervous when the word Discipline pops up at the top of a presentation. Truth is there are several definitions to this word. As an example, Discipline is also a branch of knowledge one studies in higher education. [Read more…]

One of the best things about my job is from time to time I get to work with some fantastic young people who have a passion for the Maintenance and Reliability business and have made the decision to pursue a career in this business. I really enjoy being a mentor, guiding the ambitious and offering advice on where to find information, articles and real, workable solutions. [Read more…]

Something to think about in a day and age when most companies post their Mission, Vision and Goals on the company web page. Do we really stand behind these statements and demonstrate the behaviors that clearly show we are willing to do what it takes to create a safe workplace? [Read more…]

Common Mistakes in Writing Failure Modes

As we mentor RCM facilitators, we try to help them to develop strong techniques so that as they facilitate the RCM Blitz™ process they are able to work with any RCM team to develop a solid list of failure modes that are actually occurring to your equipment or are likely to occur at some time. One of the ways to become stronger at developing good failure modes is to be able to recognize a poorly written or bad failure mode. Below is a list of what we believe are common traps that result in the listing of poor failure modes. [Read more…]

Getting Value From Your Condition Based Maintenance Program

I’m talking on the phone with a client who has been slowly but deliberately getting their maintenance organization up to speed with items they internally identified as “critical gaps” in need to improve equipment reliability. [Read more…]

As companies around the globe look to improve equipment reliability I can’t help but think of the Technicians and Craftspeople I meet after a conference presentation. As they step up to introduce themselves to comment on the presentation some will often say “I really liked your presentation but I don’t think our management would ever support a program like this. What you are doing makes a lot of sense but we just don’t have the people and our operations managers don’t understand maintenance and reliability.” [Read more…]

I have always believed that the equipment that makes your products and the operators who operate it are the most valuable assets you have. From the Janitorial Serves to the CEO, unless you are manufacturing product and putting it out the door, you are overhead – just another additional cost that must be included in the cost of our product. [Read more…]

About a year ago, I wrote an article about the 6 signs of a reliable plant that got warm reception and a few nice comments. More interesting however was a private message I received from a Reliability Engineer who asked if I had a list of signs that a plant was in chaos and needed a wake up call to turn things around. I responded to the note, drafted a title page and a list of some of the sure signs a plant is in trouble.

This is the resulting article. [Read more…]

Some incredible things seem to happen as you get older. When I was in my early twenties I had very little patience for small children. They were always making noise making a mess and demanding attention. I had all kinds of patience for work related things, if we were having a meeting on what caused our chemical reaction times to drift more than a full standard deviation outside the control limits, you had 100% of my attention. [Read more…]

The phone conversation starts with the words “Doug, I’ve got a big problem and I’m hoping you’ll be able to give me some insight as to how to resolve it.”

The call comes from a long-time client and someone I consider a friend. We not only worked together to start RCM effort at his company, we’ve hunted, golfed and attended a few sporting events together. Someone who if I’m working in his part of the country or just driving through I make a point to make a call so we can get together to and catch up on our lives. [Read more…]

Measure twice, cut once. This is what the sign read in our Apprentice Training shop at Eastman Kodak. Anyone who has worked for a living in the trades understands the true meaning behind this phrase. The intent is to help your company save time and money by doing things right the first time.

The sign really could be posted on the wall of every shop, every office and every conference room in every manufacturing plant around the world. It applies to more than the skilled trades. The sign in fact applies to every person and every job.

Do it right the first time! [Read more…]

The Impact of Precision Installation & Maintenance

Over the last several years I have been working on and off with customers to among other things build a maintenance strategy for their equipment that will insure the designed reliability of their assets.

A while back I was asked by one of these customers to come in perform several RCM (Reliability Centered Maintenance) analyses on some new equipment that was struggling to deliver the expected/promised production rates. As the team worked its way through the process of identifying failure modes I continued to ask the following questions: [Read more…]

Ask 10 people to tell you what Precision Maintenance means. While some will use a few of the same words or give a few similar examples of what they think Precision Maintenance is you are going to get 10 different answers.

While few would argue the importance of Precision Maintenance, I find it interesting that in the world that offers Certifications in Asset Management and Equipment Reliability (CRE, CRL, CMRP) you won’t find an agreed-on definition of what Precision Maintenance means. [Read more…]