Through daily inspections, cleaning, and lubrication practices we can measure, prevent, and restore deterioration to our equipment. The expectation is that a team is put together made up of maintenance, operations, and leadership employees to roll out strategy beginning with one piece of equipment. They will implement the following 7 steps:

• Initial Cleaning
• Eliminate sources of dirt and hard to clean & inspect areas
• Create and maintain cleaning, inspection and lubrication standards
• General Inspection
• Operator Inspection
• Activities standardized
• Team Development and Operator Driven Reliability

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Cleaning is an important first step in Operator Care and reliability gains because:

• Insufficient cleaning causes losses and
• The cleaning activity itself exposes hidden defects

Dirt in rotating parts, sliding parts, pneumatic and hydraulic systems, electrical and control systems, sensors, etc. causes malfunctions, reduce function, failure by wear, clogging, resistance, speed losses, etc. are different types of defects. Defects are anything that is abnormal from the expected ideal condition. Insufficient cleaning causes forced deterioration. All these losses are solved through a thorough cleaning of equipment and countermeasures to keep the equipment clean.

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An asset management system is comprised of all of the necessary processes, procedures, tools, systems, and methods necessary to meet business objectives in a manner which is controlled, measured, and improved upon.  The system, more often than not, takes on some visual representation as in the graphic below.  The purpose is to provide a simplified understanding of the overall process to meet asset management goals.

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We will create a reorder point analysis file from scratch with simple CMMS data as our starting point. Learn how to create a file which will update automatically each time CMMS data is updated.

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A brief discussion on plant loss analysis by George Williams.

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In all the years of facilitating RCFA, what seems like the easiest part has proven to be one of the most challenging.  Documenting the problem statement.  It is human nature is to immediately develop an opinion and provide a solution.  When a group of people are put in a room together for an RCFA they immediately believe they are there to solve THE problem.  This leads to a focus on solutions to the event as it occurred.  The team gathers in the room and the facilitator asks what the problem statement is, and the replies tell it all.  “Jane, the operator, hit the wrong button.”  “The technician didn’t know how to install the bearing.”  “Poor lubrication.”  Sound familiar?

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One can read thousands of books on leadership and maybe even train and practice enough to gain skills that help them influence others or manage people but does that make them a leader? Classes I’ve taken, books I’ve read, and approaches I failed at have all served me well in gaining understanding but to say doing these things can “make” a leader is something else entirely. Many of the folks who lead others are neither in leadership roles or qualified, whatever that means. They are people who think and act genuinely without hesitation because it’s simply who they are at the core. [Read more…]

6 Principles for Continuous Improvement

Today, I believe that we seem to overcomplicate certain elements of growth and improvement. Continuous improvement is one of those things. We repackage and rebrand things to create the perception that without us, it can’t be done. This is the consulting world in general. Is this really the case? I believe with these few principles and actual execution, your organization can see improvement. Below are a few of those principles: [Read more…]

The awareness gap results from management having limited or no knowledge of the maintenance function and its ability to contribute to the manufacturing process; and maintenance personnel, managers included, having a limited understanding of the business side of manufacturing. The result is that management and maintenance are often unsure about how they together contribute to the company’s success. [Read more…]

In many dealings throughout my career, including myself, it seems commonplace that people do not want to admit they need help. From physically, mentally, in life, or in business, our egos seem to always keep us from reaching our full potential. [Read more…]