The late quality guru W. Edwards Deming advised graphing the process variables and the process outputs across time on a run chart (a time-series plot) to identify uncertainty and variability. When the run charts are used together, they help to identify the times and causes of poor results.

Your maintenance backlog is a queue of work orders. You can manage maintenance backlogs more effectively by applying queuing theory.

When maintenance work order time estimates are close to actual times, queuing theory can be applied to schedule the most effective arrangement of your maintenance backlog.

Many people believe Proactive Maintenance is the ultimate physical asset management strategy—but there is one better strategy. To get world class reliability at the least cost there must be no maintenance. Only a “wellness” paradigm can achieve that result.

Reinforcing bar is forged steel used in concrete to give the otherwise weak concrete structural tension strength. Reinforcing bar manufacturing is done in a factory using computerised machines to straighten, cut and bend the steel. It is a highly automated process once the bar is loaded onto the manufacturing machinery. These machines are computer controlled and form the bar to the shape and dimensions instructed. The bar specification and dimensions are identified from the engineering drawings by the Scheduler who enters the details into a scheduling software program. The program converts the reo-bar size requirements into computer controlled manufacturing instructions for the machines and a delivery schedule for the production shop.

Our assignment was to identify opportunities to improve the business and streamline the operation from production through to delivery.

Example ACE 3T (Target-Tolerance-Test) Procedure with Reliability Standards: Machine performance is totally dependent on human beings. To address the problem of human error causing equipment failure, an Accuracy Controlled Enterprise sets best practice quality standards and uses 3T Target-Tolerance-Test work task quality control that assures high quality workmanship for high reliability results. Their work procedures are standardised so everyone follows the same methods to produce the same results, their training teaches people how to do craftsmanship work that creates outstandingly reliable plant and machinery. They create the reliability they want and as a result achieve operational excellence.

Value Stream Mapping is a business process improvement tool. It derives from the Toyota Production System where it was used to identify the seven wastes in a production process. It is now used across all business processes because the principle of finding and removing waste applies throughout every business.

These are the slides from Mike’s conference presentation at the SIRFRt CM & Lube Forum 2008 Conference.

Welcome to Day 2 of the Maintenance Planning and Scheduling for World Class Reliability and Maintenance Performance 3-Day Training Course. I hope that you enjoyed Day 1 and found the maintenance and reliability concepts it contained useful.

WHEN YOU BUILD AN ASSET MANAGEMENT SYSTEM FOR ISO 55001 CERTIFICATION THE ISO 55001 EAM SYSTEM MANUAL NEEDS TO COMPLY WITH THE ANNEX SL DOCUMENT STRUCTURE.

Here’s a practical way to create an ISO 55001 EAM system manual that covers all bases for both ISO 55001 certification and Annex SL requirements. Annex SL stipulates ten sections that every management system built to an ISO management system standard must contain. But matching legacy enterprise asset management 9EAM) system documents to Annex SL sections can be tricky.

1. Application.

Any engineer with known expertise or responsibilities in the area of ‘vibration’ will be asked sooner or later to advise on a vibration isolation problem. While the principles of vibration isolation are relatively simple to understand the practical application requires some design skills and a good understanding of the vibration source or sources.

Design your safety system with the workplace safety culture and safety practices you want

Use the ACE 3T culture change technique to design, teach and adopt the best safety culture into your organization

Here’s a workplace safety culture change fact we’ve known about for a long time. This quote from G. J. Hofstede in his book, Cultures and Organisations, explains a lot about how you create the right workplace safety culture.

It’s popular to use Crow-AMSAA for system reliability modelling. However, for the model to represent reality it must include only historically identical events

If your Crow-AMSAA reliability growth model mixes nonidentical situations, then its forecasts have no meaning

Below is an email discussion about when Crow-AMSAA modelling can provide believable forecasts.
 

Divide maintenance crews so a few skilled artisans do reactive jobs, and the remainder do planned and scheduled work orders

A robust Maintenance Planning and Scheduling Process uses a Scheduled Work Crew capacity planned days ahead with planned jobs. And it has a small Quick Response Crew of people capable to handle any random job.

A great Maintenance Planning and Scheduling Process design separates reactive work from jobs that can be planned and scheduled. This article explains how to re-engineer a maintenance planning and scheduling process to handle reactive and planned jobs.

The 20th Century saw maintenance strategy evolve from corrective, predictive and preventive maintenance to reliability maximization. During the 21st century maintenance will disappear and be replaced with risk-free equipment operation where no failures occur. The first steps taken by LRS Consultants toward building risk-free businesses and riskless operational processes was the invention of the Plant Wellness Way “system-of-reliability” methodology.

An Overview of how it can help a business

A presenation by Mike Sondalini

Food, Fibre & Timber Industry Lean Manufacturing Overview

Three universal problems in business…

1. Wasted effort and wasted resources
2. Using wrong business processes for the purpose
3. Wide and out-of-control process variation

Lean Manufacturing provides tools and solutions to address them