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.
[Read more…]Maintenance Management
This Maintenance Management article series introduces and discusses maintenance management strategies, systems and processes for optimizing plant and equipment maintenance, maximizing equipment uptime, and for minimizing operating costs.
The purpose of this Maintenance Management series is to provide reputed, useful content that improves an operation’s and organisation’s maintenance effectiveness.
The Maintenance Management series of articles are provided with permission of Lifetime Reliability Solutions.
NOTE: The series does not include coverage of related commercial or vendor software or database management applications.
Maintenance Backlog Work Order Scheduling using Queuing Theory
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.
[Read more…]The Differences between Proactive Maintenance Strategy and Plant Wellness Reliability Strategy
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.
[Read more…]Lean Improvement Success at a Concrete Reinforcing Bar Manufacturer
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.
[Read more…]Example Accuracy Controlled Enterprise (ACE) 3T Job Procedure
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.
[Read more…]How Profit Contribution Mapping Turns Wasted Money into Outstanding Operational Productivity and Profits
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.
[Read more…]Getting High Equipment Reliability
These are the slides from Mike’s conference presentation at the SIRFRt CM & Lube Forum 2008 Conference.
[Read more…]Day 2 Maintenance Planning Slides with Complete Explanations
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.
[Read more…]Annex SL Structure for ISO 55001 Asset Management Documentation in a EAM System Manual
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.
[Read more…]Machine Vibration Isolation – Theory and Practice
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.
[Read more…]Workplace Safety Culture Changes when You Embed ACE 3T OHS Standards in Your Work Procedures
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.
[Read more…]When to use Crow-AMSAA Modelling for Reliability Growth Models
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.
Design a Maintenance Planning and Scheduling Process for Both Reactive and Planned Maintenance
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.
[Read more…]How Asset Maintenance Strategy Selection Affects Defect Elimination, Failure Prevention and Equipment Reliability
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.
[Read more…]Lean Manufacturing
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…
- Wasted effort and wasted resources
- Using wrong business processes for the purpose
- Wide and out-of-control process variation
Lean Manufacturing provides tools and solutions to address them