on Maintenance Reliability

The CMMS is often looked at as a tool for planners, engineers and managers, but that is only partially true. The CMMS is a powerful tool for the technicians as well. But getting the technicians to use the CMMS can be a difficult journey, and can blow up in your face if is it not rolled out and communicated properly. As with other best practices, having the technicians use the CMMS is not easy, but by doing so you can dramatically improve the performance of the operation. [Read more…]

by Mike Sondalini Leave a Comment

Components of an Effective Maintenance System

If you are ever in the fortunate position of developing a maintenance system from the beginning, the list below will help you focus your efforts. Maintenance systems in small business, develop by default and without much forethought. This list puts together, in one place, the important components of a workable maintenance system. [Read more…]

by Doug Plucknette 1 Comment

Is Technology Failing Me?

I no sooner accepted the meeting notice for a public training event in Europe that my mind began to race. The dates were setting off bells in my head for some reason so I pulled out my cell phone and checked my calendar.

The only thing now scheduled for those dates were the training events in Europe yet for some reason I still could not let go of the thought that I had something else scheduled for those dates. [Read more…]

by James Kovacevic Leave a Comment

Leverage the Data within Your CMMS

Unlock the Potential of Your CMMS by Accessing the Data Within

If you have properly selected and implemented your CMMS, you have the ability to truly make significant improvements in your operation. This is made a reality by using the data within the CMMS to make data driven decisions instead of intuition or feelings. This ensures the business resources are spent on the most important and strategic issues for the business.

In order to leverage the data within your CMMS, you have to ensure the data can be captured and reported easily. This is usually done during the implementation phase. [Read more…]

by Mike Sondalini Leave a Comment

Changing Out Dust Bags in Reverse Pulse Dust Collectors

Changing out dust bags in reverse pulse dust collectors. The dust bags in pulse jet dust collectors require replacement if damaged and leaking or if blinded by the product. This work procedure indicates the process and methods to use to change-out and replace dust bags and cages in a dust collector. Keywords: tube plate, bag collar, air manifold, air plenum.

Clean out product in the plenum.
Mark-up a tube plate map showing the location of all blocked-off bags or leaking bags and hand-in with the work order on completion.
Lift cages out square to tube plate without damaging the cage collar. Use tee-handle hook tool that fits down the bag and hooks onto the cage wire ring two down from the top.
Remove the bags if they don’t come out with the cage.
Clean top AND underside of tube plate back to clean metal.

[Read more…]

by James Kovacevic Leave a Comment

Plant the Seeds for Tomorrow: Implementing a CMMS

Most CMMS’ Fail at the Implementation Phase, Don’t Let This Be You

Most organizations only use 50% of their CMMS’s capabilities. This is for a variety of reasons, but one of the largest reasons, is that the CMMS was not setup, configured or implemented correctly. If the implementation of the CMMS was not done properly, the usability and information in the CMMS limits its potential.

How can you prevent the implementation from failing or delivering sub-par results? There are a few ways to ensure a successful CMMS implementation. This post will cover the 2 main ways to ensure a successful implementation. [Read more…]

by Mike Sondalini 3 Comments

Bronze — Use the Right One in the Right Place

By Richard Lang of Abonnel Precision Engineering

This quarter we would talk a little about bronzes, their properties and applications. One of our readers said they occasionally hear people refer to a brass bush when in fact they want a bronze bush and could we write something on this. Lets also look at the range of materials one may come across:

Leaded Gun Metal (LG2)
Aluminium Bronze
High tensile brass
Phosphor Bronze (PB1)
Manganese bronze
Brass

[Read more…]

by Doug Plucknette Leave a Comment

5 Tips to Kick-Start Continuous Improvement Implementation

I’m currently working with a large company on a continuous improvement project that started a few months ago with a detailed analysis on some of their critical assets. Within one weeks’ time we had a list of over 250 recommendations that needed to be implemented and performed in order to recognize an improved and sustained level of productivity that would provide a quick return on investment and lower the unit cost of their product.

Two months ago I was highly confident they would jump right on completing the recommended tasks. [Read more…]

by James Kovacevic 1 Comment

The Right Way to Select the Right CMMS

Selecting the Right CMMS can mean the Difference between Success and Failure

Imagine spending $100,000s or $1,000,000s on a software package that is supposed to improve your maintenance operation. A few years later you still have not seen any improvement and you did not generate any return on investment with the software. This happens every day when businesses select the wrong the CMMS.

Selecting a CMMS can be an overwhelming task, especially when so much rides upon the success of CMMS. You can read reviews and select a CMMS based on those, but the CMMS may not be the right one for you. The CMMS has to be fit for your business / operation or you will not see the right results. Thankfully there are two ways to select the right CMMS. [Read more…]

by Mike Sondalini 1 Comment

Converting from Oiled to Greased Shaft Roller Bearings

This article covers the conversion of the shaft bearings on a basket centrifuge from oil-bath to grease lubrication. [Read more…]

by Doug Plucknette Leave a Comment

The Top 5 Ways to Ruin a Web-Meeting

Just for fun a few months back I wrote a blog on what I listed as the 5 worst inventions in last 10 years. I looked over that list today and was astonished to find out that I did not list the Web-based meeting as one of these inventions. Those who have known me for years know that I really despise non-value added work and over the last 5 years according to my calculations I have wasted a full 6 months of time attending web meetings. Time that could have been spent working on great idea or invention the entire world has been waiting for while I was listening to someone read through a list of agenda items that could have been sent in an email.

The result however is a blog post on the 5 critical mistakes of Web Meetings! (Please be sure to read on for my 5 rules for web-based meetings!) [Read more…]

by James Kovacevic 2 Comments

What a CMMS Can Do For You?

The Advantages to a Properly Configured and Implemented CMMS can be Numerous.

Managing all the information and data in maintenance can be overwhelming, yet it is critical to the success of your organization. If you are not yet using a CMMS, or thinking of changing it, you could be in for some major improvements.

A recent study by Software Advice concluded that a cloud based CMMS can offer three main benefits to organizations. These benefits are the type of benefits that will make a difference in your organization and deliver bottom line results. These three benefits are: [Read more…]

by Mike Sondalini Leave a Comment

Temperature Sensing Elements

A Brief Introduction to Temperature Sensing Elements

The temperature of a process is an important measure to know as it indicates whether or not the process is in control.

The selection of the temperature sensing method depends on

the required temperature range
the measuring accuracy required
the speed of response needed from the control system
the process chemicals and conditions

[Read more…]

by Doug Plucknette Leave a Comment

12 Conference Best Practices

I can remember attending my first Maintenance and Reliability Conference, while it was over twenty years ago I was excited to go and find out what other companies were doing to improve. I can remember looking at the agenda and feeling a bit overwhelmed, there were so many different presentations to choose from sometimes I had a difficult time selecting which one to attend at a given time slot. [Read more…]

by James Kovacevic Leave a Comment

RACI: The Final Step in the Roles & Responsibilities Process

Tie all the Roles & Responsibilities Together in an Easy To Use Document

This is the final post in the series on roles & responsibilities and is the final step in ensuring the team is working together. So far in the series we cover the importance of defining role & responsibilities. How to determine roles & responsibilities, and the major roles in the maintenance department. In the last post, we will cover how to tie it all together in a simple, easy to use document. A RACI. [Read more…]