Maximum CMMS: Finding Answers For Efficiency, Part 3

Published on Facilitesnet.com, the article below is the final excerpt from a three-part series written by Kris Bagadia.  

Maximum CMMS: Maintenance Mobility

Today's handheld devices bring an added level of functionality to CMMS. The mobility they allow brings greater efficiency to technicians in the field. Consider these examples of the benefits of mobile technology:

• Readings. Technicians who use handheld devices servicing equipment and assets, such as boilers and chillers, can collect key pieces of data, including pressure, temperature, and oil levels. If they find abnormal based on user-defined criteria, the CMMS will send a warning. They can also monitor security checks, perform inspection routes and record runtime data.

• Work orders. Managers and supervisors can distribute work orders using a handheld device. The technicians can perform the actual work with instructions on handhelds, enter data on time taken and work performed, and close the work orders. All the related information is transferred into CMMS, either real time or via a cradle. Departments also can generate work orders using handhelds. You can establish a completely paperless work order system if desired.

• Parts inventory. This area offers an excellent opportunity for managers to use mobile CMMS technology to save money. Storeroom attendants using handheld devices can handle parts receiving, additions and depletions, cycle counts, and annual physical inventory very efficiently. They can issue an item to an employee, work order or an account number, as well as return the issued item to the inventory.

Successfully specifying and implementing a CMMS ultimately will require top management's commitment to stay involved with the project and provide needed support and resources. If these things occurs, the result will be a CMMS that properly facilitates daily technician activities, resulting in efficiencies not possible with manual systems.

Perhaps more importantly, a CMMS also can provide comprehensive information and analysis for managers that support fact-based decisions enabling greater optimization and accountability throughout the organization.

Maximum CMMS: Finding Answers For Efficiency, Part 2

Published on Facilitesnet.com, the article below is an excerpt from a three-part series written by Kris Bagadia.  

CMMS Specification Solutions

Managers whose departments use only a fraction of a CMMS's available features did not specify the most appropriate software. It means the application has many bells and whistles the department does not need. The incorrect selection decision costs the company money on the software's acquisition, as well as user training — money the manager could have saved by specifying the most appropriate package based on department needs.

Whether you are upgrading to a newer version of the CMMS or acquiring a new CMMS, selecting the right package is crucial to a successful implementation and enabling the department to fully use the CMMS's features and functions. Managers should consider answer these specification questions:

• Is it easy to use and flexible? The CMMS should be designed for front-line maintenance technicians, not computer experts. The system has to be flexible enough to accommodate the way they carry out their daily tasks, not the other way around.

• Does it handle queries and reporting effectively? These are two very important functions of a CMMS. Once the implementation is complete, users each day retrieve the desired information and generate reports to help managers make more informed decisions. Managers should be able to retrieve any information required, when they need it and in the desired format. 

• Does it improve workflow? An efficient flow of work — initiating and approving a work request, planning, scheduling, dispatching, completing it, and following up for continuous improvement — is essential for productivity. A CMMS's work-request system enhances the efficiency of the maintenance operation, as well as the requester's productivity. Requesters must have convenient access to the status of open and completed work requests, which prevents dips in productivity by helping them identify and dispose of duplicate requests.
  
  Enabling customers to enter and view their work requests increases efficiency for both the requester and the maintenance department by substantially reducing the number of repeated requests to perform these functions. Repeated calls are a significant drain on productivity, not only due to the time they consume but also because of the unplanned interruption of work by the technician.

• Does it provide a satisfactory parts list? A CMMS should have a provision for specifying parts and tools on PM work orders so technicians can arrive on the job site prepared with required parts, resulting in less downtime.

Maximum CMMS: Finding Answers For Efficiency, Part 1

Published on Facilitesnet.com, the article below is an excerpt from a three-part series written by Kris Bagadia. 

Optimizing your CMMS 

How much of your computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) does your department actually use? The answer to that question is not as straightforward as it might seem. My national survey of CMMS users indicates 94 percent of them use only 10 percent of the software's capacity and features.

Many institutional and commercial facilities use a CMMS as a recordkeeping tool. If that is all they want, a spreadsheet might suffice. Specified, installed and operated properly, a CMMS is a powerful tool that goes far beyond recordkeeping.

By not fully using the CMMS, maintenance and engineering departments are missing out on opportunities to save time and money. And as the utilization of CMMS increases, overall productivity and profitability also increases. 

Spotlight On Benefits 

A properly implemented CMMS increases technicians' overall productivity by improving the work-process flow, helping migrate from reactive to proactive mode, and incorporating PM optimization and trending analysis, among other benefits. It also will improve efficiency and customer satisfaction by organizing, distributing and managing maintenance-related information, as well as eliminating inefficiencies arising from information bottlenecks.

A CMMS provides all stakeholders with real-time information relevant to their responsibilities and activities. Maintenance technicians can obtain a prioritized list of open work orders.  

Requesters can check status information without interrupting maintenance technicians. Service managers can view reports of backlogged work orders, including total estimated backlog hours. Top management can produce comprehensive reports profiling resource utilization and compliance requirements. 

As part of a department's continuous-improvement program, a CMMS can be an excellent tool to identify non-value-added activities and shorten process cycle-times. Maintenance and engineering departments too often spend a great deal of time waiting for parts, approval, instructions and equipment. A CMMS can help managers identify the activities and equipment costing the department the most time and money, enabling them to analyze the situation and correct it. 

A CMMS also can become a powerful tool for analyzing data and using that data to make meaningful decisions. For example, reviewing compliance with work-order schedules, ratios of PM and repair work orders compared to total work orders, and then taking the necessary corrective action. Maintenance departments frequently gather readings on a variety of equipment, such as boilers and chillers. In a paper-based system, technicians and system administrators fill out forms out and file them away, too often never to be found again. Some companies have started using a CMMS to record and save readings of say, pressure and temperature. Using this data, technicians can identify abnormal readings and correct problems to prevent failures. 

Once technicians have defined a certain range of values and criteria, the CMMS will issue a warning immediately upon the reading meeting those criteria. Maintenance planning also can automatically incorporate usage- and condition-based PM, as well as predictive and corrective maintenance, based on abnormal readings.

Can the U.S. Revitalize its Infrastructure?

Pushing the limits of an aging infrastructure, U.S. manufacturers face a future of increasing costs and instability unless new technologies and new investments can rejuvenate the system.

The following article was written by Travis Hessman of IndustryWeek

On Sept. 8, 2011, an Arizona Public Service field technician was sent out to a North Gila, Ariz., substation to switch a capacitor bank -- a routine job the technician had performed a dozen or so times before.

This time, however, he missed a step in the process, which knocked out the entire 500-kilovolt transmission line running through the substation.

Under normal circumstances, this wouldn't be a big deal. With a solid infrastructure operating within standard guidelines, this should have resulted in a brief, isolated outage.

But in our overstressed and under-maintained grid, that single transmission line was all that connected the region. Losing it sent a cascade of outages down the system, blacking out enormous swathes of Arizona, Mexico and Southern California, including all of San Diego and its 1.5 million customers.

Andrew Herrmann: "By making investments, you are actually saving money."

In total, the outage left about 2.7 million customers without power -- the second-most significant outage of the year next to the one resulting from Hurricane Irene.

For the hundreds of manufacturers scattered throughout the region, the outage was costly. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, these kinds of power failures cost companies between $20,000 and $2 million.

This was not a rare occurrence. In 2011, California led the country in outages with 371 -- more than double that of second place New York.

Such events confound an already-difficult environment for manufacturers trying to stay ahead in the United States today. Maintaining a profitable, competitive business with an infrastructure this shaky is increasingly difficult, and manufacturers are left largely unarmed in the fight to bring in the kind of investments necessary to change it.

So the question must be asked: Can the United States revitalize its infrastructure to provide manufacturers and businesses a competitive environment in which to operate and prosper?

 

State of the Infrastructure

The U.S. infrastructure was in bad shape coming into this decade. Rated "D" for overall performance by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) in 2009, the entire system proved in dire need of some much overdue investment to catch up with global competitors.

"There is a real sense of urgency right now within the United States," says John McDonald, director of Technical Strategy and Policy Development for the Digital Energy division of General Electric Co. (IW 500/4). "We have an infrastructure that wasn't maintained very well for a long period of time. It's getting older, so the chances of catastrophic failure are now greater than they have been."

Catching the system up after such neglect to prevent this kind of failure will require an investment of $2.2 trillion over the next five years, says ASCE President Andrew Herrmann. And that is just to make a "B" on the next infrastructure report card.

Failure to make this investment, he says, will cost the United States hundreds of thousands of jobs and hundreds of billions from the GDP.

For the electric infrastructure alone, interrupted operation due to blackouts, brownouts and unstable supply could cost business an estimated $126 billion or more annually. To prevent this, the federal government, states or utilities would have to invest $11 billion per year, Herrmann says.

Though costly, "this would protect about 529,000 jobs, $656 billion in personal income, about $500 billion in gross domestic product and $10 billion in exports," he explains.

With manufacturers consuming one-third of the nation's total energy per year and total energy consumption expected to increase as much as 39% this decade in some regions, according to the World Resources Institute, the electrical grid becomes a critical piece of infrastructure to protect and maintain for U.S. manufacturers to remain competitive. It is critical for them even to stay solvent in today's environment.

With this kind of threat hanging over U.S. manufacturing, there is an increased need now to double-down on infrastructure investment on every level to help keep the United States in a competitive position, says Herrmann.

"We have an infrastructure in the United States that was essentially investments from the 1950s and 1960s. It's getting old," he explains. "If you don't maintain it, if you cut back on those maintenance budgets or the rehab budgets, it just gets older, and by not doing anything, the life actually gets shorter."

For the past few years, investment toward rehabilitating the aging infrastructure has been directed at a new technology that promises to help improve efficiency and productivity all through the system: the smart grid.

 

Smart Grid

The smart grid refers to a class of technology used to help bring utility electricity delivery systems into the 21st century, via computer-based remote control and automation, according to the Energy Department.

These systems help eliminate the labor-intensive meter reading and maintenance required of the old-fashioned (or "dumb") grid for the past century -- possibly including the kind of work that caused the 2011 Southwest outage.

Though still in its infancy in many respects, boosted by heavy investment from the federal stimulus, smart-grid devices are beginning to be used on electricity networks all the way from the power plants to the consumers .

With the automation this technology provides, "instead of building a new substation or buying new lines or purchasing more power, what utilities are doing is making better use of their existing infrastructure by improving efficiency," says GE's McDonald.

 

Distributed Generation

One way the smart grid is enabling improved efficiency is through distributed generation.

Capturing energy collected by solar arrays on private businesses and residences across the system and feeding it back into the grid, distributed generation works to help reduce energy strain by providing increased supply to every user during hot, sunny days when they need it the most.

With 3,360 solar panels installed atop its Chino-Calif. facility, Diamond Wipes International is able to produce twice the energy it consumes, which may save the company as much as $135,000 this year in energy costs while also contributing heavily to the overall power supply, says Tom Hill, vice president of marketing and sales at Diamond Wipes.

"We are a net benefit to the level of power in the overall grid at any point in time. That energy we are sending back is not really being stored, it is being used by other users of the power grid," he explains. "We are drinking from the great fount, and we are contributing daily into the overall system, which is being used by others."

On its face, distributed generation sounds as neat and beneficial as Hill describes it -- businesses work with the power companies to lower the strain on the grid, offsetting high-demand peak hours with green-energy supply, thus meeting the state's low-emissions requirements. But as Gregg Turner, director, Utility Segment at Eaton Corp. (IW 500/72) points out, the equipment on the utility side may not be ready for it.

The grid, he says, is still primarily designed to carry power only one way -- from the power plants to the customers. As power gets injected at the ends from distributed generation systems, he says, something as benign as a patch of clouds can spike and ultimately crash the system.

"What happens is, utilities are faced with periods where power is injected back into the substation on one leg while other legs are trying to feed out their normal loads," says Turner. "[This] causes a level of unbalance that, if not properly managed, results in the substation going entirely offline."

Power flowing intermittently in different directions to and from manufacturers, he says, actually increases the operational stress on the system and can result in increased instability -- exactly what the system was designed to prevent.

 

The Solution

The key to making this technology work -- and really the key to revitalizing infrastructure in general -- is investment. Traditionally, this has meant cash injections from the federal level, but in the current political environment, there is little hope of this coming through.

"Right now, we have limited power in DC," explains Herrmann. "We have discussions between the two parties, but they aren't agreeing to too much of anything. It seems to be a standstill at this point."

"Basically," he argues, "politicians are afraid. They are living on two-year life cycles, four-year life cycles." For leaders worrying about re-election, raising taxes for infrastructure improvements is simply not an option.

"Getting them to actually make the investment and realize that they'll save money by making the investments, that's the hard part," he says. "That's why we're trying to educate the public. They're the ones that elect them. When a politician says, 'I can't raise the gas tax because I won't get re-elected,' if the public starts saying, 'I want these better things, and you're going to have to do something,' maybe things will start changing."

This kind of public awareness is critical for change, he says. To keep U.S. manufacturing growing, the nation must bring infrastructure back to the forefront to help make these investments make sense in our difficult economic environments. Revitalizing the infrastructure means getting projects through and matching new technologies with a well-maintained system.

As Herrmann explains, "By making investments, you are actually saving money. You're saving sitting in traffic, you're saving brownouts, you're saving loss of jobs and costs to the gross domestic product and industry. These are things that are going to be coming up. If you make the investment, you're going to be saving dollars."

Predictive Maintenance Survey Reveals Drivers, Obstacles and the Future

Financial Considerations Propel the Use of Oil Analysis, Infrared, and Vibration Testing

In brief:

• PdM is the practice applying condition-based monitoring techniques to collect and analyze asset data to gain an understanding of asset performance and perform appropriate maintenance as indicated by the asset.
• In order for production to meet targets, equipment must be available and in acceptable working order.
• Efficient management of assets is critical to improving plant performance.

The global process industries lose an estimated $20 billion annually due to unscheduled downtime and poor quality. It’s no surprise that, in a joint survey by Plant Services and ARC Advisory Group, respondents indicated "improve uptime" as the primary driver for deploying predictive maintenance (PdM) solutions (Figure 1). PdM is the practice applying condition-based monitoring techniques to collect and analyze asset data to gain an understanding of asset performance and perform appropriate maintenance as indicated by the asset. The survey polled end users regarding current status of PdM programs, as well as future plans for improvement.

Figure 1. Almost 90% of survey respondents deploy PdM solutions to improve uptime.

This PdM survey provides insights on practices and maintenance management. Users should compare their operations with the survey results to gain a better understanding of best practices and obtain ideas for proven improvements.

In order for production to meet targets, equipment must be available and in acceptable working order. Ineffective maintenance accounts for $60 billion annually, according to ARC research. This PdM survey reflected that manufacturers are well aware of this, too, as "reduce operational cost” was the runner-up, followed closely by "reduce maintenance cost". A sound PdM strategy can improve workforce and financial performance. With a combined view of asset availability and other operational constraints, workers can make information-driven decisions.

PdM technology usage

PdM is frequently referred to as condition-based maintenance, but, regardless of what it’s called, these types of solutions quantitatively evaluate equipment condition relative to an established baseline or standard. The value of PdM lies in its diagnostic capabilities, which greatly aid in the maintenance decision-making process. Spending for PdM systems continues to outpace that of the automation industry in general, as manufacturers seek to leverage a deeper knowledge of equipment condition as a means of increasing asset utilization and productivity and reducing maintenance costs, according to ARC research.

The increased amount and complexity of automation equipment currently installed in plants requires a higher-order approach to maintenance provided by PdM systems. As the discipline of asset performance management (APM) matures, the process industries are exhibiting a greater understanding of its principles. As users become more familiar and proficient in condition-based monitoring techniques, they will demand more from the equipment, and suppliers must keep pace.

Figure 2. More than two-thirds of survey respondents use oil analysis, infrared, and vibration testing as part of their PdM practices.

The survey results indicate that oil analysis, infrared, and vibration are widely implemented now (Figure 2). Predictive monitoring solutions continue to expand in capability, as indicated by the interest in corrosion monitoring. The effects of corrosion cost the process industries roughly $300 billion annually in lost production, failure of key equipment, and fines for environmental and safety violations. Corrosion monitoring can significantly lengthen the life of mechanical equipment and piping, as well as prevent abnormal situations from occurring. In addition to traditional PdM technologies, reliability, predictive software modeling, and condition monitoring in EAM/CMMS were included as choices for survey respondents. Responses for reliability and CM in EAM/CMMS were very similar. However, it appears that utilization of predictive modeling as a PdM technology is not yet mainstream.

Integration enhances value of PdM

Stand-alone solutions can provide excellent value for newcomers, but may not be sufficient for sustainable improvement due in part to the islands of information stand-alone solutions create. The industry has progressed far beyond proprietary one-off connectors to certified interfaces to facilitate information exchange. In organizations where increasing physical asset reliability as a means to improve asset availability is deemed the primary goal, connecting PdM applications that directly or indirectly administrate, measure, analyze, resolve, and improve asset performance in a comprehensive fashion will drive appropriate workforce actions. The good news is that, for the most part, survey respondents are integrating PdM solutions with other enterprise systems, particularly with historians and EAM/CMMS (Figure 3).

Figure 3. Almost half of survey respondents indicate they use an historian for collected data

The current generation of plant equipment is far more intelligent than previous generations. These more intelligent assets require a more strategic, integrated management approach. Leveraging the rich information in these solutions can improve the effectiveness of each. Ideally, all solutions should be connected in real time. Integrating solutions based on function offers a practical approach. For example, PdM and EAM systems have embedded ready-made networks for the collection of disparate data. Combining reliability information with PdM solutions can improve the predictive capability of the PdM solution by identifying assets for critical assessment and thereby minimize the possibility of asset failure.

Survey respondents are integrating PdM with historians most frequently. However, what is not clear from the survey is if the historian is being utilized as a data archive, as has been the case traditionally, or as an improvement tool. With increased data throughput and higher data resolutions, historians have evolved to become a tool for managing plant assets, thanks to new visibility and trending tools. Today's historians also support techniques, such as complex event processing, which can analyze multiple streams of plant data in real time to identify and diagnose emerging problems before disrupting production. Remote access to historian data via the Web enables central management of assets, whether within a single plant or across multiple plants. PdM solutions are widely integrated with EAM/CMMS, according to the survey. EAM systems have also evolved to include greater functionality to accommodate the broad spectrum of features needed to effectively integrate and manage the different types of asset classes found throughout the enterprise. New EAM systems configured to support the maintenance business processes of an enterprise can integrate, consolidate and help prioritize data for a single version of the truth throughout the enterprise. Features such as real-time data collection, diagnostics, and analysis tools enable individual users to prioritize and track information in the context of their functions.

Equally important is integrating applications using standardized formats that permit the enterprise to undertake corporate-wide initiatives. Additional value is derived from the sharing of best practices among individual plants for continuous improvement throughout the organization. From a management perspective, the addition of risk and simulation functionality provides management with deeper insight into the financial implications of PdM before making a decision to adjust resources.

Recommendations.

Efficient management of assets is critical to improving plant performance. As a component of a comprehensive asset performance management strategy, PdM solutions offer huge benefits. However, the value realized by the enterprise is dependent upon selecting solutions that fill gaps in existing practices. Companies that adopt a strategic approach to plant assets and their management will drive the enterprise to optimal performance.

• Investigate PdM solutions and adopt those that support core objectives and goals of the enterprise. Include estimations for implementation cost and schedule, including implementation resources, regulatory requirements, the type and version of applications and systems, proprietary data sources, and types of processes that will be impacted.
• Invest in PdM solutions with real-time analytics functionality that provides the ability to perform dynamic or real-time calculations and to compare current and historical data.
• For beginners, consider implementing PdM solutions in a pilot project in one location. Measuring and quantifying the benefits realized will help build the case for future PdM deployments.
• Consider PdM solutions that express information in financial terms that can be directly correlated to recommended actions or that clearly show the cost of inaction. In some organizations, it might be possible to tie actions to financial incentives. Incentivized workers have a way of being successful, provided the goal is achievable and can be accurately measured.
• Integration remains a challenge for most enterprises, but the ability to easily integrate multiple applications is key for successful PdM implementations. Integrating allows the workforce to gain additional insight to optimize asset availability and utilization while balancing operational constraints to improve financial results.

The preceding article and it's survey was published by PlantServices.com and was written by Paula Hollywood.

Culture Change

Change is never easy, and when you talk about making changes to an entire facility more often than not you are met with a brick wall. The article below was posted at ReliabilityWeb.com and gives some perspective on different steps to take to make the needed changes.

Sunshine & Rainbows: The Journey Toward Cultural Change
By John Scott

We have all heard the old saying that “a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step,” but never did this Confucius saying ring truer than when implementing manufacturing excellence.

When you consider the elements and tools available to us and the promise of good things for any company, it is no wonder more companies are starting reliability processes. There are many successful reliability models that we could try to emulate, yet in true blue American style, we select pieces of a multi-faceted process and provide half the resources required, yet somehow we make it work. We are amazed that progress takes as long as it does, but when we see results and improvements, we all get that “atta-boy” we want.

We live in an industrial age where resources are hard to come by, yet results must be achieved. If implementing a reliability process only involves the basics, we would certainly be in high clover. However, the reality is much of our time at the beginning of this process is more about culture change and less about protocols and procedures. Implementing a process is easy, having people follow it is another story.

Consider the process of culture change and the level of complexity required if you are the driving force behind your reliability initiative. For example, you have a piece of equipment that requires a monthly preventive maintenance ((PM) that takes 45 minutes to complete. You ask production for the piece of equipment during a slow production day and receive a resounding “no.” Your production counterpart knows the importance of a good PM, but wants the equipment to run all the time because shutting down during production hours just goes against the grain. Let’s add to this scenario the fact that this piece of equipment is a very bad actor that provides daily stop and start action. Now we have a piece of equipment that reduces uptime several times a week, yet production will not shut down early on a slow day to let you and your team in to complete the PM. The downtime throughout the week clearly belongs to maintenance, which could not have possibly performed the PM properly last month, otherwise our equipment would run. I refer to this as the “red bicycle syndrome.”

This phenomenon first came to my attention as a dairy farmer when I happened to notice all of my cows standing in an informal circle staring at something. When I walked closer, I realized that the cows were staring at my nephew’s 20-inch red bicycle. This was culture change in a pure and raw form. I have often seen the same reaction anytime a cultural change suddenly appears on the horizon.

Cultural Change #1: How do you get production to shut down equipment for you during good processing time? Culture dictates that we need to run while it is functioning semi-normal. This can be a very frustrating time for both production and maintenance. Part of the answer to this challenge is to take a solid look at what you are doing. Look at the history of the machine and ask a few tough questions. Are the problems with this machine related to the PM? Are the machine problems associated with component failure or are there other causes? This is the time to perform a good analysis and review of all past work orders. Work orders, even if poorly documented, can give you good information. What type of issues are you seeing? How many work orders have “adjustment” in the description? What patterns are you seeing on the work orders? You may find that the same component is changed during a reactive work order on a regular basis.

This brings us to Cultural Change #2: Are we buying and using original equipment parts or something aftermarket? Generally, when looking at this factor, I have found that somewhere along the way someone found a cheaper part based on unit cost. While we all want to save money, we need to look beyond just the cost of each unit. On one such piece of equipment, I found the unit cost for a drive motor was actually about $200 less than the original equipment. That is a great cost savings; the problem is replacing 17 motors in five years, all during a breakdown situation. Our cost savings goes south when you consider production labor, loss of product, labor for reworking product and pulling a craftsman off a scheduled job to complete an emergency repair. Our $200 savings just cost us $2,000 or more depending on time.

The real cost savings is when we use the right component and change it out on a planned and scheduled job plan. Again, we face the frustration of a culture that sees a savings and jumps on that band wagon without a proper analysis. For our example, we will make the assumption that our components are of excellent quality. Looking at the patterns in the work orders, we also see a steady flow of those pesky adjustment work orders. When comparing the patterns, we may determine that even though our parts are first rate, we are significantly shortening the lifecycle of the component through over adjustment. However, we don’t know why.

Time for Cultural Change #3: Are we looking at an alignment problem? We all know that equipment should be solidly mounted to the floor, properly squared and plumbed, but you know working on this thing is easier if you can slide it away from the line a bit for easier access. Anyway, we can tell it is properly aligned just by looking at it, right? So long as production does not speed up the cycles so the machine jerks, it can run smooth like that for years. Well, here we go again with that cultural thing; some people will just not see the plumbed forest for the trees. For these folks, it is obvious where the problem is, which brings us to the next cultural change.

Cultural Change #4: Operator error. Following the progression of adjustment work orders, it should be clear to anyone that some operators simply cannot stop making adjustments. The constant adjustment of the machine is contributing to the wear of the components; anyone can see that, can’t they?

When you begin the reliability process, it is amazing how many companies out there have just the answer you are looking for. Technology, proactive tools, oil analysis, computerized work orders and statistical analysis are all pieces of the pie that we want to grab a hold of and bring to our plant. They are all good and they all have a slightly different slant on what you need, for a nominal fee of course. Now don’t get me wrong; without question, there are incredible tools and services available out there that can add value to the bottom line. What I see as a concern is moving forward with a product or service without having done our homework before making the leap.

In our example, we meet frustration on both the maintenance and production side. This frustration comes from our own internal history that may be less than stellar. What drives your business will always be the key factor. In other words, what goods or services do you provide and how do you measure success? We link time to that pesky thing called productivity, a term that at first simply means to cut staff. In reality, the metrics used to create that staffing cut is really a modern way of saying common sense business. Use the number of people you need to accomplish your budgeted production rate and just to make it interesting, let’s try to do that in a cost effective manner so the price we have to charge for our product or service falls within acceptable limits for the consumer.

So where does this lead us? The answer is not as clear as the question. To see where we are, we must have some kind of history that calls for review. Our PM had to wait, so we had yet another failure that required replacement of a part. A few weeks later, we perform our PM that calls for replacing the part that we just replaced. Since the part is only a few weeks in service, we don’t need to change it, do we? What if the part was a bearing and when we replaced it on the breakdown, we only replaced the one bearing and no one performed an analysis to see why it failed? We just potentially created a breakdown that has not happened yet. The common sense of the situation has eluded us and we move happily along the path of, “Hey, the thing is running, right?”

The culture most of us are probably used to is “keep it running” at all costs. When we break down, how fast can we get running again? The old adage of “time is money” hits this one dead on. Our comfort level changes based on downtime and leaves us fast when the line is down. So the 64-thousand-dollar question is: How do you move beyond your own culture when implementing a reliability process? First, there has to be a team effort from the very beginning. Maintenance and production have a partnership and both must be actively involved in the implementation process if you have any chance at success. Maintenance cares for the equipment, but who owns it? Correct, production owns their equipment in the same way that you own your own vehicle. When you have issues with your car, you call the service center and schedule an appointment at a time that works for every one. The service center will ask a few brief questions to glean a bit of data and the rest is up to the mechanic. The service center will schedule the mechanic’s time on any given day and all of a sudden we see planning and scheduling in action. During the phone call, a few questions from the manager helped with his investigation to try to determine how much time the repair will take. Service center personnel will also use their knowledge of your type of vehicle to know which components typically fail on that model.

Similarly, to create cultural change in any industry, start the process of improvement by adopting a game plan based on accepted world-class standards and comparing it to your current culture. Create a process that includes:

• Teamwork and ownership - cross-functional
• Analysis as a simple tool - basic questions
• Metrics and understanding - what do you measure and is it understood
• Preventive maintenance timelines, procedures, skill levels
• Work orders and equipment history - what is it telling you
• Replacement parts original equipment versus aftermarket - Unit cost or total cost

Utilize cross-functional teams to make improvements that people can take ownership in and understand. Your process does not need to be complicated; it does, however, need to be understood. When you build small successes, there will be a hunger for more improvements that the cultural roadblock cannot stop. When all parties involved become excited about what is happening, you gain a greater hunger. This feeds the desire and receptiveness to purchase some of those services and products that can provide even more results.

Manufacturing excellence can provide great results if we are willing to take that step. The real key to cultural business change is a chain of successes that fuel more change. At our time in the industrial revolution, we have the potential to advance far beyond the vision from 80 years ago. The tools are right in front of you. The question is, Will you pick up those tools and put them to work?

The Latest Edition of AMMJ: Asset Management & Maintenance Journal?

Have you had a chance to check out the latest edition of the AMMJ? If not take a look, the March 2012 edition has a survey looking a different CMMS systems. Check out the MainitMizer™ survey which begins on page 37!

 

Click Here to Download the Latest AMMJ

Reliability Excellence and the Planner/Scheduler Function

Check out the article below from ReliabilityWeb.com, happy reading!

Reliability Excellence and the Planner/Scheduler Function
by Life Cycle Engineering

Manufacturing and Facility maintenance organizations everywhere struggle with the challenge of providing operational capacity for their company or organization. Maintenance strives to accomplish this by increasing the reliability of the equipment or process through effective Preventive Maintenance and effective material and labor budget utilization.

An excellent method for enabling these efforts is through effective planning and scheduling. Qualified Planner/Schedulers in a proactive, mature, structured, and disciplined maintenance organization can greatly impact the success of meeting these challenges. It has been stated and well documented by many companies that every hour of effective planning pays back three to five hours in maintenance technician time saved or the equivalent savings in materials and/or operational downtime.

However, many maintenance organizations fail to realize this payback from their planner groups. Why is this so? There are many contributing factors to this. The first is the lack of support from the entire organization to the role of planning and scheduling. This lack of support can be manifested in various ways.

1. Planning and scheduling is not accepted as one of the three core functions of maintenance.
2. The planning and scheduling function is too low in the maintenance organization resulting in little support when key decisions are required.
3. The role is not staffed as a management position, and compensation is just above that of a day shift maintenance technician.
4. The planner function is viewed as a fill-in position for supervisors or when additional maintenance labor is needed for peak times or shutdowns.
5. The planner function is used as a parts expediter, an emergency procurement gofer.
6. Any other responsibility management doesn’t have a clear fit for.

In order for planning groups to be effective, contribute to the overall success, and impact capacity, the role and importance of the planning function has to be communicated and supported by the management.

The second factor is the quality/caliber of the individual performing the planner/scheduler function. The person has to have the technical background of maintenance and a proactive maintenance mind set. Reactive, “fire fighter”, “drop everything to save the day” attitudes do not work in an effective planning group. True planner/schedulers work in the “Next Week” and beyond time frame. Effective planners are passionate for their role as well as structured and methodical in their thought and work processes. The selection process for the right planner/scheduler should be as detailed and comprehensive as for any managerial position. The selection should not be solely by seniority and definitely not a dumping spot for someone that doesn’t fit anywhere else in the organization.

The third factor is the type and amount of training planner/schedulers receive. Newly hired planners that have met the basic requirements of the position can become unmotivated quickly if left to fend for themselves. Bad habits and work practices will become part of their routines as well. Training on the roles and responsibilities of planners, the CMMS, purchase requisitions, and workflow have to be conducted as part of new planner orientation. Instilling “Best Practices” in each area is essential to the success of the planner group. Continuing education and training is required in order to maintain proficiencies in their technical/trade backgrounds as well as staying up to date on latest technology to support the organization.

As maintenance organizations evaluate their ability to provide the operational capacity, they should not fail to evaluate how well the planning function is being supported. Do they have the full support and commitment to focus specifically on planning and scheduling? Are the planner/schedulers the best qualified for the position, and are they sufficiently trained to perform their jobs effectively and efficiently?

How well is your planner/scheduler group functioning?

Using Effective Labels and Visuals to Enhance Asset Performance

This article is available at ReliabilityWeb.com and was written by Chris Rutter. We hope you see as much value in it as we did! Enjoy!

Enhance Asset Performance with Effective Labels and Visuals

Visual devices are widely used in 5S, Standard Work, Quick Changeover, Kanban, and other lean techniques, but they should also be an important component of your proactive maintenance strategy.

When implemented correctly, visuals can provide a number of benefits to your reliability program, including:

• Simplified preventive maintenance

• Optimized predictive maintenance

• Faster troubleshooting and repairs

• Improved quality, with fewer errors and defects 

Simplify Preventive Maintenance

Signs and labels can be used to identify preventive maintenance (PM) points and provide basic cleaning, inspection, and lubrication instructions.

These visuals are especially important if your company has implemented an autonomous maintenance program. When responsibilities for routine care and inspection are transferred to equipment operators instead of trained maintenance professionals, it becomes critical to clearly define their tasks and checkpoints.

For example, improper lubrication - too little or too much - is a major cause of equipment failure. A simple lube label can save your company significant costs in motor repair and replacement.

In addition, color-coded markings can be applied to zerk fittings and grease guns to guard against using the wrong type of lubrication.

Oil level indicators can also be applied to sight tubes to simplify oil management. The use of green and red striped labels placed behind the sight tube lets the operator easily detect when oil levels are too high or too low.

Preventive maintenance schedules and check sheets are other valuable visuals to have on your shop floor. These schedules show who needs to perform what task and when the task should be completed.

A schedule should simply highlight the task to be performed; it should not list the steps taken to accomplish it. If step-by-step instructions are required for the task, those details should be made available on a separate procedure.

Optimize Predictive Maintenance

As baby boomers retire - about 78 million in the next 10 to 15 years - there will be a growing number of new and relatively inexperienced technicians in the workforce. One large, well-known manufacturer recently forecasted that by 2014, approximately 70 percent of its maintenance staff will have less than five years of relevant job experience.

This will greatly increase the risk of errors and omissions in maintenance activities.

In addition, maintenance workers must learn how to use a growing number of sophisticated predictive maintenance technologies, such as vibration analysis, ultrasound, and thermal imaging. When performing predictive maintenance, it’s critical to take measurements at the same exact place each time. To ensure that the location for readings remains consistent - regardless of who conducts the inspection - you can apply predictive maintenance targets.

When implementing predictive maintenance programs, reliability technicians often use inspection routes to streamline the process and maximize efficiency. The drawback to this approach, however, is that the technician may not be familiar with each and every piece of equipment, and the proper readouts may vary across different machines.

Visual controls like gauge labels make it clear to anyone at a glance whether the temperature or pressure is within the normal operating range. In fact, these visuals make it so easy to detect abnormalities that anyone walking by becomes a potential inspector, facilitating early detection of potential problems.

Visuals can also be used to detect when chain tension is too loose, or advise when to replace the chain. When tension slackens, links from the chain should be removed, and the adjustment block can be shifted to restore proper tension with the shorter chain. Once a specified number of links have been removed, the edge of the block extends outside of the green area, clearly indicating that the chain should be replaced.

Faster Troubleshooting and Repair

Visuals can also speed troubleshooting and repairs. Including “to” and “from” information on equipment ID labels makes it easier to trace lines in electrical systems and pipe networks. As a result, you can perform repairs faster and reduce the risk of errors and potential injury.

Maintenance stores are perhaps the biggest contributor to maintenance inefficiencies, and your storeroom may offer plenty of opportunities for improvement through visual management. You can make repairs even more efficient by ensuring that the proper replacement part and its storage location are clearly identified, ideally by putting the information right at the point of need as shown.

To reduce search time, and ultimately reduce downtime, clearly label shelves and bins in stock rooms and tool cribs. Where possible, use graphics and/or photos on your labels for faster recognition and to avoid pulling the wrong part.

To enhance safety and reduce hazards, many companies are posting graphical lockout procedures right on or next to their equipment. These procedures provide the detailed steps included in accomplishing a task, including photos, diagrams, and instructions.

All procedures should include the content, or what you do; the sequence, or the order in which you do it; the time, or the time it takes to do it or how frequently it should be done; and the objective, or the desired outcome.

Be sure to keep your procedures simple. For example, don’t mix operator tasks with maintenance technician tasks. The most effective procedures are designed specifically for one type of user.

Posting hazard warnings and procedures with safe work instructions right at the point of need is the most effective way to reduce accidents and injuries at your plant. These procedures are as important (if not more so) than classroom or computer-based safety training.

Promote Error-Free Setup

When restoring equipment to operation, how can you ensure efficient and error-free setup? Visuals such as the operator control panel labels and alignment aids shown below help to simplify machine settings and positioning.

In addition, labeling the rotational direction on gears and shafts can help you avoid costly setup errors that can damage or destroy motors and drive systems.

Make Your Own Visuals

All of the visuals referenced in this article can be created right from your facility using a lean tools software system and industrial lean label printers. With a versatile in-house labeling system, you can create your own industrial-grade visuals on site and on demand, at a fraction of the cost of having them printed by an outside vendor.

Today’s lean software uses template wizards to speed and simplify the design and layout of custom visuals. The software includes thousands of safety and industrial pictograms, and it even lets you import your own logos or photos. You can also import data from spreadsheets and databases to include on your labels.

Industrial printers are available that can print multiple colors without manual ribbon changes and can even print photographic images. These printers output to a wide variety of media, including permanent and repositionable adhesive labels, tags and Kanban cards, magnets, and more.

If you purchase a printer with a built-in plotter cutter, you can easily create cut-letter door signs and paint stencils. All these capabilities are available in a make-it-yourself visual workplace printing system for use in lean and world-class manufacturing environments.

As you look to improve equipment performance and reliability, it pays to keep your eyes open for new ways in which visual systems can benefit your overall lean initiatives.

Maintenance Best Practices -- Forward to the Basics with Grease Guns

 By Jeff Shiver, Managing Principal, People and Processes Inc.

It may surprise you to learn that a grease gun is a deadly weapon capable of killing your equipment and in turn, the much-hoped-for reliability. Grease guns can generate significant pressure and if improperly used, ultimately blow out the seals designed to protect the bearings from external contaminants.

Overfilling the bearing cavities can create the same problem. When that occurs, the grease is forced outside the seals (path of least resistance) as the equipment heats up where it is exposed to contaminants and moisture. When the equipment cools, the contaminated grease is drawn back into those same cavities. Overfilling the cavities also creates additional heat.

So how can you overcome these problems? First, you need to understand the amount of grease required to properly lubricate the equipment. One of the best places to start is with the OEM or bearing manufacturer. Many manufacturers will provide you with the proper grease amounts to be applied at specific frequencies on electronic media like CD-ROMs.

Next, understand how much grease each of your grease guns provides per "shot" or pump. Samples from 30 different grease guns produced a range of 0.54 to 2.9 grams per pump. Pull samples to "calibrate" your grease guns and mark the amount of grease dispensed per pump on the gun itself.

To prevent human error in applying the wrong lubricant, color code your grease guns and grease fittings. A number of companies sell clear grease gun barrels or colored sleeves to go over the barrels. For the fittings themselves, use matching paint around or colored plastic rings under the fittings.

As part of your housekeeping process, wipe the gun tip and fitting before and after application. A cap on the fitting can also help prevent contamination.

Using these tips will take your asset management strategy to a more precise and effective level.

The article above was published at www.industyweek.com

Below is an article from Facilitiesnet.com. Make sure you've read the last 2 posts: “What is the Value of Reliable Power?” and "How Unreliable Power Can Affect the Bottom Line".

Show Top Management Options to Win Funding for Power Reliability

By Loren Snyder - October 2011

Investments in power reliability compete for budget dollars that, in today's economic environment, are almost always scarce. To make the case for investment, facility managers should show top management a range of options.

"By hearing out IT personnel who have initiated a request for higher power reliability, the facilities management team can consider a number of workable solutions that are compatible with conditions at a given location and present those options to management for consideration," says Feldhaus. 

Whatever the risk, some items need to continue operating, according to experts:

1. At the minimum, consider life-safety of building occupants by ensuring that lighting is reliable, even if it doesn't run all lamps in the system.
2. Make sure computing, business transaction and automated processes aren't abruptly stopped. Gone are the days when reliability consisted of a small battery system that allowed computer systems to power down safely.
3. If applicable to your organization's mission, maintain temperatures for foods, medicines and other perishables.
4. Consider also the effect across your organization. If your facility provides computing capacity to remote locations and your facility loses power, the remote locations won't have the tools they need to service customers — even if they still have power. 

Because C-suite executives are used to thinking about and considering numbers, quantify the costs of life-safety liabilities, damaged equipment and loss of profits related to outages. It can be hard to quantify, but even educated estimates should cause management to take note of the potential losses. The larger the financial exposure, the harder facility managers should press for power reliability. 

Patel says that in the early to mid-2000s, studies were done in the aftermath of hurricanes and massive, prolonged outages. At that time, he says, 60 to 75 percent of small- to medium-sized businesses did not have appropriate power reliability.

"Power reliability is no longer the niche product it was 20 years ago," he says. "Since those studies were done, things have improved but I'd estimate that perhaps 35 percent small- to medium-sized businesses still are not capable of dealing with prolonged outages." 

Whether new construction or a retrofit, the bottom line, of course, is that power reliability is about the bottom line.

Loren Snyder, a contributing editor for Building Operating Management, is a writer who specializes in facility issues. He was formerly managing editor of Building Operating Management.

Below is an article from Facilitiesnet.com. Make sure you read the previous blog post: “What is the Value of Reliable Power?” and check back in tomorrow for the final installment!

How Unreliable Power Can Affect the Bottom Line

By Loren Snyder - October 2011   

     

Although it can be difficult to put a price on electrical outages, the Electric Power Research Institute estimates that U.S. economic losses due to power problems reach $100 billion per year. One way to estimate the effect of an outage is to tally the cost of sensitive computer or IT systems that might incur damage during power outages. Of course, the economic impacts of outages can be direct and indirect, including loss of production, loss of clientele, cost of recovery and loss of earnings. 

At the end of the day, deciding to increase or improve power reliability may be a response to experience.

"It becomes a question of interruption," says Mike Kirchner, technical support manager at Generac. "In other words, how much value does an organization assign to reliability? If they've had lots of outages, or lost business, then they've had some pain, and they might be willing to invest more." 

History shows that to be the case. "In many cases the decision to configure higher reliability network power comes in direct response to a major event where the existing power infrastructure was found to be less than fully adequate to meet the business needs of the user," says Rich Feldhaus, Tripp Lite UPS product manager.

Note that for new construction, many decisions about power reliability have already been partially made for facility managers by code requirements. "If an office building has elevators above 12 floors, it must have back-up power," says Bhavesh Patel, marketing director for Emerson's ASCO division. "And if nothing else [life-safety concerns] like a fire require that buildings with an electric fire pump have backup power."

How Do You Secure Reliability?

Once facility managers have established rough cost estimates on revenue loss due to outages, they should begin planning how to combat those losses and retain power reliability. As with any situation in which there are liabilities — safety, revenue loss and more — facility managers should first hypothesize outage operating scenarios and then determine critical power needs. 

One factor to examine in an analysis of risks is the practices of the local utility.

"Some utilities spend more to make sure distribution lines are reliable —trimming tree branches and such so that there aren't interruptions after a storm," Kirchner says. "But when the utility invests less on reliability, sometimes there's a greater need for reliability on a business' part." 

After assessing the impact of outages, facility managers should compare it to the cost of reliability-enhancing equipment, a cost that should include considerations — and expenses — of operating those systems. 

"Choosing the type of generation technology or application should start with a feasibility study," Cavallaro says, "and usually requires assistance from a professional engineer."

Below is an article from Facilitiesnet.com. Don't miss the next 2 related articles!

What is the Value of Reliable Power? 

By Loren Snyder - October 2011

Everyone knows mission-critical facilities have outsized power quality and reliability requirements. But our world is becoming more power hungry, increasingly digitalized and threatened by the prospect of even momentary grid failure. It's therefore sensible that facility managers examine lessons learned from mission-critical facility planners when addressing power reliability for other parts of the organization.

Even for facilities without mission-critical status, loss of power has serious ramifications, particularly at a time when brand loyalty among consumers is eroding. When power reliability problems cause customers to go elsewhere, a teporary outage can cause a permanent shift in clienteles' purchasing decisions. 

Increasingly, all kinds of organizations are requiring what Mark Cavallaro, principal of Current Solutions, calls "premium power" — a combination of power quality and reliability. 

"In an era of both increasing power outages and rising demand for premium power, many businesses may install [back-up] units to protect against the risk and cost of power outages," he says. 

The bottom line, in the case of power reliability, is that facility managers have to measure both the direct and indirect costs of outages. By assessing the effects of an outage, planning for additional reliability, and then making the case with an organization's executives, facility managers can minimize revenue loss. 

What Are the Ramifications?

Facility managers often have a difficult time quantifying the value of power reliability — and for good reason. The extent of problems incurred by outages depends on business requirements and organizational mission.

"I think that higher reliability in non-mission-critical facilities is driven mostly by a desire to ensure profitability and provide quality services in a very tough market," says Mark Hoskins, electrical engineering manager at Cogdell Spencer Erdman. "Of course it depends upon the nature of the business and the operations within the facility, but the facility manager must address and analyze the impacts of reliability as it relates to safety, information systems and business results."

Irrespective of an organization's choice for backup power, the value of having a backup system should be estimated. To that end, the Environmental Protection Agency's Combined Heat and Power initiative offers an approach to estimate the value of reliability. Power outages or service interruptions can impose direct costs on customers in many ways:

• Damaged equipment (think of the effects that surges, swells, spikes and sudden outages can have on sensitive equipment).
• Spoiled or off-spec product (think of any institution or business that has to freeze or refrigerate food, insulin or other temperature-sensitive products).
• Loss of computerized documents, artwork and other intellectual property.
• Extra maintenance costs.
• Cost for replacement or repair of failed components.
• Loss of revenue due to downtime that cannot be made up.
• Costs for idle labor.
• Liability for safety/health.

According to EPA, some customers can determine the direct costs of outages by reviewing recent outage history and estimating an annualized cost of outages to their operations. One approach is to quantify the direct cost impacts of momentary outages (less than 10 seconds) on either a dollars-per-incident or dollars-per-minute basis. Estimates of typical annual values for the number of momentary outages and total time of extended outages can be determined by reviewing utility bills or facility records. 

Estimating is Tricky

Experience shows that developing cost estimates can be difficult. "In some cases a cost analysis can be accomplished," Hoskins says. "In others, it may be a bit subjective and require input from business owners and building occupants to properly address. Additional reliability costs must be weighed against potential losses due to power unreliability."

Backup Systems Require Vigilance

Let's say Katrina scared your organization into purchasing backup power supplies. Or the 2003 blackout in the Northeastern United States convinced executives to take a closer look at power reliability.

They did the right thing: They invested in a backup system. 

Facility managers can't simply rest assured a diesel generator will fire up when the lights go out. Or that a UPS system is ready to go at a moment's notice. Like all other mechanical things, backup power systems require vigilance and regular maintenance to operate on demand and at peak potential. 

Even though code requires testing of backup power systems, not every organization abides by code. And between testing cycles, the batteries that provide uninterrupted power until the generator starts, can die. 

Recent code changes also require some organizations to keep enough fuel on hand to run a genset for 72 hours. For an organization like a hospital, that can be an enormous amount of fuel. But filling the generator tanks isn't enough, warns Bhavesh Patel, marketing director for Emerson's ASCO division. Without additives, fuel degrades to the point of being unusable, which requires draining the tanks and refilling them with fresh fuel. 

Despite the hardships of backup system maintenance, guaranteeing power reliability is about maintaining an organization's mission profile, ensuring life-safety, and promising profitability, even when the rest of the neighborhood goes dark.