In the final installment of our Reliability Centered Maintenance Audits white paper, a cross-section review of CBM / PdM Audit data taken in chemical, oil, building product, and steel manufacturers over the past few years was performed to try and highlight outliers within the audits that negatively affected the Management Systems and Technologies cumulative scores. Multiple key indicators that contribute to facilities scoring in the Bottom Quartile on their Management Systems Rankings were identified during this study. Data reviewed found:…
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End-of-Year Planned Maintenance Shutdown? Commissioning/Re-Qualification of Equipment is Crucial Before Restarting Operations
Although planned shutdowns are extremely expensive and render a plant nonoperational for an extended period of time, they are necessary for a number of reasons: They provide the opportunity for various maintenance issues to be resolved that cannot be addressed while the plant is operational. They enable internal inspections of equipment to be conducted that would otherwise be impossible while the equipment was running. It allows ample time for major system overhauls such as new equipment installations to take place.…
Training in 2021: Your Employees Could Give You Competitive Edge
Can 2020 just be over already? For the manufacturing industry, the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the transition to automation and digitization, as factories try to remain operational with fewer employees on-site to manage it, and with social distancing guidelines in place. Adding to the difficulty is the industry’s ongoing struggle to find enough candidates with the right skills and talents to fill open positions. In fact, according to the Manufacturing Institute’s 2020 Training Survey, “manufacturers have consistently cited the inability…
Reliability Centered Maintenance Audits, Part 3: Management of Deployment Technologies
As amazing as today’s CBM technologies are at the early detection of potentially catastrophic machine problems, companies must precisely manage the deployment of these technologies to ensure that there is a clear understanding of their impact on reliability and that they are being utilized appropriately. That’s why a top-down reliability vision, with clearly defined goals and objectives, must be communicated, along with ample support and reasonable expectations for compliance. Our many years of PdM/CBM auditing experience has revealed the following…
Your Machine Maintenance Budget: Is the Tail Wagging the Dog?
When it comes to planning budgets, maintenance is often at the “tail end” of the process. This frequently results in “run-to-fail” becoming the modus operandi for dealing with machine issues. This reactive approach to machine maintenance, while perhaps cost-effective in the short term, can be quite costly in the long run. Why let the tail wag the dog? Unmonitored Assets: The Bane of Maintenance Budgets Planning and maintaining a budget for industrial machine maintenance is challenging even in the best…
Reliability Centered Maintenance Part 2: Technologies of Early Detection and Pitfalls of Incorrect Application
There are many different technologies available for identifying failure indicators before they snowball into costly repairs and worse, causing a shutdown of production. However, if not performed correctly, the value of these technologies is significantly diminished. Let’s take a closer look at the “big players” in early detection and the pitfalls of not using them correctly. Vibration Analysis Most failure modes can cause an increase in vibration. That’s why this area of machine health is the predominant and most widely…
Why Regular Reliability Centered Maintenance Auditing Better Insures a Positive Return on Investment
As advancements in technologies continue to change the face of the industry and its processes, the challenges faced by manufacturing companies in their pursuit of reliability remain the same: decreasing maintenance costs and downtime while simultaneously increasing production of high-quality goods, throughput and profits. Reliability programs designed to improve machine reliability play a critical role in achieving these goals. When designed and implemented correctly, reliability programs provide a comprehensive, data-driven solution to improving machine reliability that is tailored to meet…
Five Important Questions to Ask When Choosing A Condition Based Monitoring Service Provider
There are many Condition Based Monitoring (CBM) service providers in business today, each with a slightly different spin on how to achieve the ultimate goal of optimizing machine reliability. Couple this with the ever-increasing number of new, innovative technologies available to conduct them and it’s no wonder people feel overwhelmed. That’s why it’s extremely important to have a clear understanding of the capabilities and limitations of any outside CBM service providers you are considering to manage your machine reliability program.…
Five Benefits of Outsourcing Your CBM Program
It’s a tough crossroads to face. Do you keep the task monitoring machine conditions in-house or contract it out? When it comes to machine assets, the consequences of inefficiency and inaccuracy (both in the quality of data and the interpretation of it) can be devastating. Effective machine condition based monitoring (CBM) can help companies control maintenance costs in lean times and maximize their production during boom times. The performance of an in-house CBM program can decline quickly with leadership changes…
Taking Advanced Diagnostics Where the Rubber Meets the Road
We took this show on the road…literally! Sometimes identifying complex problems means using a lot of different tools. The Issue A bus manufacturer was having drive component failures and there were many theories as to what the problem might be. An IVC Technologies senior analyst utilized several sensor types to identify the issue. The Analysis The bus’s drive shaft was instrumented with: Strain gage-based torque telemetry to evaluate peak and dynamic torque loads Displacement sensors to evaluate excessive movement Accelerometers…
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