March 21-23, 2006
Rosemont Convention Center
Chicago IL

The 2006 National Plant Engineering & Maintenance Show and Conference™ connects you with the leading suppliers, focused product pavilions, and a leading application oriented conference with more than 250 all new sessions and workshops – all engineered to help you innovate, work smarter and excel.

Held during National Manufacturing Week®, you’ll have the unique opportunity to find new products and technologies to make a safer, more reliable, and more productive plant with less overhead. No other event gives you this much insight, interaction and actionable ideas you can put to use right now to better compete in the global marketplace.

Please stop by and say hello as Reliabilityweb.com, Reliability Magazine and Uptime Magazine sponsor the Reliability Pavilion with leading solution providers in one convenient location.

Get your free Exhibit Pass today

Beware of the Scale!

Most reliability technicians deal with detailed numbers and charts that will spin the heads of engineering students. Managers deal with information in the immediate sense, with rapid-fire decisions. For both groups, it is the nature of their respective jobs.

In a still reactive maintenance environment , but working toward proactive with predictive technologies, a difficult agenda for the technicians is to convince managers that a particular item is exhibiting symptoms of failure. Paperwork with comparison graphs can help, but only if the scales are set the same.

Comparison charts have the initial “in tolerance” results, and an “alarm” chart showing the increase in noise, vibration or particulates. These alarm charts are usually on a larger scale, causing the chart lines to look the same, but on different scales. The same can be said for success stories, but with the charts reversed.

With the scales set the same, the manager can compare the two graphs and make the decisions necessary to help his operation eliminate potential losses. The quick visual allows the manager to process the information that the technician is trying to convey, creating a win-win situation.

Reader Tip submitted by Robert Calvert
Fabrication Maintenance Superintendent/Reliability Manager
Cargill Meat Solutions
Plainview Texas

Thanks Robert - your Maintenance Tips hat is on the way!

More Maintenance Tips

February 21 to 24, 2006
Glen Ellyn, Illinois

Is your maintenance program effective? If not, what is preventing its success?

Join the leaders in maintenance and reliability for a three day seminar taught in an open classroom environment. Bring your questions and an appetite to learn. Learn to be more proactive in your maintenance programs by selecting
the right maintenance, on the right equipment, at the right time, for the right reasons using a simple process.

At the completion of this seminar, the attendee will have the tools and knowledge to have an immediate impact on the reliability of your motor systems and your bottom line! Review and correct your maintenance, repair vendor issues, best practices, repetitive failures and more!

Topics include:
• Condition Based Monitoring
• Motor Circuit Analysis
• Electrical Signature Analysis
• RCM-Based Motor Management
• Setting Condemning Criteria
• Time To Failure Estimation
• Selecting Test Frequencies for CBM
• Root-Cause-Failure-Analysis
• Repair vs Replace

Tel: 860 575-3087 Fax: 860 577-8537

Learn more online

RCA Definition and Approaches:

The most consistent definition of root cause analysis (RCA) is provided in the handbook put out by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE): “Guidelines for Incident Investigation, 2nd Edition, 2003.” In this guideline, an incident (loss, near hit, problem, etc.) has one or more (so far, always more than one) causal factors (previously know by many names) and each causal factor has multiple root causes.

The definition in this guideline was debated for many years leading up to the issue of the 2nd edition, but we all finally agreed that a root cause should be defined as: “A fundamental, underlying, system-related reason why an incident occurred that identifies a correctable failure(s) in management systems.” Note that the definition of a root cause does not include blaming on the individual but rather focuses on the underlying reasons why a part fails or why a human makes a mistake. This definition was specially chosen based on decades of experience by the large group of chemical companies who contributed to the writing of the guideline; they had discovered that the only way to improve systems long-term was to focus on things they can fix. They recognized that parts fail because of human error (usually at the management system level) and that direct human errors are also the result of weaknesses in management systems.

Management systems include procedures, training, communication methods, administrative controls of various kinds including management of change, supervision, and risk reviews (such as FMEA). A specific management system of increasing focus is the control of human error through optimization of human factor engineering. This involves following best practices in design of the human-machine interface, using the best rules for writing procedures, and setting up the best methods for communication.

Literally dozens of competing approaches have been used in RCA over the past 50 years. Many have proven ineffective at getting to root causes and several require you to already know the answer for them to work! The best approaches appear to those that allow a team to work backwards for known events and ask good cause-effect questions, which in turn lead to other questions. These questions must then be answered by gathering data from the right sources in the right way.

Secondly, the RCA approach needs a consistent way to determine the management weaknesses that led to each causal factor (component failure or direct human error). The oldest method, called 5-Whys, Why-Tree, and several other names, is still valuable for this step, but most analysts will couple it with a pre-listing of possible management system weaknesses to help ensure both thoroughness and consistency in this step of determining root causes. The pre-listings are called by many names and some are proprietary in nature, but the more popular ones share 90% of the same root causes and have similar structure. The more popular root cause charts are provided by:

http://www.process-improvement-institute.com
http://www.absconsulting.com
http://www.taproot.com

The chart from Process Improvement Institute is free for the asking. And at least snippets of the other methods are described in the AIChE handbook’s supplemental CD of examples.

Training of new RCA leaders normally takes 2-3 days. Most of that time is needed to learn how to complete the analysis up to determination of causal factors. After that point, the determination of root causes is straightforward in most cases.

So, there are industry-endorsed approaches to RCA and easy ways to learn more about these (such as by obtaining the AIChE guidelines book at http://www.aiche.org or contacting one of the firms at the web sites listed above).

Regardless, RCA is an integral part of any comprehensive maintenance management system. Without, we are doomed to leave root causes undiscovered and therefore suffer repeated losses for the same reasons.

Reader tip submitted by William Bridges, President, Process Improvement Institute, 11003 Crosswind Drive, Knoxville Tennessee 37922

Download the RCA Chart at the Process Improvement Institute

Electrical Test for Voltage in Dry Land and Marine Equipment Cooling Systems

The following procedure will test a complete system for voltage - with the exception of an electrical current which can be generated by the rear end and transmission. This is particularly true with air bag suspensions, rubber pad suspensions, and rubber mounted transmissions. Any current generated will travel up the drive shaft to ground through the engine coolant. We recommend grounding rear ends and transmissions to the frame rail the battery is grounded to.

EQUIPMENT REQUIRED
A multi-meter or voltmeter capable of reading both AC and DC currents is required. The meter needs to read 0 to the maximum voltage of the system being tested in tenths of a volt. The meter leads must be long enough to reach between the coolant and the ground side of the battery. We do not recommend a digital voltmeter.

TEST PROCEDURES FOR DRY LAND MACHINERY

• Attach the proper meter lead to the ground side of the battery, negative to negative or positive to positive.
• Install the second lead in the coolant, touching the coolant only.
• Read the DC and AC voltage with all systems off. If a block heater is present, also take a reading with the heater turned on. If an automatic battery charger is present, as in a stand-by system, also take a reading with the system running. Turn engine off and read DC and AC voltage.
• Read the DC and AC voltage with the electrical starter engaged.
• Read the DC and AC voltage with the engine running and all systems turned on; lights, heaters, air conditioning, two-way radio, and the radio on both stand-by and transmit.
• Remove the lead from the coolant and repeat the DC and AC voltage tests with the lead touching the top radiator tank metal hose connection.
• Remove the lead from the coolant and repeat the DC and AC voltage tests with the lead touching the outside of the engine block.

Tip provided by POLARIS Laboratories
Tel: (317) 808-3750

Click here for voltage test procedures for marine applications

On behalf of the Organising Committee, we invite you to attend this inaugural World Congress combining the interests of both academic and industry groups. The Congress is being held at Conrad Jupiters Conference Centre at the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, 11-14 July 2006.

The objective of WCEAM is to bring together leading academics, industry practitioners and research scientists from around the world to:
• Advance the body of knowledge in engineering asset management,
• Strengthen the link between industry, academia and research,
• Promote the development and application of research, and
• Showcase state of the art technology

1st biennial WCEAM is being organised by the CRC for Integrated Engineering Asset Management (CIEAM) and the Maintenance Engineering Society of Australia (MESA). It brings together a number of major international conferences:
• The Asia Pacific Conference on Systems Integrity and Maintenance (ACSIM) hosted by CIEAM,
• The Condition Monitoring Conference hosted by the British Institute of Non-Destructive Testing, (BINDT)
• The Intelligent Maintenance Systems Conference (IMS)
hosted by the IMS Center in the USA, and
• The International Conference of Maintenance Societies (ICOMS ® 2006) hosted by MESA

1st WCEAM is a refereed congress. All final papers will be peer reviewed in full by a panel of international experts. Industry case studies will also be featured. The congress will also host selected short courses in Asset Management on July 14 2006.

Delegates will attend from all parts of the world and will include professionals from many areas of government (including policy makers), academia and industry.

The Congress will consist of keynote presentations, oral submitted presentations and poster submitted presentations.

We encourage you to submit abstracts for consideration online once the call has commenced.

We hope that you will plan on joining us at the Gold Coast in July 2006.

Regards
Joseph Mathew Chief Executive Officer CIEAM
Jim Kennedy National Chairman MESA

Learn more online

Sometimes the simplest things are overlooked. When taking vibration data, remember to always prepare the surface of your machinery before mounting the accelerometer. It is best to clean the surface; this may include sanding or wire brushing the surface to remove any paint that may interrupt the transmission of the vibration data. If the surface is curved, it is not recommended to attach an accelerometer with a flat magnet, try a curve surface magnet that has two legs (poles) that contact the surface.

Tip provided by LUDECA, INC.
ALIGNMENT * VIBRATION * BALANCING
http://www.ludeca.com
Tel: 305-591-8935

More Vibration Analysis Resources

Do you have great advice that will help other maintenance and reliability professionals do their jobs better?

Enter your tip into the EAM/RCM Tip Challenge and you may be a lucky winner!

Prizes:

1 Grand Prize EAM/CMMS Tip: Free EAM-2006 3 Day Conference Pass, 3 nights at the Orleans Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Tip Featured at EAM-2006 and in Maintenance-Tips Email newsletter

1 Grand Prize RCM Tip: Free RCM-2006 3 Day Conference Pass, 3 nights at the Orleans Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Tip Featured at RCM-2006 and in Maintenance-Tips Email newsletter

1 Runner Up EAM/CMMS Tip : Free EAM-2006 3 Day Conference Pass, Tip Featured at EAM-2006 in Maintenance-Tips Email newsletter

1 Runner Up RCM Tip : Free RCM-2006 3 Day Conference Pass, Tip Featured at RCM-2006in Maintenance-Tips Email newsletter

25 other tip submissions will be entered into a drawing for a Free Maintenance Tips hat, Conference proceedings and a free one year subscription to Reliability Magazine

The winners will be selected and notified on January 12, 2006 and must confirm acceptance within 3 business days or another winner will be selected.

Click here to learn more and to submit a tip