MRO Excellence is for the Customer

Why do companies have MRO Storerooms? Is it to service maintenance? Operation? Support Engineering in Project work? None of the above, companies have MRO store rooms and all the costs associated with them because they are a good investment. A good investment? Yes a good investment!!! MRO Storerooms are managing spare part inventory to ensure our customer service levels remain high and cost of goods sold are low. This is done by partnering with Commercial, Maintenance and Operation to produce the correct product, at the correct time, in the correct quantity and at the correct location. The objectives of the storeroom are to store parts, which minimize the risk of unplanned downtime at the lowest total cost to the business. This is done by balancing the cost of downtime against inventory carrying cost to ensure the life cycle costs for an asset are minimized.

What are the steps to improve your current performance?
1 Develop a vision of a high performing storeroom contributing to high customer service level and equipment availability.
2 Complete an assessment of the current state.
3 Ensure the organization expectations are clear for all functions: Storeroom, Maintenance, Operation, Commercial and Engineering.
4 Review all spending and usage to determine where the money is being spent and what is not turning. Determine why and develop actions to meet strategic reliability and procurement plans.
5 Determine how the storeroom function can assist in maximizing plant performance by reviewing the performance of critical assets and determining root causes of unplanned downtime. Determine the financial impact to the business caused by storeroom inefficiencies and justify the improvement effort.
6. Agree on Key Performance Indicators, set up a timeline with milestones and the deliverables of the improvement plan.
7. Provide general Material management training for selected management, storeroom, commercial, operations, maintenance and engineering resources.
8. Map out the storeroom business processes used to service these critical assets such as part issuance, kitting, procurement, vendor management, stocking and removal process, storeroom PM’s , measuring and reporting, etc. Implement a storeroom organization to ensure these tasks are done correct the first time.
9. Ensure the part’s information (BOM, Vendor, Price, Location, descriptions, etc.) is complete and accurate in the CMMS and Procurement business systems.
10. Review the layout of the storeroom and organization to eliminate all possible wasted effort and streamline the flow of information, people and material.
11. Set vendor performance and assurance management program.
12. Celebrate the success along the way.

Tip provided by MET DEMAND LLC
http://www.metdemand.com

iPresentation invitation: MRO Excellence Making a Difference

When Is An Indirect IR Temperature Measurement OK?

“Experience is the knowledge you get just after you needed it.” The first time around, at least, that is unfortunately true. It certainly applies to using indirect T measurements. Experience has taught us that a very small temperature rise on the outside of a transformer represents a very large one inside. The second time we see a similar situation, we understand how serious it can be.

A qualitative evaluation of the relationship between an indirect measurement and the true hot spot can be made by considering the paths for heat transfer between the hot spot and the observed anomaly and comparing them to the competing paths that siphon heat in other directions. For example, if one end of a conductive component is hot and the component passes through an empty, evacuated, reflective space, then the other end will be almost as hot. If the same component were to pass through a moving air stream, the air would “bleed” off some of the heat, reducing the temperature at the other, visible, end. If, in addition, crossing members, such as supports, contacted the center of the component, then additional heat would be bled off and the visible end would be even cooler.

This type of evaluation should always be done when using an indirect measurement. Combined with experience, it may be a sufficient analysis for a given situation and need. For greater reliability and quantification of the relationship between the hidden and visible temperatures, heat transfer analysis of the system should be done.

Tip provided Electrophysics
Tel: (973) 882-0211

Win a Harley and get a Flash HotShot Demo

March 8, 2006
Orleans Hotel & Casino
Las Vegas NV

Reliability Engineering For Maintenance Managers by Vee Narayan

Workshop Objectives

• To appreciate how to use reliability engineering to improve profitability and safety
• To learn how to implement analysis results effectively
• To be able to compute value added by this work
• To learn how to get started on an improvement program

What you should expect in this Workshop

There is a strong business case to support the use of Reliability Engineering, but we do not always know how to tap this knowledge. In this workshop, we will equip you with just the essential theory, in simple and practical terms. Along the way, we will discuss the terminology and definitions used in Reliability Engineering. With this foundation in place, we will identify commonly used tools and techniques that can assist us in our reliability improvement efforts. For this purpose, we will review these methods briefly, so that we can select the right one for the job in hand. Don’t expect detailed explanations about RCM, RCA, FMECA etc., but you should see and hear enough to know how they work and why.

Analysis is often the easiest part of any improvement effort. For many of us, implementation of the results of analysis is the most difficult part. We will discuss the issues involved in implementation and how we can plan and execute this phase effectively. Like any business process, implementation has to be managed properly, paying attention to the ‘soft’ aspects as well.

Most of us are up to our eyeballs in work. It is hard to find the time to measure and record the value added by these efforts. This is the Achilles’ heel of Maintenance Managers. When competing for scarce resources, if we cannot prove the value added or RoI, we will lose out. So we will spend some time on this subject.

The last question is ‘How do I make a start’? What are the steps we need to take to convince the powers-that-be to give us the resources and cash to achieve our vision of making it a safer, more profitable, longer lasting facility?

Our discussion should help you will gain some ideas on how to tackle these questions effectively.

Who will benefit from this Workshop?

This Workshop is meant for Maintenance Managers, Supervisors, Planners, Schedulers, Reliability Engineers and other support staff who wish to improve the reliability performance of their Plant or Facilities. The emphasis is on practical application of the concepts which can be applied in the work situation. If you don’t remember your math, you need not worry. We will not need a lot of it, as we will develop the concepts using tables and charts. Some high school math knowledge will help – if you feel a bit rusty, help will be available.

Workshop Leader
V.Narayan (Vee) is a Mechanical Engineer with about 40 years of experience in the Automotive, Pharmaceutical, Oil & Gas (both Upstream and Downstream) and Engineering Industries. He has worked in India, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Holland and the U.K., mostly in Maintenance and Project Management. He led the Shell Group Center of Excellence in Maintenance & Reliability and headed the Maintenance Strategy Group in Shell U.K. He has trained several hundred people in RCA, RCM and Maintenance Management, and is the author of a book entitled Effective Maintenance Management.

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It is considered better practice to evaluate the vibration of a motor while it is coupled to the driven machinery. Sometimes the characteristics of an electrical problem don’t show when the equipment is unloaded.

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

iPresentation Tutorial invitation: Considerations when measuring low speed machines

On-Line Testing of Low, Medium & High Voltage Motors

On-Line motor testing of low-voltage motors is usually performed at the load side of the MCC or output side of variable frequency drives. Testing of medium-voltage and high-voltage motors is always performed at the current transformers (CT’s) and potential transformer (PT’s) in the motors low-voltage cabinet. In most cases, supply wiring is all the same color and same size making defining which voltage leads go with which current leads very difficult.

The usual scenario is to run the test and determine which currents should go with which voltages and which direction the CT’s should be facing. This may take several tries but satisfactory results can be reached. Once all voltage and current connections are identified, marking them with colored tape will make connecting easier and insures the proper order for all subsequent testing.

Tip provided by Baker Instrument
Tel: (800) 752-8272
http://www.bakerinst.com

More Maintenance Tips

RCA POLICY/PROCEDURE

To test the seriousness of management about their support of a new or existing RCA effort, present them a draft RCA policy and/or procedure. What this does is help to institutionalize RCA in the organization. As many know who have worked in “lip service” RCA organizations, talking is cheap. RCA is an “against-the-grain” activity and people do not just welcome investigators with open arms. It is hard to garner support from the bottom as well as the top. A policy or procedure makes it part of the way we do business and therefore not optional. This provides your effort some clout when you try to get support during your analysis.

Tip provided by the Reliability Center Inc.
http://www.reliability.com
Tel: 804-458-0645

More Root Cause Analysis Resources

Test Machine Immediately After Install / Repair

Archived at
http://maintenancetalk.com/blog.php/tipsblog

The “Bathtub Curve”, which is often used to describe the rate of machine failures vs. running time shows that a large percentage of machine failures occur shortly after startup. It is therefore recommended that one collect vibration data soon after startup in order to detect possible installation problems before the machine has time to damage itself. It is also important to be sure that the machine is properly balanced and aligned in order to maximize its operating life. If correctly written into a purchase or repair contract, vibration readings may be used as acceptance criteria. This is to say that one should not have to pay for the machine or repair if the machine is found to have problems.

When testing the machine, be sure to note test conditions (load, speed and configuration) as well as test locations. Document these items along with nameplate information and draw a simple schematic of the machine. In the future, the data you have collected may be used as a baseline to monitor the machine for changes in condition. It is important to always test the machine at the same locations, with the same test configuration and under the same conditions to make the comparison valid.

Tip provided by DLI Engineering
http://www.dliengineering.com
Tel: 206-842-7656

Vibration Reference Center

Who Should Be Involved In Your RCM Effort

One of the key things in ensuring your have a successful RCM effort is to make sure you have the right people in the room when performing your RCM analysis. The make up of your RCM team will have a direct impact in the accuracy of your analysis and task decisions your team will make. The best RCM teams contain the following people:

1. Experienced Equipment Operator
2. 1 to 3 Experienced Trades People (Electrician, Pipe Fitter, Mechanist, Instrument Technician)
3. Process Engineer
4. Reliability Engineer
5. Equipment Manufacturer Support

The ideal RCM team consists of four to seven people, each should be open to change and respected by their peers. Companies who have successful RCM efforts free the time their best people to participate in RCM analyses.

Tip provided by Doug Plucknette
Reliability Solutions
Tel: 585-349-7245
http://www.reliabilitysolution.com

Learn RCM Blitz

RCA AND SIX SIGMA

Many believe that RCA competes with Six Sigma but the truth is that RCA complements the tools of the Six Sigma black belt. We must understand that the objectives of the two approaches are quite different.

Six Sigma strives for precision by making good performance great. Six Sigma would strive to bring an organization from 99% availability to 99.9996%. However, Six Sigma was not originally developed to move an organization from 70% to 99%. The primary objective of Six Sigma is to minimize process variation. This means that we identify a signal of an impending failure earlier and minimize its consequences.

On the flip side, RCA strives to eliminate the variation. This means that we do not seek to minimize its consequences but to understand why there is any variation.

True RCA tools tend to have more breath and depth than the Six Sigma problem-solving tools. This is why they are a natural compliment.

Tip provided by the Reliability Center Inc.
http://www.reliability.com
Tel: 804-458-0645

More Root Cause Analysis resources

If your maintenance planners are doing anything but planning work, their time is being wasted. Get you planners out of the day-to-day break-down activities, chasing parts, supervising jobs, weekend duty and other distractions, and the payback is more than a 100% increase in craftsperson efficiency.

Tip provided by Dave Krings CMRP
Author 5 Pillars: Maintenance & Reliability Professional Review Self Guided Course

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