Pre-conference Workshop
March 8
Part of EAM-2006 & RCM-2006
March 8-10
Las Vegas

Engaged leadership by most any measure, is the key success characteristic in any successful SAP Plant Maintenance Implementation. As a leader, the organization will respond to what your values are and participation in the SAP PM implementation. As the saying goes “We tend to respect what the boss inspects”. Understanding the basic SAP PM tool set and providing leadership support for the organization is the foundation required to ultimately developing reliable maintenance practices and ultimately achieving your goal of increased reliability and lower cost to achieve that reliability.

This workshop is designed to educate leadership within a manufacturing environment on the functionality of the SAP Plant Maintenance Module and its interdependencies with the other SAP Enterprise Modules. It is this collective synergy of manufacturing subsystems that present the largest value to the company as a whole. The maintenance organization is asked to standardize their reliability processes across an entire manufacturing environment, which in turn will both globalize many facilities while at the same time creating agility and small company flexibility to multi-facility organizations. Leadership’s role of champion of the SAP Plant Maintenance reliability effort is to demonstrate and lead the value proposition. The workshop will conclude with a leadership evaluation of key skills and action items to benchmark success.

The topics addresses include:
• How to obtain and utilize the information at a leadership level to manage the business of Reliability Improvement.
• What roles and skills are needed to effectively execute to SAP PM Module and Reliability effort.
• How Maintenance Best Practices align with the SAP PM Module.

This workshop has been successfully given in many manufacturing organizations to leadership teams providing leadership team members, both SAP novices and users, an overview and understanding on how to better support the organization and expedite reliability improvement.

Note: This workshop is offered independent of and has no connection with SAP AG or its affiliate companies. SAP is a trademark of SAP AG.

Space is limited in this one day preconference workshop so please reserve your space today.

Learn more about EAM-2006 online

When running emergency or standby diesel generator sets for operational checks ensure you run them long enough and with enough load on them to prevent wet stacking. This will ensure the engine is up to proper operating temperatures and that unburned fuel does not accumulate in the exhaust system and carbon and sludge buildup are limited.

If plant, facility, or building loads cannot be used due to critical equipment, where even momentary voltage fluctuations could cause data loss or interruption, then consider installing a load bank to provide the necessary load for test operation.

Tip provided by Mike LeCompte
Maintenance Systems Development, LLC
Moncks Corner SC
http://www.maintsysdev.com

More Maintenance Resources

Reliability Center, Inc. will be offering the following workshops in 2006 at their training complex in Hopewell, VA. These courses are also available on-site at your facility.

Root Cause Analysis Methods

Feb. 14-15
Apr. 4-5
Jun. 6-7
Aug. 8-9
Oct. 10-11
Dec. 12-13

Root Cause Analysis Justification Tools & Techniques

Feb. 16
Apr. 6
Jun. 8
Aug. 10
Oct. 12
Dec. 14

Basic Failure Analysis Train-the-Trainer

Feb. 20-24
Apr. 24-28
Jun. 12-16
Aug. 14-18
Oct. 16-20

Failure Scene Investigation Techniques – Mechanical

Oct. 31 – Nov. 2

Ask about RCI’s New Lead Investigator’s Series of Workshops - 804-458-0645

Online registration is available and for more information visit http://www.reliability.com

When performing a plumbness check on a vertical shaft machine with a laser-based alignment system, use a familiar reference point to label as 0° or 12:00 o’clock, such as a bolt hole or split line. This will make the rest of the point markings easier and also help keep a more consistent history of the plumbness checks. Also try to have your cardinal positions line up with any installed jackscrews as this will make effecting corrective moves later much easier.

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

Learn more about PermaPlumb

The award winning HotShot Thermal Cameras are the World’s easiest to use cameras with unique features like a rotating infrared camera designed to make it easier to inspect objects at various heights and in camera data logger that automatically downloads field inspection notes into reports.

HotShot has a great assortment of low cost options including a 3X telephoto lens, a wide-angle lens, a heads-up display for imaging in bright outdoor conditions and a WiFi card for wireless communication between your computer and the HotShot.

HotShot is made in the USA, is very lightweight, runs for 4 hours on a single battery and can generate a 30-page report automatically in less than 3 minutes.

Get a HotShot demo - and you might win a new Harley

Extend Your Distance and Your Efficiency

How can overhead piping and air lines that are hard to reach be included in a compressed air leak survey without continuously going up and down scissor lifts and ladders? The use of Extended Distance Sensors and Parabolic Dishes has grown in popularity to improve efficiency and safety of any ultrasonic inspection. Instead of climbing ladders all day, which introduces fatigue and safety concerns, draw out a map of your overhead system and find the leaks from the floor.

Extended Distance Sensors (EDS) have tapers calculated specifically to receive and focus low energy ultrasound pressure waves created by compressed air leaks. These sensors are low cost and easy to use while extending normal leak detection beyond 50’. Parabolic sensors that are designed for receiving ultrasound signals are quite small; as small as 10’ diameter. Because ultrasound waves can be as small as 3/8” there is no need to use huge dishes. The parabolic shape captures more signals which are focused onto a super sensitive piezo-electric transducer. Laser sights project a small red dot when a leak is found.

This tip supplied by SDT North America
http://www.sdtnorthamerica.com
Tel: 905-377-1313

More Ultrasound Resources

Ten Key Steps to Improve Operational Reliability & Maintenance

Our plant and the equipment we have in it has been designed and built to provide a desired level of reliability. This is called the Intrinsic Reliability. In practice, this ideal level of reliability is not always reached, due to a number of reasons. The resulting lower level is designated as Operational Reliability. The gap between the Intrinsic and Operational Reliability gives us scope and focus for our improvement efforts. Maintenance and Reliability Managers should make the elimination of this gap one their primary objectives.

Improving Operational Reliability can appear difficult. How can this be approached methodically? Following these ten key steps, generally in the order listed, will improve Operational Reliability. Some of the steps will run concurrently, but ensure that resources are available to complete the earlier steps before embarking on new ones. Sustained improvement is possible if each step is completed and closed out, not left half-done!

1. Get basics right; keep machinery free of dirt and moisture, and keep them properly lubricated.

2. Ensure that the Operating Philosophy is correct. The Operating Philosophy defines how equipment will be started, stopped, loaded and run, and identifies how installed standby equipment will be operated. This also means Operators and Maintainers working closely together as a team.

3. Map the maintenance process and ensure there is a common understanding. Use this to define the right Key Performance Indicators and use these KPls to improve performance. Define work priorities clearly, using a risk matrix to identify criticality.

4. Invest in a CMMS (Computerized Maintenance Management System) that matches your maintenance process and produces the KPls you need.

5. Plan and schedule work using the Predefined Priority System.

6. Ensure a High Compliance Level (>90%) of scheduled work. Encourage pride in work by providing suitable feedback and recognition.

7. Identify the correct Maintenance Strategies to match the Operating Philosophy and Design Capability. If required, invest in RBI (Risk Based Inspection), RCM (Reliability Centered Maintenance) and similar Risk-Based Techniques. Incorporate the revisions to the work content in the CMMS as soon as they become available.

8. Identify Skills and Knowledge shortfalls and invest in Training to reach the required standards.

9. Implement changes keeping people’s fears in mind. Many programs fall by the wayside due to Poor Change Management.

10. Review these steps after 3-5 years and delete/revise those that are outdated.

The order in which these steps appear may be altered to suit individual requirements, but consider using the above as a default option.

Congratulation to Mr. Kenneth Lees, Maintenance 2000, Dundee, Scotland. The Maintenance-Tips Grand Prize includes a 3 day RCM-2006 Conference Pass with 3 nights Hotel at the Orleans.

Learn more about RCM-2006 - The Reliability Centered Maintenance Managers’ Forum

COMMUNICATION FORUMS FACILITATE MAINTENANCE PLANNING/SCHEDULING

The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission Wastewater Planning Section’s primary responsibility is to achieve effective asset management through the efficient use of resources. To this end, Planning now meets with “customer representatives” on a regular basis in the following communication forums:

1. Daily morning meetings – This forum allows Maintenance supervisors and schedulers to find out what happened, operationally, during the previous day and night (Maintenance staff generally work during the day-shift only). Operations representatives are asked to prioritize work orders submitted during the previous 24-hour period. The main objective of this forum is to focus limited Maintenance efforts that day on Operations’ most critical issues. This process also helps to clarify/control Operations’ expectations. It also provides an opportunity to raise and/or identify additional issues not previously reported through the work order system.

2. Weekly meetings – This forum allows Department personnel, especially Operations and Engineering representatives not normally involved in daily morning meetings, to learn what the major maintenance issues during the previous week were. This process also provides an opportunity to report status on longer term maintenance projects for which daily reports are unnecessary.

3. CMMS – ‘Planning’ utilizes this computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) to report, track, and archive work. Specifically, the Work Order Module provides a consistent format in which to report problems or areas needing attention. In addition to corrective maintenance, Dept. is also starting to utilize CMMS to track preventive maintenance (PM) activities.

4. CMMS Best Practices and User Group Meetings – Conducted quarterly or monthly, this forum allows users to discuss what works and what doesn’t work with respect to the CMMS. Information Technology Services (ITS) representatives facilitate this meeting to gain insight into the needs and wants of the City’s CMMS users (including other City departments). Examples of user needs include custom reports and modification of data entry screens.

5. CMMS Custom Reports – With assistance from dedicated data entry personnel, detailed information regarding work performed, problem identified, repair method, and time expended are recorded in the CMMS. Informative reports such as budget information by month, work backlog, and completed and missed PMs are generated on a regular basis.

6. Face-to-Face Follow-Up – To follow-up on the various meetings involved with the aforementioned communication forums, the Chief of Planning drops in twice a week (usually Mondays and Fridays) at Operations’ Central Control Room to gauge how responsive Maintenance personnel were or were not perceived to be that day or in recent day.

Congratulation to Mr. John Powell, Maintenance Manager at the San Francisco Water Department. The Maintenance-Tips Grand Prize includes a 3 day EAM-2006 Conference Pass with 3 nights Hotel at the Orleans in Las Vegas.

Learn more about EAM-2006 - The Enterprise Asset Management Summit