The 22nd International Maintenance Conference
December 4-7, 2007 - Daytona Beach Florida

At IMC-2007 you will:

• Learn the systems you can use to improve reliability

• Discover the causes of failure

• Gain knowledge to appreciate what is required for
reliability

• Understand the people you who will create reliability at your company

Hotel and early bird conference discount available.

Watch for the IMC-2007 in the September issue of Uptime Magazine or please call toll free (888) 575 1245 to request a your IMC-2007 brochure.

Registering 6 or more? Ask About Team Discounts

The only conference with a 100% Satisfaction Guarantee or your money back!

Find out more about IMC-2007 -The 22nd International Maintenance Conference

Calculating PdM “Saves”

Use a factor of 0.5 for vibration related saves. PM tasks, noise,temperature indications and sensory benefits of walk-downs will reduce the severity of the typical or average save. This will vary between categories, depending upon how effective the operators or maintenance personnel are at detection under plant conditions in the vicinity if the operating equipment. However a 50% factor is a reasonable starting assumption. Raise or lower the actual factor based on actual plant conditions.

Tip excerpted from “Predictive Maintenance Management” Course workbook by Jack Nicholas Jr.
10 Part Web Workshop
http://www.reliabilityweb.com/pdm/invite.htm

Get your own copy of Predictive Maintenance Management Course Book and CD

Are you in the process of selecting an enterprise asset management (EAM) system and need help in calculating the project’s return on investment? Lawson Opportunity analyzer (OA) can help you to set practical business performance targets and identify, in advance, potential financial and non-financial gains.

Find Out More About Calculating the Return on your EAM Investment

Use proper minimum frequency and maximum frequency for early Bearing Defect Detection

The use of proper minimum frequency and maximum frequency (hereinafter referred to as f-min and f-max) is crucial in order to have an adequate frequency range for seeing and identifying frequencies for the faults of interest, such as rolling element defects, rotor bar and stator slot pass, vane pass on turbo-machinery wheels, etc. Normally, setting an f-max around 50× turning speed for equipment running 30hz/1800 rpm or less, and 70× turning speed for equipment running 60hz/3600 rpm is adequate. The reason is that one would normally want to see at least the 6th or 7th harmonic of the highest generated bearing frequency, which is the ball pass frequency inner race, which is around 12 to 16× turning speed typical. This is usually the highest frequency of interest.

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

More resources on the Alignment, Balancing and Vibration Forum

Reflections on Plant Turnarounds in the Refining Industry

The development of a plant turnaround philosophy is formal recognition of the plant turnaround’s impact on the corporate business plan. Once formally recognized, the philosophy can be integrated with the corporate vision and mission statements as part of the overall corporate philosophy. The recognition of plant turnarounds is the first step in maximizing the benefits and reducing the costs when taking the plant off-line for a major scheduled outage.

Philosophies do not have to be complicated and can be applied to all types and sizes of facilities, such as single boiler units with simple piping systems found in apartment buildings and hospitals; batch or continuous manufacturing and assembly plants; and major industrial process facilities.

The philosophy should be clear and concise with a descriptor of both plant turnaround management and plant shutdown. Different groups interpret the definition of a plant shutdown in their own ways. Operations may consider the plant shutdown to be “feed in to feed out”; marketing will look at the “loss of salable product” days; and maintenance usually quotes in “mechanical days.”

In the end, the owner or senior management team now turns the philosophy into action by developing the plant turnaround management process to achieve world class execution and start-up with good results.

Reader tip provided by Euclides Prieto
Senior Maintenance Supervisor
PDVSA Amuay Refinery
Judibana, Venezuela

Thank you Sr. Prieto - your Stainless Steel Diamond Plate Reliabilityweb.com Coffee Mug is on the way!

More Turnaround Resources

Attend Thermal Solutions, the conference for professional thermographers, motor circuit analysis technicians and reliability leaders, January 21-24, 2008 in Sarasota, Florida.

Learn best practices from a variety of paper presentations, educational short courses and countless networking opportunities while exploring the latest technologies in the conference exhibit hall.

Find Out More About Thermal Solutions

We use the following definition of preventive maintenance (PM):

Preventive maintenance is the performance of inspection and/or servicing tasks that have been preplanned (i.e., scheduled) for accomplishment at specific points in time to retain the functional capabilities of operating equipment or systems.

The word “preplanned” is the key element in developing a proactive maintenance mode and culture. In fact, this now provides us with a very clear and concise way to define corrective maintenance (CM):

Corrective maintenance is the performance of unplanned (i.e., unexpected) maintenance tasks to restore the functional capabilities of failed or malfunctioning equipment or systems.As viewed by the authors, the entire world of maintenance activity is fully encompassed in these two definitions.

Tip provided by Anthony “Mac” Smith, Author, RCM - Gateway to World Class Maintenance, Butterworth-Heinemann, ISBN-10: 075067461X

Learn to develop effective PMs from Mac Smith’s RCM Workshop on DVD

Six Tactical Responses to making sure your improvement initiative succeeds:

1. Position your improvement initiative as a strategic business initiative that will transform the organization. This approach should integrate all the functional managers as drivers for success. Relegating the implementation to maintenance alone sends the signal that it is a maintenance project and the rest of the organization will resist the re-engineered processes.

2. Provide strong, passionate and committed leadership. Commit resources and remove barriers that invariably crop up as processes are re-engineered and integrated across organizational boundaries.

3. Provide strong project management. Improvement initiatives are equivalent to capital improvement projects and should be treated accordingly. It requires adept skills in project management methodology set forth by the Project Management Institute, particularly in the areas of communication, risk management and earned value management.

4. Provide strong communication throughout the project. The most fundamental change management strategy is to keep the information flowing. Communicate both the status of the project and the status of the benefits as they are attained.

5. Provide adequate training to ensure the knowledge, skills and abilities to execute the re-engineering. Avoid the urge to be “efficient” and cutting back on the time to train.

6. Don’t underestimate the human side of the equation – the non-technical challenges are the difficult challenges. Be prepared for the organization, people and change problems that inevitably arise when implementing a strategic business initiative.

Tip Provided by Mike Aroney
Life Cycle Engineering, Inc.
http://www.lce.com

iPresentation Invitation “The Non-Technical Side of Reliability"