Efficient Plant October 2017 - 8

column | editorial

Change is
Afoot
Gary L. Parr
Editorial Director

It's a new name and
new look and the
pages are loaded
with solutions for
your reliability
needs.

8

| EFFICIENTPLANTMAG.COM

Y

OU HAVE NO doubt
noticed from the cover
and p. 6, that something
happened to Maintenance Technology,
and what happened is good. We are
now known as Efficient Plant magazine
because it's a name that best describes
today's manufacturing world and the
topics/issues we've been covering for
some time. While maintenance is, and
always will be, a factor in manufacturing, the driving force these days is the
efficiency that results from instilling a
culture of reliability. Ultimately, those
two facets of manufacturing have a direct impact on enterprise profitability.
Our new name reflects that dynamic.
As you make your way through this
issue, you'll also discover that we didn't
simply change the name. We changed
the look of the magazine to make it more
visually appealing and easier to read.
But your favorites are still here-
Klaus Blache, p. 10; Bob Williamson, p.
49; and Ken Bannister, p. 55-sharing
their expertise. Beginning with this issue, we've added a new column from
Gary Mintchell called "Efficiency
Insight." It appears on p. 64.
Author Michelle Segrest will
also continue to provide stories
about reliability and manufacturing efficiency programs at
facilities across the country. This
month, she visits the Draper Inc. factory in Spiceland, IN, to learn how that
115-yr.-old company has moved from
making window shades by hand in the
founder's home to the highly automated and efficient manufacturer that it is
today. Turn to p. 20 to enjoy that story.
We've changed the format of the "On
the Floor" department, p. 47. While we

plan to continue using our loyal panel
members in an online offering, "On
the Floor" will now be written by Klaus
Blache, using questions he frequently
encounters in his work with reliability
and maintenance professionals.
If you're an SAP user, be sure to take
advantage of the monthly training video
that author Kristina Gordon will be providing in conjunction with her column.
Turn to p. 52 to learn more.
Don't miss our lead feature by Peter
Martin of Schneider Electric on p. 12.
Martin provides us with insight into
what lies ahead for reliability in general,
real-time reliability control, and how the
technology behind it is going to transform your maintenance operations and
put profitability control at the operator
and equipment-asset levels. Also, be sure
to listen to the podcast I recorded with
Martin to learn more. You can hear it at
efficientplantmag.com/1710schneider.
We're also introducing a new "Industry Views" feature, p. 16, in which we
pose two related questions to experts at
various supplier companies. This month,
we sought advice on sustaining, expanding, and/or exploiting IIoT (Industrial
Internet of Things) in an enterprise and
asked for thoughts on a good starting
point for applying this technology to
improve PM/PdM.
We didn't stop with the magazine. Go
to efficientplantmag.com to see our allnew website. Also, be sure to subcribe to
our newly designed monthly newsletters.
I am confident you'll enjoy this first
issue of Efficient Plant and the editors
look forward to sharing what we have
planned for future issues. I also welcome
your feedback. EP
gparr@efficientplantmag.com

OCTOBER 2017
http://www.efficientplantmag.com/1710schneider http://www.efficientplantmag.com http://www.cientplantmag.com http://www.EFFICIENTPLANTMAG.COM
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Efficient Plant October 2017
