Up Time Magazine- February/March 2008

that these guidelines were being used and adhered to by mechanical work force and operating personnel. In this manner, the “shirt sleeve seminar” presenters taught themselves and passed on their findings to the entire plant. At this location, equipment failures due to human error and other causes were minimized and everyone profited from this approach. There should be no reason for not adopting it elsewhere with equal success. By accepting help and by being willing to help others succeed, engineers will prosper. Moreover, they will gain a sense of self-worth if they truly pursue training. Engineers that succeed in acquiring a marketable skill both during formal studies and after graduating from engineering school can face the future with considerable confidence. Once you’ve been accepted by an employer and on your way to work every day, resolve to add value. Think ahead, dwell on the specifics of adding value on that day. Then, on the way home from work, ask how successful you’ve been in adding value to the enterprise. Finally, remember that in your job you may occasionally encounter leaders that either cannot - or will not - lead. When this happens, don’t give up. Only dead fish always swim with the stream. tion can be so academic as to lack substance; it would not pass as a marketable skill. It’s the same with training. Take charge and make it relevant. Instead of waiting for skillenhancing training opportunities to present themselves, take a lead role in creating some of these opportunities. Recognize that virtually every marketable skill is acquired by tangible and well thought-out training steps. Remember, it’s the marketable skills that will get us through life far better than a mere education. Heinz P. Bloch is a practicing professional engineer with over 45 years of industrial experience. Since his retirement from Exxon, he has been advising process plants on maintenance cost reduction and reliability upgrade issues. He is the author of 17 textbooks and over 350 other publications on reliability improvement, uptime extension and related topics. His most recent textbooks deal with process gas compressors and related subjects. Both were released in 2006. Favorable Results Anticipated Self-motivated engineers or technicians who implement and stick to the approaches briefly described here are very likely becoming employees who offer solutions to problems. Instead of becoming folks expressing “concern” over potential problems, they will delineate the discrete steps needed to avoid problems. There are, then, a few reminders for future maintenance and reliability professionals to ponder. First and foremost, not all that is labeled education is beneficial. Some educa- Our Students Call It CSI for Engineers. We call it “Practical Plant Failure Analysis” It’s a reasonably-priced practical seminar with hundreds of hands-on examples designed for plant people and engineers. You’ll work with gears, bearings, shafts, belts, fasteners, seals, and a selection of corrosion examples. With the hands-on analyses, you’ll learn how and why they fail – and how to diagnose the multiple causes. The public session is three days long and is held in Syracuse,NY in November. Private sessions range from two to four days and can be held at your site. From the Reliability Professionals who “wrote the book on logical and practical plant failure analysis”. For more details contact Dale Gamba at 315-487-4390 or email us at reliable@twcny.rr.com Vibra Metrics www.uptimemagazine.com 67 http://www.vibrametrics.com http://www.uptimemagazine.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Up Time Magazine- February/March 2008

Up Time Magazine- February/March 2008 Contents Upfront Upclose: Lessons Learned from the Walter Reed Story Information Technology: Parenting and Asset Performance Infrared: It's Alive! Lubrication: A Sense of Change Maintenance Management: PdM, Standardized Motor Testing: Being Well Connected Precision Maintenance: How to be Marketable Reliability: The Voyage of Wells Dairy Ultrasound: Two is Better Than One Vibration: Diagnosing a Cracked Shaft Upgrade: A Different Kind of Journey

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