Up Time Magazine- April/May 2008 - (Page 59) powerful, more portable, and more affordable. And year by year the software packages became more sophisticated, with more analysis and reporting tools. tion analysis (forcing frequencies, harmonics, sidebands, transients, etc.); and mechanical issues (resonance, unbalance, misalignment, etc.). I strongly believe that if you understand all these topics then you will be a successful analyst. You will be able to diagnose a wider range of fault conditions with greater accuracy, confidence and lead-time. The Limitations of Conventional Training When I was working for the data collector company, my colleagues and I did our best to support our customers. We ran training courses and user group meetings, and we developed nice thick manuals with tons of information. The problem was that too few people were allowed to attend the courses, our courses had limited effectiveness due to the training tools we had available, and too few people would read the manual. That may sound like I am blaming the customers, but I am not. We were the ones at fault. First, we did not sell the benefits of the courses. As a company, we may have even been guilty of overselling the power and ease of use of the system. We had created “wizards” that helped the customers set up the machines. We had automated analysis systems to make the diagnosis easier. And we had more analysis tools than you could shake a stick at. So, when the customer was told that the system is “easy to use”, and they were only offered a two or three day start up training course, with comments like “that’s all you need”, it is a little difficult to go back afterwards to sell a four day training course. Second, our vibration training courses were not as effective as they could have been. Don’t get me wrong, we tried very hard, and we were doing no less than every other training company at the time. But when you are trying to cover a large number of topics in just a few days, with basic training tools (viewfoils and Power Point slides), you can’t expect great results. Let’s face it, vibration analysis is a complicated field. There is a lot to learn. There are so many analyzer settings, so many strange patterns you can see in the spectrum - and that is just the beginning. When you are trying to explain averaging, or resonance, or misalignment with 2D illustrations, sketches on a whiteboard, and a lot of arm-waving, you cannot expect too much. As a result, I was sure that by the third day of the course, most people had forgotten what we had covered on the first day, and I was Figure 3 - Conventional training with viewfoils can be pretty boring… Figure 2 - Some of the early generation of portable data collectors But what about the analyst? Through a combination of overzealous sales people and restricted budgets, the new analysts had less experience with scientific instruments, mathematical principles or advanced analysis software. And they were being asked to do more and more: test more machines, and use additional condition monitoring technologies. They were being squeezed from all sides, feeling greater pressure to utilize the features of the vibration analysis system, greater pressure to reduce failures, greater pressure to have all the answers. Wow, that’s quite a challenge! And how much support has been given to the analysts? Have the training courses kept pace with the vibration monitoring technology? Have the analysts been given better decision support tools? In my opinion, at least for that 15 year period (and for the most part, even until today), the answer is certainly “no”. The result was that customers were not fully utilizing the vibration analysis systems they had purchased. I would provide training courses, on-site commissioning, and usergroup meetings, and too often see blank stares when I discussed certain principles or features. From a developer’s perspective, it was frustrating to see that so many new features had been added to the product, yet most of our customers either did not know they were there, did not understand the benefit of the feature, or did not know how to use them. It seemed that most people fell into a comfort-zone; they knew how to use certain features and were happy to go on using only those features. Vibration analysts have to deal with a large number of analyzer settings (windowing, averaging, resolution, etc.); issues related to vibrawww.uptimemagazine.com quite sure that two weeks after the course our students had retained less that 50% of what we had taught. Vibration analysts’ are active, hands-on people. Sitting still in a room while an instructor talked at length about one topic after another, using boring slides and photocopied case studies, was tough going. And third, manuals are great, but they are not the most effective way of delivering this type of knowledge. Everyone loves to get a nice thick manual with the course they attend. But reading through the manual, and searching for useful information, is not very effective. You know the information is in there somewhere, but finding it is a challenge, and Figure 4 - The massive making sense manual of it can be an even bigger challenge. The Cost of Inadequate Training Inadequate training has resulted in vibration analysts who are less effective than they could be. We have created four problems. 1. ‘Wall-chart’ analysts - I believe too many analysts depend too heavily on wall-charts. If they look at a spectrum and do not immediately recognize the pattern, their eyes flit up to the wall-chart to see if something matches. And if (when) it doesn’t, they have to make a judgment call. Wall-charts are filled with ‘classic’ spectra; the spectra represent the ideal case. Wall-charts should serve as a reminder of the type of pattern you will see, but should not serve as a diagnostic tool. 59 http://www.uptimemagazine.com
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