Up Time Magazine- June/July 2008

injuries, and we have a clear picture of what is expected of us. Often when we do a Reliability Walk or investigate a reliability issue, we have to do some homework to understand what the correct practice is for a particular activity. When we learn something from this process, we share it in a maintenance “Skills and Practices Flyer” (Figure 5). A flyer is typically a single piece of paper, printed double sided; with a mini technical lesson on a particular topic. By documenting and sharing learnings, many employees can benefit from the experience rather than just those directly involved in the issue. Examples of flyers produced so far include: • • • • • • • • • • • • • Electric Motor Terminations Shaft Alignment Soft Foot Crimping of Electrical Connections Installation Tips for Bearings on Adapter Sleeves Bus Bar Bolting Pipe Threads Key Length Considerations Identification of bolts and nuts Sealants for electrical applications V-ring seal installation Brake Fluid And more…. draw out conclusions from the data, and not just go through the motions of the KT process. We must also share the learnings from KT sessions with other relevant groups. But we can’t stop here. Without retraining and a focus on basics, participants will not recognize many of the anomalies in their equipment unless they jump out and bite them. And if something has always been done a certain way, they will not identify it as a problem, even if it is, because they don’t know any better. The result is that they will not get to root cause. So, while KT is a step in the right direction, by itself it is not enough. Getting to root cause, and a focus on BASICs, go hand in hand. At this point it is worth mentioning a typical scenario where root cause analysis, knowledge of the BASICs, and involving the right people are all invaluable. Unfortunately, we have in our maintenance organization a philosophy that says that when a bearing fails, you need to replace it with a “better” bearing. “Better” usually means a bearing with a higher load capacity, but this will not fix the problem, and in many instances will make the problem worse. We take this approach a) because it’s all we can think of to do (we don’t know enough about bearings), and b) because we haven’t done a root cause analysis, with the right people, to find out why it failed. We take the easy path where “It is much easier to make reasonable assumptions and replace parts than it is to collect data, review the data, analyze the data, verify the hypotheses, write a report, implement recommendations, and track the success”10. Unfortunately there is no alternative when it comes to getting the BASICs right. We have to go the hard yards if we want to be successful. Figure 5 - Skills and Practices Flyer we want”. The same applies to maintenance standards. Root Cause Analysis One of the management interventions at Western Port is the application of the Kepner Tregoe (KT) process. I think that this is an excellent initiative as it provides a framework for helping all personnel to identify the root causes of equipment and process problems. Finding the root cause of a problem and implementing corrective actions is essential if the organization is to improve. Without doing root cause analysis, you don’t know what the problem is that needs to be fixed! Research indicates that people can learn to be analytical thinkers9, so there will be paybacks even outside of the formal KT environment. KT doesn’t always get to the true root cause, but it is definitely a step in the right direction. We need to ensure that we have the right people involved, including relevant experts, and we need to take the time to do more of it. It is important to do root cause analysis on all equipment failures, not just major events. The relevant experts must also be involved in analysis of data and any failed components. It is imperative that we have facilitators who have some “horsepower” and are able to help These flyers are distributed via e-mail to all maintenance personnel. We ask that supervisors follow this up with a discussion of the topic at a crew meeting or toolbox meeting. Face to face contact is important in the shared learning process. Our knowledge management experts tell us that by sharing documented information, you get 9% retention of the information8. If the information is shared in a social context, the retention level jumps to 80%. We also publish our flyers on the company Intranet so that they are available for reference purposes. This also makes them available for download and inclusion in maintenance task documentation. This way the information is available to the tradesperson at the time when they need it most. Trades training and apprentice training personnel must also be a part of the shared learning process, in order to be able to continually improve their training programs. In safety circles we say that “we get the level of safety performance that we demonstrate Inspection and Test Plans (ITP’s) A new skills and practices improvement initiative at Western Port is the use of ITP’s. An ITP is a quality assurance process where you identify all of the things that are critical to a reliable outcome. You then determine where in the process you want to stop and check these things. You also have to define www.uptimemagazine.com 15 http://www.uptimemagazine.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Up Time Magazine- June/July 2008

Up Time Magazine- June/July 2008 Contents Upfront Upclose: The True Cause of Most Machine Failures Information Technology: Finding Future Perfect Lubrication: Building an Oil Analysis Winner Maintenance Management: Hidden Ways to Increase Safety Infrared: Air Barriers Lower Energy Costs, Increase Profits Motor Testing: Efficient Motor Repair, Part Deux Precision Maintenance: Good Maintenance, Smart Maintenance Reliability: Common Errors in Root Cause Analysis Ultrasound: Avoid the Baghouse Blues Vibration: Don't Let Your Sensors Get Eaten Alive Upgrade: Lining It All Up

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.