Up Time Magazine- June/July 2008

upfront Let’s Put an End To Maintenance Sometimes we are our own worst enemy. As you will read in our feature story this month by Rod Bennett, we cause a great deal of problems, not only for our machinery but for ourselves. Our machines are built to perform at a much higher level than most do today. His contention, backed by plenty of studies, is that most failures are self inflicted. When we overlook the fundamentals of systematic machinery care, our machinery breaks down. But, it doesn’t have to happen. Consequently, most maintenance activity performed is unnecessary. So let’s try to get rid of maintenance. Carrying this theme a bit further, I heard a similar message at MARCON 2008, in Knoxville, TN. (which, by the way, was a terrific conference with quite a strong program). One of the Keynote speakers was John Mitchell of Meridium, and one phrase that he used has really stuck with me. John said that in order for the maintenance & reliability industry to reach our potential, we needed to start thinking of ourselves as “defect erasers”, not as “skilled fixers”. What a concept to embrace. In fact, he went so far as to suggest that it might be prudent to remove the ‘maintenance’ from maintenance and reliability. That’s right, no more Maintenance Department. In its place would be the Reliability Department. I love it. The beauty of a Reliability Department is that everyone in the organization has to be a member of the team - Executives, Management, Accounting, Engineering, Operations, Maintainers - everyone. Every department has their own role to play in ensuring optimum reliability of the organization’s equipment. And it may be a much easier sell to other departments for them to become involved in reliability than it is to gain their participation in maintenance. It may be simple semantics to many, but the fact is that, in many cases, semantics mean everything. We must choose our words wisely if we are to secure the commitment necessary to improve our equipment’s reliability. Through diligence in finding and eliminating the root causes of our machinery failure, we can eliminate a great deal of maintenance. And through education and training, we can involve people outside of the maintenance department in our reliability efforts. Perhaps that is when maintenance will truly evolve into reliability. As always, thank you for reading. We appreciate your support, and hope you find value within these pages. If you have any questions, comments or suggestions that will make Uptime more useful to you, please let us know. All the best, uptime volume 3, issue 29 PUBLISHER Terrence O’Hanlon EDITOR IN CHIEF Jeffrey C Shuler EDITORIAL ADVISORS/ CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Ron Eshleman James Hall Joseph Petersen Alan Johnston Greg Stockton Jay Lee, PhD Ray Thibault John Mitchell Jack Nicholas, Jr. Jason Tranter Howard Penrose, PhD ADVERTISING SALES Bill Partipilo 888-575-1245 x 114 sales@uptimemagazine.com EDITORIAL INFORMATION Please address submissions of case studies, procedures, practical tips and other correspondence to Jeff Shuler, Editor In Chief Uptime Magazine PO Box 60075 Ft. Myers, FL 33906 888-575-1245 x 116 jshuler@uptimemagazine.com to subscribe to Uptime, log on SUBSCRIPTIONS www.uptimemagazine.com Uptime Magazine is a founding member of AMP the association for maintenance professionals Jeff Shuler Editor In Chief jshuler@uptimemagazine.com Uptime® (ISSN 1557-0193) is published monthly by Reliabilityweb.com, PO Box 60075, Ft. Myers, FL 33906, 888-575-1245. In the U.S. Uptime is a registered trademark of Reliabilityweb.com. No part of Uptime may be reproduced in any form by any means without prior written consent from Reliabilityweb.com. Uptime is an independently produced publication of Reliabilityweb.com. The opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of Reliabilityweb.com. Copyright© 2008 by Reliabilityweb.com. All rights reserved. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: Uptime Magazine PO Box 60075, Ft. Myers, FL 33906. june/july 2008 6 http://www.uptimemagazine.com http://www.Reliabilityweb.com http://www.Reliabilityweb.com http://www.Reliabilityweb.com http://www.Reliabilityweb.com http://www.Reliabilityweb.com http://www.Reliabilityweb.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

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