Up Time Magazine- August/September 2008

Of course no one has ever seen that world. With that in mind, we should understand those events or defects that cause us to lose capability, and ask if they are acceptable to the business or not. At times they will be perfectly acceptable, e.g., rapid product changeovers, capital project upgrades, planned maintenance and so on. At times they will not. We must understand the causes of lost capability, and then take appropriate action to minimize them. As noted above, one of the more common methods for identifying important problems is to measure Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE), and particularly the losses from ideal that goes with this measure. The losses from ideal are typically due to planned and unplanned downtime, rate losses, quality losses, changeover losses and other losses, some unique to the business. These are then used to select and apply the ap- Two Barriers to Using Vibration Analysis: Cost. Know-How. Datastick Breaks Both Barriers. propriate improvement tool to reduce the losses being incurred. However, suppose we’re not measuring OEE or its equivalent, or don’t have confidence in the measure itself (as is the case with ABC demonstrated above), what then? Or suppose we don’t have a good understanding of the underlying causes of the losses discussed in the Process Reliability analysis above. What if we’d like to understand the system level interactions and be able to make better decisions on that basis. Neither OEE, nor the above analysis will provide all the details of production losses at a system level. So, let’s provide a model for better understanding the system interactions and prioritizing the work to be done, and then selecting the tools to be used. ABC’s costs are too high. How do we know where to focus the resources to lower those costs? Or, perhaps that’s the problem, ABC has “too many resources” with their attendant costs, so we cut costs, with the expectation that costs will come down, only to see our production capability suffer. Things are often not what they seem to be. For example, when maintenance costs are too high, companies often, to their detriment, cut them. Rather than cut maintenance costs, perhaps they should understand the source of the defects that are resulting in the failures and the subsequent need for maintenance. Figure 11 provides a step by step process for understanding where the “defects” are (that is, those things that cause us to lose production capability, or incur additional costs), so that we can eliminate the defects from our business system. It’s called a business level Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA). Here is how to do it: 1. Assemble a cross-functional team from each production area (Area Teams), plus a support function team. The cross functional team from each area typically consists of a senior operator, an operating supervisor, a senior mechanic, electrician, or technician, and a maintenance supervisor. It may also include others, such as the area engineer or a vendor for certain critical equipment. The support team is typically composed of a stores supervisor, a utilities supervisor, a human resource and/or training manager, a purchasing supervisor, and a capital projects engineer. 2. Have each Area Team draw a simple block diagram of the production process. 3. Next, and this is the heart of the analysis process, we define a failure in the business system (the production process) as anything that results in either the loss of quality production output or in extraordinary costs. Loss of production is pretty obvious, but let’s give some examples of extraordinary costs. Suppose we have inline spares for several of our pumps. So, when one fails we don’t lose production, but if they august/september 2008 Datastick Breaks the Cost Barrier: We could say, “Datastick breaks the price barrier,” and with handheld systems from around $6,000 that’s true. But what about your total cost of ownership? Datastick keeps it low because there’s no mandatory annual fee. If you want an optional service or support agreement, you’ll ﬁnd they’re designed and priced to help you, not scare you away. Datastick Breaks the Know-How Barrier: You can learn to use the handheld device in a couple of hours. If you’re short on in-house vibration expertise, don’t worry. The included Datastick Reporting System™ software for your PC is based on Microsoft Excel. That means that you can share your data, graphs, and reports with any in-house vibration analyst or outside consultant. And with our new smartphonebased SiteConnex™ VSA™-2215, you can even email vibration data directly from the ﬁeld. FREE White Paper: Breaking the Barriers to Affordable Vibration Analysis www.datastick.com/nobarriers See us at PdM 2008 Sept. 15–18 Qwest Center Omaha, NE Web: www.datastick.com/ut Email: ﬁndout@datastick.com Talk to an actual human being: Toll-free in USA 888 277 5153 or call 408 987 3400 © 2008 Datastick Systems Inc. Patents pending. Datastick is a registered trademark and SiteConnex and VSA are trademarks of Datastick Systems, Inc. 16 http://www.datastick.com/nobarriers http://www.datastick.com/ut http://www.datastick.com/ut

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Up Time Magazine- August/September 2008

Up Time Magazine- August/September 2008 Contents Upfront Upclose Information Technology Lubrication Infrared Maintenance Management Motor Testing Precision Maintenance Reliability Ultrasound Vibration Upgrade

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