M-News Edition 28
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| Plant Maintenance Resource Center
M-News Edition 28
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Edition 28, September 2002 ContentsIn this edition...
If you wish to receive notification of future copies of this newsletter by email, please register at www.plant-maintenance.com/registration.shtml. If you have any feedback on the newsletter, or have something to contribute, please send me an e-mail. Feature Article - Asset Management - Latest ThinkingAn Asset Manager has to be all things to all people. He or she is the point of contact between business objectives and the considerable complexities of technical and human issues. With business performance accountability and technical responsibility, the Asset Manager is a professional translator - converting options such as new technology opportunities, maintenance strategies, design changes or asset replacement decisions into business or economic language, often with little or no hard data to work with. The newly emerging management science of Asset Management is trying to deal with these requirements; equipping engineers to become businessmen, and introducing some structured methods for handling reliability, performance, maintenance, safety, environmental, staff motivation and other headaches. Although this article, from John Woodhouse, dates from 1999, it is a useful outline of the key concepts behind the science of Asset Management and can be read at http://www.plant-maintenance.com/articles/amthinking.pdf. Note that you will need to have the free Adobe Acrobat reader installed to be able to view this file. Feature Article - Outsourcing Equipment Maintenance in a Down EconomyThe decision to outsource equipment maintenance, during the recent economic boom, was generally made for the purpose of improving maintenance performance in order to maximize the output of the plant. With orders at very high levels, the only thing that would hurt plant financial performance would be the inability to make enough products to meet the demand of the market. Although the decision to outsource a key, yet noncore, function like maintenance was not an easy decision, Plant Managers felt comfortable that the risk involved with outsourcing was not as great as the risk of not producing. With the economic issues facing manufacturers today, the decision to outsource equipment maintenance is probably more viable than it has been in robust economic times. This article, written by Steven Welch of ATS is available at Feature Article - Assessing your maintenance training needsHow do you know where to start with maintenance skills training? For many of us, that's the million-dollar question. That training is needed is usually self-evident. But what kind of training, in which areas, and how much training are questions not easily answered. That's what needs assessments, and this article, are about. You can read the article, contributed by Ricky Smith of Life Cycle Engineering, Inc. at http://www.plant-maintenance.com/articles/Assessing_Maintenance_Training_Needs.pdf. Once again, you will need to have the free Adobe Acrobat reader installed to be able to view this file. Feature Article - Quality Assured Maintenance Management For Coal Handling PlantThis article is yet another offered by Makarand Joshi. Maintenance of coal handling plants (CHP) of thermal power stations have traditionally had processes related to the performance of routine, unscheduled and emergency maintenance. They do not usually include operational factors such as scheduling, procedures, and work/systems control. The failure of equipment has led to high maintenance and operation costs. Developing Quality Assured Maintenance Management (QAMM) for CHP is very important for improving quality and reducing operating costs. This type of maintenance policy and strategy will improve performance of CHP through availability of equipment, reduction in railway costs through demurrage and further supplying constant flow of fuel to boiler to avoid failure of energy supply to consumers. The concept of Quality Assured Maintenance Management (QAMM), discussed in this paper for Coal Handling Plant is to offer significant benefits. Guidelines for implementation of QAMM in CHP are also discussed in this paper. You can read the full article at http://www.plant-maintenance.com/articles/Maintenance_Management_QA.pdf. Yet again, you will require the free Adobe Acrobat reader installed to be able to view this file. Survey Results - TPM ImplementationOur TPM Survey closed recently. Thank you to the 17 people who completed the survey. With this few respondents, detailed analysis is not possible, but the results of the survey can be viewed by those who are interested at http://www.plant-maintenance.com/cgi-bin/survey_tpm.cgi?action=VIEW&filebase=tpm_survey. Current Survey - Design for Maintainability/ReliabilityIt's been three years since we last ran a survey on this subject (you can see the results of the previous survey at http://www.plant-maintenance.com/articles/dfm_survey_results.shtml). What standards and processes does your organization have that lead to reliability and maintainability issues being considered in the design/configuration/procurement of new or modified equipment? Let us know by completing the the survey at http://www.plant-maintenance.com/survey.shtml. Recommended BooksView our current Top 5 recommended books, and the current Top Ten Best Selling Maintenance Books at http://www.plant-maintenance.com/maintenance_books.shtml.On the Lighter Side - Engineering HumorDuring the heat of the space race in the 1960's, NASA decided it needed a ball point pen to write in the zero gravity confines of its space capsules. After considerable research and development, the Astronaut Pen was developed at a cost of $1 million. The pen worked and also enjoyed some modest success as a novelty item back here on earth. The Soviet Union, faced with the same problem, used a pencil. I hope you have enjoyed this newsletter. All feedback, comments and contributions to future editions are very welcome (as are enquiries about contributions to, and sponsorship of, this newsletter). Alexander (Sandy) Dunn
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