M-News : the On-line Plant Maintenance Newsletter

Plant Maintenance Resource Center

M-News Edition 45

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M-News - the Maintenance Newsletter

Edition 45, April 2004

In this edition...
Feature Article - Mixing the Best of Modern Methods
Feature Article - Managing Human Error in Maintenance
Feature Article - Inspection and Welding Repairs of Pressure Vessels
Feature Article - 15 Rules on Condensation
2004 Maintenance Salary Survey Results
Maintenance Management Benchmarking Survey
Recommended Books
On the Lighter Side - Engineering Humor

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.

This edition of the newsletter is supported by Assetivity

Operations, Maintenance and Reliability Consulting from highly experienced consultants. Specialising in Maintenance and Reliability Audits/Reviews, Operations and Maintenance Improvement Planning, PM Optimisation, Stores and Procurement Improvement, Outsourcing and Contractor Management.

Visit www.assetivity.com.au for more details.

Feature Article - Mixing the Best of Modern Methods

Nobody would deny that RCM, RBI, 6 Sigma, TPM, TQM, and many other solutions potentially provide benefits to most organizations. This paper, from John Woodhouse of the Woodhouse Partnership discusses how to integrate these 'solutions' into a sustainable 'home-owned' suite of best practices. You will find this article at http://www.plant-maintenance.com/articles/Mixing_Maintenance_Methods.pdf. Note that you will require the free Adobe Acrobat reader to be able to view this file.

Feature Article - Managing Human Error in Maintenance

In Edition 41 of this newsletter, we reviewed the book "Managing Maintenance Error" by Alan Hobbs and James Reason, and gave it a big thumbs-up (you can read the full review at http://www.plant-maintenance.com/books/0754615901.shtml). Based largely on the findings of this book, this article, written by Sandy Dunn, the webmaster of the Plant Maintenance Resource Center, and Director of Assetivity outlines the key things that maintenance managers can do to reduce or eliminate the impact of human error in maintenance. You can read it at
http://www.plant-maintenance.com/articles/Human_Error_in_Maintenance.pdf. Once again, you will require the free Adobe Acrobat reader to be able to view this file.

Feature Article - Inspection and Welding Repairs of Pressure Vessels

This paper aims to provide an overview of welding inspection and repairs of pressure vessels that can be conducted in Shut downs within Chemical, Refinery, Petrochemicals and Fertilizer industries. It discusses various methods of weld repairs and related activities such as testing after welding. Written by S. V. Gupte, you can read the article at http://www.plant-maintenance.com/articles/Pressure_Vessel_Repairs.pdf. Again, you will require the free Adobe Acrobat reader to be able to view this file.

Feature Article - 15 Rules on Condensation

Compressorwise has conducted a substantial amount of research on compressed air systems. There are very few things that can cause more trouble than the condensation that accumulates in the system. This article is a summary of the most important tips relating to this issue. Written by Dan Wise of Compressorwise, the article can be read at http://www.plant-maintenance.com/articles/15_Rules_on_Condensation.shtml.

2004 Maintenance Salary Survey Results

The 6th annual Plant Maintenance Resource Center maintenance salary survey closed on March 15, 2004 with 447 valid responses. The key findings from this survey were:

Overall, salaries seem to have increased by a significant amount, in $US terms. However, most of this is due to the recent drop in the value of the US$ in comparison with other currencies. In the US, salaries appear to have shown little change from last year's survey.
In US$ terms, the best paid countries for Maintenance workers are Australia, the US and Canada. However, differences in taxation rates, and cost of living make comparison between countries a somewhat meaningless exercise.
Experience and Education continue to have a significant impact on salaries in the Maintenance sector. The more you have of each of these, the greater your salary is likely to be.
Management Consultants and Consulting Engineers appear to be paid more highly than Maintenance Managers and Superintendents. Maintenance Planners appear to have shown a sharp increase in salaries in comparison with previous years.
Larger organizations appear to be paying better, at present, than smaller organizations.
This year's survey indicated that the highest paid industries were

Oil and Gas - Oil and gas extraction
Services - Business Services/Consulting
Mining - Metal ore.

To read the full analysis of the 2004 salary survey results visit http://www.plant-maintenance.com/articles/salarysurvey04.pdf. Note that you will require the free Adobe Acrobat reader to be able to view this file.

Maintenance Management Benchmarking Survey

Our current Maintenance survey is designed to allow you to benchmark yourself against other organizations. It only consists of 7 questions, so shouldn't take you too long to complete. To date, more than 90 people have completed the survey, but we are hoping for a lot more - please spread the word! You can complete the survey, and view the results to date, at http://www.plant-maintenance.com/survey.shtml. The survey will remain open until May 15, 2004, and full results will be published in our June newsletter.

Recommended Books

Here are ten Maintenance-related books that we have reviewed recently, and strongly recommend:

Managing Maintenance Error James Reason and Alan Hobbs - a superb book that has the potential to revolutionise the way that we think about Failure Elimination
Reliability-Centered Maintenance by John Moubray - The definitive text on RCM.
Uptime; Strategies for Excellence in Maintenance Management by John Campbell - An excellent summary of Maintenance Strategy and Improvement techniques for Maintenance and non-Maintenance managers alike.
Apollo Root Cause Analysis - A New Way Of Thinking by Dean Gano - A simple, but effective way of unleashing the creative problem-solving potential of your workforce.
Maintenance Planning, Scheduling and Coordination by Don Nyman and Joel Levitt - A very readable, practical "how to" guide on this vital subject.
Making Common Sense Common Practice by Ron Moore - An illuminating, entertaining, stimulating, and inspiring book, laced with good, down-to-earth, practical common sense, and better than some books that are twice the price.
Developing Performance Indicators for Managing Maintenance by Terry Wireman - the ever popular (and so far, to my knowledge, only) book on this topic.
Overall Equipment Effectiveness by Robert C. Hansen. - covers more than the title would suggest - an excellent book on Maintenance Improvement strategy and implementation
Root Cause Analysis - Improving Performance for Bottom-Line Results by Robert J. Latino, Kenneth C. Latino. - another excellent book on Root Cause Analysis, outlining the Proact approach to RCA.
Maintenance Management Handbook edited by Lindley R. Higgins and R. Keith Mobley. - the definitive reference book for Maintenance Engineers.

Get more information on these and other books at http://www.plant-maintenance.com/maintenance_books.shtml.

On the Lighter Side - Engineering Humor

An astronaut in space in 1970 was asked by a reporter, "How do you feel?"

"How would you feel," the astronout replied, "if you were stuck here, on top of 20,000 parts each one supplied by the lowest engineering bidder?"

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
Plant Maintenance Resource Center
webmaster@plant-maintenance.com
http://www.plant-maintenance.com

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