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Introduction
My apologies for the long delay between newsletters - the boom in the resources sector, and a rapidly growing consulting practice have combined to occupy most of my time over the last three months. Hopefully, things are now back on track to resume our normal monthly frequency.
This month we have an excellent collection of articles for you - and there are more in the pipeline for future newsletters. But article contributions are always welcome. If you have something you would like to share with our readership of over 5,000 subscribers, just let me know.
Alexander (Sandy) Dunn
Webmaster, Plant Maintenance Resource Center
webmaster@plant-maintenance.com
This is a longer article than our normal article - in fact, it is the first chapter of Daryl Mather's new book - The Maintenance Scorecard. This book tackles the issue of alignment of asset management with other areas of corporate activity, and this first chapter sets the scene - outlining the key issues, and explaining how a structured approach to measuring maintenance performance assists with creating this alighment. You can read this article by visiting http://www.plant-maintenance.com/articles/IntroductiontotheMSC.pdf. Note that you will require the free Adobe Acrobat reader to be able to view this file.
We hope to have a full review of Daryl's book in a future issue of this newsletter, but in the meantime, you can see more details, or purchase the book by visiting amazon.com. At the time of writing, the price of this book had been discounted by 32% to US$30.57, so if you are interested, order now to take advantage of this discount.
This article was kindly submitted by one of our regular discussion forum participants - Jon Leverette of Anteon Corporation, although it was authored by Timothy M. Allen. In 1998 Naval Sea Systems Command activity SUBMEPP (Submarine Maintenance Engineering, Planning and Procurement) developed the capability to generate Age and Reliability curves utilizing maintenance feedback data. This provided the organization a new means to objectively measure the effects of planned maintenance to engineer optimal maintenance plans. After three years of generating Age and Reliability curves, SUBMEPP confirmed that, in the majority of cases, there is no relationship between overhaul time and reliability, thus confirming the broad results obtained by Nowlan and Heap 37 years earlier, in their study of civil aviation aircraft - and which led to the birth of the approach now known as Reliability Centered Maintenance. You can read the results of the SUBMEPP report at http://www.plant-maintenance.com/articles/SubmarineMaintenanceDataRCM.pdf.
Offshore installations use a series of isolation valves to divert the flows from the various pumps. One of the main reasons a pump test can "fail", is if the isolating valves are passing. This article describes testing the isolating valves using ultrasonic analysis. Overhaul of an isolating valve costs significantly less than undertaking an unnecessary pump major overhaul, and was contributed by John Wilson of SKF Reliability Systems, it can be viewed at http://www.plant-maintenance.com/articles/TestingFireandSeawaterLiftPumps.pdf. You will require the free Adobe Acrobat reader to be able to view this file.
Historically, expert knowledge of vibration analysis was required to start and maintain a vibration-based predictive maintenance program. This white paper, written by Matt Manwiller of ifm efector inc., describes how using intelligent sensors can alleviate the need for vibration experts. The article can be read at http://www.plant-maintenance.com/articles/Octavispaper.pdf. You will require the free Adobe Acrobat reader to be able to view this file.
This edition of the newsletter is supported by IQPC UK
Register for the Rotating Equipment Europe 2005 conference in Brussels, Belgium before 29th April and you will receive a discount of €200. Register now online at www.iqpc.co.uk/GB-2413/pmrc.
Our sixth annual Maintenance Salary Survey commenced in late February, and will remain open until the end of May Please click here to share your salary details, and view the results to-date. All submissions are fully confidential. Full analysis of the results will be posted in a future issue of this newsletter
This compact book is based on the training material developed and delivered by New Standard Institute, of which Michael Brown is a founder, and President. Accordingly, it has a very practical, down-to-earth feel about it, and there is plenty of ideas and tips that can be quickly implemented. There are some important, more recent developments in Stores and Inventory Management that are not covered here - but for those organisations looking to establish solid control over their maintenance stores, this book is an ideal starting point, and reference.
Here are ten Maintenance-related books that we have reviewed recently, and strongly recommend:
10. There are at least 10 types of capacitors.
9. Theory tells you how a circuit works, not why it does not work.
8. Not everything works according to the specs in the data book.
7. Anything practical you learn will be obsolete before you use it, except the complex math, which you will never use.
6. Never try to fix the hardware with software.
5. Engineering is like having an 8 a.m. class and a late afternoon lab every day for the rest of your life.
4. Overtime pay? What overtime pay?
3. Managers, not engineers, rule the world.
2. If you like junk food, caffeine and all-nighters, go into software.
1. Dilbert is a documentary.
