Maintain Pumping Systems Effectively

For far too long, particularly in industry, soft skills have been seen as the responsibility of HR while the operations department, maintenance, logistics, finance, etc. concentrate on the hard skills that generate value. As somewhat of a disruptor I take a contrary view. Firstly, why spend any time at all on soft skills if they do not contribute to the bottom line? Secondly, if they do contribute to the bottom line then all leadership should become expert in these soft skills and not abdicate the responsibility to HR.  

“Serialized” spare parts are repairable components, usually expensive and complex, where each individual item needs to be tracked and recorded to ensure reliability. Serialized components are often in contact with the process and require refurbishing several times over their life span. The example I’ll use here are covered rolls used on a paper machine.

Current reliability calculations are predisposed to a single failure mode or mechanism and assume a constant failure rate, while research being carried out by the Center for Risk and Reliability at the University of Maryland implies that reliability is a function of the level of damage a system can sustain, with the operational environment, operating conditions and operational envelope determining the rate of damage growth.

So you have a plan, now what? It is now time to execute. Hopefully, you are using some great CI methodologies founded in Six Sigma and the Toyota Production System. Each of the items on your plan may need some additional analysis to see exactly what is involved in the improvement of those items.

The purpose of this article is to raise questions and challenge plant leadership on strategy, vision and execution of plant reliability and overall maintenance management. To start, we need to define reliability. Often times companies want to improve reliability but when you ask them to define reliability and how it's measured, it's unusual to get a comprehensive answer.

Good indoor air quality (IAQ) depends on a number of factors, including effective filtration, which provides the primary defense for building occupants and HVAC (Heating, Ventilating and Air Conditioning) equipment against particular pollutants. Today's higher standards in filtration, coupled with rigorous attention paid to HVAC filter selection, helps to produce cleaner, purer air and reduce IAQ-related problems.

Leadership is vital to the success of all companies. It is a journey that requires reference points to ensure leaders remain on course and continue to grow. Almost all companies need more deliberate and focused leadership development. They need leaders who inspire people to follow. This is especially true when implementing successful work processes. This article describes the needed steps, as well as the roles and responsibilities required, for implementing successful work processes and a leadership structure.