Category Archives: Maintenance & Reliability

The 5 Characteristics of High Performing Organisations

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No organisation is immune to things going wrong. Machines fail, parts malfunction and human error is something that simply can’t be avoided. But for NASA, failures can have very large scale implications. So how do you manage these inherent risks?  It requires high performing, high reliability teams and the backbone of it all is good leadership. During Mainstream Conference 2016, Ed Van Cise, Flight Director for the International Space Station, pulled back the curtain on NASA’s culture and revealed the secrets of its high performing, high reliability team. A Near Disaster NASA had been tracking a very small ammonia leak in a power channel cooling system on the space station for a number of years and it was agreed that it was small enough to accept and live with. Then in May 2013, the space station crew reported ‘snow flakes’ outside (quite alarming as it’s not supposed to snow in space). It became obvious the ‘snow’ was ammonia flakes and it was leaking at an exponential rate. The International Space Station (ISS) program asked the team to stop the leak before the system runs dry which would have been about two days. Now for a normal spacewalk you’d have about 12 months to plan it. If you had to do one in a contingency timeframe you need at least nine days.  Ed and his team had 39 hours.  Watch this video for the full run down of the crisis. Spacewalks are inherently dangerous.  By all accounts and purposes, given the … Continue reading →

Three Ways to Improve ROI Through Asset Management

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Over the last 20 years, discussions on asset management have moved from fix-as-fail to to the introduction of ISO 55 000 and the acknowledgement that asset management is a generator of value. Modern asset management recognises that our assets have inherent organisational value, they impact organisational performance and they influence organisational risk. But convincing the power brokers of the organisation that this is the case can be a real challenge. As a member of the asset management organisation, you can demonstrate that you bring value to the organisation as a whole. Even if you work for an asset management organisation that is far removed from the corporate structure of your company, you can still create a movement to influence the organisation to acknowledge asset management as a generator of value. … Continue reading →

What Makes a Well Designed Asset Management System?

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The concept of design goes far deeper than face value. As Steve Jobs once said, “Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works”. While it’s important that asset management systems are designed to meet financial and technical design requirements, it is vital that they are also designed to be easy to use and easy to maintain. The majority of organisations approach the management of their assets in a reactive, ad-hoc manner, responding to market conditions as and when they happen. Effective asset management should be a strategic and proactive process, designed to create optimal value for the end user. The core elements of a well-designed Asset Management System (AMS) are performance, reliability, maintainability and operability. 1. Performance: Understanding the short-term and long-term requirements To effectively manage the performance of assets over their entire lifetime, organisations must consider changing environmental factors and requirements. The impact these factors will have on performance in both the short and long term will have a significant affect on creating value. 2. Maintainability: It’s of no use if it’s out of date It’s important that Asset Management Systems are continuously updated to reflect all factors, such as new equipment, procedures and staff changes. A system will not survive if it becomes out of date, and a hindrance to the people it was designed to help. When a system is designed so that the user can easily maintain its currency, it will improve all aspects of the organisation. 3. Reliability: Functional as … Continue reading →

[Video] ISO 55000 Panel Discussion: What Are They And what’s In It For Me?

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ISO 55000 has been around for a while but there still remains questions around what it is, why we have it and what it means for the industry as a whole. Watch this video from Mainstream Conference USA to hear four of the leading practitioners in the industry discuss these questions and more in an attempt to demystify ISO 55000. Moderator: Drew Troyer – Principal, Sigma Reliability Solutions Panellists: Cliff Williams – Corporate Director of Maintenance, ERCO Worldwide Robert Williamson – International Reliability & Maintenance Expert, Strategic Work Systems, Inc. Terry Wireman – Senior Vice President, Vesta Global Watch this video to hear the panel discuss: What is ISO 55,000, how did we get there, why do we have it? What does it mean for the industry? Why should the industry care that it exists? What’s going to drive it? Should we comply to the standard just to get certified or should we be committed to the standard? Do companies need to tap into other resources in order to come up with a plan to implement ISO 55000? Related Reading Four Important Steps When Implementing ISO 55000 On almost any occasion and in any country one can find an article in their newspaper about some sort of industrial mishap due to the mismanagement of equipment. The ISO 55000 Standards are in place to help organizations prevent this kind of mismanagement by defining the best practice for asset management. But there are some important steps you need to take when implementing … Continue reading →

Optimise Your Maintenance Strategy: Lessons Learned From a Cub Scout

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A colleague and I were discussing how his nine year old son had completed his Cub Scouts Cyclist Activity badge. We noticed how some of the bike maintenance tasks that had been identified were, shall we say, less than ‘optimal’. Now you might say this is a bit unfair to judge a Cub Scout lesson through the eyes of a reliability professional (and you’d be right) but what was interesting is that we often see the same sorts of issues within the industry. The first thing we noticed is the tasks aren’t really tasks, but a list of components; i.e. they tell you what to look at but not what to look for. In other words, how a task is written is clearly very important. In the example above “check the back tire” does not help us know what to look for. Is it there? Is it worn? Does it have air in it? Is it damaged? With vague work instructions like these maintainers are left to decide what to inspect for, which will inevitably lead to inconsistent maintenance. Some of the examples above are better than others, “your helmet fits” for example, is more specific and much better than “check helmet.” Another issue with the tasks above is there isn’t any data or figures included in the task. How much tire wear is acceptable? What is the minimum tread depth? What pressure should the tire be at? Is there a minimum and maximum? There also needs to be instruction … Continue reading →

How Healthy Are Your Assets?

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Just like us humans, having a regular health check for your assets is essential to getting the most out of them. John Renick, Partner Solutions Director for Meridium, explains why performing a health check is essential to gain a better understanding of your assets and how to use them to their optimal level. Imagine the significant health-related benefits of having a wristband which would automatically and continuously monitor your health-related data like blood pressure, heart rate, cholesterol, ketone and liver enzymes, white and red blood cell counts, daily exercise, caloric intake, bone density, body fat, etc. Then, via pre-defined policies, the wristband would automatically alert you as to when and what actions you need to take to reduce your risk of an unexpected health-related event. It’s fair to assume that if we followed the technology’s recommendations, many of us could expect to increase our life-expectancy. While medical technology is catching up to offer us these amazing health benefits, technology capable of performing a “health check” for your assets is already available. The good news is most companies will not need to start from scratch to perform an asset health check. Many organizations already have an infrastructure and processes in place to capture key asset information. In such cases, the challenge lies in the effective integration and synthesis of their asset data. This is where an Asset Performance Management (APM) system can come into play to integrate and align asset data to monitor and evaluate asset conditions and alert asset owners … Continue reading →

7 Reasons Your Reliability Improvement Program Is Failing

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No amount of failure mode analysis, high-tech laser alignment and vibration monitoring systems, or RCA analysis will result in sustainable reliability improvement without the one key ingredient: buy-in. If the people on the plant floor and in the boardroom – and everyone in between – do not genuinely believe in the need to improve reliability and thus understand how they benefit from working in a reliable plant, then change will be resisted and old habits will return the moment the reliability focus is lost. Jason Tranter, Managing Director of Mobius Institute, outlines the reasons your reliability improvement program might be failing, and some practical tips to get buy-in from your people. When you consider the savings that can be made to operations and maintenance costs and the improvements in the plant availability, plus the reduction in safety and environmental incidents, plus the increase in job security (due to a plant’s improved viability), a reliability improvement initiative should be strongly supported by everyone within the organization. However if those benefits are not properly explained then, to most people, a reliability improvement program either means requests to spend more money in a time when budgets are tight, or changes to the practices that have been in place for many years. And for some people, those changes may appear to threaten their livelihood. It is no wonder then that these changes are resisted. In our surveys[1], human issues (lack of leadership support, loss of the reliability champion and resistance to change) dominated all … Continue reading →

Bringing Operations & Maintenance Into the Equation From the Get-Go

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When initiation of new major assets are being scoped and planned, it’s vital to obtain input from operations and maintenance (O&M) teams on in-service requirements of the assets, or O&M risk complications and problems lasting as long as decades. So how do you plan for future operation and maintenance needs before an asset has even commenced its working life? Dr Zahra Jabiri, Operational Asset Assessments Manager for Western Power explains the process they have successfully adopted and provides some strategies and tips you can simply and easily adopt in your organisation. It goes without saying that when an asset is installed, it should be in a good, healthy condition ready to start life in the field. That is, free of defects and fit for purpose. At this point, it is often assumed that the O&M teams will not have any impediments or issues managing the equipment in the future. Managing an asset is a cradle-to-grave process, starting at the initial concept, through planning and design stages, and continuing to the asset use (O&M) and disposal. Usually with a 10% to 90 % ratio in asset life (10% of asset life is in pre-O&M stage and 90% in O&M). Therefore it is vital in planning and design stage to recognise cradle to grave asset requirements, know what type of machinery and equipment are going to be used for operation and maintenance of the asset, what type of access is required to ensure worker safety, and optimise asset unavailability impact on the … Continue reading →

The Reliability Magic Pill

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If there was a magic pill you could take for “Reliability Excellence”, Philip would be the leading doctor you would want to see! A popular Mainstream Conference speaker and workshop leader, Philip Sage is a Principal Reliability Engineer at ARMS Reliability. In today’s post, he shares his experiences and explains how it is possible to lead teams working with unreliable assets and transform them into world class operations. So just what is the Reliability Excellence prescription? People and Leaders with Vision All around the globe I ask everyone what is “Reliability Excellence”? I travel and work with teams from many different countries, and while each team is different, their definitions all seem to have two elements in common: “Reliability Leadership and a Vision of what is Reliability Excellence”. It is given that each organisation faces different challenges in the market place, so I can accept that different definitions for “Reliability Excellence” exist. But what sets the “best” apart from the rest? What is really “Excellent”? I believe it starts with the people who have a vision and the belief they can succeed. So how do you tell the difference between the best and the rest? I look for the “visionary” who has set the path for Reliability Excellence. The visionary is an absolute requirement because they are magnetic. They draw people into the Reliability Excellence quest. These folks are a rare breed and when they are found it might surprise you to learn they are not all the boss! Some … Continue reading →

6 Tips to Help You Handle a Disaster

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Mainstream Conference speaker Colin Young, recounts a fascinating case study in disaster management. He explains not only how his organisation dealt with a catastrophic breakdown but how they were eventually able to use the situation to strengthen the company’s position. Colin then shares his valuable insights on how to cope when disaster strikes. The Right People, in the Right Roles The first thing I do when faced with a plant that has low operating rates is build a strong team. You need to discover where each person’s passion meets their abilities and then structure their role in the organization around this. Because if people enjoy what they do and they’re good at it, they’re more likely to succeed. And if they succeed, the plant succeeds. Once you have a good team in place, you must trust and respect them. Trust their expert opinions (based on experience, not position) and give them the opportunity to implement their ideas. Take managed risk and break paradigms with your team leading the way. If you don’t trust your people to try new things, then they will never reach new levels of performance. Setting a Vision The second step is to chart the direction. Goals and milestones must be established. The trick is to keep it simple and not overwhelm the team. Establish a set of metrics to track and improve upon, but never have more than two or three that you?re focusing on at one time. And set milestones for each goal so getting … Continue reading →