November 17, 2009

Keynote Presentation

Outliers, Blinks and Tipping Points by Jack R. Nicholas, Jr., P.E., CMRP (Bio)
 

This presentation was developed from themes of Malcolm Gladwell’s three best selling books The Tipping Point, blink(sic) and Outliers. Stimulated by contents of these books, Jack Nicholas has developed his own examples and important “take-away” ideas from his five decades of work, professional and personal experiences. These include nuclear submarine operations and support, consulting in many different countries, industries and government activities, volunteer work for professional societies and leading and learning from attendees of his workshops and training courses. His ideas focus on management and leadership in operations, maintenance and reliability organizations that must deal with personnel from many different cultures, traditions, educational and economic backgrounds and levels of intelligence.

The points made will help listeners better understand and deal with conscious and unconscious biases, make opportunities for people to advance their knowledge and make organizations in which they work stronger and more effective at what they do. He dramatically describes a near-disastrous collision at sea involving the world’s first nuclear submarine, the development of a more reliable solution to multiple, unremitting medical emergencies and solving a national crisis by changing the culture and communications protocols of a workplace common to nearly all parts of the world. This presentation will leave a lasting impression and give those who attend some valuable information that they can apply immediately to make their organizations safer, more efficient, profitable and competitive anywhere above, on or under the surface of the globe.

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November 18, 2009

Keynote Presentation

Never Told Tales of Blackbirds, U2s and Roadrunners, The Golden Age of Aerospace by Dr. Bob Abernethy (Bio)

Fifty years ago I was privileged to work in aerospace at Pratt & Whitney Aircraft. It was a time when we made giant strides in technology. The best part were the wonderful people involved. As young engineers, we worked with legendary heroes such as Charlie Lindberg and General Jimmy Doolittle. With slide rules, we designed and developed incredible engines and aircraft. It was the period of the cold war with the Soviet Union and that provided the purpose and incentive to do our very best. Although we rarely allowed to communicate with the “Roadrunners,” the CIA pilots of the U2 and the Blackbirds, we were thrilled to follow their exploits. We worked hard. It was very exciting and it was fun!

Join Weibull Analysis expert Dr. Robert Abernethy to hear more about these exciting and patriotic exploits.

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Presentation 03 
Story Tellers

Importance of Process Rather Than Organization by Jack Nicholas Jr., P.E., CMRP, Author Advancing Reliability & Maintenance and Predictive Maintenance Management

This story concerns how I learned about the importance of process rather than organization, and that those who must carry out the process must "own" it in order for it to be successful. As the board-selected Commanding Officer of a newly formed Navy Reserve unit supporting a major staff in the Pentagon, during the height of the Cold War, I had recruited some of the "best and brightest" senior officers to serve with me. We proposed to our "gaining command" a specific set of goals upon our assignment but ran into problems delivering on our proposed goals in the early stages of my two-year command tenure. I will describe some of the personalities involved and how this group of "super-achievers" figured out how to work together to identify and solve our problems in order to achieve our goals. The lessons learned have direct application to Maintenance and Reliability professionals and the people with whom they work in any venue.

 

Trying to Improve Reliability or No Good Deed Goes Unpunished by Steve Thomas, Author of The Journey and Successfully Managing Change

Have you ever worked for a plant manger that refused to accept that equipment reliability was the true path towards maximizing profit? You may not have, but this was the world in which Todd Bradley was living. Then one day he took matters into his own hands and scheduled some PM work on one of the production lines that was going to be down that evening. Was it a mistake that he would learn to regret or something that would be a life altering experience?

 

Presentation 04

The Critical Role of the Reliability Engineer by Peter Sheard, Director of Manufacturing Support, Swagelok Company and R. Keith Mobley, LCE

Success in implementing an equipment reliability program depends upon three critical elements: changing the culture, implementing new business processes, and third and most crucial, strong Reliability Engineers.

The first two elements are certainly very important and alone; afford the opportunity for gains and improvements in maintenance efficiency.

However, unless the reliability engineering function is adequately staffed and given the time, support and training required, your programs may not be effective, thereby falling short of the ROI your implementation should have.

A strong reliability engineering function coupled with culture change and new business processes will result in a greater guarantee of success.

This presentation will focus on the impact and critical role of the reliability engineer in the journey towards a solid equipment reliability program and how to make the best use of your Reliability Engineers.

In this presentation, you will learn:

  • How to maximize the impact of your Reliability Engineers
  • How to manage the relationship between Reliability Engineers and other functional groups
  • How to begin an equipment reliability program with Reliability Engineers

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Presentation 05
Think Like A Leader, Drive Results by Richard Mosgrove Vice President of Operations & Special Projects Ventura Foods

It begins with accountability. Anyone in the organization can have a significant impact on results by taking ownership and leading others toward a unified vision. Certainly, to affect corporate culture, senior management must play a significant role. But even then, it's the leaders out on the floor that have the greatest impact on teams. Regardless of his/her title, when a leader has a vision, executes the strategy, and embraces personal and team accountability, there will be measureable gains.

During this dynamic presentation, you will hear how Ventura Foods inspires leadership throughout the organization, and how accountability is not a "punishment", but a means toward operational excellence.

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Presentation 06
Managing a Successful Condition Monitoring Program by Jason Tranter, Managing Director, Mobius Institute and Tod M Baer, CMRP, Mechanical Maintenance Supervisor, Minnkota Power Cooperative Inc.

Managing a successful condition monitoring program may seem easy to begin with. The technologies may be presented (by the sales companies) as being easy to use, and with a number of the technologies, it is not immediately obvious if they are not being used correctly. In the early days of a program, fault conditions will be easier to detect (there are probably a lot of them) so it is likely that management will be pleased with the results.

But after a period of time, the task becomes more difficult. Machines fail unexpectedly. Incorrect diagnoses are made. Certain people within the plant are skeptical about the technology, and may not believe in the philosophy of predict maintenance, so they take pleasure in seeing the failures.

Sadly, worse is yet to come. As the program matures, management forgets why the investment in people and technology were made. If machines continue to fail unexpectedly, people blame the technology, and the program may be scrapped. On the other hand, if machine failures are reduced, management might not feel there is a need for such a program, and it is scrapped to save money.

Condition based maintenance should provide great financial benefits to all organizations, in the short and long term. Technologies such as vibration analysis do work. This presentation discusses ways that you can make sure that the program is run successfully, providing a benefit to the company, and providing a stable and satisfying career path.

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Presentation 07
Ultrasonic Inspections On Ball Screws, Gearboxes and Transfers by Deborah Hays, Predictive Technician, Dmax Ltd.

In the Automotive Manufacturing environment maintenance is faced with many challenges in completing PM’s. We are often expected to check equipment that is running 24/7, which means the machine must be shutdown to do the necessary maintenance. As costs increase and sales decrease in the automotive industry, downtime is no longer acceptable under any circumstance.

This presentation discusses how Dmax uses Ultrasonic instruments to test conveyor bearings, ball screws, and spindles to reduce downtime as part of a comprehensive predictive maintenance program

 

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Presentation 08
Jump Start
Getting Started with Oil Analysis by Ray Thibault, CLS

During difficult economic times reliability of machinery has taken on additional importance. Utilizing the tools for condition monitoring is vital in this endeavor. Oil analysis has become a very important part of this process.

This brief introduction will give you the basic knowledge necessary to understand the following key concepts in discussing oil analysis relating to equipment reliability:

  • Establishing and implementing an oil analysis program
  • Sampling best practices
  • Oil condition tests
  • Wear debris analysis
  • Selection of optimum oil analysis tests by equipment type
  • Interpreting oil analysis reports

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Presentation 09
Story Tellers

The Engineer and the Lawyer by Terry Wireman, Author, The Maintenance Strategy Series

This story is about and engineer who made arbitrary decisions about the equipment in his plant, without consulting the maintenance and operations departments. It is also about the maintenance department that learned to maintain the un-maintainable equipment the engineer installed. It also involves a contractor that supplied additional manpower to the maintenance department. Everyone had learned to do their job well enough to keep the company in business. Then one day, a severe event occurred in the plant and the company was introduced to the Lawyer. The subsequent events can provide insights that will benefit even the most progressive company.

 

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Presentation 10
Plant Reliability Process Cuts Across Departmental Lines by Shayne Jones, Maintenance Manager, Salt River Project

In all industry we are working for the same thing, production, which in turn means equipment reliability. Yet, at the same plant with the same mission and vision there are different perspectives on how to attain those goals. Many department leaders do not believe their organization impacts either of these issues. Why is that? Why is it so bad to be associated with Reliability? One word, maintenance. Engineers don't want to be associated with maintenance, they are responsible for capital projects. Operations does not want to be associated with maintenance because they may be required to do some minor maintenance.

The above scenario may not depict industry as a whole but it did and still does depict to some degree our plant. We are a large coal fired generating station, in operation for over 30 years. Many of the leaders have been there for at close to the life of the plant. However we recently began a Plant Reliability process. We have assigned system owners from across division lines. We have integrated operations into our daily planning. We have created cross departmental teams to review system reliability. All things that are not difficult but are culturally difficult for some to attain. Personalities be damned. It is for the benefit of the plant and therefore it should be recognized as beneficial for all.

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Presentation 11
Do you have what it takes to change? by Patricia Hatem, Supplier Development Manager, JohnsonDiversey

Most improvement initiatives are needlessly overwhelming. Whether you've been asked to lead an improvement initiative, or if one is already in place, there are things you can do right now to get control and have a greater impact on change.

In this interactive presentation, you will learn how to steer an objective course and eliminate subjectivity, how to be consistent and deliver appropriate discipline in the production facility, how to use data to manage, and how to talk, talk, talk to your people.

Former plant manager Pat Hatem will share "war stories" from JohnsonDiversey's flagship plant in Racine, WI, and explain how plant management prepared a foundation that led to successful ongoing performance improvement.

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Presentation 12
The Road to PdM Excellent - Achieving Vibration Analysis Best Practices at Orange County Sanitation District by Santiago Escobar

The Orange County Sanitation District (OCSD) is a public agency that serves 2.5 million people in central and northern Orange County and treats more than 230 million gallons of wastewater every day (enough water to fill Anaheim stadium nearly three times each day), making it the third largest wastewater treatment agency west of the Mississippi River. About 80 percent of the wastewater comes from homes, with the remaining 20% generated by business. The service area includes 21 cities and three special districts covering 471 square miles.

Prior to the implementation of the Vibration Analysis program at OCSD, equipment was repaired as it failed, and put back into service with little documentation and no follow-up. Because of the increased use of Root Cause Analysis many changes have been implemented to avoid recurring failures and identify opportunities to make lasting improvements. Now work is planned and scheduled according to severity and priority.

The Vibration Analysis program at OCSD has been in place since 2002, baseline vibration monitoring was conducted on critical equipments with consultant assistance. Three years ago the PdM team with the support from upper management established a three steps strategy plan to achieve PdM best practices at OCSD.

• Trained Reliability Maintenance personnel in PM/PdM Best Practices

• OCSD Vibration Analysis self assessment performed in 2007

Continuous improvement based on assessment results

In 2008 Uptime Magazine awarded OCSD PdM program as “The Best Vibration Analysis Program of the Year”. This presentation describes the key elements of our program.

The PdM team has created a training matrix including formal courses hours, hands on experience in months and qualifications required to achieve each certification level. Training is self directed and dedicated budget for two fiscal years in advance. Vibration monitoring routes and frequency are based on equipment criticality, high criticality equipments are monitored on monthly basis and medium/low criticality equipments are monitored on quarterly basis.

Procedures, workflows and standards have been defined and they are following by the personnel involved with PdM activities. The team has also created a monthly vibration condition and semi-annual vibration case histories reports that enhanced communication and cooperation between maintenance and operations.

The PdM team at OCSD also actively promotes their effectiveness through formal internal presentations of their findings, case histories and documented savings. Benefits of the program are shown through Cost Avoidance, Return on Investment and PM Optimization.

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Presentation 13
Overcoming the Challenges of Establishing an Effective and Enduring Ultrasound Program in a Print Factory by Felipe Rivera, Industrial Engineer, LDS Church and Debra Smith, SDT North America

The Printing Division of LDS Church in Salt Lake City is authorized to produce the printed materials for the Church of Jesus Christ of Later-days Saints. To keep the presses rolling an elite team implemented core technologies into their PdM program (Ultrasound, Vibration, Infrared, and Oil Analysis). Their vision is “Zero Preventive and Corrective Maintenance” and the foundation of this goal is stabilized with a clear mission statement:

“To obtain enough information about the machine’s condition, through the data gathered, to make decisions with confidence on which machines are to be kept running and which is to be scheduled for repairing”

This presentation addresses the challenges and rewards of implementing Ultrasound Inspection into LDS Church’s PdM Vision. Learn about the primary applications (monitoring motors, bearings, electrical faults, and compressed air leaks) which are most beneficial to realizing their vision. The presenters discuss the impact of vendor training and cooperation and how this partnership helped overcome the challenge to institute ultrasound as a core PdM technology. Join Felipe Rivera, Industrial Engineer of LDS Church and Debra Smith, Corporate Trainer of SDT North America as they share the secrets of LDS Church’s model ultrasound inspection program.

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Presentation 14
Jump Start
Reliability Centered Lubrication by Matt Spurlock, Allied Reliability

In today’s challenging economic climate, industries are looking for every way possible to optimize expenses and reduce unnecessary spending. With maintenance budgets tight, it is imperative that every step be taken to achieve the highest level of reliability from facility equipment.

Poor lubrication and external contamination has been identified as one of the primary causes of equipment failure. This is often related to poor lubrication practices that have been handed down over the history of a facility’s existence. These poor practices are in place due to not only a lack of training but also the absence of any rationalized program designed in accordance to best practices.

Please join Matt Spurlock to learn how to jump start or enhance a lubrication program through a proven model which includes: program design, implementation and sustainability that incorporate industry best practices and over 125 years of combined expertise in Oil Analysis and Industrial Lubrication.

Topics include:

  • Criteria used to effectively assess a program’s current state
  • What elements are included in a full lube design program
  • Recommended implementation tasks
  • Continuous improvement support elements

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Presentation 15
Story Tellers

The Sign Painters Cap by Paul Barringer, P.E., Barringer & Associates, Inc.

This story will involve three levels of training mistakes that go on every day and the mistakes varying from bad, poor, and good.

 

 

Gulliver’s Travels to Reliability by Winston Ledet, The Manufacturing Game

Leaving my comfortable Operations home I ventured into the unknown land of Maintenance and Reliability. Upon entering this new land I discovered a completely new language that included terms like preventive maintenance and predictive maintenance. Early on even the differences between planning and scheduling were not obvious to me. People that I met along the way acted as a guide to me as I also became exposed to the strange culture of Japanese Total Productive Maintenance and MIT’s computer modeling that uses System Dynamics. During this deep dive into learning, a new language was discovered in the stable domains of reactive, planned, precision, and world class and in addition defect elimination was discovered as the means to move up the domains. As new tools were created to achieve the precision domain we became aware that people already had more tools than they could use. I learned from a foreman that what was needed was a way of integrating initiatives into one program that people at the factory floor could implement easily. This challenge led to the development of a board game that could give everyone participating in it the same experiences that I had in my quest for understanding and implementing all of the best practices we found in the worldwide benchmark at DuPont. I reached the land of the precision domain at the Lima refinery where they recognized that reliability requires more than maintenance. Their invention of “Don’t just fix it, Improve it” enabled them to reach the precision domain in an achievable way for western cultures. My travels continue…..

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Presentation 16
The importance of problem solving skills in your organization by Mark Galley, ThinkReliability

The effectiveness of your organization is a function of how well the individuals and groups within the organization analyze, document, communicate and solve problems. The Cause Mapping method of root cause analysis provides specific skills and steps to improve not only how the problem is solved, but how long it takes to solve the problem.

•Do you know the cost of problems in your business annually?

•Do people frequently disagree about "the problem"?

•Do people frequently disagree about "the cause" of the problem?

Do you know the cost of recurring problems in your organization?

Even a simple analysis can be eye-opening to the people who deal with the problem on a regular basis. Managers are sometimes unaware of the details that those closest to the work view as common knowledge. Let us show you with a free demonstration how the total value of just one problem can impact your business. Ironically, the resources you need to improve your operations are already on your payroll! Most organizations are capturing the total value of their problems as simply economic costs. Realistically, the total value also includes the risk to safety, customers and operations.

The Cause Mapping method provides a disciplined thought process for working through complex problems. This can be applied by one person or a group of people. The Cause Mapping method involves both critical thinking and creative ideas. Analyzing why an issue occurred with objective facts and creative, thoughtful insight leads to better solutions. And meets goals. Those roles include engineers to attorneys, technicians to managers, supervisors to front-line employees.

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Presentation 17
From Bean Counter to Business Partner: Engaging Finance Leaders To Drive Operations Improvement by
Peter T. Hock, ConAgra

Many organizations grapple with deep-rooted divisions between Operations and Finance. Business reality casts Finance in a role that can be perceived as obstructionist. Controls and procedures are seen as red tape. Data systems are a burden and rarely deliver business insight. Financial reports seldom reflect the progress being made.

But meaningful, sustained improvement can’t be pursued blindly. Improvement efforts done willy-nilly create excitement and engagement, but may do more harm than good. How can Finance be engaged to provide data and insight to focus and measure sustainable results?

The prescription is simple: Peter Hock, ConAgra Foods Sr. Director of Continuous Improvement and seasoned financial professional, provides a framework for engagement and change management, and discusses the tools and systems that provide meaningful insight to support lasting improvement.



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Presentation 18
Lessons Learned in Establishing an Effective and Award Winning Predictive Maintenance Program by Rod Stewart, Manager CBM Team, David Hurst, Manager Reliability Engineering, and Christopher Mears, Continuous Improvement Team Lead, Arnold Engineering Development Center

The mission at Arnold Engineering Development Center (AEDC)To provide our customers with the world's most effective and affordable aerospace ground test and evaluation products and services. To ensure AEDC test facilities, technologies, and knowledge fully support today's and tomorrow's customers.

Arnold Engineering Development Center (AEDC) is the most advanced and largest complex of flight simulation test facilities in the world. The center operates 58 aerodynamic and propulsion wind tunnels, rocket and turbine engine test cells, space environmental chambers, arc heaters, ballistic ranges and other specialized units. Twenty-seven of the center's test units have capabilities unmatched elsewhere in the United States; 14 are unique in the world. The Arnold Engineering Development Center is an Air Force Materiel Command organization and an important national resource.

This paper describes the history of Condition Based Maintenance (CBM)/ Predictive Maintenance (PdM) program at Arnold Engineering Development Center  (AEDC) and how it has evolved over the years. The program started with simple vibration data collection to application of all different technologies being used to improve reliability of over $10 Billion assets.

Arnold Engineering Development Center  and ATA won the Uptime Magazine Best Predictive Maintenance program in 2008.

 

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Presentation 19
Jump Start
Making ultrasound more dynamic by Thomas J Murphy C.Eng., Managing Director, Reliability Team, Manchester, UK

The use of contact and airborne ultrasound as a predictive maintenance tool has grown steadily over the course of the last two decades.

It has its supporters people who admire the simplicity of the technique.

It also has its detractors people who say that the technology lacks the discipline of vibration in terms of a route-based structure and diagnostic capabilities.

Learning point takeaways

1. You don’t need routes to find problems

2. Implementing ultrasound has virtually immediate returns on investment

3. Routine data collection, trending and analysis of static and dynamic ultrasound is now possible

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Presentation 20
Lubrication Turnaround by Larry Hoing, Reliability & Engineering Systems Manager Wells Dairy, Inc

In today’s economy most everything is measured in Return on Investment (ROI) in one form or another. That return on investment also has a time factor in most cases. For most of us in industry today that time period is set by the groups that sit in the board room or are at the VP level of the company. The board room wants positive results, the VP level wants positive results and I know for a fact that managers and even the people on the plant floor appreciate positive results. The time frame normally is set on things like a quarterly financial review or an annual budget period. If what ever project or initiative does not start and complete with positive results in that time frame then it may not be a good thing for the company and we should look at other THINGS that will give us the results we (WANT) in the time frame we want.

The issue I find is that sometimes the results that we want are centered on costs. DUH! You say. Well it is not that wanting the cost of doing business to go down is bad, it is what we focus on, is the issue. We focus on the $$ it will get us for a bonus this year and how it will look on the quarterly review and how it will add to the bottom line this budget period. Then we stop. We believe or should I dare say we act accordingly in that only those things that give us a return in the time period we want are viable things to go after.

I hate to tell you that in my experience and I believe in most of your experiences in industry whether it be food manufacturing or heavy industrial, we did not get to the place of unreliability or inefficiency in one budget year. Our equipment did not totally degrade in a quarterly period. They all ended up there through a process. Just like we will have to get our plants reliability and efficiencies back, through a process and that process does not happen overnight.

The focus of my topic is lubrication and how Lubrication in a manufacturing facility is the cornerstone activity of any Reliability program. Lubrication in and of it self does not solve the MFG worlds problems. What it does do however, is provide that base or that foundation of basic asset care. For without basic asset care the house of reliability will come-a-tumbling down. I full heartedly believe in RCM, PdM, FMEA, PMO, and all the other reliability processes. In fact if you don’t do basic asset care your PdM program will tell you, Your RCM analysis will tell you, your FMEA process will tell you, and your equipment availability will tell you that you should have been performing basic asset care including lubrication in the first place. So save yourself some time and effort and just take up the golden grease gun and lubricate it right the first time. Those other programs will have less faults and failures to deal with if you do.

From My own experience I can tell you to get a lubrication program off the ground and running and then get it to a place that it starts to sustain itself takes time. It takes money, and most of all it takes persistence.

I am going to take you through the first part of the journey of lubrication at our facilities at Wells Dairy. I say the first part of the journey because I believe we are still on that road and will be for as long as we have equipment.

Our journey in lubrication has taken us from a place where the practice of lubrication was unsightly, unskilled, and unsupported. To a place of cleanliness, certified technicians, and complete top down support. How did it happen? How did we do it? How long did it take? What was the secret? How much did it cost? The answers to these questions and much more can be found when you attend my presentation of “Lubrication Turnaround”, at the Solutions 2.0 conference.

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Presentation 21
Zero-cost options of grooming a competent reliability workforce by Heinz P. Bloch, P.E., Author Practical Machinery Management for Process Plants: Maximizing Machinery Uptime

It has been demonstrated that true "Best-In-Class" companies are highly successful in training competent reliability professionals. This 20-minute segment describes two of the key ingredients of grooming a competent reliability workforce. The first element deals with screening certain technical publications--typically a five minute endeavor--and how this has led to priceless networking contacts on sealing technology. Time permitting, a second element, "shirt-sleeve seminars", will be discussed. Presented by the plant's reliability professionals at the conclusion of periodically scheduled obligatory safety sessions, five-minute shirt-sleeve seminars have successfully upgraded the knowledge base of technical employees in all job functions of modern process and manufacturing plants.

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Presentation 22
Forward to the Basics, Using Education to Create Real Partnerships by Doc Palmer, Author
, Maintenance Planning and Scheduling Handbook and Jeff Shiver, Managing Principal, People and Processes, Inc.

Tired of the “blame” game? Does it seem like no matter how hard you try, you just can’t seem to get the participation and buy-in needed to move the Maintenance and Reliability effort forward with the various partners in your organization?

Are your people frustrated because it seems that no one takes responsibility for the equipment or its availability, choosing to point fingers instead?

Solving these problems requires a partnership outside the normal Maintenance group’s span of control. How do you get there? Learn the cycle that one organization has undergone and how they are changing the culture by using education as a primary tool to drive true partnerships.

See how to end the “blame” game and the benefits that you too can realize within your organization.

 

 

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Presentation 23
Going Global: Cargill’s Focus on Healthy Assets to promote Cargill as our Customer’s “Partner of Choice” by Tim Goshert, Global Reliability Leader, Cargill

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Presentation 24
The Journey to Reliability: Taking ArcelorMittal Weirton from Reactive to Proactive by Priyen Tanna, Technology Coach, ArcelorMittal Weirton, Gina Hutto, Reliability Consultant, Timken Reliability Solutions and Leslie McHattie, Engagement Manager, Ivara Corporation

This presentation will illustrate the strategy ArcelorMittal USA is deploying in their plants to attain World Class Equipment Reliability. Each step of the process will be explained in theory, and then examined in reality.

Learn the challenges faced and lessons learned in launching a reliability initiative in the midst if declining orders and budget cuts. If you have faced a hurdle in this area, chances are Weirton has faced the same in the past year. In spite of the set backs, AM Weirton has made amazing progress. The key players in driving the program are willing to share the activities that allowed the program to sail over those hurdles.

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Presentation 25

Jump Start Sessions by Jason Tranter, Director, Mobius Institute
Vibration Jump Start
 

Success with vibration analysis without financial or intellectual pain

Monitoring the vibration from rotating machinery is a proven technique for understanding the health of the machine – and with that knowledge you can better plan your maintenance activities and avoid unexpected failures. Further, the knowledge gained can enable you to make changes to your purchasing, repair, installation, and commissioning procedures; thus improving the reliability of the machines. The challenge is to run the vibration program successfully; many start, and too many fail. This jump start session will tackle the challenge in two ways. First it will describe a very simple approach to vibration analysis that may allow you to get started quickly without a great investment in money or training. There is a lot to be gained without the use of sophisticated vibration analysis systems. Second, the session will explain why the more sophisticated systems fail and what can be done to ensure the success of any program. If you want to reap the rewards offered by vibration analysis you must not miss this session.


Shaft Alignment Jump Start

Getting your machines and reliability into alignment

When performed correctly, shaft alignment can greatly improve reliability by reducing the damaging dynamic forces your machines experience with every single shaft rotation. Precision alignment will reduce bearing failures, seal failures, shaft and coupling failures – even if you use flexible couplings. This jump start session will introduce shaft alignment (and soft foot correction) and demonstrate why and how it achieves these goals. Dial indicator alignment will be covered, however a number of its flaws will be revealed. The use and benefits of laser alignment will also be covered. Utilizing a series of 3D animations will make it very easy to understand this important topic.

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Presentation 26
Automating the Lubrication Process – by Paul Dufresne, CMRP, CPMM and David Bonfante, Reliability Engineer Georgia-Pacific LLC

The goal of every lubrication program should be to ensure that all equipment receives and maintains the required levels of lubrication such that no equipment fails due to inadequate or improper lubrication. This presentation will discuss the necessary steps used to automate the Lubrication Process at the Georgia-Pacific Cedar Springs Operations. The presentation will discuss the process and procedures used to automate the lubrication rounds for maintenance personnel at the plant. We will discuss the scope of the project and all the factors that one must address before attempting such a magnanimous project. Whether you have an existing lubrication program or are starting one from scratch, at the conclusion of this presentation, you will have a road map for success in automating your lubrication program.

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Keynote Presentation
Driving Performance Isn’t Always Glamorous: L’Oreal’s Journey by Richard Jones, Vice President, North Little Rock Manufacturing Consumer Product Division, L’Oreal USA 

It's not easy to establish a culture of continuous improvement, especially when a facility is a "top performer" in the system. Learn how one L'Oreal plant made the transformation from complacent to champion of performance improvement, and has become the model for a global initiative. Discover how the team struggled and overcame obstacles throughout the organization, created success metrics and leveraged technology and best practices to achieve their performance goals.

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Presentation 28

Mission Performance driven by Senior Management Leadership by Bart Jones, Director Facilities Operations and Maintenance and Ramesh Gulati, Reliability Specialist and  ATA/Arnold Engineering Development Center

Arnold Engineering Development Center (AEDC) is the most advanced and largest complex of flight simulation test facilities in the world. The center operates 58 aerodynamic and propulsion wind tunnels, rocket and turbine engine test cells, space environmental chambers, arc heaters, ballistic ranges and other specialized units.

Twenty-seven of the center's test units have capabilities unmatched elsewhere in the United States; 14 are unique in the world. The Arnold Engineering Development Center is an Air Force Materiel Command organization and an important national resource.

This paper will discuss how the Senior Management is involved in creating the right environment to enable operations (production) and maintenance to work together to get the mission accomplished effectively to satisfy the customer on time and within cost.

 

 

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Presentation 29
Materials Management
– The Missing Link in Reliability by Art Posey, Sr Manager, Maintenance, Wheelabrator Technologies Inc. and Phillip Slater Initiate Action

Typically most operations, maintenance and reliability professionals associate materials management with having, or not having, spare parts on hand. And despite their focus on optimizing plant performance too little attention is paid to the maintenance of the spare parts that they hold in stock.

The reason for this is that materials management is often thought of as a sideline or support activity rather than a core function for achieving reliability and so the influence that materials management actually has on reliability is under estimated. The reality is that many companies could significantly improve their reliability outcomes by improving their materials management.

This presentation works through real world case studies to show both the traps and the success stories on how to improve reliability with proper materials management and spares maintenance processes.

The issues discussed include:

  • Why your data doesn’t tell you that you have a materials management problem.
  • How proper spares storage can significantly improve your reliability.
  • The real function of your storeroom (hint: it’s not to store stuff).
  • How basic storeroom practices impact reliability.
  • How spare parts ‘ownership’ drives reliability outcomes.
  • How to establish a spares maintenance program.

This presentation will demonstrate that materials management is the missing link in achieving reliability.

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Presentation 30
Business Process Design - BEEN THERE DONE THAT? by Steve Beamer, Vice President, Maintenance, Peabody Energy and Christian Green, Kepner-Tregoe

Why a fresh look at “how work gets done around your organization” might just be the most critical - and economical - way to achieve and sustain a competitive advantage in the marketplace.

Well-respected leaders in a variety of organizations may agree to disagree on strategic assumptions upon which they will make decisions in their industry’s current environment - or the method by which their organizations will “win” in the current marketplace.

However, all leaders agree that their organizations must have a crystal clear strategy – and equally critical – the business processes in place to “deliver the goods” against that strategy.

Business processes are the way in which “work gets done around the joint.” Exceptional business processes – those that are actually useful to the organization – allow a company to deliver on their promises to their customers and achieve and/or sustain profit in good times – and especially in bad times.

Neither sexy or particularly exciting - business process design and implementation may have the “initiative weary” crowd offering “duck and cover” advice to others in the organization. As we all have discovered on this life’s journey – change can be good and change can be bad – but change is always part of the deal.

If your organization needs to decrease cost and improve service to your internal and external customers – business process improvement is one of the quickest ways to bottom-line results – and one of the most challenging initiatives to successfully implement precisely because of the behavior change it demands of all stakeholders in your company.

This presentation focuses on how Steve Beamer and team have taken this journey and documented lessons learned over the course of one year. The expertise of the team combined with robust KT rational process application proved a powerful combination focused on minimizing the pain and maximizing the organizational gain.

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Presentation 31
An Integrated Asset Health Work Management System by Carey Repasz, Allied Reliability and Tim Goshert, Global Reliability Leader Cargill

Building the foundation for a successful Predictive Maintenance Program is as important as the technologies you use and the skills of the people in the program.

Taking the time to create foundational elements will increase the chance of success and sustain the health of your assets.

Any successful reliability initiative must start with key elements found in a properly designed program that include but are not limited to:
accurate asset list, asset criticality ranking, failure modes, determining the right levels of targeted coverage, leaning out your PM tasks, developing standards for both technologies and personnel, optimizing work flows, report quality and the appropriate KPIs.

Whether some or all of these elements have been addressed in your respective plant, a program’s success will rest heavily on how well you pull it all together into a fully integrated Asset Health work management system.

Please join Carey and Tim in learning the best methods to an integrated Asset Health Work Management System.

 

You will learn:

  • How to effectively communicate to site leadership
  • Integration points
  • Reporting on Asset Health as a meaningful metric
  • Other key Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) associated with Asset Health
  • How to manage Asset Health from a global corporate level down to an individual asset
  • What obstacles Cargill encountered and how they overcame them

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Presentation 32
Detection of failing coal pulverizer shafts utilizing off-the-shelf, portable, route-based, vibration hardware and software by Elliott Mecchia, Supervisor, Performance and Reliability Group, Electric Energy, Inc. and Steve Pianka, Manager, Reliability Technology Services, LLC

Failure of any one of the thirty, critical, un-spared coal pulverizers at Electric Energy’s, Inc. Joppa generating station will result in immediate loss of revenue and will adversely affect the plant’s performance metrics. Deployment of predictive and proactive technologies has either improved pulverizer reliability or at least allowed scheduling of corrective maintenance during non-peak production periods. Two failures prevail; spalling damage to the vertical shaft thrust bearing, or failure (cracking) of the vertical shaft itself.

 

Early on, it was determined that a vertical shaft thrust bearing could progress from asymptomatic to functional failure in a week’s time. Stress wave analysis technology has a documented record of detecting issues within rolling element bearings. To provide plant personnel with the earliest possible warning of a pulverizer failure, this technology was deployed on the highly loaded thrust bearings. Unintentionally, what emerged from the five years of route type surveillance are empirical patterns that allow Electric Energy to predict a partially-through shaft crack and impending failure, from days to weeks in advance of functional failure. This paper describes the spectral and waveform patterns and amplitude trends used to make the “cracked-shaft” diagnoses, along with confirmatory indications via cross-channel phase and displacement measurements.

 

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Presentation 33
Jump Start
How to align maintenance with operations by Jeff Smith, Reliability Laboratory

Expectations and requirements

Operations has expectations and maintenance has requirements. Maximum availability is only possible with an alignment of expectations and requirements. This presentation discusses the correct balance, how to attain it and how to achieve 100% utilization.

 

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Presentation 34
Continuous Improvement on a Budget by Thomas Wrench, Reliability Manager, Jersey Shore Steel Co

I am the Reliability Manager for a 200+ employee steel manufacturing facility in central Pennsylvania. Part of my job entails facilitating continuous improvement events. I have found this to be the most rewarding part of my job. As a company we have experimented with expensive “consultant” events in most of which I was a participant. The events usually generated a lot of excitement but there was always something missing. The biggest draw back was the fact that the facilitator spent a large potion of his time learning our process and lacked insider “insight”. A lot of time was spent explaining “how we do things here.” The other drawback was the fact that the consultant left the facility at the end of the week and we were left to follow up basically unguided.

Nearly every company in the world stands to benefit from a well focused continuous improvement event utilizing an in house facilitator. Improvement events can be tailored to nearly any situation ranging from setup reduction to PM/PdM development. I have actively been involved in many week long events both as a participant and a facilitator. I have seen the mistakes made by others and have also learned a few tricks of my own mostly by trail and error.

I strongly feel that every company possesses at least one individual capable of conducting such an event; all they need is a little coaching and some general guidelines to walk them through the process. It is truly amazing what a group of individuals can accomplish when brought together in this type of setting. In today’s tough economic situation conducting in house continuous improvements events are the smart economic choice.

My approach to an event is systematic and straightforward. The steps I follow could be applied to solving nearly any type of problem.

The following topics will be addressed in the presentation:

• Facilitator selection- Is there a C.I. guru in the house?
• Participant selection- getting the right people involved.
• Training room set up and needs
• Advertising the event- generating excitement.
• Pre-event- Planning and preparation.
• Event execution- Step by step action plans and agenda building.
• Brainstorming and battle boards- how to get most out of your group.
• Handling problem situations- uncooperative employees, management buy in and unexpected situations.
• Action/follow up plans- champion assigns.
Actual recent event examples of an equipment specific issue. Equipment PM’S, autonomous maintenance and cost savings calculations will be shown.

Learning point takeaways:

• Presentation participants will have a clear in depth understanding of the continuous improvement process and how to launch it at their facility.
• Attendees will gain knowledge from examples shown and will be able to connect it with real life problems at their facility.
I will prepare a guideline packet detailing the step by step process to carry out an event. I will make these available by request at the end of the presentation.

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Presentation 35
The Strategies Of Maintenance And Tactics To Apply at La Silla Paranal Observatory by Waldo Siclari B., La Silla Paranal Observatory

The astronomical observation is a science that attracted different cultures since the beginning of the humanity , but the evolution of humanity changed the form and equipment for the astronomical observation.  ESO is one of the world's leading research organizations. It is dedicated to astronomy and astrophysics, and operates three astronomical sites in South America, on behalf of its thirteen member states.

Currently there are many astronomical sites around the world, and the most powerful is the La Silla - Paranal Observatory located in remote areas of the north of Chile in South America.

The Observatory La Silla Paranal is comprised of several departments and one them is maintenance department, The maintenance department is responsible to apply the different maintenance strategy in the system to the observatory to ensure reliable operation. These strategies include many that are common in the industry world like CMMS, Planning, Reliability, Key performance indicator (KPI) and other maintenance tactics. The Observatory maintenance department also includes tactics like:

- Root Cause Analysis (RCA)

- Preventive maintenance Optimization (PMO)

- Predictive Maintenance (PdM)

The PdM group is comprised of Internationally Certified technicians for Vibration analysis, Oil analysis, Infrared Thermography, with the primary objective to supply dependable and opportune information for feed back for planning the programmed activities Condition based maintenance ( CBM) and Corrective Maintenance ( CM) in all system in the observatory

Finally in the presentation we will show :

- Beginnings and evolution of maintenance in La Silla Paranal Observatory

- Beginning of the Predictive Maintenance Group.

- Internal Workflow Maintenance Department.

- Experiences with PdM in Maintenance department

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Presentation 36
From “Best Practice Sharing” to “Best Known and Proven Practice Transfer” by Tim Del Vecchio, Director, Supply Chain Continuous Process Improvement, AkzoNobel Decorative Paints North America

While many companies are engaged in best practice sharing, AkzoNobel Decorative Paints US takes a slightly different but (we think) more powerful approach — best known and proven practice transfer. Through targeted metrics review to identify the best performance — our company’s entitlement — we proactively identify the keys to success and transfer them to all sites through standardized tools and organizational structures.

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Presentation 37

A Model for Compressed Air Leak Management at Alcoa’s Mount Holly Plant

by Gary Wiggins, Alcoa and Paul Klimuc, SDT

Alcoa believes that “Sustainable Enterprises” are those who provide the most value at the least environmental cost. They identified energy efficiency as one area that yields consistent and measurable results and as such, Alcoa’s energy efficient initiative is a global effort. Reducing leaks in compressed air systems and eliminating mobile compressors has proved savings of nearly half million dollars at one facility.

 

Alcoa’s Mt. Holly Smelter is an industry leader in production efficiency, energy utilization, and environmental control. Occupying 6,500 acres in Goose Creek, South Carolina, it is the first plant of its kind in the world to achieve ISO 9002 QSS. The facility uses seven 2000 CFM, 450HP compressors to supply demand side air to production. Mount Holly recently received an award for their compressed air leak management program.

Gary Wiggins is an integral member of the condition monitoring team and is a Level III Thermographer and Level 1 Vibration Analyst and Airborne Ultrasound Inspector at Alcoa. Paul Klimuc is a ultrasound field support expert and solutions partner for SDT. In this presentation Gary Wiggins communicates his keys to a successful compressed air leak management program while Paul Klimuc addresses the role of airborne ultrasound in helping achieve the goals of sustainable enterprise like Alcoa.

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Presentation 38
Eliminating Mill Chattering at POSCO Steel by Kang,Kyung-Woo, Mechanical Engineer and Manager, Kim, and Byung-Tae, Mechanical Engineer, POSCO

The Pohang Iron and Steel Company, or POSCO (KRX: 005490) (NYSE: PKX) (TYO: 5412) (LSE: PIDD), based in Pohang, South Korea, is the world's second largest steel maker.

Currently, POSCO operates two steel mills in the country, one in Pohang and the other in Kwangyang. In addition, POSCO operates a joint venture with U.S. Steel, USS-POSCO, which is located in Pittsburg, California.

Mill Chattering is a difficult technical problem of the iron steel making industry, seriously affecting production and quality for a long time. Moreover, even though there have been a wide range of research activities carried out, no perfect solutions have been discovered until now.

Mill Chattering is mainly related to the self excited vibration in the rolling process and made up of the composite actions of extremely diversified factors such as the rolling oil component, kinetic characteristics of the roll, rolling force, and rolling speed.

In this paper, A diagnostic analysis of Mill Chattering is carried out at the tandem cold mill stand in POSCO Kwangyang works. The analysis can effectively be used as well when designing the optimal critical rolling conditions to develop a new type of steel or to maximize productivity.

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Presentation 39
Jump Start
Creating A Sustainable Operator Driven Lubrication Program By Kevan Slater, Independent Reliability and Lubrication Specialist

The position of "oiler" or "lubricator" has been all but eliminated in most companies. There has been a number of responses to this change however one of the most effective is to create a documented and well defined Operation Driven Lubrication program.

This presentation provides details and case studies of successful Operator Driven Lubrication programs and how it can fit into a more comprehensive Performance Management Program that breaks down silos and aligns people toward the aim of the organization.

 

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Group Forum
Heroic Outputs - Dynamic Benchmarking
 

The data used to develop the original Dynamic Benchmarking Model was collected in duPont’s “Best of the Best” Benchmarking Study administered by A. T. Kearny in the mid to late 80’s. The purpose of the survey was to discover the characteristics of the very best maintenance organizations. A total of 140 sites were surveyed from a broad spectrum of industries. About half the sites surveyed were non-duPont sites.

Conventional analysis of the flood of data did not result in any useful insights into how to elevate the performance of organizations.

Winston Ledet initiated and led a team of 3 duPonters and 1 consultant to analyze the data using system dynamics modeling. System dynamics is the basis for our Dynamic Benchmarking Model, the Stable Domains for maintenance and Defect Elimination. The model was developed for the first time by this DuPont team as part of their effort in the early 1990’s. These frameworks have become the prevailing paradigms of most maintenance experts. However, in 1991, these same frameworks seemed strange by most and “heretical” by some.

The uniqueness of this assessment is that it is based on understanding that came about after rigorous study of manufacturing over 20 years. The first system dynamics model was completed in 1989. A system dynamics model is basically a cause and effect approach put to mathematics, which is then verified against actual real world experience. This results in a model that is structurally equivalent to the area of study. It provides the researchers a “practice field” to determine the key leverage points in the system. The original system dynamics model was updated to include more organizational capability and readiness structure in 2002. The model was further updated in 2008 to include socio-technical network building. The basis for these upgrades was the experience gathered after working with over 168 companies at multiple sites around the world and over 30,000 participants in the Manufacturing Game workshops.

The qualitative aspect of the model evaluates the readiness of the organization to reach the precision domain where the best benchmarked sites operate. The quantitative aspect evaluates the cost of unreliability and the profit of precision reliability.

Reliabilityweb.com facilitated the a comparative survey which evaluates the readiness of your organization to reach the precision operating domain. Attend this session to learn how well you compare to sites that have reached the precision domain and a comparison to the average of all plants that respond to this survey.

The session is highly interactive and the results of the study will also be published and made available to all Solutions 2.0 participants

Participate in the benchmarking study now
 

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