Fundamental to success in any organization is getting individuals to work toward common goals. Whether that's a team of five on the court or a corporation of 50,000 associates scattered across the globe, knowing the goal and working toward unified objectives help every individual contribute. In global manufacturing, however, we frequently see a disconnect in this unified approach.

As global economic trends lead to changes in manufacturing strategies, companies today are realizing that successful financial performance can only be achieved when functional decisions are synchronized and fully aligned with plant or corporate goals and objectives. In rethinking the value and contribution of the manufacturing organization, companies have an opportunity to revitalize their business performance and bring new capabilities to their strategic focus.

A historical disconnect
The front office traditionally has had little direct infl uence on the plant fl oor beyond providing budgets and productivity demands. Conversely, the plant fl oor has little executive visibility, meaning manufacturing considerations are less likely to be taken into account when corporate managers are setting business objectives. In the rare instances when these overarching objectives are communicated to those responsible for the plant fl oor, it's difficult to reconcile them with plant fl oor deliverables, as the corporate terminology and plant floor metrics rarely converge. This leaves plant managers to set goals and make decisions that risk running counter to the company's overall objectives as they strive to reach productivity metrics.

The renewed emphasis on effective capital asset management is putting increased pressure on plant managers to contribute to the growth and financial performance of their organizations. The touted benefits of individual initiatives, such as process efficiency and improved quality, mean little if they fail to help plant fl oor personnel understand how they can help address the fundamental corporate goals.

One difference between organizations that succeed and those that fail has to do with the way the manufacturing function is structured, the responsibilities and tactical vision of the plant manager, and the level of integration between plant fl oor decision making and the strategic direction of the enterprise as a whole.

Clearing the hurdles
One of the main obstacles to strategic alignment is the modern global enterprise itself, which is comprised of multiple facilities and widely dispersed geographic locations. On the plant fl oor, localized tactical deployments and siloed functions have led to unique, dedicated systems for manufacturing planning, execution, process control and tracking, oftentimes for each plant. Consequently, the plant fl oor has become the sole focus of the plant manager, where decisions are made primarily to meet production deadlines and efficiencies, rather than with a more holistic view of company objectives.

Central control through large functional departments also can act as a barrier to strategic execution. Executives typically develop strategy at the top and implement it through a centralized command-and-control culture. This system was acceptable 40 to 50 years ago when change was incremental, but is inadequate in today's dynamic business environment. Rapid changes in technology, competition and regulations mean that strategy development and implementation has to be a continual and participative process.

Coordinated metric development is another fundamental challenge to strategic alignment. For instance, in many companies, there is no visibility to the losses incurred from unnecessary downtime or late deliveries, and no tangible returns attached to manufacturing's role in meeting quality standards or making on-time deliveries. Consequently, many companies grossly underestimate the overall effect plant fl oor decisions have on the company's bottom line.

Communications is another hurdle. Organizations today need a language for communicating strategy as well as processes and systems to implement strategy and gain feedback about it. If the strategy does not get translated through the organization to each individual person, then successful execution is at risk. Ultimately, people must have a "line of sight" between their role and the objectives and implementation of the strategy.

Integration at all levels
Much of the progress companies have made toward strategic alignment has been simply the result of better information integration across the enterprise. Tremendous operational efficiencies have been gained by connecting "islands of factories" together into a single integrated manufacturing enterprise. This allows companies to drive operational excellence across and beyond the entire enterprise, including business processes, supply chains and customer networks.

For example, planning long-term shutdowns for capital repairs needs long-term visibility into sales and operations planning. Likewise, the factory supply chain needs to consider and integrate the maintenance function in order to be responsive and proactive. This requires rethinking the way plant fl oor functions are executed, as well as providing support through integrated systems that unify data protocol across plant-wide systems and processes and into executive suites.

This seamless information sharing results in knowledge that improves performance and meets core business objectives. If the plant fl oor understands, for example, that on-time delivery is more important to helping reach corporate customer-satisfaction goals than cost savings, it can add a second shift to help meet those on-time delivery goals.

While most plant fl oor decisions are grounded in the same fundamental vision as the rest of the company, the manufacturing function often operates with different priorities and different reward systems than the rest of the organization. Achieving strategic alignment requires every organizational function to be working toward the same goals. This means strategy must be communicated and then aligned with the personal objectives of individuals throughout the organization—not just at the corporate level.

Just as corporate managers often don't see eye-toeye with plant managers, the reverse is also true. When communicating the value that manufacturing provides, plant managers need to link results back to the metrics that drive the company's business, demonstrating how these pertain to management goals and customer demands. For example, how will installing a new condition monitoring system help improve equipment uptime and reduce expenses related to lost production and scrap? More specifically, how does this impact the priceper- product ratio—an underlying management goal? Another example is the incompatibility of purchasing metrics with overall plant management's capital spending goals. There are instances when purchasing's focus on lower prices may lead to decisions based on unit cost rather than total installed cost of the system or long-term maintainability.

Naturally, each group pursues business objectives from different perspectives. In many cases, distinct differences in language and methods of communication lead to misinterpretations and a general lack of understanding between the top fl oor and the shop fl oor. Therefore, it's important that organizations translate the strategy into operational terms.

For example, most companies hinge their success on a simple principle: deliver high quality products at affordable prices. To meet this goal, every facet and supporting element of a company's manufacturing process needs to be as lean as possible.

By leveraging a plant fl oor strategy that focuses on reducing expenses, improving uptime and optimizing production processes, the company can parlay this philosophy into higher profits in the long-term while gaining a distinct competitive advantage. Without a cohesive understanding of these objectives, however, support personnel might take a short-term view of this approach and cut costs wherever possible, sacrificing the long-term goal for short-term gains. For example, the condition monitoring system mentioned before may provide significant long-term productivity benefits to the factory, but budgetary constraints and performance metrics driven through the purchasing department may lead to a more traditional system. The unit cost would be less but the ongoing benefits would be lost.

In other organizations, the value brought by the plant fl oor may be measured by how it impacts production throughput. Here, the equation is simple: if machines aren't available, the company can't produce products and profit opportunities are missed. In this scenario, the entire manufacturing organization takes equal responsibility for uptime, quality and profitability. The goal is to make a certain number of units per day, based on market demand, and do whatever it takes to get it done.

In this situation, the priority of plant fl oor personnel isn't on preventive activities, but rather on directly supporting production output goals. But, if a plant manager is not briefed on the strategic objectives of the company and how they apply to him, he or she may approach the repair intent on getting the plant up and running as cheaply as possible. If a plant manager knows the company objective involves a long-term approach to productivity and profitability, all the options may be reviewed in order to find the one that meshes best with the company's goals.

Measurement is key
Finding a way to measure improvements is an important step toward achieving strategic alignment. Every organization measures success by some metric, whether it's price per unit, earnings per share or total sales. Unfortunately, the metrics used in the front office aren't always easily converted into day-to-day tactics employed on the plant fl oor or in other internal departments, like marketing or accounting.

Despite changes in the speed of business and the availability of information, the methods for evaluating corporate performance remain largely unchanged. The problem with many of these tools is they offer a siloed approach and fail to capture many of the interdependencies among functional areas and link them to wider business goals.

A multi-dimensional view is necessary because any one performance measure can be managed to the detriment of other measures (i.e., the benefits of reduced inventory can be offset by an increase in overtime and expediting costs). Consequently, it's imperative that measurements be based on the priorities of the strategic plan and that they provide data about key processes, outputs and results.

The measures should be selected to best represent the factors that lead to improved customer, operational and financial performance. For example, most plant managers are concerned primarily with short-term budgets and productivity. A company that includes sustainability as part of its strategic objective, though, needs to brief its plant manager(s) on that goal so they take these elements into account. Such an approach might encourage investing in energy-efficient drives to reach sustainability metrics.

One technique that has proven effective in helping companies align their business and plant-level strategy is the development of cross-functional scorecards, sometimes referred to as "Balanced Scorecard." Used for more than a decade as a strategic planning and management system for driving accountability for execution, the Balanced Scorecard creates a system of linked objectives, measures and targets, which collectively describe the strategy of an organization and how that strategy can be achieved. Individual departments can retain their individual priorities yet know their contribution and role in the overall strategic framework.

One advantage of the Balanced Scorecard approach is that it provides a framework that adds strategic non-financial performance measures to traditional financial metrics to give managers a more "balanced" view of organizational performance. To provide detailed strategy at the corporate as well as plant level, companies can build scorecards for all business units and key support functions. When implemented successfully, it offers a truly bottom-up approach, supplying managers with feedback around both the internal business processes and external outcomes in order to continuously improve strategic performance and results.

Widening the accountability
Nothing kills a strategy faster than under-committing resources. Thus, it's critical that managers understand the financial commitments that are required to implement a plan and provide the necessary support once the plan is approved. While there are no easy choices or silver bullets here, the foundation for strategic alignment is one that takes a disciplined approach, includes well-defined, balanced objectives and drives accountability and transparency for the decisions and actions that are made.

With today's advances in technology, companies now can fine-tune almost every phase of production for maximum yield, quality and profit. Still, technology is only part of the equation. The ability to align business strategy across the organization is the missing link. While a unified business strategy isn't going to solve every problem, it does widen the accountability for financial performance from the top fl oor to the plant fl oor. This is one trend that most certainly will pay dividends in today's highly competitive manufacturing market. MT

Bob Ruff is senior vice president of Control Products & Solutions, Rockwell Automation.

Lubricating fluids degrade over time depending on various external and internal influences, including type and age of equipment, ambient temperature and humidity and degree of use and load on equipment, etc. It is well established that monitoring the health of lubricating fluids is an important and necessary part of high-value machinery maintenance. The traditional approach for determining the condition of these vital lubricants is to take a sample, send it off for analysis at a commercial testing lab, then track trends in changes in key lube parameters over time. When these analyses indicate a problem, corrective actions such as refreshing or changing the lubricant are taken.

As companies move from preventive maintenance to proactive maintenance, there is increasing interest in onsite lubricant testing because results can be obtained much faster—and they may be more trustworthy. It allows lubrication specialists and maintenance personnel to take decisive action right away. This latter point is important since some of the degradation processes in lubricants occur nonlinearly in time and more quickly than one might expect, which can lead to increased equipment wear or failure. Of course, the ability to use on-site testing equipment is predicated on the ability of the testing equipment manufacturers to make their products straightforward to use and provide valuable information.

A number of analysis methods have made the jump from use by experts off site to routine use by lubrication specialists on site. One technique not making that jump—until now—has been infrared spectroscopy. Infrared has been used for years to evaluate lubricating fluids, but virtually always in off-site commercial labs. Now, though, infrared analysis also is available for use in on-site facilities.

Monitoring critical lubricant parameters
There are several key parameters for which infrared is capable of providing highly accurate information in lubricants including:

• The level of water present
• The amount of oxidation and nitration by-products
• The amount of anti-wear, anti-oxidation and extreme pressure additives remaining

All of these parameters are critical—and some can be measured with other methods. No other technology, however, can provide information on all parameters simultaneously, in less than two minutes. The use of infrared analysis for each parameter will be explored here.

Infrared analysis for water
The amount of water that is present in lubricants is critical to the performance and longevity of the lubricated equipment. Lubricant properties affected by the presence of water include viscosity (measure of the oil's resistance to flow), specific gravity (density of the oil relative to that of water), and the surface tension (a measure of the stickiness between surface molecules of a liquid). All of these properties are important for the ability of the oil to coat, lubricate and protect the critical mechanical clearances. In addition, the presence of water can accelerate additive depletion and contribute to chemical degradation mechanisms such as oxidation, nitration and varnish formation.

The ability to measure water on-site provides a substantial benefit to ensure accuracy of results. Off-site analysis for trace water may be compromised due to variability of water concentration introduced by storage, transportation or shipment of a sample. Furthermore, some lubricants contain de-emulsifying additives that cause microscopic water droplets to separate concentrate in layers at the bottom and sides of sampling containers. This de-emulsifying action takes time to occur and can cause large variations in analytical measurements. Furthermore, lubricant samples can lose water due to evaporation and loss to the sample container walls. To obtain an accurate picture of the amount of water present, measurement should be made soon after the sample is pulled from the machine.

Analytical determination of water in lubricants typically is carried out using the well-established Karl Fischer (KF) coulometric titration. KF has some practical drawbacks for on-site analysis including complicated sample preparation, the use of hazardous and expensive chemical reagents and length of time required to perform the analysis. With these issues in mind, KF analysis is still considered the "gold standard" method for analyzing water in oil because it provides accurate and precise answers. Under ideal conditions, Karl Fischer has an accuracy of 3-5% for prediction of water in lubricants.

While infrared spectroscopy provides an easy means to measure water, only recently has this technology been able to provide the accuracy and range desired by the lubrication industry. New developments in the ability to use FTIR spectroscopy to carry out customized methods have now made the analysis of low levels of water in lubrication possible, which overcomes earlier technical difficulties. These new methods, coupled with a dedicated on-site infrared analyzer, measure the concentration of water in mineral-based oils with an accuracy and range equivalent to the Karl Fischer method. FTIR allows this measurement to be carried out on a single drop of lubricant, requiring no hazardous or expensive reagents, and it takes significantly less time to complete than KF.

Methods to directly measure water in mineral oils via infrared spectroscopy have been available for over 30 years. For example, the ASTM 2412E method was originally designed for use with motor oil. Routinely containing 1000 to 2000 ppm of water, motor oil has additives that solvate the water into the oil. The methods developed to measure water in these oils by infrared analysis were targeted at large concentration and had correspondingly large errors associated with them. Other lubricants (such as turbine oil) solvate significantly less water—typically it's 50 to 100 ppm. In these lubricants, higher levels of water form small droplets that eventually settle to the bottom of the turbine oil. If the ASTM 21412 method for water is used for turbine oil, measurement variability of up to 40% on replicate samples is observed.

The primary reason the conventional method for measuring water in oil by FTIR produces a high error in turbine oils is water separation—water separates into small droplets in turbine oil. These small droplets scatter instead of absorb infrared light, and only the light that is absorbed contributes to the measurement of water. Over time, it became clear that a means of stabilizing the water in the oil would be needed to reduce variability.

Water stabilization method for infrared analysis
A new method (patent pending) has been developed for the measurement of water in turbine oil. This method, reflected by the data in Table I, uses a surfactant to distribute and stabilize the water in the oil, creating a stable emulsion with uniform water droplet size. Addition of approximately 3% of a premixed non-ionic polyethylene oxide based surfactant blend and gentle mixing effectively stabilizes the water in the lubricant.

Determining degree of oxidation and antioxidant depletion
Oxidation is the most significant cause of lubrication breakdown. It occurs when the hydrocarbon components of the lube combine with oxygen to form a wide range of harmful by-products including ketones, aldehydes and carboxylic acids. Once these compounds form, they in turn combine with other species in the lube and form even more unwanted degradative products. Virtually all of the chemical species that result from oxidative processes can be detected and measured by infrared analysis (Fig. 1). Early detection of these species allows for remediation action to slow down the oxidation process.

The phenolic and aminic antioxidants in lubricants function as preservatives that prevent the oil from oxidizing. Oxidation causes lubricants to quickly lose viscosity and the wetting characteristics that protect metal contact surfaces and prevent wear. Oxidation arises from a combination of sources—including elevated temperatures, extreme pressures, high shear conditions and the presence of water and metal particles—and is accelerated by electrostatic sparking, particularly in certain gas turbine systems. Although antioxidants inhibit the formation of these decomposition products, once the antioxidants are consumed, oxidation accelerates exponentially and at a certain critical point corrective action has negligible benefit. On-site analysis offers a significant benefit in this regard by ensuring that both the antioxidant levels and the amount of oxidation present are known in time for corrective action to be taken before the critical point is reached.

Infrared compared to other oxidation-measuring technology
Infrared analyzers require a drop of neat oil—with no sample preparation. Voltammetric systems require careful pipetting techniques and an extraction step involving an electrolyte solution. The extraction step used in voltammetric systems assumes that all of the antioxidants are extracted from the oil into the electrolyte solution. However, extraction efficiencies are variable for additives in oils. Ranging from 50-90%, these efficiencies may result in 10-50% of additives being left in the oil after extraction, and thus not being measured. Moreover, voltammetric electrodes require maintenance, such as conditioning in buffer solutions. Metal particles, water or organic salts (i.e. ionized carboxyls such as copper carboxylates) will not interfere with the antioxidant measurements using infrared spectroscopy.

Conclusion
Real-time, on-site FTIR analysis offers a number of potential—and important—benefits to lubrication specialists and maintenance personnel. They include the ability to:

• Analyze lubricants more frequently, especially when previous analyses indicate that machinery needs more careful monitoring… When the performance of lubricating fluid begins to degrade, or if earlier analyses indicate the presence of a mechanical problem, it is important to monitor the lubricant more frequently because the process of deleterious change can accelerate rapidly.
• Help reduce machinery wear caused by rapid oil breakdown and to detect problems that could cause catastrophic failures… For example, an anti-freeze leak causes excessive levels of water and glycol to be present in engine oil; these levels can be readily detected by FTIR. More frequent monitoring of engine oil by real-time FTIR can quickly catch these contaminants before they have a chance to cause catastrophic damage to an engine.
• Ascertain the condition of lubricants in remotely deployed equipment, for which the delay in receiving information from off-site labs may be unacceptable… On-site FTIR analysis minimizes the need to send lubrication samples to off-site labs for condition-based monitoring. It is especially important that equipment operating in these remote locations be carefully monitored since ambient conditions may be particularly challenging.
• Act as the supporting analytical technology in programs designed to bring lubricants back to spec via readditization… FTIR is a powerful method for analysis of anti-wear and anti-oxidation additives. More companies are looking to extend the use of lubricants by refreshing critical additives to bring the lubricant back to spec. Real-time, on-site FTIR can be a powerful tool for determining how much additive should be recharged and for monitoring the overall refreshed oil composition.
• Enable maintenance personnel to make better decisions on when to send oil samples for full analysis… Real-time FTIR is an excellent screening technology to detect problems with both the lubricating fluid and the lubricated equipment. More frequent screening with FTIR enables personnel to make informed decisions on when to send samples for full elemental analysis, in order to try to pinpoint specific internal machine problems that may indicate excessive mechanical wear.
• Determine that incoming lubricants are properly formulated, not contaminated in shipping or mislabeled, and that the correct lubrication fluid is charged into the machinery… It is vitally important to use lubricants that meet the equipment manufacturer's specifications. When special lubricants are ordered and shipped, mistakes can occur in formulation or in delivery. A portable FTIR system can be used right at the loading dock or at the tanker truck delivering fluids, to ensure that the delivery matches the expected formulation.

Infrared spectroscopy provides an immediate snapshot of the overall health of lubricating fluids—it is a window to the vital signs of both the lubricants and the equipment that lubricants protect. Few analytical techniques provide so much information about key parameters that affect lubricating fluid life and engine health. With the new generation of infrared analyzers, the technology can now be used where it is needed, either on site or at site—wherever machinery is in use. That includes some of the most remote and challenging industrial operations on earth. This new approach assists maintenance, service and equipment reliability personnel in making rapid, actionable decisions based on objective analytical data. MT

Frank Higgins is application scientist and John Seelenbinder is product development manager with A2 Technologies. With U.S. headquarters in Danbury, CT, A2 develops, manufactures and markets a comprehensive line of innovative, mobile fluid analysis tools to industries around the globe. E-mail: fhiggin@a2technologies.com, and/or jseelenbinder@a2technologies.com

In the first article of this series (December 2007), the author covered the underlying assumptions of cultures-in-action and how human reasoning and resulting decisions impact performance and reliability. In the second installment (January 2008), he addressed how functional Collaborative Design tools contribute to creating a culture of reliability. This month, he discusses the implementation process of Collaborative Design and how it sustains a culture of reliability-in-action.

The ability to sustain a culture of reliability-inaction rests in the ability to create informed choice in decision making based on balancing control through expanded discussability. The result is the co-creation of psychological safety for all involved. To surpass current levels of performance requires uncovering hidden performance bottlenecks. Many teams sincerely believe they are open and honest, yet remain blind to the deeper assumptions and issues inhibiting performance.

Collaborative Design is most effective when the stakes, either in substance or perception, are high. Implementation of such a high-performance system calls for going beyond traditional change and training methods. Requirements are:

• Collecting cultural action data (not survey data) to document decision-making patterns-in-action. [Ref. 1]
• Using functional tools to reflect on personal contributions to effective and ineffective decision making and the resulting team co-creation.
• Determining the business impact of daily decisions.
• Designing psychological safety checks and balances to assure the productive expansion of discussability and the uncovering of hidden assumptions. For example, the underlying fear of letting the vice president down can be as costly as fearing career implications for a failed project.
• Continually monitoring human decision-making patterns by institutionalizing reflection time. Examining what is happening in the human decision- making context is as important as examining the equipment and process performance data— perhaps even more important.

These criteria reflect the same plan as do the check cycles we have come to know. Where Collaborative Design differs, however, is in using functional tools to validate the productive expansion of discussability, while examining underlying assumptions and their associated costs from the get-go.

Participants learn how to work from their internal dialogues (what is thought or felt but not typically verbalized, including tacit knowledge). This approach fosters more accurate hearing of inference, resulting in a shifting of understanding about how decisions-in-action are created. The result is coming to understand the distinction between advocating a strategy (an espoused theory of what needs to done) and what it takes to produce the strategy. This sets the table for profound change and increased performance.

More precise data is available including: untested theories, standards and emotions resting in peoples' heads (about leadership style, personal effectiveness, what is motivating others, etc.). These belief systems are safely revealed and the underlying assumptions informing them are extractable and manageable. Without uncovering the underlying reasoning, it is highly likely that the culture and its fear patterns will define what change is acceptable, rather than root-cause change of the culture. Instead of learning about performance bottlenecks six months or a year down the implementation path, teams uncover and manage issues early. This is preventive maintenance at its best, but applied to the human decisionmaking system.

Scary and exciting
The examining of decision-making-in-action is both scary and exciting for those first exposed to Collaborative Design. Many theorists, managers and teams believe they are honest and open—nothing is undiscussable, they typically relate. What a humbling experience it is when Collaborative Design reveals that what they say and what they do are different and that this misalignment impacts performance.

Outage lessons-learned sessions or root-cause analyses (see "Why Some Root-Cause Investigations Don't Prevent Recurrence," by Randall Noon, Maintenance Technology, December 2007) for example, often can fall short. That's because many of the most important topics are not discussed in a public forum, but rather in hallways, private offices or parking lots, thus fragmenting concerns and issues and hindering learning. When carefully examining human reasoning and decision making-in-action, users of Collaborative Design quickly come to realize cultures can vary, but underlying human reasoning and assumptions vary little.

Collaborative Design integrates management development and business applications into one compact business system. Team-building, leadership, continuous learning, self-assessment, etc. are not fragmented out into separate subject matter in the hopes that some skills will transfer to the job. Work management processes, defect elimination, RCM, improved outage and turnaround efficiencies, better sales calls, enhanced managerial leadership and coaching competence are fertile ground for Collaborative Design because all of these business applications rest on human reasoning and the decisions that result from it (Fig. 1).

Perhaps most importantly, Collaborative Design points out that misalignment-in-action is not due to some character flaw or innate human badness. Rather, the power of Collaborative Design rests in its promise to productively reveal assumptions that typically aren't questioned.

Implementation
Implementation of the basic Collaborative Design process is as follows. While there are important nuances, not all can be explored within the scope of this month's article.

Role of the Invitationalist…
To start, you can't do it alone. A knowledgeable, external "Invitationalist" (part teacher, facilitator, consultant and mutual learner) who can quickly verify his or her competence in functional tool application. Can the teacher ethically walk the talk? The role of the Invitationalist is to:

• collectively establish a common dictionary of terms.
• collectively establish a definition of valid data.
• support the introduction of data-collection-in-action.
• help build action cases revealing decision-making-inaction.
• assure a reasonable test of the functional tools and learn while validating skill transfer to a core internal group. This is especially important early on because learning a tool for the first time requires making mistakes and learners can quickly blame the tool, rather than their inability to use it. This is like blaming a tennis racket or golf club for limits in our game.

Without an Invitationalist modeling tool application, productively uncovering limiting, underlying assumptions and undiscussabililty is unlikely.

Steps in the process…
Initial introduction of Collaborative Design starts at the executive level. The speed and precision of the installation are directly proportional to the level of executive involvement. No big surprise. The process begins with the steps in "Phase 1: Individual Development" (refer to Fig. 2 below).

STEP 1
As a starting point, conducting the Learning Exercise is essential. This unique activity creates an invitation by setting up an informed choice to learn. It is a fact finding and definitional process, combined with a peek under the blanket, revealing the vision and potential of Collaborative Design and its functional tools. The Exercise uses learner data, introduces the notion of internal dialogue and private reasoning, establishes effective and ineffective decision making patterns, and drives down the anxiety associated with mistakes and costs out the impact of private reasoning and undiscussability.

STEP 2
Based on the Learning Exercise experience, the Invitationalist and the group begin to practice Collaborative Design from the start by designing the project plan and assuring a reasonable project timeline for learning functional tools. The objective of Phase 1 is to validate tool application in daily business. This application prepares the first contingent of participants to learn how to learn from direct experience— something that is crucial for skill transfer and future sustainability, since functional tool users actually experience the value of application and its dilemmas.

STEP 3
Applying Collaborative Design, participants learn how to use audio taped data to collect cultural decision-making datain- action. Taped data, when properly introduced and managed will meet confidentiality and legal requirements. Participants audio tape record selected meetings in which they participate; just like monitoring equipment in action. Action data is important and fosters the quickest learning because it doesn't rely on someone's singular interpretation of a crucial meeting. Instead, it provides a directly observable record that can be publicly examined, leading to more than one interpretation. Participants can determine the root cause of their decision-making and behavioral gaps, and can begin to hear their application of the functional tools as they seek to close gaps and measure the value. This is critical for validation.

STEP 4
With Collaborative Design Case Analysis Tools, each participant creates a compact action case [Ref. 2] based on a selected decision making point deemed important by the participant. Using the action data, participants meet one-on-one with the Invitationalist and seek to uncover their root-cause assumptions, personal issues, patterns and the business costs of their decisionmaking- in-action while practicing functional tools. This is the heart of personal reflection.

Each participant designs personal solutions to identified gaps, preparing and practicing before trying to apply. It is here that data drives theory about root cause; is the problem linked to conflict resolution, leadership or a lack of common definitions, etc.? Hence, behavior is changed by altering reasoning patterns based on action data first, rather than, as traditional applications do, by focusing solely on manipulating behavior or forcing patterns into preconceived, theoretical models.

An important role for the Invitationalist during this early phase is pointing out that skill application varies by individual. Some will quickly migrate to use, others more slowly. Skill expansion is directly proportional to the willingness to take risks, make mistakes, build a pool of experience and engage in continuous practice. The Invitationist helps participants stretch their risk-taking and supports when failures occur.

STEP 5
With the agreed upon solution in place, the participant, with the required help of the Invitationalist, applies the solution in action and validates the effectiveness. If needed, the Invitationalist may conduct follow-up quality-assurance interviews with staff who were involved in the Collaborative Design application. "Phase 2: Team Co-Creation" (refer to Fig. 3) now can begin.

STEP 6
After working on their personal cases, the executive group reconvenes, shares cases, builds its theory of decision making-in-action, validates costs and the value of investing in change and begins to expand the application by digging deeper into the executive teams' co-created decision making and its associated costs in the moment. With the individual learning under their belts, team members are now ready to expand the application and examine other team co-created decisions. The value is ratcheted up and the functional tools mitigate any risk, so no one is "making a career decision" by pointing out undiscussable or "spin" issues.

STEP 7
The executive team validates its collective ability to produce Collaborative Design and the enhanced business value. For example, a vice president and his team discovered they could do strategy building in three hours instead of three days because they came to understand how they confused, argued and spun future scenarios that were only empirically testable, but acted as if their definitions and scenarios were accurate and true. The result had been little or no decisions and/or compromise at best.

STEP 8
With gap detected and value confirmed, the executive group identifies and invites the next group of stakeholders to participate in the learning, usually a group or mix of groups that have high potential competitive impact.

Now, it's on to the final step…

STEP 9
The process repeats itself.

Importance of practice
I once observed a seasoned mechanic working on a motor. The first things I noticed were how quickly and assuredly his hands moved; how quickly he used his tools and removed the motor from its mounting brackets; how quickly he broke the bolts, disassembled the motor, diagnosed, found and fixed the problem. He then reassembled the unit just as quickly.

When I marveled at his skill, he looked at me incredulously and remarked, "Good grief, I've been practicing for 30 years. Of course, when I started, I always busted my knuckles just like everyone else."

Learning functional tools is no different, although each individual's rate of skill acquisition can vary. In addition, as mistakes are made and knuckles are busted, issues of error avoidance, mistakes and looking incompetent will raise their heads over and over again. It never goes away—and there will be substantial pressure to return to the status quo from all quarters. There are some rather predictable stages of learning through which teams typically pass (see Fig. 4). They are:

• Awareness: Through the Learning Exercise, the team comes to understand how private reasoning shapes the culture and impacts performance.
• Acceptance: Once identified, the team has to accept the costs to organizational performance and human suffering. Acceptance is an important step in stepping up to a new performance level.
• Decision: Once the patterns of private reasoning, side-stepping, spin etc. are identified and accepted, the team must make a decision and commit to change.
• Tool Practice:Measurable change in decision-making is marked by working from internal dialogues and practicing active inquiry through functional tool application. It is not unusual for teams to fail at first; old habits must be let go and replaced by new. This is normal when learning any new skill. The taped data will verify tool application. But, when new skills replace old, the level of performance can increase exponentially.

In summary
Collaborative Design is a new generation of change application. Its vision is to maximize performance while maintaining human dignity. Not surprisingly, there are some predictable stages that learners must go through to achieve a culture-of-reliability and the promise of high performance.

Collaborative Design can be used in any business application, but it is at its best when the stakes are high, either in substance or perception. Like any application built on continuous learning, its results have been encouraging and, as should be, new frontiers are always revealed. Given the fact that it engages human reasoning and the resulting decision-making process, Collaborative Design can be applied in any business setting. MT

Brian Becker is a senior project manager with Reliability Management Group (RMG), a Minneapolis-based consulting firm. With 27 years of business experience, he has been both a consultant and a manager. Becker holds a Harvard doctorate with a management focus. For more information, e-mail: bbecker@rmgmpls.com

References

1. Survey data is valuable for picking up routine issues, but is unlikely to pick up undiscussable issues because acceptance is tacitly held.
2. There are various ways to create an action case study.

SKF

The SKF® "SFD" dryer system is uniquely engineered for industrial applications to deliver compressed air free of oil, contaminants and water. In conjunction with large air compressors and systems, this compact unit dries compressed air for pneumatic applications directly from the tank, eliminating a need for after-coolers and additional external filters. The system also can be mounted on small air compressors or at point of use. Units can be supplied for 12VAC, 24VAC and 120VAC, or fully pneumatic requiring no electrical connection. All can serve whether in high or low ambient temperature conditions. All units can be customized to satisfy specific application requirements.

SKF
Kulpsville, PA
www.skf.com

GARDNER DENVER

Gardner Denver recently expanded its line of Variable Speed, VS series compressors with the addition of the VS 80-110 and the VS 135-170 models. The VS 80 provides from 85 to 558 acfm, while the VS 110 delivers from 112 to 719 acfm. The VS 135 provides from 125 to 862 acfm, while the VS 170 makes from 139 to 1056 acfm. The efficient design allows for operation from 100% capacity down to 20% capacity, and maintains target pressure to ±1 psig with less storage than competition. Gardner Denver recommends 0.5 gallons per cfm of storage while competitors typically recommend 2 to 4 gallons per cfm.

Gardner Denver, Inc.
Quincy, IL
www.gardnerdenverproducts.com

Sullair Corporation

Sullair Corporation has expanded its S-energy® Series compressors. A broad range of these lubricated rotary screw air compressors is now available in both constant speed and variable speed drive models, ranging from 15 (11 kW) to 100 (75 kW) horsepower with capacities of 44 to 500 acfm and pressures from 100 to 175 psig. According to the company, the combination of the S-energy Series energysaving features has proven effective in reducing total life cycle costs. Additional energy savings are achieved with optional Variable Speed Drive (VSD) compressors. All models are available as a complete Performance Air System with optional integral Sullair SRS refrigerated dryers and filters.

Sullair Corporation
Michigan City, IN
www.sullair.com

Legris-Transair

The purpose of a compressed air piping system is to deliver compressed air to the points of usage. This compressed air needs to be delivered with enough volume, appropriate quality and pressure to properly power the components that use the air. Transair's aluminum compressed air pipe system provides airtight fittings with full bore flow, creating a more energy efficient system. The compressed air pipe systems are quick to install and ready for immediate pressurization. Components are removable and interchangeable, and allow immediate and easy layout modifications. Unlike the performance of steel pipe, which degrades over time due to corrosion, air quality is clean with optimum flow rate performance with the use of a Transair pipe system.

Legis-Transair
Mesa, AZ
www.transair-usa.com

EXAIR CORPORATION

EXAIR Corporation was incorporated in 1983 as a manufacturer of compressed air-operated products to solve problems in industrial plants. The company's product line includes Cabinet Coolers for cooling electrical enclosures, Vortex Tubes for spot cooling, Air Amplifiers, Air Knives to blowoff, dry & cool, air-operated vacuums, vacuum generators and ionizing products for static elimination. According to the company, EXAIR products are designed to improve the overall efficiency of operations and offer many money-saving and energy-conserving tools. EXAIR's Website includes extensive information to help user's better understand the EXAIR products, including an application database, CAD library, PDF library, PowerPoints, FAQs and Air Data.

EXAIR Corporation
Cincinnati, OH
www.exair.com

Saylor-Beall

The high technology design of Saylor-Beall Rotary Screw Air Compressors excels in a high duty cycle operation. The oil flooded air end makes this performance possible with an extensive oil reservoir. The oil and discharge air are continually cooled in a fashion similar to the radiator on a car engine. Oil is then separated from the discharge air and returned to the compressor. Saylor-Beall rotary screws are compact in design, needling less floor space than with conventional products. Oil and air filers are easily accessible, making routine maintenance easy. When installed with an optional enclosure, noise levels are reduced considerably.

Saylor-Beall
St. Johns, MI
www.saylor-beall.com

Hitachi America, Ltd.

Hitachi offers many compressor products ranging from the smallest rotary and horizontal scroll compressors used in leading edge residential, commercial and industrial applications to the very largest turbo machinery for applications within the most demanding industrial environments. The company's SRL Oil Free Scroll Air Compressors use a 100% oil-less design, which eliminates environmental emissions and concerns for natural resources. A proprietary tip seal and unique scroll wrap increase performance and extend service intervals. The AlumiteTM treatment extends scroll life and limits life cycle cost, and the tip seal material provides high performance with high reliability and extremely low wear.

Hitachi America, Ltd.
Industrial Systems Division
Charlotte, NC
www.hitachi.us

Quincy Compressor Inc.

Quincy Compressor Inc. Quincy Compressor is a designer and manufacturer of reciprocating and rotary screw air compressors, vacuum pumps and a full line of air treatment components. The company has released a new line of compressed air system purifiers, condensate drains and high-tech modular desiccant air dryers to help industries comply with local environmental laws and produce high quality, clean and dry compressed air. The Q Mod heatless desiccant dryers deliver clean, dry air to the point of use by filtering liquids and adsorbing water vapor from a compressed air stream. Air is initially directed through a 0.01 PPM polishing pre-filter, removing untreated compressed air full of liquids, aerosols and mists. Quincy Condensate Purifiers use an environmentally responsible filtration process to remove condensate contaminates, like compressor lubricants including polyglycols, trapping them in a special filter cartridge that is lightweight and can be easily disposed of in accordance with local regulations. The replaceable cartridge system employs a carbon-free, oliophilic material in the purification process, and pre soaking is no longer necessary. Quincy energy-saving NO LOSS drains open only when, and for as long as, condensate is present. This allows the compressor(s) to run less often by not feeding leaks introduced by standard drains.

Quincy Compressor Inc.
An EnPro Industries Company
Bay Minette, AL
www.quincycompressor.com

Atlas Copco

The AirOptimizerTM from Atlas Copco is an energy recovery service that saves electrical energy by reducing a compressed air system's pressure band. The optimization system built into the AirOptimizer monitors the compressed air system and includes continuous algorithm updates along with software updates and yearly system audits. Atlas Copco also offers AirConnect, a suite of remote monitoring services that monitor vital statistics from a customer's on-site compressors including pressure, flow and outlet element temperature. It also can spot instantly any issues or significant performance changes in real time and provide instant alerts across a wide range of mediums including e-mail and SMS alerts.

Atlas Copco
Westfield, MA
www.atlascopco.us

Donaldson Company, Inc.

Donaldson manufactures a complete line of drying and filtration equipment using innovative designs that focus on energy efficient operation and reliable performance. The company's Ultra-Filter DF Series is designed for high quality filtration of compressed air or gas in a wide range of applications. The total filter design concept of the filter combines high performance, efficiency, ease of use, flexibility and safety. Features include a 50% reduced pressure drop; filter element and filter bowl that can be removed together; ability to be used as a coalescing or particulate filter; and nine available sizes as well as six filter element types.

Donaldson Company, Inc.
Minneapolis, MN
www.donaldson.com

3-D Service

3-D Service offers complete air system evaluations and specializes in solving air compressor problems. Factory-trained service engineers offer decades of compressed air service and troubleshooting experience to pinpoint problems and recommend common-sense solutions. 3-D Service carries air compressors from top manufacturers, along with a full inventory of parts and lubricants. Combined with a wide range of services, 3-D Service is equipped to handle any air compressor need.

3-D Service
Massillon, OH
www.3-dservice.com

A successful trainer typically will employ two major principles in his or her work. The first of these is to ensure that trainees have the ability and talent for what their assignments will be. The second principle is to ensure that the initial training time is spent on what the trainees need to know. When these two principles come together, the result is an elegant training program. Unfortunately, in some operations, it's difficult for managers to specify exactly what a trainee needs to know. That can be quite a problem for a maintenance organization.

What they need to know
Maintenance teams need to know how to conduct the business of maintenance. For example:

• They need to know equipment locations and access requirements.
• They need to know how to get their work assignments.
• They need to know how to obtain tools and materials.
• They need to know what safety practices to observe.
• They need to know whom to communicate with and about what.
• They need to know which documentation will be needed or helpful.
• They need to know the status of the equipment, related equipment and overall operations.
• They need to know how to properly complete paperwork to produce a meaningful record.
• And they need to know when they have completed their task.

Regardless of their degree of technical knowledge, if maintenance personnel cannot understand all of the items above, they will be ineffective, possibly dangerous and the cause of additional corrective maintenance action(s). Keep in mind that about 50% of corrective maintenance tasks result from uncontrolled actions by the maintenance staff. This issue must be addressed before any other training is contemplated.

On-the-job training
A good way to start an effective in-house training program is through formal on-the-job training (FOJT) that incorporates an orientation training checklist for employees based on the documented maintenance process. "Formal" means that this type of on-the-job-training (OJT) is documented with an administrative control procedure and performance qualification sign-offs for each maintenance technician.

Informal OJT programs will not work because they are uncontrolled and undocumented to such an extent that there is no accountability and no record of accomplishment. They cannot withstand any kind of audit. Informal OJT programs degenerate into nonexistence depending on the interest of the individual who is supposed to provide the OJT—what gets passed on is anybody's guess, and even that becomes less and less over time.

The in-house FOJT program is based on the specification for the conduct of maintenance (maintenance process procedures) that should be in existence if the management team has done its job. Remember, management is obligated to specify how it wants to conduct the maintenance function. That is the fundamental work of managers. This specification is the information the maintenance team needs to know.

What would the minimum set of management instructions on the conduct of the maintenance function look like? Let's start with the process of maintenance. This would be the outlined statement of what one would look for during a maintenance action. The following information represents some very specific items about which management must instruct all maintenance personnel as part of their FOJT program.

The maintenance process…
Every individual and group (department, committee, team, etc.) at a facility is involved in many different activities, most of which involve multiple individual actions and interfaces with others both on and off site. The most effective way to ensure that personnel have developed a level of capability in execution of maintenance-related activities is for them to demonstrate that they understand the maintenance process and its key elements. This is best accomplished in-house through FOJT.

Note that maintenance process training applies to supervisors and other lead personnel, QA personnel and the engineering staff—especially the engineering staff. Engineers are responsible for providing the information necessary for the development of operating and maintenance procedures applicable to their system and equipment responsibility. When they design or specify systems and equipment for the enterprise, they must ensure that the operations and maintenance specifications, methods and training materials are included and available to O&M personnel.

Specifying awareness of maintenance process requirements to be part of the engineering staff 's responsibilities is necessary to ensure that the enterprise management staff understands the role of engineering in O&M activities. Ignorance of this fact, though, often lets the engineering staff escape its responsibility to contribute to the efficiency and effectiveness of the O&M staff, the reliability of the enterprise systems and equipment and the engineering staff 's share of the contribution to the bottom line. This needs to change.

Start by training the engineering staff in its responsibility for the maintenance process. While they're at it, have the engineering staff also prepare and execute the installation, operational, and performance testing and acceptance for all engineering projects that affect the O&M function.

Task-complexity basis for maintenance training requirements…
The concept of work falling within the "skill of the craft" and not requiring detailed aids such as procedures, mockups, supervision or training has been around for decades. It implies that there is such a minimal capability expectation of personnel that special training is not necessarily required prior to task assignment. Thus, based on this premise, an individual should be able to execute certain tasks simply because they fall within the skill of the craft.

To establish the basic training level for the maintenance staff, one must understand what makes a task so complex that training or procedures would be required. In order to do this, one must understand complexity itself. Use the following definitions to determine the levels of complexity (i.e., the difficulty of the task):

1. The job is complex if there are several interrelated things (e.g., parts, system interaction, equipment availability) that vary with time, and have uncertainty about whether or not these are the correct things that will come together to address the deficiency and complete the job as planned.
2. The job is moderately involved if the uncertainty factor is missing.
3. The job is simple if there is no uncertainty and no time variance on resource and equipment availability.
4. The job may be considered as a minor maintenance category job, within the "skill of the craft," if none of the above complicating factors apply (no uncertainty, no time variance and no interrelated things).

This concept is more understandable relative to developing training requirements and has a practical side when viewed from a maintenance planner's point of view. It is obvious that a planner who can assess the problem situation in terms of the three complicating factors (several interrelated things, time variance and uncertainty) is a planner who appreciates the complexity of the planning to be done for a particular job.

Based on the determination of problem complexity, the planner determines if the work should be performed as a minor maintenance task, a moderately difficult task with routine planning such as pulling existing procedures and parts lists and making estimates based on established standards, or if a complex work plan will be required. Examining the checklists a planner would use for these determinations, one would have a pretty good list of things to cover in a FOJT program, as part of the maintenance process that maintenance technicians should follow.

These checklists must be developed by maintenance departments if they are to capture the corporate knowledge of their most experienced and most knowledgeable personnel. If the checklists are not developed, the corporate knowledge leaves when this valuable, irreplaceable human resource walks out the door—and the most valuable FOJT training resource also is lost. An example of a simplified planning checklist is shown in Fig. 1.

Skill of the craft…
Worker experience, expertise and qualification, as well as supervisory oversight and quality assurance, determine the scope of jobs that are in the category of "within the skill of the craft." This important concept takes advantage of inherent workforce capability to function with minimal direction in performing tasks and using resources.

Maintenance craft labor should not require any additional training beyond the orientation and maintenance process training mentioned previously for the tasks in the following bulleted list. The implication is that your FOJT program should begin with technical subject matter beyond this level if your work force competency meets basic hiring level requirements.

Basic hiring level requirements should be defined in job descriptions. If no job descriptions exist, check the U.S. Department of Labor Website (www.USDOL.gov) under the Directory of Occupations as a start to define basic hiring level requirements. Although specific situations will require specific decisions, the following list of typical maintenance planning tasks will help start the process. Interpret these items as those activities that fall within the "skill of the craft" for a basically capable maintenance operation. (Note: These items, along with non-critical maintenance tasks discussed later, also may be used for operator maintenance training in an autonomous training program adjunct to a FOJT program.)

• Use non-specialized equipment in the taking of standard measurements.
• Perform the minor fabrication of existing parts (standard geometries).
• Perform routine rigging.
• Perform non-critical welding within the qualification of the craftsman not requiring special permits.
• Perform inspections in accordance with written guidelines or procedures.
• Perform in-kind replacement of parts not requiring adjustment such as alignment or calibration.
• Perform routine cleaning, adjustment or replacement such as for fittings, filters, belts or sealing surfaces.
• Perform simple valve maintenance such as seat lapping, packing replacement and stem burnishing.
• Carry out relamping and fuse replacement if problem is cleared and tagouts are in place.
• Conduct lubrication rounds.
• Perform surface corrosion cleaning, including dressing threads.
• Trim levels in reservoirs and maintain refrigerant charges.
• Perform soldering, wire wrapping, crimping, tube bending and installation.

Skill-of-the-craft consideration for contract or temporary workers requires more planning detail and supervisory control initially. As members of this part of the maintenance workforce become better known, they may be treated the same as in-house staff. They may come under the same level "skill of the craft" assessment if the contractor has a QA plan and training and certification program acceptable to the responsible facility organization.

Non-critical maintenance…
The above listing of basic tasks that should not require training beyond the maintenance process training provides guidance on tasks that fall within the skill of the craft. Coupled with the task level determination is the nature of the task per se in assessing the extent of the planning requirement for a given job. For maintenance tasks on facility electrical, mechanical or measuring and test equipment and associated parts, judge the task non-critical and within the skill of the craft when the following conditions are met:

• The equipment is non-critical or the part affected is not critical to the operation of the equipment.
• The equipment or part does not perform a regulatory required function (e.g., OSHA, FDA, EPA functions).
• The inherent safety and reliability design of the equipment will not be affected.
• The work doesn't constitute a design change (e.g. material substitution, different model parts, fabrication that affects function or engineering properties).
• Disassembly to the sub-assembly or part level is not required.
• Welding will not be performed on equipment or parts as a means to restore original integrity.
• Special permits and procedures such as burn permits, tag-outs and confined-space entry are not required.
• Non-destructive examination or post-maintenance testing will not be required.

Examples of non-critical maintenance… mechanical

• Perform valve maintenance such as packing adjustment, repair/replace hand wheel, clean, burnish, lubricate valve stem.
• Perform pump maintenance such as packing/seal adjustment, lubricating, add/change oil and minor adjustments within given operating bands. 36-43
• Stop leakage in piping connections, equipment fittings, seals and other pressure integrity barriers within specified torque values and consistent with gasketting and bolt tightening practices.
• Perform replacement, adjustment or dressing of fastener hardware.
• Perform all door maintenance, except on special doors such as pressure or watertight, fire barrier or security alarmed doors.
• Perform general building and grounds maintenance, except that required by codes, standards or regulations.

Examples of non-critical maintenance… electrical

• Perform relamping and fuse replacement for fuses under 10 Amperes rating.
• Perform electric panel and instrument panel indication and status checks (visual).
• Perform distribution wiring hardware inspection and adjustment of items such as fasteners, latches, and clamps.
• Replace plug-in equipment in kind.
• Perform routine checks such as meggering, continuity checks, fuse condition and measuring of circuit parameters for information only use.
• Check security of grounding connections and clean and tighten as necessary.
• Motors: Replace air filters, replace cover screws, replace screens.
• Plant paging system: Repair or replace handles, knobs, etc.
• Portable sump pumps: Repair or replace motor or wiring.
• Doors, locks or latches: Repair or replace (except fire and security doors).
• Telephone equipment: Install, replace or repair. Examples of non-critical maintenance… measurement & control
• Perform calibration of simple devices.
• Replace indicators such as bulbs or lamps.
• Perform minor adjustments on recorders (e.g., pen, paper replacement).
• Replace fuses.
• Perform most maintenance on local gauges.
• Clean and replace filters.
• Perform functional checks.
• Inspect and adjust cabinet hardware (fasteners, latches, locks).
• Troubleshoot and make minor repairs on defective components after removal from service.

If your maintenance workforce cannot perform the non-critical items listed in the foregoing section—even after orientation and maintenance process FOJT—you may want to consider the following approach. Set up each of these non-critical items in the shop and "qualify" the maintenance staff in the non-critical areas before going on to the more complicated, technical tasks to be found in the vendor documentation under the recommended O&M requirements. Next, ask yourself how your company's hiring practices let these individuals in the door—and now that they're in, do they really have the aptitude for performing the maintenance function.

Getting beyond skill of the craft and non-critical maintenance…
The planner's checklists mentioned earlier in this article are useful in establishing a sign-off list for a FOJT program that goes beyond the noncritical level of maintenance that a maintenance technician should know. This type of checklist represents a combination of the maintenance process training, "skill of the craft" knowledge and the general content of vendor O&M requirements.

Such a combination is the extent of an in-house FOJT program consistent with the aptitude of a properly hired maintenance staff and the knowledge and skill level they need in order to meet a minimum standard of performance at an industrial facility. Additional, specialized training may be required, but the need is now so precisely defined that the return on the training dollar investment will be maximized and easily presented for consideration in the budgeting process. Elegant Maintenance Managers will be able to show significant accomplishment in staff training within the training resource of the given budget, thus laying the groundwork and increasing the probability for their stake holders to increase the training investment in their area of responsibility.

The form shown in Fig. 2 is an example of the type of record generated in a FOJT program to establish a maintenance technician's level of training and achievement on facility-specific systems and equipment—in this case, for an electrician. A "Prerequisites and Corequisites Checklist" documents the technician's detailed knowledge of the maintenance process. (To request actual examples of a maintenance process document, the prereq/coreq checklist and other FOJT documents, visit www.forensicaction.com and click on the e-mail address.)

Conclusion
A maintenance workforce that is hired based on skill levels as defined by organizations such as the U.S. Department of Labor, with some exceptions, has the aptitude for the job and likely the intelligence to learn. If a maintenance manager establishes the conduct of maintenance by way of procedures and practices, the groundwork is laid for a formal OJT program that will pay immediate benefits by addressing those corrective maintenance tasks caused by a lack of control of the maintenance function (about 50% of the CM tasks). Elegant Maintenance Managers have a well-defined maintenance process that serves as the basis for a training program in how personnel are to work in their respective enterprise. MT

Jim Huzdovich is the principal engineer and principal consultant providing maintenance and reliability services and expert witness services in litigation matters for Forensic Action Services, LLC, in Denton, TX. His specialties include investigations in electromechanical engineering, industrial engineering, management negligence issues and fire, arson and explosion events. Dr. Huzdovich also is an adjunct instructor at the University of North Texas in Denton, where he teaches Operations Management and Project Management in the Management Department's MBA program. Telephone: (817) 456-4491; e-mail: jhuzdovich@verizon.net; Website: www.forensicaction.com

In an industry that's widely consolidated, proudly independent Mt. Olive Pickle Co. has found that it is able to maximize uptime and minimize labor by using a new self-cleaning filter system that eliminates production stoppage.

As the largest privately held U.S. pickle maker, Mt. Olive Pickle Company understands it must operate more efficiently than the competition—all while turning out product of the highest quality.

The problem
Mt. Olive packs more than 90 million jars of pickles, relishes and peppers annually for distribution in more than 45 states. In one of its required processes, fresh pack product is run through a brine wash solution sprayed by nozzles at a salt bath. To keep the spray nozzles from clogging with bits of product debris washed off in the process, the brine wash solution must be filtered before each reuse.

According to Mt. Olive's production manager, Steve Whitman, the filter bags the company previously used had distinct drawbacks. Depending on the product that was being run, filter bags on each production line had to be changed about once an hour, each time causing production to stop for about five minutes.

Furthermore, filtering efficiency could vary depending on how full the bags were, leading to potential spray nozzle blockage and line shutdown. To determine when to change filter bags, workers had to spend time and attention monitoring pressure gauges. "As the outlet pressure gauge dropped and the inlet pressure gauge increased, workers knew they needed to get in there and change their bag out," Whitman says. Cleaning the strainers and changing out the filter bags by hand was a wet, messy job—and purchasing, storing, handling and disposing of the bags added to production costs.

The solution
Based on the recommendation of its salt bath supplier and its own research, Mt. Olive turned to the state-of-the-art Eco Filter system from Russell Finex, of Pineville, NC. The Eco Filter is a self-cleaning system that integrates directly into the pipeline and completely eliminates the need to change filter bags or clean filtration baskets. By means of a unique spiral wiper design, the filter element is kept continuously clean, ensuring optimum filtration efficiency. Because of its self-cleaning design, cleaning the filter between batch runs is quick and easy with minimal disruption during production changeovers.

"We no longer have to shut down production or babysit filter bags," Whitman notes. "Because we're getting all the particulate pieces of product out of the brine solution, we're not stopping up our nozzles and we're getting good brine flow into the system."

Mt. Olive now uses a number of Russell Eco Filters in production. These have a unique Q-Tap valve that allows the sampling of freshly filtered material so quality can easily be monitored on the fly—without interrupting production. The filters also feature the Russell Filter Management System™, a technology that automatically opens the oversize discharge valve at a specified differential differential pressure or time interval. That means the system can be operated efficiently without operator involvement. Production is streamlined because the system automatically flushes and cleans itself when needed, and there's no need to monitor, change or dispose of bags.

The benefits
Compared to the previous filter bags, these new filters are saving the company a substantial amount of downtime and labor. Whitman puts it this way: "We've had zero downtime with the Eco Filters. Because they're virtually maintenance-free, they've helped us meet our production targets while saving labor."

Companies like Mt. Olive are discovering that the Eco Filter fits neatly into their existing production lines, in many instances adding significant capacity without requiring excessive space. Because they are totally enclosed, these products also prevent outside pollutants from contaminating product and protect operators from any fumes or spillage. According to Russell Finex, users see considerable improvement in product purity, as well as throughput and waste elimination.

"With more production uptime and lower labor costs, the Eco Filters are helping us stay productive, competitive and grow into new markets," concludes Whitman. "They're part of our winning team." MT

Del Williams is a technical writer based in Torrance, CA.

TIMKEN'S SAMOLCZYK CHAIRS BEARING MANUFACTURERS

Mark Samolczyk, senior vice president of corporate planning and development for The Timken Company, has assumed the chairmanship of ABMA, the American Bearing Manufacturers Association (www.abma-dc.org). The fourth Timken executive to take on this role, his term will end in March 2009. Timken has been involved with ABMA since its inception in 1917. Throughout its 91 years of operation, the association has served as the collective voice of the American bearing industry, working on public policy and international trade matters, as well as to define international standards for bearing products. During his term, Samolczyk sees the promotion of the bearing industry as one of the organization's primary opportunities. As chairman, he also will be involved in the continued development of the World Bearing Association (WBA), a group formed in 2006 by ABMA, the Japanese Bearing Industrial Association and the Federation of European Bearing Manufacturers Association to address environmental, counterfeiting and trade issues that affect the bearing industry.

PDI APPOINTS CORTES AS NEW CTO & VP OF ENGINEERING

Virginia-based Power Distribution Inc. (PDI) has named Tim Cortes as Chief Technical Officer replacing John Kammeter. In his position as CTO, Cortes assumes responsibility for leading the R&D and product development organizations. Kammeter will continue to provide ongoing technical support to PDI in a new role as Senior Technical Consultant. Cortes comes to PDI with more than 18 years of power experience. As director of engineering at ESS Technologies, he successfully built and managed the company's product development organization. As part of his role, he was deeply involved in the implementation of the product development process, as well as the development of product and technology roadmaps. Before ESS, Cortes was at Exide Technologies where he led the product development for stationary, motive and next-generation large format lithium batteries for Exide's Industrial Energy Group. Prior to that, he also had managed product development organizations at GNB Technologies, Tyco/Lucent Power Systems and AT&T Bell Laboratories.

Bob Asdal, executive director of the Hydraulic Institute (HI), visits with MAINTENANCE TECHNOLOGY editor Jane Alexander, in St. Paul, MN, at the recent Industrial Energy Efficiency Forum sponsored by Xcel Energy and Pump Systems Matter ™ (PSM). Launched in 2005 by 33 member companies of the Hydraulic Institute, PSM is a national educational initiative that works to help pump users gain competitive advantage through strategic, broad-based energy-management solutions. The St. Paul forum on May 6 offered multiple presentation tracks focusing on the importance of looking at efficiency from a systems perspective for Xcel Energy customers across a variety of industries. Incorporating countless real-world examples, the keynote presentations and nine workshops covered a range of issues related to business and reliability strategies, compressed air systems, motors and variable speed drives, life-cycle costing, pump system optimization, mechanical seals optimization, water and wastewater systems and more. Co-sponsors of the day-long, informationpacked event included some of the biggest names in the field of energy-efficient solutions for industry, including ITT Corporation, Baldor-Dodge-Reliance, Flowserve Corporation, Emerson Motors/US Motors, Emerson Control Techniques-Americas, John Crane International, Sundyne Corporation, AURORA Pump, Armstrong International, Inc. and Sullair Corporation, among others. For more information on Pump Systems Matter and upcoming educational opportunities for your organization's energy-efficiency team, visit www.pumpsystemsmatter.org

ASSOCIATION NEWS: POWER TRANSMISSION INDUSTRY WILL RIDE THE WAVE IN MIAMI

In a play on its Miami Beach venue, the Power Transmission Distributors Association (PTDA) presents "Ride the Wave to Success" as the theme for the PTDA 2008 Industry Summit on Oct. 30-Nov. 1, 2008, at the Loews Miami Beach Hotel. According to PTDA, this year's summit combines targeted educational programming, innovative business development opportunities and unparalleled networking with all levels of corporate decision-makers to deliver real value. As an added benefit, most sessions will offer simultaneous translation into Spanish. Also new for 2008, guests of Industry Summit attendees have a chance to do their own networking while supporting a worthy cause as PTDA hosts "A Walk on the Beach Benefiting Susan G. Komen for the Cure®." Founded in 1960, the PTDA is the leading association for the industrial power transmission/motion control (PT/MC) distribution channel. A U.S.-based trade group, it represents 211 power transmission/motion control distributor firms with over 3500 locations throughout North America and 12 other countries, as well as 202 manufacturers that supply the PT/MC industry. PTDA is dedicated to providing exceptional networking, targeted education, relevant information and leading-edge business tools to help distributors and manufacturers meet marketplace demands competitively and profitably. For more information about the organization and its upcoming "Ride the Wave to Success" Industry Summit, visit www.ptda.org. The event is open to all employees of member companies and qualified prospects. MT

"Maintenance" alone cannot make equipment and processes reliable. Often, a maintenance department is reacting to problems caused by decisions and/or actions of other departments. Further, in high-reliability plants, the maintenance department is NOT a "supplier" of maintenance services to the operations group "customer," but rather a "partner" WITH the operations group for improving equipment and process reliability. Given this perspective, I would ask my own 10 questions to answer the one asked at MARCON. (By the way, the "correct" answer for each of these is "yes.")

1. How close to 100% reliability are your critical, constrained, high-risk equipment and processes? Are they doing what they are supposed to do first time, every time? 100% is attainable, desirable and the right goal for truly critical assets. A racecar that completes a 500-mile race within the planned finishing position is "reliable." But, don't confuse "reliability" with "availability." 100% reliability means that it does what it is supposed to do first time, when needed, with no unplanned downtime. Planned downtime for necessary preventive maintenance to improve or sustain the process reliability will reduce the calendar time availability.
2. Is your reliability program driven by operations management versus maintenance department management? Reliable equipment as part of a process generates revenue and/or avoids penalizing costs in the cases of health, safety and environmental incidents. Unreliable equipment stalls a process, prevents revenue generation and reduces "return on capital assets."
3. Are equipment and process performance data routinely collected and analyzed, root causes determined and corrective actions implemented and verified versus tracking and trending OEE calculations and other metrics' percentages? So often we become enamored with relative numbers (percentages) that are several levels removed from the actual results and the reasons or causes of good or bad performance. Numbers can look good but the actual results may not be so good. For example, the OEE percentage can decline while actual performance, reliability, costs and output have improved.
4. Are the "risks" of mandated budget cuts evaluated and positively addressed before actual cutbacks of budgeted maintenance activities are made? A 10%-across-the-board cutback can cause significant reliability damage unless the maintenance budget contains 10% discretionary spending on non-critical items. Arbitrary budgetary cutbacks happen all too often. PM and PdM activities get reduced, spare parts get outsourced and training gets slashed. Equipment breaks down more often, or downtime increases, costing the business more in higher unplanned expenses, as well as lost revenue and production. How would similar mandated across-the-board budget cuts be handled in safety and environmental areas?
5. Does your skills and knowledge capturing process effectively prevent a "brain drain" (knowledge loss) as senior talent retires or leaves? Is this knowledge documented and disseminated as "best practices?" Whether previously trained or not, the years of expertise accumulated by senior, highly experienced maintenance personnel is an extremely valuable commodity in today's era of skills shortages. If these skills and knowledge are allowed to leave a facility, how are newer employees to learn how to safely, efficiently and effectively perform the tasks of the job? Today, there is an especially powerful case for "procedure-based maintenance" versus "craft-based maintenance." Procedure-based maintenance is based on captured, documented and refined "best practices" that form the basis of formal training and qualification. Craft-based maintenance assumes that given sufficient craft skills training, personnel can figure out how to perform almost any job task.
6. Is reliability as important as safety, environmental, quality and human resources in your company's strategic planning and execution? Imagine the competitiveness of a plant that paid little or no attention to such issues. Employees and working conditions would be miserable, communities polluted and customers highly disappointed. Based on any number of laws and regulations, and the fact that dissatisfied customers can take their business elsewhere, this type of operating policy would be intolerable. Why then, is shoddiness of equipment maintenance and reliability tolerated? The problem is that maintenance is generally unregulated and invisible to the paying customers.
7. Are your operations and maintenance (O&M) costs per unit produced continually declining while the company's return on assets (return on invested capital) improving? Not so long ago, if manufacturing and operating costs increased they were just passed on to the customer. As competition grew and global competitiveness mushroomed, businesses had to find ways to reduce costs. Cost-cutting programs prevailed in the 80s, 90s and even today. Some businesses discovered that they could eliminate "non-value adding" costs while others "eliminated wasted efforts and inventory to reduce costs." Sustainability of cost-reduction efforts is of key importance! Changing work processes (methods and procedures) to more efficient ways often reduces costs. Successful plants have demonstrated continually declining operating and maintenance cost per unit produced. By using fewer capital assets or making the existing assets more productive their return on net assets also improved.
8. Do your operations managers routinely attend "Maintenance and Reliability Conferences" (such as MARTS and MARCON) with you? Informed operations managers want to understand what it takes to improve plant and process performance and reliability, especially in capitalintensive operations. Senior executives striving to generate shareholder value truly understand the importance of a reliable operation. They read the journals and attend educational events to learn what it takes. This enables them to lead the operation from a high-reliability perspective and make informed decisions. Are you helping to keep them informed?
9. Do your maintenance and reliability strategy and tactics focus on business-related results rather than on maintenance activities and initiatives in the hopes of improving performance? We are a culture of improvement initiatives, program-of-the-month and buzzwords. While some businesses have avoided these traps, many have bought them in big time. Major activities and initiatives typically consume large amounts of resources, including people, time and money. In resource-constrained businesses this is often a gamble for sustainable improvements to the bottom line: "Doing more with less." An alternative approach is one of "focused improvement" that uses proven tools in ways that guarantee improvements and a solid and sustainable ROI, rather than plant-wide implementation. Focus on specific constraints, such as production bottlenecks, high maintenance costs, high downtime and problematic equipment that affect your business.
10. Does the term "maintenance" in your company imply "sustaining a desired level of equipment and process performance (reliable equipment and processes)" rather than fixing things, painting things, moving things? We know that the best "value-added" work for our maintenance group is sustaining the desired level of performance of our equipment and facilities. Historically, however, "maintenance" has been side-tracked into "government jobs" for upper management, changing out lights and other odd jobs while the plant equipment suffered. Maintenance backlogs have become littered with hundreds of requests that seldom see the light of day because of reactive repairs, emergency work and top management's pet projects. All of this leads to the perception (and the reality) that this is what "maintenance" is all about. What if we could demonstrate the bottom-line value of real maintenance, i.e. preventive and predictive maintenance, planned and scheduled maintenance, proactive maintenance and reliabilitycentered maintenance? What if we outsourced everything that interfered with it? (I recently was in a plant where production supervision and management are penalized if scheduled PMs are missed or deferred. The plant's equipment is extremely reliable because of that management mindset.)

Creating a "reliability culture" that overcomes the inertia of the past, and overcomes the historical "maintenance mindset" is essential to improving the competitiveness of a capital-intensive business. It stands to reason that senior leadership must set the stage for improving reliability in the same way it leads improvements in safety, environmental, quality and human resource management. Policies are developed and communicated, new expectations set and accountabilities established for compliance to regulations, as well as conformance to principles promoted by a company's senior leadership team.

How's your company doing? Did you answer "yes" to the questions? Let's consider what's really at stake here.

If our maintenance programs, activities and talents were focused on the essentials of a competitive business, our plants and processes would be extremely reliable, less costly and more productive. Unfortunately, many of our business and governmental leaders still don't understand the role that equipment and process reliability play in making us more competitive. While the U.S. has been ranked as "the most productive and competitive nation in the world" for 15 years in a row, we are still losing our edge. I am convinced that much of this is due to unreliable equipment and processes that stem from inadequate career education and training and ineffective maintenance.

Highly reliable plants result when there is a strong sense of partnership between operations and maintenance (i.e. teamwork focused on common goals). Teamwork is the fuel that allows common people to achieve uncommon results. What makes this work is the prerequisite: Leadership creates the framework for teamwork to exist and thrive. Let's work together in our plants and facilities to achieve affirmative answers to these 10 questions. MT

An active reliability program for reciprocating machinery, based on proven dynamic monitoring and analysis techniques, enables meaningful asset protection, mechanical condition monitoring and economic performance assessment. According to Windrock, Inc., end users of the large reciprocating compressors and engines used in natural gas gathering and storage, gas transmission, oil refi ning and petrochemical manufacturing can achieve signifi cant cost advantages by adopting an appropriate reciprocating machinery reliability program that will reduce downtime, eliminate unnecessary maintenance and maximize unit operating effi ciencies and production capacity.

As corporate management mandates of plant and fi eld capacity increase, the criticality of individual reciprocating compressors and engines is increased. A comprehensive reliability program for these machines is essential to meet these increased production demands. Monitoring of static operating data alone is no longer suffi cient. Dynamic measurement and analysis of the compression and combustion processes in engines and compressors is necessary to provide information to properly monitor and diagnose reciprocating machine problems and assess machine mechanical condition and performance.

Windrock manufactures portable and online monitoring systems for reciprocating compressors and engines utilizing patented technology to turn dynamic data into easily interpreted information. On compressor and engine cylinders, dynamic pressure measurements—referenced to each degree of crankshaft rotation—are converted into pressure measurements referenced to the precise displacement of a reciprocating machine’s piston throughout its entire stroke. In doing so, the cylinder’s Pressure-Volume curve can be automatically analyzed. Moreover, the Windrock systems can provide alarms and automated diagnosis of compressor problems such as leaking valves, leaking rings, leaking packing, overloading of piston rods and the dangerous lack of piston rod load reversal. Other dynamic measurements include crosshead and cylinder vibration, piston rod drop and runout.

On engines, dynamic pressure measurement allows statistical comparison of power cylinder peak fi ring pressures to detect early, late or incomplete combustion, including the detection of extremely harmful pre-ignition and detonation conditions and also the ability to measure and adjust power cylinder peak pressure balance. Other dynamic measurements include power cylinder vibration, plus primary and secondary ignition measurements.

Utilizing the data collected by portable or online systems, analysts and operators can effectively elect to perform or defer maintenance, depending upon the impact on production. Windrock’s comprehensive On-GuardTM online systems utilize combinations of modules such as Windrock’s patented C-Guard (compressor cylinder pressures, temperatures, vibration and rod drop), V-Guard (API-670 vibration) and E-Guard (Power cylinder pressures). Windrock’s 6310 portable systems are used for detailed and cost-effective analysis of multiple reciprocating compressors, engines and rotating machines.

Windrock systems can be an integral part of a comprehensive, active reliability program for any company that runs reciprocating machinery. The company notes that return on investment (ROI) studies indicate short payback cycles for the systems. MT

Windrock, Inc.
A Dover Company
Knoxville, TN

Clark Solutions' ClarkSonic Ultrasonic Flow Transmitters are ideal for measuring flow of acoustically conductive liquids, including most clean liquids and many liquids with entrained solids. Applications include monitoring flow rates of chilled or heated water as part of a green technology program, as well as in municipal, process and industrial systems. These flow transmitters also free users from having to calibrate the transmitters to fluid temperature, viscosity or density, making them reliable and easy to deploy.

Clark Solutions
Hudson, MA

Critical Machinery Monitoring

The CSI 9330 is the latest in Emerson Process Management's line of vibration transmitters for continuously monitoring rotating machinery. Typically installed on motorfans, motor-pumps, motor-compressors and cooling tower applications, it converts the analog output of an ICPR accelerometer into a 4-20mA signal, proportional to monitored vibration, and delivers patented PeakVue® measurements that provide additional insight into the condition of rotating element bearings and gearboxes. The vibration information is transmitted to any plant's PLC, SCADA or control system.

Emerson Process
Management Knoxville, TN

2010 Efficiencies Today

The Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) will go into effect in December 2010. This wide-ranging law covers many items to promote sustainable energy supplies and energy efficiency, including electric motor effi- ciencies. As mandated by EISA, the efficiency of 1 through 200 hp electric motors (currently regulated by the Energy Policy Act of 1992) will be raised to NEMA Premium® efficiency levels. Baldor Reliance premium effi- cient Super-E® motors, in stock now, offer performances meeting or exceeding EISA levels. In addition, Super- E ratings are available from Baldor distributors across the United States. Custom Super-E designs are available from Baldor through 15,000 hp. Teamed with Baldor V*S Drives and Dodge power transmission products, these units can provide immediate energy savings.

Baldor Electric Company
Fort Smith, AR

Earlier Warnings For Bearing Faults

The IMI Sensors division of PCB Piezotronics (PCB®) has released the patented Model 682A05 Bearing Fault Detector that senses impacts within rolling element bearings caused by bearing faults. This type of detection provides early warning of typical bearing faults such as cracked races, spalling, brinelling, fatigue failure, looseness and loss of lubrication. The product uses a patented true peak picking mechanism that is ultra sensitive to impacts in bearings, and thus provides warning of problems in their earliest stages of development. That type of warning is typically not provided by traditional overall vibration level monitoring techniques. The Model 682A05 Bearing Fault Detector is a stock product, available to customers for immediate delivery.

IMI Sensors
A Division of PCB Piezotronics
Depew, NY

Safety-Rated Plugs/Receptacles

Switch rated welder plugs and receptacles from Meltric offer a solution for new or existing facilities concerned with electrical safety and code compliance. The plugs and receptacles are UL/CSA approved for branch circuit disconnect switching and make and break under full load up to 200 amps. They also simplify compliance to NFPA 70E electrical safety requirements, maintaining a NFPA 70E defined hazard/risk category "0" during electrical equipment connection and disconnection processes. Additionally, there is no need to purchase mechanical interlocks or auxiliary switches with the plugs.

Meltric Corporation
Franklin, WI

Feature-Rich Expanded Instrument Line

Commtest's expanded vbSeries® instrument line now includes five new models: vb5™, vb6™, vb8™, vbBalancer™ and vbBalancer+™. New features offered by these models include true simultaneous four channel recordings, 12 800 lines of resolution and triaxial recording capability. Analyzer and data collector instruments also include an enhanced IP65 rated case and come equipped with Commtest's new 6Pack™ recording system, allowing up to 12 measurements to be taken simultaneously across up to two channels.

Commtest Instruments
Knoxville, TN

Thermocouple Probe With USB Connection

Omega's new TJ-USB Series of thermocouple probes connect directly to a USB port on a computer. All models feature a rugged transition joint construction, an integral 2m (6') shielded output cable, and free user software that converts any PC running on Windows 2000, XP or Vista operating systems into a temperature meter, chart recorder and data logger. This proprietary product is CE compliant and comes with a 1- year manufacturer warranty.

Omega Engineering, Inc.
Stamford, CT

MSHA Approves High Frequency Extraction Solution

The ZERO-GROUND® High Frequency Extraction System (HFES™) has recently been approved by the U.S. Dept. of Labor, Mining and Safety Health Administration (MSHA) for use in underground and surface mines throughout the United States. Engineered for use where AC induction motors are operating in conjunction with variable frequency drive (VFD) applications—as well as other applications where large switching power supplies are used—the HFES solution addresses existing safety concerns and unplanned downtime in conditions associated with high frequency ground currents.

ZERO GROUND
Waukegan, IL

OSHA Training Manuals

Summit Training Source's What Every Supervisor Must Know About OSHA manual provides guidance for organizations to ensure compliance with Federal Regulations while emphasizing accident prevention. Available in general industry and construction, the manuals cover topics including: An overview of OSHA and how it works; how to read regulations and penalties; steps for how to handle an OSHA inspection; training tips to make your presentation sizzle; accident effects on productivity; and workers' compensation expense and legal liabilities.

Summit Training Source, Inc.
Grand Rapids, MI

Neutralize Acid Spills

WYK Sorbents offers AcidSafe, a fast, safe and efficient method to neutralize and absorb acid spills. It contains an indicator that provides a visible color change to indicate complete neutralization of acid. Personnel safety risks and environmental hazards are minimized. Suitable for fork lift battery and equipment charging stations and other locations with acid spill exposure, these products can help a company meet OSHA 29 CFR part 1910 requirements. They are available in easy-to-use shaker cartons, as well as 5-gallon pails, 20- and 55-gallon drums, wall mount stations and spill response kits.

WYK Sorbents
St. Louis, MO

More Efficient & Cost-Effective Turbine Maintenance

In the past, power plants would have to shut down to perform maintenance procedures on their collector rings and brush holders, resulting in costly downtime. Worse, if a ring or brush holder failed, so could the generator. According to Dave Cutsforth, founder of Cutsforth Products and a pioneer in on-line truing, the brush holder is the root cause of most collector ring failures. As a machine rotates, poor contact between carbon brushes and the ring surface causes electrical wear. Poor holder design, foreign materials and improper maintenance are all contributors to this problem. Brushes are designed to be replaced. The ring, with proper maintenance, should last for years. Cutsforth's Easychange Brush Holder System allows for the maintenance of turbines while they are online, totally eliminating the need for a shutdown. Plus, because the actual repair can be done at operating speeds, it has proven to be more accurate and longer lasting than performing a similar process off-line.

Cutsforth Products Inc.
Cohasset, MN

Special Food & Pharma Synthetic For Rolling Bearings

Klüber has introduced Millplex FMG-2 US, a special, synthetic grease for lubricating machine rolling bearings in food and pharmaceutical manufacturing plants (NSF H1 registration is pending). Composed of a synthetic base oil and a calcium sulphonate complex thickener, it is particularly well suited for use in the manufacturing of grain, meal and pellet animal feeds. Klüber recommends applying Millplex FMG-2 using standard, commercial grease equipment.

Klüber Lubrication
Londonderry, NH

Real-Time Access to Work Orders

MicroMain has announced general availability of MicroMain for BlackBerry, software that expands the company's mobile options for its computerized maintenance management system (CMMS). This new product now enables managers and maintenance technicians to use handheld devices to receive maintenance tasks and information, indicate work accomplished and upload status, hours and additional information to the MicroMain database. All mobile functionality is managed by log-in, which lets administrators determine security, type of data and parameters for specific users.

MicroMain Corporation
Austin, TX

Calculate ROI From Effective Bearing Protection

Inpro/Seal's Return On Investment Calculation Worksheet (ROI/WS) is an Excel spreadsheet worksheet that helps users of pumps and motors quantify the effectiveness of bearing isolators (like the model OM32 pictured here that is used in oil mist applications) when applied to rotating equipment. Once it's downloaded and completed, it allows plants to calculate their own ROI relative to the use of bearing isolators, including benchmarks of current repair costs and the effect of doubling the reliability of their rotating equipment. End users merely plug in their numbers to benchmark the amount of repairs and maintenance dollars saved by installing bearing isolators. The worksheet then calculates the actual costs of the bearing isolators, taking MTBF and previous maintenance histories into consideration. This Return on Investment Calculation tool is available at no charge from Inpro/Seal.

Inpro/Seal Company
Rock Island, IL

Real-Time Access to Work Orders

MicroMain has announced general availability of MicroMain for BlackBerry, software that expands the company's mobile options for its computerized maintenance management system (CMMS). This new product now enables managers and maintenance technicians to use handheld devices to receive maintenance tasks and information, indicate work accomplished and upload status, hours and additional information to the MicroMain database. All mobile functionality is managed by log-in, which lets administrators determine security, type of data and parameters for specific users.

MicroMain Corporation
Austin, TX

Skyrocketing energy demands… The rising need for raw materials to produce more consumer goods… An ever-expanding global economy connecting the continents… These macroeconomic forces are spurring further productivity investment by owner operators (O/Os), as well as engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) companies. These entities need every possible advantage to differentiate themselves from their competitors.

One of the trends spurring this productivity revolution can be summarized as interdiscipline integration—or interoperability. Interoperability is managing, accessing and sharing information seamlessly between the engineering design basis, reliability, maintenance, content management and other systems. It should be a core value and will result in productivity gains both between disciplines within the O/O organization and across the entire plant value chain. Interoperability enables teamwork, and is critical for plant asset management. While the solution to poor asset performance is conceptually clear, few companies currently have a plant asset information management strategy in place that is adequate to support the required interoperability initiatives.

By automating the processes that currently exist between the project phase and the operations and maintenance phase of a plant, interoperability can improve the handover process between EPCs and O/Os. Handover carries a connotation of being a very manual process, but the opportunity exists for people to automate this process dramatically, typically saving $10-15 million and up to a year of effort after the completion of a CAPEX (capital expenditure) project. One of the root causes of owner/ operator interoperability problems is a degradation of engineering design basis information. Utilizing an automated, effective and complete handover process will effectively make the manual handover process disappear, allowing the engineering design basis to be used for the life of the plant by non-engineers.

Significantly, O/Os have the most to gain from improved interoperability, because research has shown that they bear the largest share of costs resulting from efficiency losses attributable to inadequate handover. However, interoperability opportunities are not isolated to handover and exist throughout the plant life-cycle. Poor management of plant asset information has an impact on the O/O's financial performance. Research studies estimated the cost of poor interoperability across the complete design, build and operate supply chain to be $15.8 billion per year in increased CAPEX and OPEX (operational expense). Of these costs, two-thirds are borne by O/Os—which incur most of these costs during ongoing facility operation and maintenance (O&M).

Participants in one survey felt that poor interoperability between groups representing the design/build and operate/maintain stages averaged 3% of plant revenues. And opinions in the survey were relatively consistent among O/Os and EPCs. While no analysis was done as to the source of these losses (CAPEX or OPEX), the potential savings are obviously large and compelling.

The day is coming when O/Os will be ready to demand interoperability—and EPCs will say they can make it happen. Vendors should support openness standards such as ISO 15926 to provide the necessary tools to ensure project information is reflected accurately in operations and maintenance systems. We simply need to prepare for this day, and make sure we do our part to make it a reality. MT