In today's business environment, the bottom line now includes not only profit margin but also cost management, environmental concerns, best practices, safety of employees, and public image. One major petrochemical company established as a primary initiative the goal of reducing the number of incidents affecting its profitability, as well as causing a significant public relations problem. The company traditionally had tracked incidents in terms of costs as well as lost profit opportunity. The new initiative would shift the emphasis of its maintenance efforts from fixing problems to preventing them. It was determined that the way to achieve this goal was to combine the efforts of the companys maintenance and reliability teams. The effort resulted in a leading edge philosophy: Reliability Focused Maintenance (RFM).

Implementing RFM proved to be a challenge. As part of the effort, the company chose to interface stand-alone software applications into one integrated system that takes advantage of the strength of the combined applications. Senior management assembled a task force to institutionalize the Reliability Focused Maintenance philosophy using the following strategy:

• Ensure that accountability for equipment reliability is shared between the operations, technical, and reliability/maintenance organizations.
• Encourage and accelerate the current direction to move from individual maintenance organizations to RFM organizations all functioning on the same principles.
• Develop new management metrics that recognize and reward for equipment reliability, thereby reducing management focus on performance measurements such as cost per barrel and the Solomon Metrics.

In pursuing the lower incident initiative, the maintenance best practices team searched for a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) that could be used across all sites. Independently, the reliability team also was looking for effective reliability software. Working together within the RFM context, the two groups decided to combine their needs and implement an integrated system after considered many factors, including current maintenance costs and production issues, environmental issues, the existing system, and the existing culture.

Current maintenance costs and production issues: It was determined that maintenance costs were not competitive. Failures had cost the company money in the areas of energy costs, wear and tear on other equipment, and additional equipment failures associated with bringing equipment back on line, etc. Support costs for maintaining multiple equipment and maintenance databases were high. In terms of production issues, all of the incidents that could occur when corrosive chemicals and flammable elements are subject to extreme pressure and heat were occurring on an all-too-frequent basis.

Environmental issues: Each environmental issue or violation resulted in stricter and more costly standards being implemented, not to mention the cost in terms of strained public relations. The choice was to increase investments in equipment, monitoring devices, and personnel, or use reliability methods to improve the resources that already existed. The decision was to follow the reliability approach.

Existing system: On the maintenance side, each of the company's U.S. sites had its own CMMS and each system used multiple databases for tracking the various aspects of the process: equipment, work orders, inspections, results, etc. On the reliability side, the group had documented equipment history and maintained the metrics of equipment reliability for the past 20 years with a primary focus on rotating equipment. The legacy system was a 20-year-old mainframe system designed for that purpose, combined with mainframe financial and materials management systems and a variety of manual and desktop applications that stored equipment lists, technical data, work management, and safety and compliance information.

Existing culture: To execute RFM, the maintenance and reliability staffs had to join forces to achieve the common goal of increased reliability. The feeling among many mechanics and operators was that an improved reliability system would mean fewer repairs which meant less work and fewer jobs. They were also leery of a new computer system that might not prove effective. The goal of the integrated RFM system was to pull all this divergent knowledge together into one place so everyone could benefit from it.

Selecting the systems
The business case for the project was based on the cost savings anticipated by the initiative to reduce the number of incidents. Members of the core project team, representing the technical and business aspects of the project, had spent a great deal of time developing their individual work processes and best practices, so they looked for a system that could be adapted to these requirements rather than forcing them to change their practices to meet the requirements of the system. In addition, they wanted a system that would support the often-divergent needs of end users, management, and information technologists.

It quickly became obvious that no one system was going to meet all of the company's RFM requirements. The solution appeared to be an integrated system. In the end, the company chose Meridium as its reliability system and a CMMS from a major supplier.

Implementing the solution
Implementation was a multi-step process that included project organization, business issues, technical issues, integration, conversion, education, and system support:

• Project organization. The RFM team supported the implementation of both the Meridium and the CMMS. An RFM Steering Committee was established to oversee the project and ensure senior management engagement.
• Business issues. Subteams were created to focus on the specific requirements of each work process. Areas of interest included equipment and technical data for fixed, rotating, and instrumentation routine work; shutdown work; planning and scheduling; preventive maintenance; labor entry; contracts management; reliability analysis; and reporting; inspection tracking, including scheduling based on reliability analysis; condition-based monitoring; and instrumentation. The teams were responsible for obtaining consensus on best practice and deploying the best practice across the system.
• Technical issues. The IT department was committed to a commonality of information systems enterprisewide, so it was necessary to choose hardware that could handle varied and heavy use. Several servers were installed, with each performing a specific function within the overall IT plan for implementing RFM.
• Integration. The RFM system required the integration of three commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) systems: Meridium, a CMMS, and the SAP financial system. The interface between Meridium and the CMMS had the following primary interface needs: import equipment data from Meridium (database), export of work order and equipment history to Meridium, and export of actual cost data to Meridium.
• Conversion. A data conversion contractor was retained to support the data conversion efforts. The major areas of conversion included equipment lists, equipment technical data, equipment parts lists, preventive maintenance programs, equipment history (20 years), equipment costs histories (20 years), personnel data, training records, and emissions data.
• Education. Meridium and the CMMS supplier offered extensive training and produced training materials in conjunction with the core team. Core team members provided "train the trainer" education, enabling representatives to return to their individual sites and train others to use the system.
• System support. Ongoing system support includes system administration, help desk, reports development, and desktop and infrastructure support at each site. The corporate IT organization is responsible for server support, integration development, and configuration management.

Integrating the two systems
The goal of the integration effort was to create an interface between two separate, standalone database software applications (the CMMS and Meridium) to create a new tool with a common language for mechanics, operators, and engineers that directly responded to the strategy of the RFM initiative.

In integrating the systems, the core team had to determine the areas of overlap between the systems, then decide which was better suited as the owner of each process (see accompanying section "System Components"). Once this was decided, the core team looked at the areas where the two systems could work together and set about designing the appropriate interfaces. Obvious areas where data could be shared included general equipment data, work order data, and cost data.

The system utilizes a network of personal computers and servers. The interface supports real-time, uni-directional updates of equipment information to the CMMS. It also passes work order data, associated with the proper equipment or location, from the CMMS back to Meridium for analysis. Datasheets in the Meridium database are used to hold not only the shared work management data, but also reliability data collected directly for use by Meridium. Records that are exchanged between the two systems are validated based on user-defined criteria. Errors occurring during the interface are detailed for quick debugging by system administrators.

User-defined flags can be placed on records for specific pieces of equipment to indicate that data is to be used in reliability analysis. Flags can easily be updated to meet current business needs or expanded analysis capabilities.

A hierarchy structure allows work orders to be broken into tasks with each task defined as a child of the work order as a whole. This structure keeps all of the parts of a work order together and facilitates the tracking and scheduling of each individual task based on the overall scope of the work order. Costs can be tracked for each individual task and summed for both the specific tasks and the entire work order. This data then can be used in reliability trending.

Equipment, location, and event records can be grouped into categories and hierarchies created to organize the databases. Datasheets are designed to track data for each group of records. In addition, by settling on specific common datasheet designs, both maintenance and reliability staffs are assured that the data they need to do their jobs is collected and stored in a central location that is easily accessed by all who need this information.

The development of a database structure and datasheets drove the creation of a set of common definitions, codes, and processes acceptable to both the maintenance and reliability people. In defining incidents such as failures, the company produced a means of using reliability practices to reduce those incidents.

As part of the process to get users involved, extensive training was performed. The core team and training teams brought many operators and mechanics up to speed despite the fact that most had never used a personal computer. Although many were skeptical at first, most found that the system was intuitive and easy to learn. They also quickly discovered that it allowed them to take a more active role in improving overall reliability and in turn increasing profitability.

The RFM was designed to interface with other applications such as the new SAP financial system in the areas of material cataloging and cost tracking. The CMMS delivers work order data and materials requisitions to the financial system and receives materials catalogs and on-hand inventory data, project data, material requisitions, material management activity, and actual cost data.

The results
The company is now reaping the results of its efforts through savings from the CMMS and Meridium as standalone products, as well as from the integration of the two systems and the resulting RFM mentality that they promote:

• CMMS benefits. The ability to write work requests directly to the system has dramatically altered the work practices of the mechanics and operators. Requests automatically go to maintenance supervisors for approval. Parts are ordered and are available when the mechanic arrives to do the repair. The new system tracks maintenance and materials costs and equipment histories and stores them in a centralized database. Documentation included by each mechanic or operator is stored with the equipment information and is available to any one else who works on that equipment in the future. Best practices are recorded and shared across all sites.
• Meridium reliability benefits. Meridium provides advanced data analysis using a battery of statistical tools. It takes cost and history data from the central Meridium database and uses it to help identify and resolve problems with critical equipment. Improved equipment reliability and availability helps prevent incidents, creating a safer working environment and lowering bottom line costs, as well as making the CMMS more effective. The system tracks "worst actors" so that when repairs are done on this type of equipment, maintenance can schedule for a reliability analyst or engineer to be present. Rather than waiting for equipment to fail and then fixing it, Meridium helps flag equipment that may need repair based on analysis of performance, history, time in production, and performance of other equipment related to the equipment in question.
• Integrated systems benefits. An immediate benefit realized through the integrated system is the ability to schedule needed work ahead of time rather than just dealing with problems as they occur. As a result, repair backlogs are decreasing and the focus now can be turned toward reliability and preventive maintenance—the source of the greatest future cost savings by reducing routine maintenance and the number and cost of incidents.

By interfacing the CMMS to Meridium, data is captured and dumped into a centralized warehouse. This means that data located in multiple systems can be combined, compared, analyzed, and used. The Meridium database has the flexibility to record various forms of data that might not fit into other systems, such as vibration readings from online vibration systems, process variables from process control systems, and readings for corrosion analysis.

Equipment history and cost data gathered by the CMMS are effectively used by Meridium to help pinpoint and resolve problems with critical equipment. This in turn helps prevent incidents and creates a safer working environment as well as a lower overall operating expense. Once the information is in the database, it can be used easily over time for reliability metrics trending. These metrics, based on actual data, can be used with confidence to make cost effective, long-term decisions on maintenance issues.

Vision for the future
The vision for the future includes institutionalizing the philosophy and tools of the Reliability Focused Maintenance program into the entire organization. In addition, a drive is in progress to continuously improve the quality of the data and work process supported by the system. This initiative is driven now not only by management but also by the users who see the benefits of the system. More far-reaching goals include a significant reduction in the cost and impact of incidents, improved equipment up time and availability, and standardized best practices across all company sites.

Lessons learned
Among the lessons learned during the project are that corporate initiatives do spawn real business change, especially if buy-in can be generated at all levels of a project, and that senior management sponsorship is critical to effective business change.

Another lesson learned is that there is significant benefit in focusing on the reliability and availability of equipment when calculating the bottom line.

As with any far-reaching and visionary changes, business change is hard work but rewarding. Groups of people begin to communicate that have rarely worked together before, and discover that their goals are common and needs are universal. People at every stage of the process are empowered to strive toward a level of independence and pride that results in a significant culture change—a desire to "work smarter," to use the tools they have been given because they have seen real results. People begin to see the future of the industry and realize they have been given a chance to control and shape that future for the better. MT

Bonz Hart is president and founder of software company Meridium, Inc., 10 S. Jefferson St., Suite 1100, Roanoke, VA 24011; (540) 344-9205

At the company's Fort Saskatchewan plant in Alberta, Canada, Roy Lura, process leader, estimated an inventory of more than 15,000 pieces of equipment. Until recently, however, there was no way to adequately track the items. With the help of a barcode-driven tracking system, this has changed.

Tool tracking challenge
There are eight different toolrooms at the Fort Saskatchewan site, and each had its own method to issue equipment. For the most part, this meant using the honor system, except for the more expensive items that were tracked using a handwritten record of issues and returns. "It was a lot of work," reported Dave McLaughlin, warehouse technician. "You almost needed two staffers at the counter to work the book."

Another difficulty was each tool crib worked independently. Operators from the individual cribs did not know what was available from other locations on-site, so specialty items would be purchased for multiple cribs when fewer were needed for the site as a whole. In addition, if one crib ran out of an item, operators either ordered another or contacted a rental company to supply it, when the item could have been available somewhere else at the plant. "There was no documentation," Lura said, noting that a lot of money was spent on the purchase and rental of replacement tools when it may not have been necessary.

Until 1997, management at Dow had not given the issue a second thought, but then the company began to re-engineer how its plants were run, and more accountability was mandated. "We wanted to control 99-100 percent of our tools," said Jeff Bowes, warehouse technician.

Barcode solution
To do this, the plant introduced a barcode-driven tool tracking system called Tool Hound from HOUNDware Corp., Edmonton, AB, Canada. The system works similarly to a library issue/returns program. Assets with a value of more than $50 are labeled with individual bar codes, while items of lesser value are bar coded by bin number. Tradespeople are identified by an ID number as well. When an employee checks out a tool, his ID number is scanned with a handheld scanner, followed by the bar codes of the items being issued. The process is reversed when items are returned.

Like a library system, the program tracks who has the item, where it is, how often it is used, and when it is due back. Reporting capabilities offer information on inventory value, asset locations, and equipment usage. In addition, the radio frequency scanners Dow uses with the system mean that the operator is not chained to the computer. He can communicate with the PC in real time from anywhere in the toolroom.

Scanned data is sent to the database instantly, and information about the status of both the equipment and the employees can be accessed from the handheld. If, for example, the employee at the counter has an overdue tool or is not certified to use the item he is trying to sign out, the PC will send that information to the scanner instantly where it will be displayed on the screen.

Improved communication
The system is proving to be of great benefit to the Fort Saskatchewan operation. Lura reported that after only a few months, it "totally changed the way we manage tools."

The most significant change is that the plant now has a consistent method of tracking tools in all eight toolrooms at the site. This has resulted in a change in purchasing habits. Orders are no longer going out just because one crib runs out of an item. Instead, operators can use the networked system to check for the item's availability in other tool cribs. "It's better to get it from the site than to go off site," Lura advised.

Accurate accounting
In addition, by forcing operators to catalog their tools, the system is helping Dow create an accurate count of its own assets at the Fort Saskatchewan plant. An equipment surplus was discovered that is large enough to stock 60 percent of a ninth crib which will be set up soon. "It's given us the opportunity to inventory our tools," Bowes reported.

New attitudes
An attitude change accompanied the installation of the tool tracking system; it brought a sense of accountability to the site, something that was lacking before. "It really made the guys think about it," Lura said.

In the past, items may not have been returned for a number of reasons. The employee may have simply forgotten to return the tool, or perhaps left it at a job site with the intention of using it later. These items could be left unclaimed for months, or perhaps mistakenly packed with a contractor's equipment and removed from the site altogether.

With a computerized sign-out system, tradespeople seem to have gained a sense of accountability for the items they are issued, and tools are now being returned with amazing regularity. Lura believes the shift in the employees' outlook is a result of the fact that Dow's attitude toward their tools has changed. "Before they had a 'they don't care, so why should I' attitude," he explained.

Additional applications
As time goes by and the labeling and cataloging process continues, the plant finds additional uses for its tool tracking system. While it was purchased with the intention of bar coding only hand tools, the system now is used to track the usage of a number of other items. For example, the plant has started using the system to track the site's company trucks. This allows the staff to monitor how often the vehicles are used, and if they are returned on time.

By introducing accountability and effective reporting functions, as well as reducing the need for large annual expenditures for asset purchases and rentals, the system is expected to save the Fort Saskatchewan plant a significant amount of money annually. "We're adding value to our jobs," Lura said, and he expects the system will spread to other Dow sites in the future. MT

Information supplied by Albert Liaw, marketing manager, HOUNDware Corp., Edmonton, AB, Canada; telephone (780) 454-3001

The computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) or enterprise asset management (EAM) system has become a common tool for maintenance. The deployment of software and hardware to support different areas in facilities and plants, especially with fewer personnel, is no longer the exception; it is the rule. The number of plants and facilities with CMMS/EAM software has been increasing each year, but there are varying levels of reported results with each new system deployed. This is of concern because new computerized systems often replace old systems that were perceived as not living up to their advertisements.

It was once thought that programming errors, hardware/software mismatches, and other similar problems could take the blame for implementations with only temporary or limited successes.

Although there are many important factors leading to successful implementation, this article will discuss two that work well in manufacturing and facility operations: administration and training. These are two areas that often do not garner commitment of necessary resources for the on-going upkeep of the maintenance system. In other words, proper training and administration are the preventive maintenance for the CMMS/EAM system.

System administration
Maintenance system training typically includes all system functionality for a select group of users, and then functional training in certain areas or modules related to an individual's responsibilities. It also must include administration of the system and be:

• Coordinated with need and function
• Specific to function and include why change is necessary and where it must come from
• Coordinated with implementation
• Coordinated with immediate usage

Having a successful administrative system involves understanding the life cycle of the work order (and other process flows that contact the CMMS/EAM), and having a general idea of the work that takes place in the facility. There is an inherent conflict between the level of detail and the level of complexity required in administrative systems (procedures, forms, work orders, etc.). Obtaining the proper mix is required for good administrative systems.

Additionally, it is necessary to accommodate purchasing, invoicing, and other internal functions through the CMMS or application program interfaces (APIs). This activity is designed to create more online collaboration and decrease the number of islands of information which maintenance has often been accused of harboring.

Begin with the end in mind
If you begin with the end in mind, what might the end look like? The end should be a time of continuous improvement based on numerous factors including maintenance information. Maintenance information should be derived from analysis of preventive and nonpreventive maintenance work order events, labor, and materials histories, and transactions created in conjunction with them. This will include a vast array of information including the cost of maintenance per machine in terms of downtime, incidents, and causes of repairs that are emergency or nonemergency, labor and material, etc.

On the surface, this is an attempt to begin to actually utilize the CMMS to identify areas for change, and possibly quantify the value of this change. It is also to continue to achieve greater knowledge of where the maintenance dollar is actually going, in terms of both labor and materials.

The roadmap to a good startup
Before looking at the end result, take a brief look at what it takes to get there.

An assessment and analysis should initiate the justification process, and help to define the functionality and sizing requirements for the system. Additionally, it should identify prime manual and/or automated processes that can receive change now, before the system is even selected.

Modifications prior to system selection will lessen the chance of selecting a system that emulates an undesirable process currently in use. Computerizing a chaotic process will increase the problem geometrically or worse.

Any justification necessary should be completed here as well. This will provide direction and priority for implementation, since it will be imperative that the justification items be addressed to recover the investment in a timely manner.

System selection should result in choosing an existing product and version that has been on the market for some time, unless the company's size and special needs allow custom authoring or purchasing a system with source code to be modified.

Once selected and purchased, the system must be installed. This includes necessary hardware and software, and typically is followed closely by training employees in critical areas initially, and then periodically to support the implementation in multiple areas as needed.

Then comes the arduous task of data installationthe physical inventory of plant machinery, preventive maintenance development, an inventory of parts, and the development of the necessary codes to support the required fields and those that will be used in analysis.

Although data installation is one of the areas that takes the longest, and is often stalled due to the large amount of resources expended to get this far, it is imperative that this be completed to get to the next step. The old adage "garbage in, garbage out" still applies.

This does not mean it will be necessary to identify every piece of machinery down to the last armature and bolt. But by the same token, a furnace, packaging line, tank farm, or paint shop is too broad a description. It is necessary to find a middle ground that supports the implementation and functional capabilities of the system. Remember, there will be some level in the equipment hierarchy where most (if not all) work orders will be generated.

The problem now is how to get from having initial data in the system to having actual results data available that is reliable, and extracting results data out of the system. This is accomplished with good training and deployment of good administration systems.

Training helps to insure personnel understand the systems in place and can use them consistently, including the administration systems.

Training
Training of personnel cannot be overemphasized, but can easily be overdone. More often, it is less effective than it should be. During CMMS implementation, training is often concentrated on the software and covers far too much for far too many.

The areas most often overlooked are in system administration. The original assessment and analysis should cover workflow analysis. The path of a work order should now be known, as well as other workflows in contact with the CMMS/EAM. Training must be completed for all personnel along the path and cover the skills required as well as explain the need for change. This (why? along with how? and what?) helps to incorporate education into the training.

Training on handling the work order from start to finish should be done for all involved, including the originator. It is especially important to educate. Bad historical data can be found easily. Take a walk around the plant and look at repair work order problem descriptions. Descriptions of "down" or "doesn;t work" etc., will typically be followed by a repair description of "done" or "fixed," etc.—not very useful for analysis. Train the originator to indicate what he observed and why he called.

Numerous other opportunities for improvement exist in training methods. (See accompanying section "Training")

Administration
The administration systems should document the life cycle of the work order, and procedures should be in place to identify who needs to be involved at what level and in the most effective manner. A sample workflow is shown in Fig. 1.

The administration of the CMMS will share some resources with other systems. Overall, from the CMMS perspective, the organization may be broken up into four or more discreet areas:

• The computer center maintains the computer hardware, backups, and large processing of work orders and reports (including collating, sorting, etc.).
• The data center typically handles input of completed work orders, and maintains manual records as needed for disaster recovery, regulatory compliance, or other reasons.
• The engineering group often is called upon to handle analysis of the data returned on work orders and data in the system over short and long terms. These activities are coordinated in support of the maintenance operations. Engineering also will be called upon for evaluation of preventive maintenance effectiveness, system integration, and implementation of changes as recommended by analysis.
• The maintenance group will handle the planning, scheduling, assigning, executing, reporting, and analysis of both preventive and nonpreventive maintenance work orders. This will often coincide with field review of work completed, on-going training, and coordination with the engineering group for detailed analysis.
• The functional and technical organizations will be responsible for customizing, configuring, tailoring, and maintaining the CMMS. This typically will be the area to which the other four areas must contribute, and typically resides in the functional areas, or the functional side of the information services/technology group, as a hybrid of functional and technical personnel working together to bridge the gap between organizations.

Summary
Training and administration provide the foundation for an installed system to become an operating system on a daily basis that contains good quantity and quality of data, representative of plant operations, that can be used for analysis.When executed well, both areas will be considered at the beginning of installation, and through every upgrade, expansion, and change in overall business operations. The better the planning initially and along the way, the greater chance the CMMS will have of continuous usage, and delivering long-term and continuous improvement, through the information it provides.

When does data become information? For example, 28 percent by itself is data; 28 percent of the total maintenance expenditures for the period is still data.

But when 5 percent of the machinery is found to take 28 percent of the maintenance dollar just to repair them (preventive maintenance excluded), the disproportion of resources becomes information.

How is re-allocation of resources to more problematic or costly areas justified? The computerized maintenance management system exists for this purpose. MT

Christopher N. Winston is an independent professional in the Detroit, MI, area contracted to HSB Reliability Technologies, 800 Rockmead Dr., Ste. 180, Kingwood, TX 77339; Internet. He has more than 18 years CMMS implementation and business system analysis experience and has a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering.

Robert C. Baldwin, CMRP, Editor

But now, people step up with much better ideas that they are getting from sources that have traditionally been outside the maintenance and reliability field. Unfortunately, important concepts or processes are sometimes presented in an unusual context or are too soft and fuzzy for clear understanding. But there are some good articles, too.

A Control Solutions article, "Maintenance finally moves into limelight, disguised as asset management," points out that "when you get right down to it, at the most fundamental level, asset management is simply maintenance—but maintenance perceived as a crucial function that, done properly, can give a tremendous boost to the bottom line. This is a big change from the days when maintenance was viewed by management as a necessary evil."

A columnist for Managing Automation, in "A Dam Good Application," writes about distributed asset management (DAM) that "permits the assets to have an interactive dialogue with external systems so that problems and opportunities can be announced way before they normally would be encountered... . Now, some may confuse this with maintenance or enterprise asset management. However, EAM technology is a reactive one based on averages and does not link to assets in real-time. It could, however, be supplemented with DAM to become much more valuable to many organizations."

Data from the plant-level component of IndustryWeek magazine's "Census of Manufacturers" confirm the trend toward lean manufacturing practices, indicating that 32 percent of manufacturers use predictive or preventive maintenance. This is good news, but I had never thought of PM as a lean manufacturing practice. But it certainly fits because it reduces the waste of reactive maintenance.

With more players on the field than ever before, you don't know where to begin when explaining what we do because you are not sure of the game. There is a lot of running, passing, kicking, and tackling, but is the game soccer, football, or rugby?

We need a few good definitions that can serve as a starting point for the discussions we have with operations, top management, human resources, finance, and others outside our field. Do you have the courage to offer some suggestions? If so, let's hear them. MT

Traditional maintenance activities alone cannot support a company's goal of improved reliability. To achieve and sustain maximum reliability, companies must deploy a reliability focused business process. I call this process the Reliability Driven Maintenance Process. It includes the following stages:

• Plan
• Assess
• Improve
• Control

In the plan stage, the maintenance strategy is aligned with the business goals of the organization.

This alignment enables maintenance to identify the assets that contribute most to achieving business goals. Next, the assets that are most critical and where the risk is highest in terms of impact on business performance are determined. For these assets, specific performance targets are established. This stage focuses maintenance reliability improvements on the performance targets of critical assets that contribute most to the company's success.

The assess stage analyses the performance of the asset, comparing asset performance targets to the maintained asset's actual performance. Performance analysis identifies and prioritizes gaps in performance.

In the improve stage, work identification strategies are utilized to identify appropriate actions to address the causes of failures in a timely manner. Strategies for this phase may include reliability centered maintenance, best practice review, or other appropriate work identification practices. The maintenance plan for an asset may include a mix of preventive maintenance, predictive maintenance, and run-to-failure decisions.

Work identification is the cornerstone of the Reliability Driven Maintenance Process. The work identification element determines the right work at the right time.

Once work is identified, companies move into the control stage for planning, scheduling, execution, and follow up. Almost all capital-intensive companies today use a computerized maintenance management or enterprise asset management system to maximize the efficiency of this phase. If properly followed up, the control stage of the process provides valuable information back to the assess stage in terms of the actual performance of the assets.

Managing feedback from the control stage, a company moves back into the assess stage, resulting in a continuous improvement loop that maximizes asset reliability. The assess stage evaluates and makes visible an organization's effectiveness in each element of the Reliability Driven Maintenance Process.

Reliability practices and technology are needed to support the Reliability Driven Maintenance Process. Appropriate technology is essential to expedite results and achieve long-term success on the road to reliability. The best systems today complement the reliability practices and serve as a day-to-day tool for true maintainers of equipment.

Maintenance, engineering, and operations collect an enormous volume of potentially valuable data as they work together to conduct condition monitoring activities. But we need to go further to maximize reliability. We need to make effective use of the data collected and ensure that we do the right work at the right time.

Leading companies have found technologies to convert their mountains of condition data into effective reliability improvement processes. These technologies enable maintenance, engineering, and operations to combine their respective talents to define the ways in which condition indicators will drive improved asset health.

Whether you are investigating career advancement or need a new position due to a layoff, the Internet offers excellent resources to kick-start your job search.

The perfect career?
Career planning is the process of finding your ideal career, based on your intrinsic interests, motivational traits, personality, values, skills, aptitudes, personal work style, and work environment preferences.

According to www.perfectcareer.com studies show people who are working in a career that supports their intrinsic interests are happier, and more successful and fulfilled. For $49 the site offers an online career test that examines your career interest, your personality, your values, and your skills.

Allow me to introduce myself
Once you have defined the type of position you seek, it is time to tune up your resume. Sites such as www.free-resume-tips.com offer 10 free tips to enhance your resume. If you are new to writing a resume, www.eresumes.com offers a free Resume 101 course online.

If you really want to stand out from the crowd, try putting your resume on a credit-card-size working CD-ROM. At www.cardiscs.com/bizcardresumes.html you can create a digital resume online by choosing from a wide selection of templates and designs. The company will duplicate the CD and ship them to you.

Posting your resume online
You remember that free 5 MB web site that your Internet Service Provider offered you when you signed? Like most people, you probably asked yourself why you would ever want a personal web site. Posting your resume is a perfect reason.

Most of these sites are template driven and require little computer experience. Once the resume is posted, you can send people to your site by including the link in your e-mail. Remember that the Internet is public, so do not post any personal information that you may not want known such as your home address.

Resume posting sites
If you have ever watched a Super Bowl game, you have seen commercials for some of the best job-hunting sites on the Internet. Free resume posting services are available at www.hotjobs.com, www.flipdog.com, and www.monster.com. Prospective employers pay a fee to be able to scan your resume and almost all major companies include these sites when searching for new employees.

You set the parameters for the amount of personal information that is revealed, including your name. If you currently are employed and your boss does not know you may be seeking alternative employment, it is a good idea to cloak your contact information. If a prospective employer is interested in your skills and experience, you will receive contact from them that will include the company name. Once you know who is interested, you can choose to respond with as much information as you want.

You can and should expect privacy on these sites and you can withdraw your resume at any time.

Join organizations
Joining professional organizations will create networking opportunities that can increase your chance of learning about a position in your area of interest: the Society for Maintenance & Reliability Professionals and the Association for Facilities Engineering.

Interviewing your new employer
Before you establish communication with a company, it is a good idea to visit its corporate web site. You can enter the company name into almost any search engine and the official web site should be in the top two or three results.

You can often access company mission statements and goals, learn more specific information about the company's products and services, look at its historical financial information, and find out what other positions the firm may be offering.

It also may be useful to search business news sites for stories about your prospective employer. The knowledge you will gain from a little research may really impress your interviewer.

Finding your way
Once you have decided to accept an interview you can make sure you find your way by creating a map and driving directions using www.mapblast.com

Using the Internet to advance your career in maintenance and reliability is a sure way to broaden your horizons and expand your potential. Try it today.

As always, please let us know what you think of this column, how it helped you, and what subjects you would like us to cover in the future. MT