Reliable Plant September 2008

As a consultant, I'm asked - sometimes directly and sometimes in a roundabout fashion - to help people change their business. In some instances, the desired changes are small and targeted. In...

"I read Reliable Plant magazine's articles on companies that have achieved a high level of excellence and payback in the area of reliability. I've had a vision of Century Aluminum someday...

Plant pros often talk about the importance of a maintenance, operations and engineering partnership. In my experience, the discussions commonly center on very general terms such as better...

A case for a structured planning approach revolves around W. Edwards Deming's work in the 1950s and Peter Drucker's work in the 1960s. America initially rejected Deming, who then became the force...

With the price of crude oil skyrocketing, all of us are painfully aware that gasoline prices continue to rise, with gas set to remain an expensive commodity for the foreseeable future....

Continuous monitoring is the application of dedicated devices for the purpose of collecting predictive maintenance-style data to aid in a condition monitoring program. With each passing year, this...

How have your recruiting results been? Have you been making the right hires? Have your hires turned out to be what you expected? Lately, I've engaged with several new clients who haven't had the best...

My favorite subject in engineering is thermodynamics, the study of heat and energy transfer. I believe understanding the laws of thermodynamics can help you understand and lead the cultural change...

To improve maintenance, you must get better at building a positive relationship with operations. To achieve maintenance excellence, you must have an excellent relationship. This means having...

With energy costs projected to rise as much as 12 percent this year and "carbon footprint" an issue of increasing importance, plants are taking a hard look at their energy consumption. Facilities can...

The following guidelines are meant to help you identify pitfalls related to the tightening of bolted joints. Use the right tool: Ensure that a calibrated torque tool is used and that a torque...

Experience shows there are three key groups that must buy in on the initial selection of a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) and then the ongoing use of the system. Common to each of...

Reliable Plant magazine recently won five awards for publication excellence from the business press industry. Reliable Plant earned two awards in the 30th annual American Society for Business...

Lurking in many manufacturing plants is a danger that has been ignored for far too long. It can't be smelled nor heard, and often it can't even be seen, but it can strike without warning with...