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Batesville Casket: Case closed
There is no denying maintenance's role in the success of Batesville Casket Company's award-winning plant in Indiana. Editor Paul V. Arnold provides the details in this comprehensive case study.
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Editorial
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Editors Column
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Go recruit the best of the best
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• Issue: 1/2008
• Author: Paul V. Arnold
• Editorial|Editors Column
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Paul V. Arnold comments on retirements and attracting the next generation of skilled workers.
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Why TPM initiatives sometimes fail
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• Issue: 1/2008
• Author: Drew D. Troyer, CRE, CMRP
• Editorial|The Exponent
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Drew Troyer wants to help you avoid common pitfalls associated with Total Productive Maintenance.
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Features
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Advisors
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Is maintenance a supplier or partner?
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• Issue: 1/2008
• Author: Tor Idhammar
• Features|Advisors
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Tor Idhammar says a customer-supplier relationship between operations and maintenance undermines equipment reliability improvements.
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Crew supervisors rule daily schedule
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• Issue: 1/2008
• Author: Doc Palmer
• Features|Advisors
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Doc Palmer's fifth principle states that the planning group does not create the daily schedule.
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Good to great: Look in the mirror
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• Issue: 1/2008
• Author: Mark Barnes
• Features|Advisors
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When it comes to world-class lubrication, do you aspire to greatness or are you content with good?
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Can people change?
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• Issue: 1/2008
• Author: John Ha
• Features|Advisors
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Can people really change who they are? According to John Ha, the answer is yes and no.
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It's buyer beware on M&R suppliers
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• Issue: 1/2008
• Author: Tim Goshert
• Features|Advisors
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Cargill's Tim Goshert wants you to make educated decisions about maintenance and reliability suppliers.
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Applied Reliability
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Motor technology in diaphragm pumps
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• Issue: 1/2008
• Author:
• Features|Applied Reliability
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Diaphragm pump performance is critical to plant operation. However, many plants view these pumps as commodity items and invest in underperforming platforms.
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Reliability Forum
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The consequences of forgetting
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• Issue: 1/2008
• Author: Jim Fitch
• Features|Reliability Forum
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Noria's Jim Fitch provides his insights on the topic of machinery lubrication.
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Reliability In Action
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Ultrasonic technology for lubrication
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• Issue: 1/2008
• Author:
• Features|Reliability In Action
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A successful lube program rests on one basic concept: the correct amount of the correct lubricant at the correct place at the correct time.
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Special Report
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Lean O-E-E: The quest for uptime
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• Issue: 1/2008
• Author: Mike Verdin
• Features|Special Report
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Mike Verdin continues his discussion on the marriage of overall equipment effectiveness and lean techniques.
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The importance of an equipment BOM
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• Issue: 1/2008
• Author: Doug Wallace
• Features|Special Report
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This article provides guidelines for ensuring availability and accuracy of the EBOM data required to support work order planning and execution.
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Web Exclusives
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None
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Super Boiler technology is closer to commercialization
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• Issue: 1/2008
• Author: Dan Willems, vice president of product engineering, Cleaver-Brooks
• Web Exclusives|None
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In 2000, a group of energy industry partners came together with the idea of creating a boiler that would achieve high efficiency rates, produce fewer emissions than conventional boiler technologies, reduce U.S. industrial steam system operating costs by more than $10 billion a year and save 185 trillion Btus by 2020. Seven years later, the Super Boiler and its developers celebrated a milestone of successful testing.
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Eight hot recruitment trends for 2008
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• Issue: 1/2008
• Author: David R. Butcher
• Web Exclusives|None
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CareerBuilder.com released the results of its latest survey, conducted by Harris Interactive, tracking projected hiring trends for 2008. The 2008 Job Forecast survey identified eight recruitment and retention trends for 2008.
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Five simple steps to build a winning corporate culture
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• Issue: 1/2008
• Author: Gary Bradt
• Web Exclusives|None
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If your employees were asked, "What's it like to work at your company? What kind of place is it?", their answers would largely describe your company culture. How would your employees answer? Would you like what you heard? If not, a leader's responsibility is to change it.
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Rethinking the use of personality tests in hiring
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• Issue: 1/2008
• Author:
• Web Exclusives|None
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If your employees were asked, "What's it like to work at your company? What kind of place is it?", their answers would largely describe your company culture. How would your employees answer? Would you like what you heard? If not, a leader's responsibility is to change it.
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Value stream work separates value from waste
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• Issue: 1/2008
• Author: Darren Dolcemascolo
• Web Exclusives|None
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Identifying the entire value stream for each product or product family in your business is the first step toward eliminating waste. There are three things you will need to understand before you can identify your value stream: What is value? What is a value stream? What is their significance? Author Darren Dolcemascolo provides the details in this very informative article.
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Lean Certification: Accelerating the pace of business improvement
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• Issue: 1/2008
• Author: Jack Rink
• Web Exclusives|None
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Lean Certification provides a structured way to map a lean journey to minimize waste, false starts and dead-ends. The end result of the certification process is an organization that has an objective assessment of its opportunities, a firm sense of direction, demonstrated results and a plan for continued achievement. Jack Rink explains the process in this excellent article.
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Even after awards, lean journey is far from done
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• Issue: 1/2008
• Author: Mike Wroblewski, lean sensei, Batesville Casket Company
• Web Exclusives|None
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Mike Wroblewski is not a big fan of industry awards because he believes it can cause complacency on the improvement journey. One of his responsibilities as the lean sensei for Batesville Casket Company is to prevent this complacency from taking root. He says continuous improvement is forever, regardless of how many awards, achievements or remarkable improvements you accomplish.
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Air Force leaders get 'lean' with green belt training
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• Issue: 1/2008
• Author: Kandis West, 72nd Air Base Wing Public Affairs
• Web Exclusives|None
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At Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma, green belt training develops individuals to lead process improvements. The training also teaches participants to effectively use tools like Six Sigma, a method to eliminate variation and standardize a process, and lean initiatives, which are designed to eliminate waste or non-value-added steps from a process.
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A different view: Lean boosts efficiency at rural hospital
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• Issue: 1/2008
• Author: Newswise
• Web Exclusives|None
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Meadows Regional Medical Center in Vidalia, Ga., achieved what would make most hospitals across the nation envious: a 44 percent reduction in average length of stay per patient, a 10 percent boost in patients served and a 92 percent patient satisfaction rate. The secret? With assistance from Georgia Tech, the hospital implemented lean principles, a philosophy derived mostly from the Toyota Production System and known for reducing wasted time and effort in manufacturing.
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New maintenance strategy delivers many benefits
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• Issue: 1/2008
• Author:
• Web Exclusives|None
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Many industrial companies want to reduce time, money and manpower for repairs and maintenance, but don't want to jeopardize equipment reliability and safety or endanger the environment. For many companies, it is a complex task, requiring experience and expertise that they do not possess in-house. They need outside help. This article explores the topic with a case study on a large refinery in Bulgaria.
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Associate involvement makes safety program work
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• Issue: 1/2008
• Author: David Marshall, president and COO, Robroy Industries
• Web Exclusives|None
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It was not too long ago that many manufacturers considered accidents and their resulting costs part of the expense of doing business. Today, progressive business managers understand that reducing or eliminating costs related to safety failures has a positive impact on the bottom line. As a result, companies are creating better safety programs that not only benefit the financial health of the organization but also significantly improve protection provided to individuals on the job.
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It's not easy to sustain those kaizen results
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• Issue: 1/2008
• Author: Mike Wroblewski, lean sensei, Batesville Casket Company
• Web Exclusives|None
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How do you sustain kaizen results? This is a common question posed to Batesville Casket lean sensei Mike Wroblewski, and it's an issue that we all deal with on our lean journey. We work hard to identify opportunities and find ways to reduce waste in our processes only to see many of our gains erode over time. What's the solution? Mike provides eight helpful hints.
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Align leadership decisions with your values
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• Issue: 1/2008
• Author: David Benzel
• Web Exclusives|None
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We all have a built-in "compass" that offers values for decision-making. Just as a mechanical compass shows Magnetic North, an internal compass shows Magnetic North values. These values should be considered whenever you have crucial choices to make. Effective leaders rely upon this internal compass to guide their choices in everyday life, which increases trust among their followers.
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Toss out some humor to lighten the workload
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• Issue: 1/2008
• Author: Elaine Ambrose
• Web Exclusives|None
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Nothing diffuses daily drama like a good laugh. Studies prove laughter can reduce stress, increase creativity and lessen tensions. Happy people are healthier than crabby people, and they're a lot more fun to be around. Jovial people can tackle problems with a positive attitude, while pessimistic whiners only take up space. In this article, author Elaine Ambrose provides some suggestions for using humor to diffuse stressful situations.
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Coal-fired powergen improves reliability with SAP-REWOP interface
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• Issue: 1/2008
• Author: Optimal Maintenance Decisions Inc. (OMDEC)
• Web Exclusives|None
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In the search for improved physical asset management performance, a major Canadian-based power generation company sought to exploit the benefits of good reliability and maintenance information practices. Specifically, it wished to increase the value derived from the investment made in its SAP preventive maintenance system. By interfacing REWOP with the SAP work order module, maintenance engineers and technicians can now accurately and easily analyze historical data.
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Yarn plant gets solution to A/C, airflow challenge
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• Issue: 1/2008
• Author:
• Web Exclusives|None
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Yarn producer Beaver Manufacturing had several HVAC challenges in retrofitting an existing 40,000-square-foot plant to expand its production facilities in Mansfield, Ga. More than 170 one-horsepower motors required in the yarn production generate indoor temperatures surpassing 100 degrees Fahrenheit that are both detrimental to employee air comfort as well as machinery efficacy and longevity. Read this case study to discover the innovative solution.
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New bearings for faster paper machines
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• Issue: 1/2008
• Author:
• Web Exclusives|None
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Advances in machine technology have made it possible to run equipment faster than ever before. The Pulp & Paper industry is one that has seen speeds increase with each new major design. Unfortunately, the same increased speeds often contribute to higher vibration levels, which can cause shaft and bearing damage and jeopardize the quality of the output.
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The kaizen chronicles: Data is like art
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• Issue: 1/2008
• Author: Mike Wroblewski
• Web Exclusives|None
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People can see the same picture or sculpture and see different things. Just like with art, people can see the same data and see different things and derive different meanings. Here within lies a barrier to improvement. While this diversity in viewpoints works just fine in the art world, it certainly makes kaizen more difficult. Mike Wroblewski, the lean sensei for Batesville Casket Company, explains in this article.
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Successfully lead through major organizational change
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• Issue: 1/2008
• Author: Gary Bradt
• Web Exclusives|None
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Companies are bought and sold at a dizzying rate, and reorganizations happen like clockwork. These changes are usually made with the best of intentions but don’t always end up with the intended results. That's because leaders pay attention to the logical aspects of the process (i.e. the business case) but not nearly enough attention to the psychological aspects (i.e. just how do we get people to enthusiastically embrace this change?). This article outlines five keys to meeting this challenge.
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