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Departments
	Lubrication Lessons
	Demystifying sludge and varnish
	• Issue: 9/2008 • Author: Jim Fitch, Noria Corporation • Departments|Lubrication Lessons
	You could tar your roof with it. It sticks to everything. It spreads like cancer. You thought you were getting rid of it with the oil change and flush, but it is back again – lurking in your oil and gripping the insides of your machine. Does this sound familiar? Maybe you have it now . . . sludge and varnish. Do you know what causes it and how to stop it from spreading? Do you know how to prevent it from coming back later? More importantly, do you understand its destructive potential?

Editorial
	Editors Column
	Pals' know-how saved my home
	• Issue: 9/2008 • Author: Paul V. Arnold, RP Editor • Editorial|Editors Column
	Paul V. Arnold explains how friends came to his aid during an hour of need.

	The Exponent
	Changing your organization from the middle on out
	• Issue: 9/2008 • Author: Drew D. Troyer, CRE, CMRP • Editorial|The Exponent
	Drew Troyer says you shouldn't underestimate the role of middle management in change initiatives.

Features
	Advisors
	Operations and maintenance
	• Issue: 9/2008 • Author: Tor Idhammar • Features|Advisors
	Better communication and understanding are important, but we need precise rules and actions to drive that partnership long term.

	Deming, Drucker and a case for planning and scheduling
	• Issue: 9/2008 • Author: Doc Palmer • Features|Advisors
	A case for a structured planning approach revolves around the work of W. Edwards Deming and Peter Drucker.

	Just how much does lubrication cost?
	• Issue: 9/2008 • Author: Mark Barnes • Features|Advisors
	It is not the cost of the lubricant itself that we should be concerned with, but rather the effects of the way in which the lubricant is applied (or misapplied) to our machines.

	Is a CM system right for you?
	• Issue: 9/2008 • Author: Andy Page • Features|Advisors
	Andy Page says the answer lies within the analysis of the failure mode(s) you are trying to detect with condition monitoring.

	Tools help you make the right hire
	• Issue: 9/2008 • Author: John Ha • Features|Advisors
	No matter how many experts push the need for employers to hone their recruiting and selection skills, most still rely on intuition.

	Applying entropy to M&R
	• Issue: 9/2008 • Author: Tim Goshert • Features|Advisors
	Tim Goshert says understanding the laws of thermodynamics can help you understand and lead the cultural change needed for maintenance and reliability improvement.

	Applied Reliability
	Reduce your electric bill 10% or more
	• Issue: 9/2008 • Author: David Simon • Features|Applied Reliability
	Your plant is taking a hard look at energy consumption. Read this article and see how you can be a hero.

	Tightening joints with torque tools
	• Issue: 9/2008 • Author: Mountz Inc. • Features|Applied Reliability
	This article will help you identify pitfalls related to the tightening of bolted joints.

	How to get the most out of your CMMS
	• Issue: 9/2008 • Author:  • Features|Applied Reliability
	CMMS success comes from getting buy-in from three groups on its selection and use.

	News and Analysis
	RP captures five more awards
	• Issue: 9/2008 • Author:  • Features|News and Analysis
	Reliable Plant magazine added to its trophy case recently by winning five awards for publication excellence.

	Safety Report
	The hazard of combustible dust
	• Issue: 9/2008 • Author: Dean Hamel, Larry Floyd and Tom Hoppe, Ciba Expert Services • Features|Safety Report
	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 devastating impact.

	Special Report
	Getting ahead in maintenance
	• Issue: 9/2008 • Author: Wayne Vaughn, PE, CMRP • Features|Special Report
	Former Harley-Davidson maintenance director Wayne Vaughn shares his insights on how to achieve organizational excellence.

Web Exclusives
	None
	Finding maintenance job candidates in a shallow labor pool
	• Issue: 9/2008 • Author: Bill Wilder, M.Ed. • Web Exclusives|None
	Most organizations today are confronted with a retiring maintenance workforce and a shortage of qualified replacements. The research proving this is legion and widely publicized. What do you (or can you do) about this situation? Bill Wilder provides some thoughts on the subject in this article.

	Ideas about contracting out maintenance work
	• Issue: 9/2008 • Author: Joel Levitt • Web Exclusives|None
	This excellent article by maintenance guru Joel Levitt provides: 15 reasons to hire a maintenance contractor, nine reasons not to hire a contractor, and tips from people in the trenches to make contracting go smoother.

	Lubricants play key role in whiskey manufacturer's success
	• Issue: 9/2008 • Author:  • Web Exclusives|None
	Glenmorangie, a world-renowned whiskey distiller in Scotland, relies on food-grade lubricants to keep its production lines and its "water of life" flowing. Read how lubricants play a key role in this plant's Total Preventive Maintenance program.

	Energy savings make the case for an HVAC upgrade
	• Issue: 9/2008 • Author: Fluke Corporation • Web Exclusives|None
	Power logger devices make it easy for maintenance pros to measure power consumption on individual components in a building, plant or industrial facility. When you start to look at the individual components, it allows you to think in terms of control strategies: How can I control this piece of equipment to reduce energy consumption? How much is it costing me, and what can I do for savings?

	Make safety a priority when employing tool exchange systems
	• Issue: 9/2008 • Author: Applied Robotics Inc. • Web Exclusives|None
	With technological advancements and the rise of a new generation of high-dynamic robots, successful integration of production processes has the potential to yield greater efficiency and productivity. Failure to ensure appropriate safety measures within the production process, however, can pose significant risks with costly ramifications.

	Small things make the biggest difference
	• Issue: 9/2008 • Author: Gary Bradt • Web Exclusives|None
	Often it is the smallest things that make the biggest difference. It is simple in concept and easy to do and can be especially helpful when times are tough and resources are scarce. Always be on the lookout for the next "small idea." With a little forethought and a little effort, you can reap big results. This article from Gary Brandt provides tips and ideas to get you started.

	Lean gamble has paid off for United Southern Industries
	• Issue: 9/2008 • Author:  • Web Exclusives|None
	Custom injection molder United Southern Industries was in a financial crisis a few years back, as were many small and medium-size injection molders due to intense competition from abroad. In 2005, the Forest City, N.C., manufacturer lost business, forcing layoffs. Then its president, Todd Bennett, made a bold move – a calculated gamble. The company made a serious commitment to lean enterprise transformation.

	Five speed bumps that halt your company's profits
	• Issue: 9/2008 • Author: Jay Arthur • Web Exclusives|None
	While many people believe they can't be any faster because they're already too busy, the truth is that you can be a lot faster without being busier. The key is to examine every aspect of your company to see where you have waste, redundancy or just downright slowness. The good news is that you'll likely find that only 4 percent of your processes are causing 50 percent of your troubles. Jay Arthur explains it all in this excellent article.

	How to sustain your 5-S program
	• Issue: 9/2008 • Author: Darren Dolcemascolo • Web Exclusives|None
	Many organizations make some early 5-S improvements and then slide back into their old ways of doing things. Other organizations continue to maintain their 5-S programs for many years. What separates a successful 5-S program from one that is headed for failure? An unsuccessful implementation of 5-S was never a complete 5-S implementation. The fifth "S" stands for "sustain;" if implemented completely, a 5-S program will have longevity. There are three keys to successfully sustaining 5-S: commitment, top management support and performance measurement.

	Powerful lessons points on lean
	• Issue: 9/2008 • Author: Mike Wroblewski, lean sensei, Batesville Casket Company • Web Exclusives|None
	As a lean sensei, Mike Wroblewski tries to live up to the standards set by his Japanese lean sensei as he teaches the way of lean. Although he readily testifies that he is not perfect in his methods and has ample room for improvement, there are teaching moments that he says actually seem like magic. These wonderful, magical moments are where the student and the teacher hit the sweet spot. Things seem to fit together without force. Everything aligns and clicks. Excitement and joy are created, very much like the feeling around Christmas time.

	Are your success pillars in balance?
	• Issue: 9/2008 • Author: Douglas Vermeeren • Web Exclusives|None
	Most people live their lives like they watch TV. The remote control is in their hands and they have the power to change the channel to any show they can possibly imagine. But they don't. There is opportunity to experience anything they can dream. But they don't do anything. They are content to simply watch whatever is on, rather than choose what they really want. The most important beginning principle for creating greatness in your life is to recognize and then utilize the principle of personal power and personal accountability.

	Making preventive maintenance really work for you
	• Issue: 9/2008 • Author: Joel Levitt • Web Exclusives|None
	Is an inspector actually doing the inspection on his or her preventive maintenance task list? That's one of the toughest maintenance problems to solve. Horror stories about maintenance catastrophes often feature task lists that were signed but not performed. Joel Levitt provides solutions to PM challenges in this insightful article.

	Power factor correction: What it can and cannot do
	• Issue: 9/2008 • Author: the U.S. Department of Energy • Web Exclusives|None
	The U.S. Department of Energy's EERE Information Center receives a multitude of questions about the energy savings associated with installation of power factor correction capacitors for electric motors in industrial facilities. In fact, it seems that power factor is poorly understood by many people. This article highlights key questions from industrial customers, and seeks to set the record straight about what power factor correction can and cannot do.

	Business plans are nothing … business planning is everything
	• Issue: 9/2008 • Author: John Baker • Web Exclusives|None
	Dwight Eisenhower, when contemplating the Herculean effort to plan for Operation Overlord (the code name for the invasion of Normandy and northwest Europe during World War II), said, "Plans are nothing. Planning is everything." His considered view was that while both are necessary, plans by their very nature are nothing but static documents, yet planning is a responsive and dynamic action that brings focus to uncertainty.

	Keep employees motivated and engaged in their jobs
	• Issue: 9/2008 • Author:  • Web Exclusives|None
	Employees who are anxious about their futures – especially during a challenging economy such as now – can adversely affect a company's profitability by delivering poor customer service, being less intellectually engaged in their jobs, and making plans to leave, according to research by Sirota Survey Intelligence.

	The top 10 secrets to mastering your personal brand
	• Issue: 9/2008 • Author: Brenda Bence • Web Exclusives|None
	What do Sir Richard Branson, Barack Obama and Suze Orman all have in common? They have each built powerful personal brands that have propelled them to the top of their businesses, their careers and their lives. How did they do it? Like other successful personal branders, they took the time to define, communicate and protect their brands. You can be sure they followed all of the top 10 secrets in this article to reach their great success.

	How to optimize your industrial fan systems
	• Issue: 9/2008 • Author: the U.S. Department of Energy • Web Exclusives|None
	Ron Wroblewski, an Energy Expert through the U.S. Department of Energy, is proficient in optimizing industrial fan systems. He regularly conducts energy assessments to help companies pinpoint ways to save energy and costs. In this article, Ron addresses some common questions about efficiency and operational costs of fan systems. Read this article and discover ways to impact energy usage and the bottom line at your plant.

	CMMS: 50 questions before computerization
	• Issue: 9/2008 • Author: Joel Levitt • Web Exclusives|None
	Before your maintenance organization ventures down the road to computerization, you need to ask yourself 50 questions created by maintenance guru Joel Levitt. They will save you a load of time and money.

	Make the most of equipment time tracking with ERP software
	• Issue: 9/2008 • Author: Payal Sata, supervisor of business process optimization, FEV Inc. • Web Exclusives|None
	This article relates how FEV Incorporated's North American facility adapted functionality already deployed in the company's ERP software to perform functions that were not part of the company's original implementation – specifically equipment time tracking. Rather than making costly expenditures on additional functionality or modifications, FEV's management leveraged the tools they had already implemented, and in a three-month time period were up and running on a new automated process for equipment time tracking.

	How does your leadership style impact process performance?
	• Issue: 9/2008 • Author: Mike Aroney • Web Exclusives|None
	The more variation in how processes are followed, the less effective performance will be. The role of leadership in this situation is to reduce variation in process performance by ensuring their people know what to do, know how to do it, and are held accountable for doing it. In terms of Reliability Excellence, the result of process performance is measured by overall equipment effectiveness (OEE).

	How selfishness eats your company's profits
	• Issue: 9/2008 • Author: Don Schmincke • Web Exclusives|None
	Selfish behavior sucks 20 to 80 percent of productive time out of organizations, with the overall average hovering around 50 percent. Rarely does a company measure this damage to productivity, quality and speed. And the damage extends even further to immeasurable costs – from missed sales opportunities, quality erosion, higher legal exposure, lower competitive advantage, increased waste, employee turnover and poor morale. What's a manager to do? Read this article and find out.

	Communicate with LASER accuracy
	• Issue: 9/2008 • Author: Sam Palazzolo • Web Exclusives|None
	Communication skills are at the crosshairs of success. Whether your communication is done verbally or virtually, your ability to do it effectively, and with influence, will determine your success or failure. Research shows that 80 percent of people feel that they could achieve better results if they were able to communicate better. Millions of us experience communication problems on a regular basis, but in most cases, a simple shift in focus does the trick.

	A look into Toyota's learning organization
	• Issue: 9/2008 • Author: Darren Dolcemascolo • Web Exclusives|None
	In the Toyota Way by Jeffrey Liker, the book's author identifies 14 management principles that make Toyota the world's greatest manufacturer. One of these 14 principles is "Become a Learning Organization." Many have tried to become learning organizations, but, according to Liker, no one has succeeded like Toyota. Toyota's learning organization has three key elements according to Liker. This article touches on each of them.

	Read synopses of lean conference sessions
	• Issue: 9/2008 • Author:  • Web Exclusives|None
	Examine what General Motors, Harley-Davidson, Alcoa, Baxter Healthcare and a host of other companies will be speaking about at Reliable Plant's "Lean Manufacturing 2008: Lean Tools for Maintenance and Reliability" conference, October 6-8 in Chicago.

	Avoid living off of past glory days
	• Issue: 9/2008 • Author: Mike Wroblewski, lean sensei, Batesville Casket Company • Web Exclusives|None
	Lean guru Mike Wroblewski says that we must rely on future improvements for our survival or we will grow weak and die. Celebrate the past – yes. But, the lean journey is about moving forward and not living in the glow of past success. We cannot grow our companies on yesterday's achievements.

	Lean/Six Sigma frees up HR to become strategic partner
	• Issue: 9/2008 • Author:  • Web Exclusives|None
	The workload for human resources is already overwhelming in many organizations and it may seem impossible to add any more work. Using some of the concepts from Six Sigma, specifically the "lean" process management philosophy, can help free up time so you can focus your resources on being more of a strategic business partner in your organization.

	How to 'green' your company's business
	• Issue: 9/2008 • Author: Susan Meredith • Web Exclusives|None
	No matter what size your company is, everyone can contribute to making a greener environment. Each small movement that you make will make everyone more comfortable with the bigger steps that will eventually come.

	Overcoming the five limiting beliefs that hinder success
	• Issue: 9/2008 • Author: Jay Arthur • Web Exclusives|None
	Most people have a limiting belief or two that slows or even halts their success. Unfortunately, the majority of people don't know they have limiting beliefs. As such, they go along day after day doing and saying the same things over and over, all the while wondering why they never reach their goals. The good news is that you can change your limiting beliefs.

	Lean's missing link: Standardized work
	• Issue: 9/2008 • Author: Darren Dolcemascolo • Web Exclusives|None
	Lean guru Darren Dolcemascolo remarks that while most self-proclaimed "lean" factories have mastered the U-shaped cell in terms of layout, one important element is often missing: standardized work charts.

	Quick change using a kaizen team and a good plan
	• Issue: 9/2008 • Author: Mike Wroblewski, lean sensei, Batesville Casket Company • Web Exclusives|None
	How many kaizen team members does it take to change a conveyor? Lean sensei Mike Wroblewski found out the answer at one of Batesville Casket Company's kaizen events recently in Batesville, Ind.

	Incremental changes can lead to exponential results
	• Issue: 9/2008 • Author: Jay Forte • Web Exclusives|None
	Managing in today's economy is not effective with industrial age command-and-control methods; today, managers must inspire and engage to create powerful connections with their employees. All performance is based on these connections.

	Why successful business leaders love history
	• Issue: 9/2008 • Author: Rebecca Staton-Reinstein, Ph.D. • Web Exclusives|None
	Current leaders in business face a faltering economy, an unstable international situation, a credit crunch, fierce competition and shifting demographics. These situations are remarkably similar to the challenges faced by the U.S. leaders who gathered in Philadelphia in 1787 to draft a new constitution and form a government to tackle the issues. Some modern business owners are learning and applying success secrets from these founders.

	Vertical integration squelches 'siren song' of outsourcing
	• Issue: 9/2008 • Author: ICM Controls • Web Exclusives|None
	The siren song of outsourcing is a powerful one. The way to resist it, along with its pitfalls, is to follow a different song that, while not as alluring in the short term, holds far greater promise for long-term success. That name of that song is vertical integration.

	CMMS/EAM implementation: Success or failure
	• Issue: 9/2008 • Author: Mike Willard, Life Cycle Engineering • Web Exclusives|None
	Many companies have purchased a CMMS with the intent that the system will be the silver bullet that solves all the maintenance problems. There are literally hundreds of information management software bundles available today that can be classified as maintenance management suites. CMMS have become more sophisticated and much more capable over the last five years, yet many users feel that their systems have failed to deliver the desired results. Is this due to a preponderance of faulty software or some other, more fundamental flaw? Why aren't these companies realizing the maintenance management improvements that they anticipated? What is causing CMMS software to fail to deliver the goods and can anything be done to alleviate the problems that seem to plague so many facility maintenance departments? This paper tells two stories: one of an implementation that failed and one that was a success.

	The death of the maintenance department, and what we can do about it
	• Issue: 9/2008 • Author: Joel Levitt • Web Exclusives|None
	Sometime in the 1990s, the plant maintenance department as we knew it died. The people who carried out good maintenance practices such as PMs got laid off. We lost the planners, maintenance engineers and support people who made the systems work. The old paradigms and strategies don't apply in the new corporate order. We must ask fundamental structural questions about what types of tasks maintenance personnel should do and who should do maintenance tasks.

	New motor technologies boost system efficiency
	• Issue: 9/2008 • Author: the U.S. Department of Energy • Web Exclusives|None
	Two new motor technologies, a motor controller for HVAC systems and the copper rotor motor, are now commercially available and offering energy savings, reliability and reduced operational costs for manufacturers.

	Fire up your employees: Invite, incite and ignite performance
	• Issue: 9/2008 • Author: Jay Forte • Web Exclusives|None
	Your team's performance is just average; they do just enough to get by. Their work doesn't excite them. They have to be constantly watched, even to do the basics. You are afraid to travel and leave them on their own. You catch them playing on the computer and hear talk of what other jobs are paying. Achieving performance and financial targets is a constant struggle. Sound the alarm … you are suffering from smoldering employees; they have the embers of performance, but no fire.

	Transform your fear into focus!
	• Issue: 9/2008 • Author: Waldo Waldman • Web Exclusives|None
	The greatest deterrent to success in life is fear. It drains our ambition, denies us power, and strangles our ability to overcome the challenges we face in our personal and professional lives. When we let fear control us, we are destined to fail. When we control our fear and channel that energy in productive ways, we win.