You don't have to be a genius to recognize that a lot of money is tied up in MRO inventory ... especially if your business requires the use of capital-intensive equipment. Literally millions of dollars are tied up in spare parts for day-to-day plant maintenance, repair and operations.

In many cement plants, energy amounts to as much as 50 percent of variable costs. But California Portland Cement Company is standing firm on reducing its energy costs and lowering process emissions by implementing a corporate energy management program. Among the many benefits so far, the program has saved the company $3 million.

Wallboard manufacturer American Gypsum knows it must maintain a continuous production process to remain competitive. That's why its plant in Colorado set out to find a CMMS system that would improve how the maintenance department tracked equipment history.

What do you do when your company's quality manual has more than twice the number of words as are found in the U.S. Constitution? In Mike Wroblewski's case, he put together a kaizen team that examined the 55-page document and revised it into a seven-page manual that includes only the information that is meaningful and important.

Knowledge – in the form of advanced education and ongoing tech support – helps wring maximum benefit out of HALT (Highly Accelerated Life Testing) and HASS (Highly Accelerated Stress Screening) programs for companies focused on product reliability and rapid time to market.

If you want to prove the success of your condition-based maintenance program to management, you must have clear, compelling data to back it up. Columnist John Schultz provides the details in this informative article.

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