Archive for the ‘Condition Based Maintenance’ Category

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Domtar Espanola wins Uptime Award for Best Asset Health Management Program

Wednesday, December 14th, 2011
Domtar Expanola wins Uptime award for Best Asset Health Management Program

Leaders in the maintenance reliability community met to honor fellow maintenance reliability professionals for their outstanding achievements and to celebrate individual excellence at the Uptime® Magazine Best Maintenance Reliability Program Awards at the International Maintenance Conference held Dec. 5 – 8, 2011.

Ivara customer, Domtar Espanola won Best Asset Health Management Program.

I wanted to highlight one of their leaders, Kim Hunt. Kim spoke in several sessions at the IMC conference and I was so impressed with her passion for establishing a reliability culture. Kim is the Reliability Manager at Domtar’s Pulp and Paper Mill in Espanola, Ontario. She specializes in lubrication, planning, predictive tools, CMMS implementation and the development and implementation of the Ivara EXP condition based asset management program (referred at Domtar as “RDM” – Reliability Driven Maintenance). Kim believes that leadership, commitment, teamwork and persistence are key to Domtar successfully weathering the challenging market conditions.

Congratulations to the team at Domtar.

Link to Uptime Magazine Q&A with the winners… http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/reliabilityweb/uptime_20121201/#/62

December 14th, 2011      Condition Based Maintenance - Implementation Success - Process & Practices - Strategy & Leadership   Leave a Comment »

Moving from Time-Based to Condition Based Maintenance

Tuesday, January 4th, 2011

Scott Peich, Reliability Program Leader, at ArcelorMittal speaks at the Ivara Reliability Leadership Summit on the value of having Inspectors and Planners working with Tradespeople to help them do their jobs better and more efficiently.

January 4th, 2011      Condition Based Maintenance   Leave a Comment »

CBM and Reliability for Today’s Maintenance Supervisor

Friday, October 1st, 2010

As seen on Reliabilityweb.com, Florian Lenders, Vice President of Ivara, recorded this short 8 minute video on CBM and Reliability for Today’s Maintenance  Supervisor

Move away from wading through a text-based work order system. Instead, move towards managing equipment by exception, using condition-based indicators. Gain a better understanding of what to inspect while standardizing the way data is collected and reported. Track and trend equipment condition degradation and put in place a complete method of inspecting and managing your equipment. (Click “play” below)

October 1st, 2010      Condition Based Maintenance   Leave a Comment »

Maintenance in a mobile world –and still get reliability

Tuesday, May 25th, 2010

One of our customers, PG&E, had challenges using a paper-based inspection system covering a 70,000-square-mile service area. They found it very labor intensive, there were lots of duplicate entries, inconsistent inspection criteria, difficult to see trends or identify systemic problems, and there was a general lack of data validation. Many details typically get lost in transcribing from paper to system. It’s hard to see the big picture and takes too long to act on recommendations.

What they did in just 3 months was translate all their paper definitions into Ivara EXP’s mobile application on Panasonic Toughbooks. They have condition indicators, states, task templates, standard tasks plus the definition of the corrective tasks to trigger in SAP. All the corrective work parameters are defined in SAP. They use bar coding to identify equipment being inspected which allows for flexible routing of activity. They insert work instructions for collecting a reading directly on each indicator and use feedback from the field to tune the program.

Reliability has definitely gone mobile at PG&E –they now have visibility to asset data, their SAP work orders, current and historical condition information in a disconnected mode. They are empowered to make fast and accurate maintenance decisions based on accepted best practices and real-time asset health. Here’s a link to their story: http://www.ivara.com/content/PDFs/ivara_expremote_casestudy.pdf .

Jerry Olsen and John Wysocki of PG&E recorded a webinar with all the details of their success… if you want the details on their mobile solution, request it here:

CBM at Pacific Gas & Electric- Ivara EXP & SAP PM enables Mobile Workforce to Achieve Cost-Efficient Reliability & Compliance

May 25th, 2010      Condition Based Maintenance - Developments in EXP - Implementation Success   Leave a Comment »

Value of having your CBM and shop floor integrated

Friday, March 12th, 2010

The value of a conditioned based maintenance system, fully integrated to your other CBM tools/equipment? I couldn’t state its value better than one of our customers did recently… 

“Using the Ivara EXP software Asset Health Monitoring Panel, I noticed a trend. The equipment was showing an increase in vibration that would not have been detected until much too late.  We caught the signature change and determined it was a greasing issue. We corrected the automatic grease system, saving substantial repair time.  A very impressive demonstration to our maintenance and operations team of the value of EXP.  Everyone is for CBM and I am impressed with Ivara.”

March 12th, 2010      Condition Based Maintenance   Leave a Comment »

Maintenance Tips: Inspection & Inspectors

Friday, January 15th, 2010

by Brian Flett, Director Project Management, Ivara

How you Define your Inspection Program can mean the Difference Between Success and Failure

Poor performing assets result in lost production, poor product quality, late deliveries, accidents, incidents, and even major catastrophes. We need to balance risk and cost. On average, a capital-intensive manufacturing facility will identify 200 or more modes per one million dollars in assets. If we don’t know what those failure modes are, or the likelihood of them occurring, then we are turning a blind eye on the risk they pose to your organization.

To start, we need to regularly inspect and monitor trends in the condition of our assets. But how we record inspections and respond to failure modes can have a huge impact on financial results.

Make it Easier for your Inspectors and Reap the Benefits in Asset Performance

Inspection results are often vague and subjective because they tend not to accurately specify the severity of equipment condition. When results are open to interpretation like OK/Normal or Not OK/Abnormal, maintenance plans cannot be optimized. This may lead to maintenance being performed too early or too late, causing more costly maintenance than necessary. We need to be more specific in how we define inspections to ensure accurate and consistent recording of equipment condition.

Make it easy for any inspector by predefining condition severities that can be selected when doing the inspection. This leaves the guesswork out of it. Ivara EXP Enterprise is a tool that allows us to set predefined severity states for each piece of equipment. By using these predefined states during an inspection, we can identify the equipment’s actual state and compare its performance against its normal condition. Once we have enough data about equipment that we have inspected using these severity states, we can track and trend equipment performance. This will provide the information we need to perform the right corrective work at the right time.

To find out more about how Ivara EXP can help you make condition inspections easy, come back to our blog next month to read the next Ivara tip!

January 15th, 2010      Condition Based Maintenance - Implementation Success   Leave a Comment »

Making automation data part of the maintenance process

Saturday, October 10th, 2009

Automation has revolutionized industry and allowed us to produce more and do more in less time and with fewer resources. However, the majority of automated systems integrate well for operations, but not maintenance.We spend all of this time and effort automating operations, and then manually gather information on this equipment to maintain it.

Most often automated machines come with their own diagnostics, which are then manually gathered by our maintenance professionals and manually compared in order to determine the health of the asset. Some of these automated systems update so frequently that manual gathering or monitoring of the information often misses vital trends that if recognized could help to avoid downtime or even dangerous situations.

Ivara’s On-Line Data Collection (ODC) helps to complete the journey to automation and fully realize the efficiency of your process. Free up valuable time for your maintenance professionals and allow Ivara’s ODC to collect information already provided by your machinery.

Ivara ODC can integrate with your various systems, gather and compare information to provide operations and maintenance with a dashboard of health indicators in one program to allow for more efficient and expedient deployment of resources. Ivara ODC will empower your workforce to focus on making decisions instead of on symptom gathering.

Ivara ODC will collect, consolidate and analyze condition indicators from automated online sources of data, so you can make timely and informed maintenance decisions. Analyze data from:

  • Online control systems and sensors
  • Data historians including OSIsoft’s PI
  • Predictive technology data such as oil analysis, vibration, thermography
  • OPC standard data sources
  • External ODBC Databases
  • MS Excel

Ivara is a member of the OPC Foundation and MIMOSA.

October 10th, 2009      Condition Based Maintenance - Developments in EXP   Leave a Comment »

Ivara Remote: Un-tethering the asset care workforce

Thursday, August 20th, 2009

Un-tether the asset care workforce with a mobile solution for accomplishing daily activities. When working remotely, we still need access to critical information. With a more technically savvy work force and larger, complex, and connected facilities and work sites, Ivara Remote has you covered.

Ivara Remote is used independently of Ivara in a disconnected environment. It is a simplified version of the Ivara desktop application that provides basic functions relevant for use in a remote location. It allows users to go to remote locations for extended periods of time (for example, for a few hours or even weeks at a time), while having direct access to the information required for the tasks they need to perform.

Ivara Remote supports both a Zero to Landfill approach and Lean Maintenance by:

  • Eliminating the need to print out work orders and reducing paper consumption and disposal
  • Streamlining maintenance technician reporting by eliminating the traditional write information on paper and later inputting into the CMMS system
  • Providing the maintenance technicians and operators the ability to enter new work requests in the field as they are conducting inspections, even remote locations
  • Provides instant access to an asset’s history and information eliminating guesswork and work delay
  • Ensuring that all maintenance technicians are checking assets in the same way
  • Instant notification of out of specification conditions to expedite evaluation and execution of remedial actions and/or planning

Ivara Remote includes the ability to carry out the following tasks:

  • Create checksheets from standard tasks
  • Enter condition indicator readings
  • View the maintenance program (standard tasks) for an asset
  • View indicator information
  • Mark indicator alarms as fixed during inspection
  • Create work requests, and send them for approval
  • View work order tasks, including indicators to read and procedures to follow
  • Report activity, enter readings and comments against tasks, and close them
  • View the asset hierarchy and basic information for each asset

Ivara Remote runs on a mobile computer such as a Tablet PC or a laptop and has the same look and feel as Ivara EXP. To support running in a disconnected environment, each remote com­puter has its own separate database. Remote databases are periodi­cally synchronized with the Ivara master database depending on the need of the environment. And like the Ivara EXP Enterprise software, Ivara Remote is fully definable. The application can easily be extended using tailoring.

August 20th, 2009      Condition Based Maintenance - Developments in EXP   Leave a Comment »

Change is required to improve in Maintenance, RCM is a positive change…

Thursday, July 23rd, 2009

The reason to change any process including manufacturing or maintenance is desire for improvement; to be better than your competition.

 

In today’s world, the main driving force for change is quality (of product, service, and work) and cost reduction. To improve quality or save money you need to introduce some sort of change; you need to modify, transform or completely move away from your current practices. We all know that in order to succeed in any change, the entire organization (from top to bottom) needs to understand the necessity for change and be dedicated and supportive in adopting it. The same applies within the Maintenance organization.

 

RCM is a positive change for the maintenance process –and inspection routes are one of the most important aspects to implement from RCM. Why?

 

If you are not observing equipment condition continuously –either with some sort of continuous monitoring system (Condition Based Maintenance) or with inspection routes,  then your maintenance department will never move away from being reactive. It is virtually impossible to continuously monitor an entire system, or where possible, it can be very expensive. Many companies are now using a combination of both or using only inspection routes with Maintenance Management responsible for Inspector training and motivation, as well as route optimization. The reason for this is that the majority of RCM action plans call for human sense inspections that can only be achieved by inspections and routes.

 

Recording data during an inspection can be a painful process especially if you’re printing out routes and entering data manually into CMMS. But with use of handheld computers (which Ivara offers), the entire process is automated. An Inspector enters his inspection data into the handheld. He/she is immediately warned of any out of normal readings based on pre-set thresholds. When the route is done, all data is transferred wirelessly into Ivara EXP, providing Maintenance with a centralized view of all condition data from all sources. With this centralized view of essentially real-time data, Maintenance is empowered to make informed decisions, ensuring the right work send to the CMMS for completion.

 

With diligence to this proactive process, inspection routes catch equipment failures in early stages which results in saving money, time and effort. The whole game is about equipment uptime; elimination of unwanted long downtimes and costly repairs.

July 23rd, 2009      Condition Based Maintenance - Implementation Success - Process & Practices - RCM   Leave a Comment »

Implementing RCM–Tips for training trades on executing routes when they have no prior reliability experience or training

Tuesday, June 30th, 2009

You’ve done RCM, now what? A key part of implementing RCM is getting the condition monitoring routes required to maintain the equipment into action. Here are a few practical tips for RCM Implementors to ensure tradespeople that have no prior reliability experience or training will conduct the condition inspection routes essential to the success of the new program:

  • At first, arrange with the supervisors or managers who are familiar with RCM and have them explain to the Inspectors/Operators the changes in the program and what are you planning to do on the floor.
  • Be very friendly – take the time to get to know people, exchange pleasantries, it makes a difference –and be good listener. Always finish by thanking –say “Thanks for your time”. Show some appreciation for this essential work.
  • You will likely have to repeat yourself several times, so be patient. Soon enough, you will see results. Share those results with the Inspectors / Operators.
  • Never show your disappointment or dissatisfaction. If you show any type of negative feelings you may destroy all chances of getting anything done.
  • If the Inspectors/Operators get discouraged, spend the time to encourage them. Tell them “Yeah, I know it’s difficult but you’ll pick it up. It took me a while too, but don’t worry. And –I’ll keep coming to show you until you can do it yourself”.
  • When they say “We don’t check that equipment very much” remind them why we are doing RCM, they will tend to easily forget because they have been doing the same thing for the past 20-30 years. Be firm yet polite.
  • Make sure they have the proper training and reference materials on how to use the handheld devices used to conduct the inspections.
  • When necessary, make sure you inform and utilize area supervisors/managers if you are having a hard time.
  • Be patient. Certain people will pick up quickly on how to use the handhelds; some people will take a long time. You may have to walk through the routes with Inspectors/Operators until they are comfortable.
  • Use wording that the operators/inspectors will be familiar with (there is a possibility they have never heard terms like “route”; use “checksheet” for example).
  • For route validation try to get in touch (as per area manager/supervisor recommendation) with the best Inspectors/Operators).
  • Show willingness to prepare/structure routes as much as possible the way they like it.
  • If necessary, use paper routes at the beginning for max. 4 weeks and show them how to enter data into the handhelds. Then involve them in entering data onto handheld and little by little transfer entire process onto the handhelds.

June 30th, 2009      Condition Based Maintenance - Process & Practices   2 Comments »

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