Newsletter May 2001

New course available: Optimizing the Maintenance Inventory. 1 or 2 days includes 50 page text and casebook. Just reply and ask for the write-up on the new Optimizing the Maintenance Inventory course.

Dear Maintenance Professional:
Had two great courses in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. I wanted to relate to you the maintenance management issues faced in Southeast Asia. You may find some kinship with the issues they face. (Check the web site www.maintrainer.com for my schedule click the public sessions button) Over 50 maintenance professionals attended the courses from manufacturing, building maintenance, and fleet maintenance. Most had some level of CMMS. Overall they were very savvy groups mostly from larger organizations.  The topics that came up:

  1. Difficulty in finding qualified trades people.
  2. Proper use and management of contractors
  3. Difficulty in getting parts from overseas including the US, Europe and Japan. And the related issue of pressure from management to reduce inventory levels.
  4. Difficulty of getting technical documentation in understandable formats.
  5. The issues presented when companies increase production and can't allow PM and routine maintenance in the schedule.

Sound familiar?  The discussions were great and they were surprised that Europe and the US are facing the same problems.

Tip: On electrical PM tasklists
Most of us have electrical PMs that say something like “tighten connection.” If the task instructions are taken literally, the electrician will eventually over-tighten the connection. Depending on the type of connection this could lead to premature failures. For example, studies have shown that ring terminals will cup if you tighten the bolt too much. The cupping allows corrosion to work its way underneath.

The proper wording should be something like “loosen and re tighten connection.”  Of course a torque specification (based on the bolt size) is the most accurate.

Good Luck
Joel

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Joel Levitt, President Springfield Resources 
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Visit:  http://www.maintrainer.com