by Bob Williamson, CMRP, CPMM, MIAM, Editor | Apr 25, 2020 | Learning from Mistakes, Plant Operations
What is about to happen could be a tsunami of reshoring critical manufacturing. Numerous supply chains have been interrupted by the COVID-19 virus pandemic. But, more important, many people at all levels of the business world have realized that our critical supply...
by Bob Williamson, CMRP, CPMM, MIAM, Editor | Apr 19, 2020 | Newsletter Column, Workforce Issues
Writing is a chore for some and a creative outlet for others. Writing columns and articles for The RAM Review is an important task for those of us who do it. In my opinion, though, writing about what we know, what we have learned, what we have experienced (good, bad,...
by Bob Williamson, CMRP, CPMM, MIAM, Editor | Apr 10, 2020 | Training & Qualification, Workforce Issues
Most of us associated with plant operations and maintenance were excited about learning to make and fix things while we were in school. But that rarely seems to happen in today’s schools. Basically, our model was learning by doing. More accurately, it was probably the...
by Bob Williamson, CMRP, CPMM, MIAM, Editor | Apr 5, 2020 | Maintenance Management, Newsletter Column
I was talking with a maintenance-manager friend a few days ago about various topics, including the impact of the COVID-19 crisis. Because his manufacturing plant supplies the automotive industry, it’s been ramping down toward a total shutdown. Despite the almost...
by Bob Williamson, CMRP, CPMM, MIAM, Editor | Mar 27, 2020 | Training & Qualification
One of the toughest challenges in teaching and coaching is when the would-be learner responds by saying “I know how to do it.” I’m sure such individuals are absolutely, positively convinced they know how to do “it” (whatever “it” may be). The question we as teachers...
by Bob Williamson, CMRP, CPMM, MIAM, Editor | Mar 21, 2020 | Plant Operations, RAM Tools & Methods
Operator involvement in equipment care is a fundamental of reliability improvement and offers many benefits, starting with the fact that there are more equipment operators than maintainers. Other benefits come from the fact that: ♦ Operators are closer to the...
by Bob Williamson, CMRP, CPMM, MIAM, Editor | Mar 15, 2020 | Learning from Mistakes, Plant Operations
Automation, networking, data acquisition, machine analytics, Industry 4.0, Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). . . what’s next? For those of us who are comfortable working with our robust, tried and true legacy machines, equipment and systems, all this talk about...
by Bob Williamson, CMRP, CPMM, MIAM, Editor | Mar 7, 2020 | Plant Operations, RAM Tools & Methods
Overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) has been used as one of the more important manufacturing metrics since Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) came to the U.S. in the late 1980s. It’s the primary measure used in TPM to identify and quantify the major...
by Bob Williamson, CMRP, CPMM, MIAM, Editor | Mar 1, 2020 | Plant Operations, Workforce Issues
As a presenter at a recent conference, I attended sessions on topics of maintenance, workforce development, and automated-handling and -sorting systems. Intriguing discussions on the “Fourth Industrial Revolution” a recurring theme of business and industrial...
by Bob Williamson, CMRP, CPMM, MIAM, Editor | Feb 24, 2020 | Newsletter Column, Plant Operations, Workforce Issues
The spreading coronavirus epidemic in China and elsewhere will most likely show us how a global supply chain can be interrupted by an unanticipated human cause. A localized human health emergency rarely affects global businesses. But, when the virus in a global supply...
