by Bob Williamson, CMRP, CPMM, MIAM, Editor | Mar 21, 2022 | Newsletter Column, RAM Tools & Methods
Back in the day (the late 1970s and early 1980s, to be exact), we learned from Philip B. Crosby’s book that “Quality is Free.” Crosby’s basic concept was based on his “zero defects” quality-improvement approach. This landmark approach was initially...
by Bob Williamson, CMRP, CPMM, MIAM, Editor | Mar 7, 2022 | Newsletter Column, Plant Operations
Machine-downtime tracking is a fundamental, foundational, most basic component of any reliability-improvement effort. Yet in many plants, I’ve noticed that any form of machine-downtime tracking is the responsibility of the Maintenance Department. Contrary to...
by Bob Williamson, CMRP, CPMM, MIAM, Editor | Feb 27, 2022 | RAM Tools & Methods
All too often, downtime tracking isn’t done with root-cause analysis and problem-solving in mind. The high end of the Pareto chart catches our attention as the most penalizing downtime. But we will be further from solving the problem when tracking downtime...
by Bob Williamson, CMRP, CPMM, MIAM, Editor | Feb 19, 2022 | RAM Tools & Methods, Workforce Issues
Reliability-improvement goals and activities are often focused within a “reliability movement,” rather than on overall business goals. These types of efforts tend to emphasize maintenance improvements, such as, among other things, PM optimization, robust predictive...
by Bob Williamson, CMRP, CPMM, MIAM, Editor | Feb 15, 2022 | Newsletter Column, Plant Operations
Supply-chain interruptions are still with us. In fact, for many business sectors, there seems to be almost no end in sight. Add to these interruptions the rising prices of goods and services. As a result, there will be many opportunities for decisions that undermine...
by Bob Williamson, CMRP, CPMM, MIAM, Editor | Feb 7, 2022 | Newsletter Column, RAM's Human Factor
My Jan. 31, 2022, newsletter column, “Can We Get Maintenance Staffing Levels Right?” (see link below), responded to an age-old question: “How can I determine the optimum maintenance-technician staffing levels for my plant?” I argued that there’s no reliable...
by Bob Williamson, CMRP, CPMM, MIAM, Editor | Jan 31, 2022 | Newsletter Column, RAM's Human Factor
There is a recurring, age-old question that one would think easy to answer. “How can I determine the optimum maintenance- technician staffing levels for my plant?” Some would say it’s easy. But I would argue there is no reliable international standard for...
by Bob Williamson, CMRP, CPMM, MIAM, Editor | Jan 24, 2022 | Plant Operations, Workforce Issues
The scarcity of talented people entering today’s workplace seems to be a growing problem. While some manufacturing and other equipment-intensive operations struggle to meet customer (and supply-chain) demands, some are viewing this as an opportunity, not a problem....
by Bob Williamson, CMRP, CPMM, MIAM, Editor | Jan 17, 2022 | Beyond RAM, Newsletter Column, Workforce Issues
I grimace when major-newspaper editorialists beat up on manufacturing because of workers leaving, excessive job openings, and an overall decline in jobs. They’re looking at data. What do they know about how manufacturing works? And what do they really know about...
by Bob Williamson, CMRP, CPMM, MIAM, Editor | Jan 10, 2022 | Asset Management
It has been said before: All data is not created equal. In my “Dispatches From The Plant” newsletter column of Jan. 4, 2022 (see link below), I touched on the dark and bright sides of the data tsunamis flowing into (and through) plant environments...
