by Heinz Bloch, P.E., Editor | Apr 24, 2022 | Asset Management, Plant Operations, The Bloch Files
Engineering Procurement and Construction contractors (EPCs) will sometimes ask about literature that discusses practical steps for switching back and forth from preservation to operating modes when using oil mist. Still others will occasionally relay requests from...
by Heinz Bloch, P.E., Editor | Apr 18, 2022 | Asset Management, The Bloch Files, Workforce Issues
Some time ago, a never-before commissioned nuclear plant was about to start up 29 years after it was built. In our editorial capacity with another publication, we received a question from a Reliability Professional at the site who brought up a concern related to the...
by Drew Troyer, CRE, CMRP, T.A. Cook/Accenture, Editor | Apr 10, 2022 | Asset Management, Plant Operations
Many organizations are actively undertaking an upgrade of their Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) and/or Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. This represents a tremendous opportunity to align the configuration to better meet the needs of the business and create...
by Heinz Bloch, P.E., Editor | Apr 10, 2022 | Asset Management, Professional Development, The Bloch Files
Some liquids are not easy to pump, and ammonia is probably one of them. A number of years ago, a reader contacted us regarding issues he encountered with pumps in ammonia service. A bit of exasperation caused him to write to two colleagues with whom he shared...
by Bob Williamson, CMRP, CPMM, MIAM, Editor | Apr 4, 2022 | Asset Management, Plant Operations
We face challenging situations every day. In many cases, dealing with short-term challenges is basically a normal way of life for a maintenance organization. The real problems are our long-term challenges, the ones at our doorstep or looming just over the horizon that...
by Drew Troyer, CRE, CMRP, T.A. Cook/Accenture, Editor | Apr 3, 2022 | Asset Management, RAM Tools & Methods
Over the past six months, I’ve focused on high-level metrics and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for asset management. We’ve addressed Mean Time Between/To Failure (MTBF/MTTR), Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) and its associated loss categories, Return on Net...
by Heinz Bloch, P.E., Editor | Mar 27, 2022 | Asset Management, Plant Operations, The Bloch Files
“XYZ” (obviously not his real initials), a manager for “MPP,” whose products are process pumps, told me his company was working on the thrust chamber design for their new horizontal pump. I was interested because millions of process pumps would benefit from...
by Howard Penrose, Ph.D., CMRP | Mar 26, 2022 | Asset Management, RAM Tools & Methods
One message floating around the physical-asset management community is that “reliability and maintenance are an income.” It resonates deeply given the fact everyone wants to feel that whatever we do is important to our organizations. Maintenance is clearly...
by Drew Troyer, CRE, CMRP, T.A. Cook/Accenture, Editor | Mar 20, 2022 | Asset Management, RAM Tools & Methods
Continuing with our focus on metrics and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), let’s carry on with our discussion of the balance sheet, i.e., the denominator in the Return on Net Assets (RONA) equation that has been addressed in previous installments of The RAM Review)....
by Howard Penrose, Ph.D., CMRP | Mar 20, 2022 | Asset Management, The Sustainable Plant
These days, there is ample hype, not to mention plenty of articles, on digital transformation, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning (ML). So much that even those of us in the midst of such discussions tend to get confused. The terms and their...
