by Heinz Bloch, P.E., Editor | Feb 6, 2022 | Asset Management, Plant Operations, The Bloch Files
We recently received a compliment from someone in South America. In his introduction, he wrote, “I am a mechanical engineer working on power-plant designs for a major corporation and admire your work as a writer of turbomachinery books. Your texts are much respected,...
by Drew Troyer, CRE, CMRP, T.A. Cook/Accenture, Editor | Feb 6, 2022 | Asset Management, RAM Tools & Methods
For most of 2021, my articles for The RAM Review focused on the various metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) for equipment-asset management. I started with a series on proactive leading indicators such as Overall Vibration Effectiveness (OVE) and Overall...
by Ken Bannister, MEch (UK), CMRP, MLE, Editor | Feb 6, 2022 | Asset Management, Lubrication Corner
Part 1 of this article regarding a cradle-to-cradle approach to lubricant management (Jan. 30, 2022, see link below) laid out a blueprint for understanding and documenting a site’s lubricant current state. This blueprint is used to build a crucial...
by Ken Bannister, MEch (UK), CMRP, MLE, Editor | Jan 30, 2022 | Asset Management, Lubrication Corner
Lubricants are often thought of as a machine’s lifeblood. If they are to protect machine investment and perform as designed, their needs and end-user requirements must be understood and met with diligence. Getting the most out of your lubricants calls for a...
by Howard Penrose, Ph.D., CMRP | Jan 30, 2022 | Asset Management, Electrical Reliability
One of the more interesting issues with which we’ve been wrestling since the early 1990s is how to evaluate the efficiency of an electric motor in the field. Sounds simple, but even now, the discussion continues among academia, manufacturers, end-users,...
by Heinz Bloch, P.E., Editor | Jan 23, 2022 | Asset Management, RAM Tools & Methods, The Bloch Files
Just as good medical doctors are expected to know much about modern treatment options, we should also expect reliability professionals to be informed on advances in technology. Conscientious reliability professionals will take advantage of books, articles, editorial...
by Howard Penrose, Ph.D., CMRP | Jan 23, 2022 | Asset Management, Electrical Reliability
As with most industries, electric-motor repair has good and bad actors. I remember part of my training with Dreisilker Electric back in the early 1990s. If we lost a repair job to a lower-cost service company, we would take a current reading at a specific load and...
by Drew Troyer, CRE, CMRP, T.A. Cook/Accenture, Editor | Jan 17, 2022 | Asset Management, RAM Tools & Methods
Happy New Year! I hope all readers had a pleasant and restful Festive Season. I’m kicking off 2022 with a continuation of my discussion on lagging metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) for asset management. Here, we’re turning our attention to Quality,...
by Ken Bannister, MEch (UK), CMRP, MLE, Editor | Jan 15, 2022 | Asset Management, RAM Tools & Methods
In my newsletter column of Jan. 10, 2022, (see link below), I wrote that as a maintenance calendar winds down, our thoughts often turn to events of the year past. At that point, it is not unusual to question the effectiveness of our current approach to maintenance. Do...
by Howard Penrose, Ph.D., CMRP | Jan 15, 2022 | Asset Management, The Sustainable Plant
The success of reliability and maintenance (R&M) programs ebb and flow depending on the flavor of the month. Frequently those programs gain legs because of some catastrophic incident. Or, perhaps, they are used as a way to reduce headcount based on common business...
