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 Drew Troyer, CRE, CMRP, T.A. Cook/Accenture, Editor | Mar 8, 2020 | Newsletter Column, Plant Operations, Workforce Issues
Famed management guru Peter Drucker was spot on years ago, when he coined the phrase “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” That statement is just as true today as it was back then. Make no mistake: Drucker was not discounting the importance of strategy. Rather, he...
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...
by Drew Troyer, CRE, CMRP, T.A. Cook/Accenture, Editor | Feb 21, 2020 | Asset Management, Plant Operations, RAM's Human Factor
Many “programs” intended to improve the reliability of plant assets provide only fleeting value before the organization drifts back into its old “business as usual” mode. The situation is easy to spot: Simply ask people why they execute a process in a particular way,...
by Bob Williamson, CMRP, CPMM, MIAM, Editor | Feb 14, 2020 | Asset Management, Plant Operations
We all face challenges in our day-to-day work—challenges that sometimes really test our skills. But we make it through fairly unscathed. OK, maybe a bit scratched up, bruised, worn out. That’s what we run into quite often in the world of industrial maintenance. Our...
by Drew Troyer, CRE, CMRP, T.A. Cook/Accenture, Editor | Feb 8, 2020 | Plant Operations, The Sustainable Plant
The manufacturing, mining and metals, and process industries have always had a tenuous relationship with the subject of environmental sustainability. These industries, by definition, use enormous amounts of natural resources, energy, and water and tend to directly and...
by Bob Williamson, CMRP, CPMM, MIAM, Editor | Jan 24, 2020 | Plant Operations, Workforce Issues
We are well into an economic boom and a talent bust. The economy is stronger than it has been for decades. But the skilled talent needed to continue fueling that type of booming economy is in extremely short supply—shorter than it has ever been since World War II....
by Bob Williamson, CMRP, CPMM, MIAM, Editor | Jan 17, 2020 | Maintenance Management, Plant Operations
In this era of shortages in skills and labor, many small- and mid-sized businesses are turning to an ever-growing number of affordable automation technologies. But, it’s not necessarily traditional automation that’s attracting their attention. Take robotics for...
