by Bob Williamson, CMRP, CPMM, MIAM, Editor | May 31, 2022 | Newsletter Column, RAM Tools & Methods, Workforce Issues
If there were ever a time to get serious about lean manufacturing, it’s now. The vision of doing more with less of everything may very well be the new reality in our upside-down, post-pandemic world. But it’s not going to be easy for some businesses that...
by Bob Williamson, CMRP, CPMM, MIAM, Editor | May 23, 2022 | Newsletter Column, Workforce Issues
Growing worker shortages and higher-than-usual turnover of junior workers have perplexed almost every business sector in America since early 2021. While shortages of qualified employees can be geographic and/or business-centered, one huge variable that affects...
by Bob Williamson, CMRP, CPMM, MIAM, Editor | May 16, 2022 | Newsletter Column, Workforce Issues
The answer to staffing for reliability, availability, and maintenance (RAM) improvements may not be outside your plant but inside. Sure, sites are facing some mighty big headwinds these days. This staffing-related one, though, is the biggest I’ve seen in over four...
by Bob Williamson, CMRP, CPMM, MIAM, Editor | May 9, 2022 | Newsletter Column, Workforce Issues
When I think about “reliability” of anything, I think of “consistency,” i.e., uniformity, stability, dependability, same way all the time. Likewise, equipment reliability is all about consistency. But establishing consistency among numerous variables isn’t...
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 Howard Penrose, Ph.D., CMRP | Apr 10, 2022 | The Sustainable Plant, Workforce Issues
We’re now back to face-to-face meetings in Washington, DC. The last in-person meetings with legislators and Federal agencies were in 2020. This year, the focus through Business Leaders United, SMRP, and American Clean Power (ACP), was on the JOBS Act, other...
by Heinz Bloch, P.E., Editor | Mar 20, 2022 | Plant Operations, The Bloch Files, Workforce Issues
All the book-learning in the world will fail us if we don’t use common sense. We could also say that we need to think things through and should recognize that intuitive logic can lead us astray. If that sounds like semantic banter, let’s zero in on three practical...
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 | 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...
