Why a Closer Look?
Most industries can benefit from a Closer Look in many of their operations. Even in the best run operations, there are still issues festering in some out-of-the-way part of your process, just waiting for an inopportune time to rear its ugly head.
In the photo, we see the size of the grit this plant was wanting to filter out on my finger. The baskets in use are in the background. This was in a good running plant that used many maintenance technologies. They had in place effective planning, vibration, infrared, ultrasound, oil, and motor analysis programs. Yet, those strainers were being used when finer mesh strainers and filter bags were available. They needed a Closer Look.
The Purpose
The purpose of this website will be to attempt to shed light on topics that you subscribers raise as problems in your operations or seem to be of general interest by taking a Closer Look.
“Unfortunately, complete thoughts aren’t expressed in Bullet Points”
I will publish some of the hundreds of Case Studies and Field Service Reports I’ve accumulated over the last 40 years working as a Maintenance Manager and Reliability Engineer for a Fortune 500 Company, a Reliability Engineer for a Maintenance and Reliability Engineering firm, and my own Reliability Consulting shop. All documents will have company and individuals names redacted where appropriate. Unfortunately, complete thoughts aren’t expressed in Bullet Points though, so some of my text will be somewhat long by current standards or attention spans. Not sure what can be done to fix that with the exception of my attempting brevity.
In the early 1980s, I was attending every vibration class I heard of, attempting to sort out and get straight in my mind the mountain of information presented, but it just wasn’t registering with me. I saw too many conflicts in the rules-based presentations versus what I saw in the real world at the plant. Plus analog instruments were all that was available at the time. The case studies presented in these classes always seemed of greatest value to me. I loved the logic used and clear explanations of solutions. Some of which I was able to apply directly in my plant. Eventually, I attended a vibration class that clicked in my mind and it fell into place.
The Hope
I hope some of the material I will present here will be of value to you and your operation. Maybe boosting OE numbers a bit, reducing costs, or who knows what? Maybe help correct some nagging issue that’s been eating your lunch for a while, but with that behind you, you’re able to take a weekend off. I will also occasionally post some seemingly off-topic post that hopefully, will be of interest.
If you have an issue you would like to rise to the blog’s subscribers for possible sorting out, please email me with a concise message explaining the dilemma you’re facing. Remember pictures will always help explain it. I encourage your comments on the blog posts if you have value-added comments.