-( The Maintenance War Newsletter )-
Feed Forward Publications
Volume 12

Web site www.feedforward.com.au

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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*** Topics from the front line. ***
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

1. RE: The Challenge OF Change

2. Featured Article.
HOW TO REDUCE DOWNTIME AND INCREASE PRODUCTIVITY - by Larry Bush

3. Reader Feedback.
`Kind words'.

4. Technical Help.
Boiler energy efficiency tips and a belt length formula tip.

5. Management Help.
Maximize Reliability, Uptime and Profits at Your Facility

6. Human Resource
Resources for the Study of Human Resource Development

7. The World Wide Web.
Seminar recommendations

8. World Industry News.

9. Interesting!

------------------------------------------------------------------
_________________________________________________
************* RE: The Challenge OF Change *****************
_________________________________________________

Welcome to the 12th issue of our Feed Forward Newsletter! My name is
Don Fitchett, the author of "The Maintenance War Newsletter". This
first area of the newsletter is for introductions and commentary.
Remember, the website has many new items added each month. So please
browse around and find your gold nugget.
If a friend has given you this copy of the newsletter, you can find
an online version on our website www.feedforward.com.au Every month
we add new book titles for you to download, CDs, free articles and
other resources.
This newsletter issue, I would like to challenge all readers to
change. Change management, change process, change the world! Below
you will find two challenges for you to change the world we live in,
more specifically; change the industry we have to live with.
Challenge Number 1: Change the world by putting in writing some of
the knowledge you have obtained for a topic you feel you have become
an expert at. You don't have to be a writer or author now days to
change the world by sharing your expertise. (There is always some one
who can proof read your material. :>)
• You need only to take action today to make it happen!
Make the commitment today by setting some time in your calendar or
writing a quick initial outline of some topic you feel you have
better than average knowledge of.
How will this change the world? This is where Feed Forward
Publications can help you. Send us your industry related writing and
we will share it with the rest of the world. You can write as little
as a page or two (an article) or as much as 30 to 600 pages (a book).
It depends on your passion for the topic. We will use our global
resource to make your writings known to the world.
• At no cost to you!
Why? Besides doing your part to change management, the process or the
industry in general, you will receive recognition for the expert
knowledge you have obtained and may even start a life time stream of
extra revenue for your self.
Take our newest author Larry Bush for example. Larry has been an
electrician for 47 years, and in maintenance management for 22 years.
We helped him organize his notes and thoughts on how a maintenance
policy should be written and it evolved to become the "Maintenance
Policy and Procedures Manual Ebook". We currently show his book to
well over 80,000 unique individuals in our industry, every month!
www.feedforward.com.au/Maintenance_Policy_Procedures.htm
While the most important fact is that Larry is changing the world we
live in by sharing his knowledge, he is also earning that much
deserved recognition for his accomplishments. Additionally, at
absolutely no cost to Larry, 30 days after his ebook release he
started receiving additional income from book sales. Larry, like Mike
Sondalini, is on his way to releasing many articles too. Industrial
articles help make our industry a better place to work while giving
the author even more publicity.
The articles we release are distributed on the many websites we
manage, our affiliates and picked up by other industry related
websites. A great article released by us can very possibly reach a
quarter of a million unique individuals every month from around the
world!
At the time of this release, Larry has three articles which we have
publicized for him. The are ... Electrical Industrial
Troubleshooting, How a Photoswitch Saved My Job, and How To Reduce
Downtime and Increase Productivity.
www.feedforward.com.au/electrical_industrial_troubleshooting.htm
www.feedforward.com.au/food_industry_sensor.htm
www.downtimecentral.com/productivity_increase.htm

Putting your knowledge in writing not only helps the industry, it
helps you. Whether you are a consulting company seeking additional
exposure for your company or an individual seeking recognition and
additional revenue, we want to review your writings. Please email
them to us today! (See also Technical Writing for Business)

www.feedforward.com.au/ newsletter_six_sigma.htm#Human Resource



Challenge Number 2: A New Design Competition With US$999 Worth Of
Prizes.
This month Lifetime Reliability added more products to their list of
problem solving technologies. You can see a list of them by
following the link lower down this page.
Let's start a competition!
To promote the use of more reliable technologies for solving real
world problems Lifetime Reliability has collected together some
prizes for the competition.
The first competition is to design a long lived a rotating shaft
bearing seal solution using the technologies at the companies listed
on the 'Links To Reliable Technology' http://www.lifetime-
reliability.com/links.html web site page. Before August 31st, please
email your solutions using outstanding bearing protection
technologies and they'll pick a winner.
As for the prize they'll post to anywhere in the world, a complete
set of the GOLD Feed Forward Publications Workforce Training CD Set
worth US$399. PLUS credit the winner US$600 into their PayPal
account. (Thanks to Don Fitchett of www.bin95.com for the Gold
Workforce Training CD donation.)
http://www.feedforward.com.au/reliability-engineer.htm
Please include a .JPG or .GIF image of your hand sketch (or CAD
drawing) of the design idea with a short 300 - 400 word description
of the design, why it's good, and descriptions and part numbers of
the items you chose to use.
Finally, if you come across great technology, with outstanding
reliability that is not on the Lifetime Reliability web site, please
send them an email with a link to the manufacturer's web site
concerned. If it's excellent they'll post it on the 'Links To
Reliable Technology' page so everyone can use it in future.
To submit your design idea and for questions, email Lifetime
Reliability [info@...] and good luck!

__________________________________________
********** FEATURED ARTICLE **************
__________________________________________

HOW TO REDUCE DOWNTIME AND INCREASE PRODUCTIVITY
By Larry Bush

Documentation mined for maintenance information "gold".
All maintenance activities of the workforce must be documented, this
includes breakdown repairs, callouts, preventive maintenance,
replacement maintenance, overhauls, and Testing & Inspection work.
Maintenance work by production employees must be included, whether or
not the employee is listed as in maintenance. These activities can
then be mined for maintenance information "gold".

List all repetitive work
One of the first things that a maintenance supervisor should be
concerned with is repetitive work. Any and all repetitive work should
be identified and isolated. This list can then be prioritized as to
criticality to Production and plant effectiveness.

After the list has been rearranged, each task item must be analyzed
to determine if the repetitive work is actually aimed at fixing a
problem or fixing a symptom of a deeper problem. Fixing symptoms has
the immediate effect of allowing production to rapidly resume, but
does nothing for the underlying problem(s). In fact, the underlying
problem may get worse.

Development of a solutions
As soon as a high priority problem has been identified and analyzed,
work should begin on development of a solution to the problem. Once
the solution to the problem has been developed, plans can be made for
purchasing required parts and material and then scheduling the
manpower and production time to implement the solution.

Maintenance planning of machine repairs

Complete documentation is absolutely essential for control of the
maintenance process. How can the process of maintenance be under
control if the person in charge has no complete idea of what the
total maintenance activities and costs are? If needed repairs are not
documented and planned for, a considerable portion of these needed
repairs and modifications will be forgotten or ignored until
production tries to run again.

Justify machine repair cost
Planning essential repairs and modifications requires documentation.
It is easy to say that we need a modification to this particular
machine and output of this line can be increased 25%. However, with
no planning, six months later no work has been done on the idea. Even
if the idea were actually to be somehow implemented, the output
increase may not come to fruition.

If no research was carried out on the rest of the line equipment,
there is no certain way of determining line and equipment capacity.
How would the machine be able to increase output 25% if its current
output was already 100% of the lines actual output capacity? All the
costs associated with increasing the one machine's capacity would
have been wasted, unless additional work was undertaken to bring the
rest of the production line up to the output of the one machine.

A production line's output capacity is only as great as it's least
piece of equipment. That bears repeating. A production line is only
as fast as it's slowest piece of equipment. A chain is only as strong
as its weakest link.

Prioritize your maintenance planning list
With documentation, the list of priority work problems to solve can
be reduced fairly rapidly, at first. The list of easily solved
problem areas will gradually be replaced by higher cost work items.
Research and planning may reveal that the costs involved with
eliminating some repetitive repairs are more than living with the
repetitive repairs.

Compare production downtime after solution
After implementation of the solution, production downtime for that
particular item can be documented and compared to pre-implementation
production output. Maintenance time not spent on working on that
solved problem can also be documented for the same time period. These
savings can then be extrapolated for an entire year and presented to
management to justify the cost of repairs.
Without documentation, research, and planning, the person in charge
of making the decisions is working in the dark. With documentation,
research, and planning, the great wall of China can be built, or the
Panama Canal, or the Aswan Dam, or a world-class maintenance
organization.

Maintenance Policy and Procedures is a plan to organize your
maintenance department. Following the plan will cause you to document
your department's activities. Other department's maintenance
activities and interactions with the Maintenance Department will also
be documented. With the documentation, planning can begin. For
information on this article and Maintenance Policy and Procedures,
contact the author.

Larry Bush
larryb642003 @ yahoo.com
About the Author: Larry Bush has been an electrician for 47 years,
and in maintenance management for 22 years. Download his new e-
Book "Maintenance Policy and Procedures Manual" !!
(http://www.feedforward.com.au/Maintenance_Policy_Procedures.htm)
Please copy this article onto your websites, just keep all links and
credits in place. Thank You
_____________________________________________
********* READER FEEDBACK ****************
_____________________________________________

Subject: Kind words
A very educative publication and is a platform for the exchange of
ideas.

Tawanda
_______________________
Good site with informative articles Regards,
Mike H.
_______________________
Great Job as always. I enjoy reading your news letters.
Mikie
____________________________________________
************ TECHNICAL HELP ***************
____________________________________________

Boiler Energy Efficiency Tips
• Submeter energy use.
• Perform regular boiler and furnace maintenance.
• Analyze flue gas and adjust the fuel-air ratio for
efficiency.
• Improve feedwater treatment to reduce boiler blowdown.
• Turn off boilers during long periods of no use.
• Optimize loading of multiple boilers or compressors.
• Turn off hot water circulation pumps when boilers not in use.
• Repair or replace broken steam traps and steam pressure
regulators.
• Repair insulation regularly.
• Repair leaks in steam and compressed air lines.
• Operate compressor systems at lowest acceptable pressure.
• Clean steam coils in processing tanks.
Install properly sized motors.
• Upgrade motor efficiency during regular replacements.
• Tighten and align belt drives.
• Replace standard V-belt drives with notched V or synchronous
belt drives.

This tech-tip is being provided to you by www.rhvactools.com. Our
website is an RHVAC training site designed to improve the technical
expertise of all RHVAC service & installation technicians.
Belt Length Formula
Approximate length:

L = 2C + 1.57 (D + d)

Exact length:
L = 2C + 1.57 (D + d) + ((D -d)2/4C)


L = Pitch length of belt
C = Center distance
D = Pitch diameter of large pulley
d = Pitch diameter of small pulley
__________________________________________________
*************** MANAGEMENT HELP ******************
__________________________________________________

SEMINAR
Best Maintenance Practices 2004 in Houston, TX Nov. 8-11
Lean Maintenance via Lean Six Sigma
Maximize Reliability, Uptime and Profits at Your Facility within 30-
60 Days
If any of our Readers would like to profit by attending Best
Maintenance Practices 2004 in Houston, TX Nov. 8-11, our friend and
contributing author Howard C. Cooper can get you a 15% discount.
Howard is a feature speaker and will be doing a 4 hour workshop
(Click to Lean Seminar to review agenda).
http://www.feedforward.com.au/Lean_Seminar.pdf
The focus of this seminar is to treat and protect against unscheduled
downtime. You can utilize new or 20-30 year old automation equipment,
machine tools, etc. as long as they provide the proper capacity,
throughput and six sigma reliability.
Please contact Howard Cooper directly (hcooper@...), and let
him know you are a Feed Forward Newsletter subscriber to receive all
your seminar discounts.
Also as a subscriber, you are entitled to the Business Industrial
Network discount if you should decide to let Amemco perform their 3
day on-site equipment reliability analysis survey. Click Reliability
Survey for more information.
The article donated to us by Howard is ...
Lean Maintenance using Six Sigma DMAIC
http://www.feedforward.com.au/lean_six_sigma_dmaic.htm
____________________________________________________

************** HUMAN RESOURCE **********************
____________________________________________________

Resources for the Study of Human Resource Development
Academy of Human Resource Development - was formed to encourage
systematic study of human resource development theories, processes,
and practices; to disseminate information about HRD, to encourage the
application of HRD research findings, and to provide opportunities
for social interaction among individuals with scholarly and
professional interests in HRD from multiple disciplines and from
across the globe. (http://www.ahrd.org/ahrd/ )
HRZONE - Human resources, personnel management, industrial and
organizational psychology, employment and labor law, workers
compensation, discrimination, and labor relations information.
(http://www.hrzone.com/ )
The Business Research Lab - has an excellent website that is well
organized to quickly get you in touch with your employee's needs. Be
sure to see their surveys and Good Boss/Bad Boss submissions. :>)
(http://www.busreslab.com/hr.htm )

___________________________________________________
************** THE WORLD WIDE WEB *****************
____________________________________________________
Below are some more seminars I recommend you attend...
PLC Training Seminar - PLC5 ® - SLC500 ® Aug, Sep
http://www.bin95.com/AB_RSLogix_Seminar.htm

Maintenance Planning and Scheduling - Seminar Sept. Oct. Nov. and Dec.
http://www.bin95.com/cbt.htm#Maintenance%20Planning%20Seminar

Shutdowns Turnarounds and Outages - Seminar Sept.
http://www.bin95.com/cbt.htm#Shutdowns%20Turnarounds%20Seminar

Leadership Skills For Maintenance - Workshop Nov.
http://www.bin95.com/cbt.htm#Leadership%20Skills%20Seminar

Maintenance Storerooms - Seminar Dec.
http://www.bin95.com/cbt.htm#Maintenance%20Storerooms%20Seminar

Maintenance Process Management - Seminar
http://www.bin95.com/cbt.htm#Maintenance%20Process%20Management%
20Seminar

____________________________________________________
************** WORLD INDUSTRY NEWS *****************
____________________________________________________


ARCwire for the Week Ending July 16, 2004 reaching over 60,000
professionals worldwide.

Please forward this to a colleague. Anyone can sign up for a free
subscription on their Web site at http://www.ARCweb.com

Industrial Ethernet Practices and Plans
Immense Growth Potential for China's Low Power AC Drives Market
Japan's Industry Activities Improve
Honeywell Users Group Symposium
Schneider Electric completes acquisition of Andover Controls
[ Back ] [ Next ]

===== ARC BENCHMARKING SURVEYS =====
>> Industrial Ethernet Practices and Plans
The purpose of this survey is to understand manufacturers' current
practices and future plans regarding Industrial Ethernet networks.
This survey is designed to capture these practices and plans, and to
help identify best practices for Industrial Ethernet networks. This
survey is available in both English and Japanese language versions.

Persons responding to the survey will be given the results via e-
mail. You will receive the results for FREE by taking the survey.

To take the survey, please click here:
www.arcweb.com/ss2/wsb.dll/ARC/IndustrialEthernet2004.htm

===== INDUSTRY TRENDS =====
>> Immense Growth Potential for China's Low Power AC Drives Market
China's growing economy, investment friendly policies, and a
manufacturing industry that caters to the domestic and export markets
creates an immense growth opportunity for AC drives. China's low
power AC drives market will grow at a Compounded Annual Growth Rate
of 12.1% over the next five years.

>> Japan's Industry Activities Improve
METI (Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry) of Japan released the
final statistics for May, 2004 with upward modifications from those
previously reported on an interim basis.

Specifically, industrial production in May recorded an increase of
0.8 percent compared to the previous month, which is the upward
correction by 0.3 points from the number already reported on an
interim basis.

Industrial shipment index recorded 1.3 increase compared to the
previous month. The inventory index recorded 1.8 decrease compared to
the previous month, which is the upward correction by 0.2 points from
the interim report.

===== COMPANY NEWS & BRIEFINGS =====

>> Field Report: Honeywell Users Group Symposium
The Honeywell Users Group (HUG) recently gathered in Phoenix, AZ for
their annual 5-day event. More than 600 participants, from 26
countries, gathered to exchange ideas and discuss industry challenges
and opportunities. The symposium was developed by and for industrial
users of Honeywell automation solutions. A 12-member, customer-led
steering committee determined the symposium theme and agenda. Over 50
customers presented at this year's symposium. Presentation topics
ranged from legacy system migration to alarm rationalization and
management to the benefits of wireless technology. Representatives
from Anheuser Busch, Georgia Pacific, DuPont, and many other Fortune
500 organizations delivered presentations on a variety of topics. The
agenda offered high-level general sessions, networking sessions, and
industry breakout sessions for refining/petrochemicals; pulp, paper
and printing; power generation; chemicals; consumer goods; metal,
minerals and mining; oil and gas; and life sciences.

An unusual presentation took place by way of a keynote address by
Honeywell International Chairman and CEO, David Cote. This is the
first time that a Honeywell Chairman addressed HUG and underscores
the commitment that the corporation has to industrial automation
solutions in general and the Honeywell Process Solutions group (HPS).
This was reaffirmed in Cote's speech both in terms of HPS R&D
investments and also by highlighting that the Corporation is a
significant global manufacturer and end-user in its own right.

New products introduced at this year's symposium included Honeywell
Integrated Operator Node (I.O.N.) The latest component of Honeywell's
portfolio of kits and enhancements, Honeywell I.O.N. transforms
legacy Honeywell TDC Universal Stations (US) into operator consoles
with Experion functionality.

The Operations Management Pro (OM Pro) R200 provides refinery workers
with the information they need to maintain normal plant operations.
OM Pro sends immediate notifications of process disturbances,
enabling operators to continuously monitor plant performance and
steer operations closer to economic targets.

The new POMSnet production management tool optimizes operational
performance in the Life Sciences industry. POMSnet also complies with
CFR 21 Part 11 and ISA manufacturing standards. Profit Suite R220 is
a new suite of advanced control and optimization applications.

Three more international Users Group gatherings are scheduled for
2004. Honeywell Asia Pacific customers will gather in Australia Aug.
22-25. A conference for customers in Europe, the Middle East, and
Africa is scheduled for Oct. 4-10 in France. Customers from across
Southeast Asia will meet in China Nov. 9-12.

By Andy Peters, ARC Advisory Group



===== ACQUISITIONS & PARTNERING NEWS =====
>> Schneider Electric completes acquisition of Andover Controls
Schneider Electric completed the acquisition of Andover Controls, a
Balfour Beatty company. Andover Controls offers Building Automation
and Security and had sales of $169 million in 2003. Schneider
Electric views Building Automation as one of their new growth
platforms and strategically important for their growth. The
acquisition complements its position in this market with the previous
acquisition of TAC in June 2003.

ARC Senior Analyst Dave Clayton says, "The acquisition of Andover
Controls is a continuation of Schneider Electric's goal to strengthen
its presence in the global BAS and building securities markets
through acquisition. With the acquisition of Andover Controls,
Schneider Electric significantly strengthens its position in the
global building securities business as well as the company's position
in the overall BAS market in North America. Security and access
control is a key application for Andover Controls, which was
strengthened by the company's acquisition of Integral Technologies in
2000."

Clayton continued, "Andover Controls' business is a good complement
for TAC's geographic focus and Schneider Electric's vertical focus.
Geographically, Andover Controls' strength and strong reputation in
the North American BAS market is a good complement to TAC's strong
presence in the European BAS market. From a vertical industry
perspective, Andover Controls' strength in the pharmaceutical, food &
beverage, and biotech markets is a good complement to Schneider
Electric's target focus on the pharmaceutical and food & beverage
verticals."

_____________________________________________
************* INTERESTING ! ****************
_____________________________________________

I am one of those rare (some might say weird) individuals who finds
numbers interesting. I thought while our readers are brain storming
after accepting challenge number two above, maybe a reminder of the
magic number might be in order. For those who school seems a couple
life times ago, I am referring to the "Golden Ratio", Phi, 1.618033989

Pi is used to express the relationship between the diameter of a
circle and it's circumference and the challenge deals with bearings
(spheres aligned in circle around the circumference of a shaft). Like
Pi, Phi has some interesting circular references that may spark that
new design. After all, the golden ratio (Phi) is found in some
pretty amazing natural occurrences, be it coincidence or not. Who
knows there might be something to it.

A rectangle with side being a value of 1 and 1.618033989 (Phi),
divided into a square with in and another rectangle. That rectangle
within will also have sides at the same proportion. If you take that
rectangle within and draw another square and rectangle, it too will
have the same proportion, and so on and so on. If the corresponding
points of those rectangles within rectangles are connected in a
certain way, the results is a logarithmic spiral. The exact same
spiral as a snail shell!

There is also a sequence of numbers, known as the Fibonacci series
which is related to the golden ratio too. The number sequence is
1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34 ...144,233,377..... The greater these numbers
climb, the closer the ratio of any two numbers in a row gets to phi
(the golden ratio). These Fibonacci numbers are found throughout
nature, like the number of leaves on a plant as they stem out from
each other. Another example is the seeds in a sunflower, each ring of
seeds counted will be a Fibonacci number. (More coincidence, or
not? :>)

So as things grow in nature, they are not only reaching towards the
ski, but reaching towards Phi! Maybe, just maybe, we could some how
incorporate the above knowledge in our bearing design we could escape
the historical reliability issues with bearings going out. Before we
put a person on another planet, lets design a bearing that gets
stronger when we increase the stress, speed and heat. :>)

____________________________________________________________
Best regards and thanks for being a subscriber to this newsletter.

Don Fitchett
Managing Editor
Feed Forward Publications
http://www.feedforward.com.au
Email: info@...

Tel : (573) 547-5630
www.feedforward.com.au teaches your maintenance crew engineering and
asset care knowledge so that they can solve more problems, become
more knowledgeable, make better decisions and your plant runs more
reliably!