Best of Plant Services 2020: Part 2

Dec. 9, 2020
On the record: Expert advice from industry insiders on surviving a challenging year

It’s time once again for our annual roundup of insightful and inspired quotes from the pages of Plant Services magazine and PlantServices.com. Despite the numerous challenges faced by manufacturers in 2020, the industry rose to the occasion, relying on new technologies, increased efficiencies, and an unrelenting spirit to overcome seemingly insurmountable odds.   

"As you well know when you are the maintenance manager or reliability leader, the buck stops at your desk. Sometimes failures are seen at the highest levels of the organization, whereas if you allow your employees to own an individual initiative, sometimes setbacks can be hidden under the umbrella of the overall strategy."
Phil Beelendorf, CMRP, CRL, Roquette America Inc.
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"From cycle counting to equipment replacements, it’s important to ensure that the system you have spent a significant amount of money on stays clean. Over time, an unmanaged system will become frustrating for users as they weed through records that should no longer exist or cannot find records that should exist. A disorganized system is one that will lack utilization."
George Williams, CRL, CMRP, ReliabilityX
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"Too often, this results in no more than a few words describing the problem: “Pump broken.” ...  In the absence of a well-written notification, gatekeepers are forced to hunt down shift supervisors and board operators in an attempt to decipher the vague description. These stakeholders end up scratching their heads trying to determine what was meant by the individual who submitted the notification."
Peter Munson, CRE, CMRP, T.A. Cook
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"What are the common problems in reliability and maintainability found in these ambles through plants? According to Klaus Blache, who has worked with more than 1,000 manufacturing facilities throughout his career, the top three problems are (1) a lack of consistent leadership; (2) too much reactive maintenance; and (3) a lack of focus on organizational health compared to performance and operations."
Deanna Nord, Nord Strategy Group
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"Many people think that compressed air power is the biggest output of an air compressor, and if you do you are missing something big. The biggest and most overlooked step in greatly improving the efficiency of a compressed air system is to capture the heat and send it to where it can be used."
Ron Marshall, Compressed Air Audit
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"Let me propose an option: consolidate the maintenance and reliability function into a single engineering position. Engineers serve an essential role in the arduous transformation from reactive to proactive maintenance."
Alex Ferrari, Maintenance Manager
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"Oftentimes as manufacturing leaders we feel like we need to have all the answers. But, that's not the case. In fact, sooner or later this approach backfires. When things go wrong, you want your team to look in the mirror, not just point the finger back at whoever's idea it was (in this case, you, the boss)."
Bob Argyle, Leading2Lean
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"BASF's use case involved having more than 100 condition variables continually collected, measured, and computed for 63 substation assets. The asset data is monitored and analyzed from a digital dashboard that provides 24/7 insight into the substation’s global health index and specific asset statuses, from any location."
Sheila Kennedy, CMRP, Contributing Editor
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"In selecting who would be on the (energy planning) team, the leadership must keep in mind a net-zero plan is by its nature deeply transformational. This transformation will reach into all aspects of the company’s operations and relationships. Engagement with customers, partners, employees, and community will be very different going forward."
Peter Garforth, Garforth International LLC, Contributing Editor
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