Author Archives: Robin Kent

Practical Maintenance Planning Tips, Cont.

Practical Maintenance Planning Tips

Learn about protecting your planners so they can plan, basic elements of a standard job plan, and how to develop good job plans with these Practical Maintenance Planning Tips from IDCON Senior Consultant Leslie Skelly.

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Practical Maintenance Planning Tips

Check out these quick maintenance planning tips covering Planner roles, quality work orders, and field job scoping from Leslie Skelly, Senior Consultant with IDCON INC.

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3 Common Mistakes in Root Cause Failure Analysis (RCFA)

Analyzing and eliminating the root cause of a failure is a powerful tool for improving plant reliability. At IDCON, we call this process Root Cause Problem Elimination (RCPE). We find that this term more accurately defines the desired outcome of the process. 

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IDCON INC Reliability Tip: How to Use Root Cause Problem Elimination (RCPE) during Corrective Maintenance

Imagine you work in a mill as a mechanic and get a work order that states: Replace bearings on a press roll due to high vibration level. You complete the work and the damaged bearings and seals were replaced according to the plan. The machine was started up and is now producing paper again.

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Keeping it Simple – Some Principles of Successful Reliability and Maintenance Management

free reliability and maintenance webinar

On April 20th at 10:30-11:00 AM (EST) in his second webinar in the “Keeping it Simple” series, Reliability and Maintenance Management expert Christer Idhammar gives you a glimpse into why “knowing why” is important in managing maintenance and how knocking bolts became the catalyst behind Christer’s philosophy. You’ll also learn some forgotten truths about managing maintenance processes. Join us through ...

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Selecting the Right Preventive Maintenance Tasks

how to select preventive maintenance tasks

When it comes to existing PMs, the first thought is usually to search in the Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS). Of course, this is a valuable resource, but we may be missing other activity happening in departments of the plant, mill, or mine. It is very common that different crafts/departments have set up their own Preventive Maintenance Systems for components and equipment.

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Choosing a Maintenance Method

In terms of Maintenance Methods, there are three choices for existing equipment. They are Operate to Breakdown, Fixed Time Maintenance, and Condition Based Maintenance. Operate to Breakdown: The equipment is run until it breaks down. Fixed Time Maintenance: The replacement of parts or equipment on a fixed/scheduled frequency.  Condition Based Maintenance: The problem is found and fixed at the time when it is discovered. It is a common assumption that Condition Based Maintenance is always the most cost effective. While this is commonly the case, it is not always true.

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