Life Cycle Engineering Articles
Our expert staff is well known throughout the industry for its breadth of knowledge gained through years of practical experience. The following are articles that have been published in various industry journals written by members of our staff.
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Culture Change: Clearing The Road To Reliability Excellence
By Randy Heisler, CMRP, Life Cycle Engineering
As appeared in the January 2010 Issue of Maintenance Technology
Many sites struggle with poorly performing personnel and physical assets. Operators not operating and maintaining the assets properly, or maintenance personnel not performing adequate maintenance, can lock these operations into a frustrating, reactive environment. This type of environment perpetuates performance problems that lead to higher operating costs as well. Organizations in this mode are looking for answers, but not always in the right places. -
All Change is not Created Equal
By Scott Franklin, Learning Consultant, Life Cycle Engineering
As appeared in the August 2009 Issue of SMRP's Magazine, Solutions
As organizations face multiple challenges today, the changes necessary to adapt and thrive range from straightforward to highly complex. In evaluating the complexity of a change, there is one variable that is more significant than any other and that is, “how are the people affected?” -
Simulations: Thinking Outside of the Box to Build Capabilities
By Tara Denton, Life Cycle Institute
As appeared in the December 2009 Edition of Plant Services' e-newsletter, The Training Advisor
Learning means changing behavior to produce desired results. In order to change a behavior, the learner must move new knowledge and skills from working memory to long term memory (the fast-track for the brain to retrieve information for later use). Long term retention is encouraged by incorporating the principles of learning... -
Planning For The Emotional Side of Change
By Scott Franklin, Learning Consultant, Life Cycle Engineering
As appeared in the November 2009 Issue of Maintenance Technology
As organizations go through change, the simple view is that we start with our existing activities, behaviors and beliefs; define a new set of activities, behaviors and beliefs; and then replace the old with the new. While it sounds straightforward, this transition is anything but linear. -
How Do You Decrease Your Inventory Investment?
By Wally Wilson, CMRP, CPIM, Life Cycle Engineering
As appeared in Noria's e-newsletter, Reliable Plant Mail
Inventory requires an investment of valuable cash. Regardless of whether the investment is in raw material, work-in-process (WIP), or finished goods, the dollars invested will not be available until the inventories are converted into a value-added finished product for customer orders. The faster a business can convert a customer order to a cash payment for goods sold, the better their cash flow and long-term profitability of the business. -
Where’s the Fun in Waste?
By Bob Call, CMRP, Life Cycle Engineering
As appeared in the December 2009 Edition of Noria's Lean e-newsletter
Two years ago when my heat pump went bad, my local air conditioning contractor suggested that I purchase the highest SEER rating (efficiency rating) available, even though the initial investment was a little more. To my surprise, the new heat pump was efficient enough that my monthly electric bill dropped by 25%. I eliminated waste and had the fun of banking the savings from my investment! I am certain that many of you are also looking for ways to eliminate waste in your personal lives in this current economy. -
A3 Learning – Align, Assimilate, Apply
By Bill Wilder, M. Ed., Life Cycle Institute
As appeared in the The Advisor, Plant Services' training e-newsletter, and Noria's Lean Manufacturing Journal
Many people are familiar with A3 analysis as a management process – a methodology for thinking, planning, problem-solving and then starting all over again. In this process you begin by defining the problem, describing the current conditions, and defining goals and targets (what’s the desired outcome?) Next you analyze what has caused the gap between current conditions and the desired outcome and you design a countermeasure to help you reach the future state. Then the A3 process calls for planning who will do what, plus a follow up step to capture what has happened, what you’ve learned and what issues remain. -
Optimizing Outages Through Effective Task Planning
By Tim Kister, Life Cycle Engineering
As appeared in the October 2009 Edition of Reliable Plant Mail e-newsletter
We are all aware of the impact outages have on business. In many cases as much as one third to one half of the maintenance budget is consumed during this timeframe. Factor in the cost of lost production during this time and the costs are tremendous. -
11 Tips on How to Get More Out of Your EAM System
By Mike Willard, Life Cycle Engineering
As appeared in the September 2009 Edition of Reliable Plant Mail e-newsletter
It has been 12 months since you completed implementation of your plant’s Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) system and celebrated the system Go Live date. You accomplished all the right things during the implementation: you employed an experienced EAM implementation consultant; you formed an internal implementation team to provide input and complete tasks; you documented business processes; you gathered data and entered it into the EAM; and you conducted training sessions. But the EAM is not providing the information required by the various function managers to support business decisions. What went wrong? -
What Root Cause Analysis (RCA) tool is best for Operators?
By Carl March, MSE CRE, CMRP, Life Cycle Engineering
As appeared in the September 2009 Edition of Reliable Plant Mail e-newsletter
Whenever one is asked to specify the best tool for an application one must first consider a few things before settling on an answer. One has to consider who is going to use it, what this tool would be used for (its application), and what the outcome is intended to accomplish. We know the answer to the first consideration to be Operators. With this in mind, let us step through the remaining areas of concern to arrive at an answer.
