|
CONTENTS
|
Starting Off the New Year
Electrical Troubleshooting Quiz
Maximizing Repair Efforts
NEC at the Facility
Promoting Accident Prevention Pays Off
It's Time to Hit the Beach
Answer to Electrical Troubleshooting Quiz
|
|
About This Newsletter
|
This twice-a-month
e-newsletter is brought to you from the
publisher of EC&M magazine. MRO Insider addresses topics such
as:
Working with management and supervision
National Electrical Code® on the production floor
Safety procedures and programs
Troubleshooting techniques
Equipment maintenance and testing tips
Managing motors and generators
Trends in training and education
Managing energy use
|
Subscriptions
|
|
To unsubscribe from this newsletter go to: Unsubscribe
To subscribe to this newsletter, go to: Subscribe
To get this newsletter in a different format (Text or HTML),
or to change your e-mail address, please visit your profile
page to change your delivery preferences.
|
Back Issues
|
|
Missed an
issue? Visit the MRO
Insider archive page on the EC&M Web site.
|
Share with a Friend
|
|
Do you know
someone who’d like to receive his or her own copy of MRO Insider? Visit
the subscriber site enter their e-mail address, and spread the wealth.
Subscribe
|
Advertising
|
To find out
how to advertise in this newsletter, e-mail David Miller or call him at
(312) 840-8497.
The designations "National Electrical Code” and “NEC” refer to the
National Electrical Code®, which is a registered
trademark of the
National Fire Protection Association.
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
|
| | | | |
|
Maintenance
Starting Off the New Year
The trend for some time has been "do more with less."
If
you escaped that with your 2007 budget, count yourself lucky. But don't
assume that will remain the case all year. You need to plan now for
cuts
to your existing budget.
It's a tradition to make New Year's resolutions. You undoubtedly
know
people who have made the same resolution several times. Why are they
making a resolution they failed to keep before? The most common reason
is not having a plan.
Simply wanting to accomplish something isn't enough. You need to
figure out what steps will get you there and what it takes to
accomplish
those steps. The maintenance function is no exception.
Here's an assignment for making 2007 better than 2006. Review your
top 10 failures (in revenue lost) of last year. Try to determine the
root cause and contributing factors of failure for each one. What steps
are you taking this year to solve those failure causes? Figure those
out, and make them happen.
To ensure those steps actually happen, take a tip from the PMBOK
(Project Management Book of Knowledge) and apply the SMART approach.
For
every step you come up with, make sure it's "Specific, Attainable,
Measurable, Reasonable, and Time-Bound." That last one is especially
important. If you don't put due dates on things, people tend not to do
them (no due date = no do).
ADVERTISEMENT
 Raindance with AutomationDirect
AutomationDirect's live and pre-recorded seminars cover a variety
of
products. Webinar topics scheduled for January include C-more Touch
Panels and Ethernet Communications. Pre-recorded topics currently
available are: AC Drives, C-more Operator Interface, DataLynx remote
data collection, DataNet OPC, DataWorx Software, DirectSOFT,
Ethernet, Motion Control, and Selecting PLCs. View the subject list and
live Webinar schedule at
learn.automationdirect.com.
Repair
Electrical Troubleshooting
Quiz
Over the past few years, your production equipment has
been increasingly networked. Now the CEO can see actual production with
just a few mouse clicks. Even selected customers can track production
and plan their production around delivery of the components your
company
manufactures for them -- that is, when things work right. Which
doesn't seem to happen too often these days.
Let's say you are in the Midwest, and this functionality is what is
keeping your plant open. You are very concerned now because over the
past few weeks, there have been several instances of blown circuit
boards, lost data, network switch malfunction, and even a UPS shutdown
on the network server. A couple of your network component vendors have
sent out field techs, and all of the network equipment checks out just
fine. What is going on?
The answer to this question appears at the end of this
newsletter.
Maximizing Repair Efforts
If you reduce repair time, you reduce downtime. But
don't think of repair time reduction as "making people work faster."
The
reality is that people have their own natural pace, and exceeding it
results in errors that would not otherwise occur. So simply speeding up
is not a winning strategy.
The good news is there are some winning strategies. For each of your
most common or most expensive repairs, how many of the following can
you
employ?
- Use the latest techniques. How you perform a repair can save
far more time than how fast you perform it. Ask manufacturers about
training classes.
- Use the correct test equipment. Spending more on one DMM or
insulation resistance tester than another may not seem like a way to
save money. But if one specific feature cuts 15 minutes of critical
downtime, the entire purchase is essentially free.
- Practice kitting. Which five repairs incurred the most lost
revenue last year? How much of that downtime involved walking back and
forth for parts, test equipment, and tools? Think about how much time
you can save if you have standard kits for those particular repairs or
that particular equipment. A tech merely needs to open the kit and
everything is right there. Justify the purchase based on the revenue
saved per minute of downtime eliminated. Be sure to update your PM
system to provide for maintaining these kits (for example, changing
batteries in a dedicated DMM -- and using the old ones
elsewhere).
- Resolve housekeeping issues. If you have to move carts,
personal heaters, waste bins, and other items out of the way so you can
repair critical equipment, the time consumed by such activity extends
the time needed for repair. Work with the operators to devise solutions
that keep those things out of the way. Simply mandating "it can't be
there" is usually futile.
Operation
NEC at the Facility
Do you have round boxes in your facility? If you are
using them with EMT or any other raceway that requires locknuts (or
bushings), you have an NEC violation. As per Sec. 314.2 of the 2005
NEC,
"Round boxes shall not be used where conduits or connectors requiring
the use locknuts or bushings are to be connected to the side of the
box."
Promoting Accident Prevention Pays
Off
Daily safety talks have long been a common occurrence
on
construction sites. In facilities, they tend to be conspicuously
absent.
Simply having a short safety meeting with each crew on a daily basis
raises the awareness of safety. This alone can prevent injury, even if
that safety talk isn't very good. Make the safety talk good, and injury
prevention is even better. Three important contributors are:
- Behavioral focus. Most industrial injuries happen because of
unsafe acts. Focus on behaviors, and you reduce the number of
injuries.
- Specificity. The more specific, the better. Rather than say,
"Practice good ladder safety," say, "Don't stand on the top rung of a
step ladder."
- Interactivity. People pay attention better when they are
participating, rather than just listening to someone else.
Show & Events
It's Time to Hit the Beach
If it's your job to make sure all systems are "go," you
need to go to Electric West. This show and conference offers the right
information and product mix to meet all of your information needs. Do
you maintain and operate electrical systems in a facility? If so, you
have to make plans to attend the Electric West conference program in
Long Beach, Calif. Check
out this event's 40+ seminars in the areas of power quality,
safety,
Code changes, and industrial applications, and make plans to meet 200+
leading suppliers. Or register
now.
Quiz Answers
Answer to Electrical
Troubleshooting
Quiz
Let's see. It's now January, and you've had cold, dry
weather for a while. This means greater generation of static
electricity
along with higher soil resistivity.
It's an almost sure bet that the communications network is on one
"grounding system," and the equipment it connects to is on another.
That
is, the communications cabling is bonded to a ground rod that isn't
bonded to the main grounding conductor per 800.100. Don't let the NEC's
use of "grounding" where it means "bonding" confuse you.
With the drier conditions, the problems that have always been there
are finally causing equipment to fail. Walk down your communications
system to ensure there's not a difference of potential between the
cabling and the equipment to which that cabling connects. Once that
step
is completed, you can look for other possible causes. Most likely, you
won't need to.
|
You are subscribed to this newsletter as #email#
For questions concerning delivery of this newsletter, please contact
our
Customer Service Department at:
Customer Service Department
EC&M
A Prism Business Media publication
US Toll Free: 866-505-7173
International: 847-763-9504
Email:ecmweb@pbinews.com
Prism Business Media
9800 Metcalf Avenue
Overland Park, KS 66212
Copyright 2006, Prism Business Media. All rights reserved. This article
is protected by United States copyright and other intellectual property
laws and may not be reproduced, rewritten, distributed,
re-disseminated,
transmitted,
displayed, published or broadcast, directly or indirectly, in any
medium
without the prior written permission of Prism Business Media.
|
|
