An effective root cause analysis process can improve production reliability significantly.  But, few organizations have a functioning root cause analysis process in place.  This article will discuss common problems and some suggested solutions in order to improve root cause problem elimination.

Some organizations still view operations as the customer and maintenance as the supplier.

I interviewed a mine operations manager in Newcastle, Australia, who said, “I have no idea what work orders or reliability improvements have been finished in the past week or which ones will be done in the near future.”

Tor Idhammar interviews Eitan Vesely, director of artificial intelligence at SKF about what Artificial Intelligence means for Machine Learning in Maintenance Management.

What could an old fairy tale mean for Plant Reliability and Maintenance Professionals?

How often is the phrase “The ROOT Cause of the problem” used at your plant/mill? This phrase is a bit symptomatic of how Root Cause Analysis is thought of.

My name is Kimberly, but you can call me Kim for short or as the maintenance guys call me -Kim, the small hydraulic unit.  I’m 11 years old and have lived at this plant all my life.  Even though I’m middle aged, I have had a lot of health problems. 

If not, it is a good idea to figure out how much a 1% increase or decrease in reliability is worth.  Here is a couple of ideas on how to do so.

The Coronavirus is spreading around the world as I’m writing this article, and many companies’ finances are shaken to their core. If you are in charge of maintenance, you are probably constantly under pressure to lower costs.