Readers of our blog will know that we are in Florida and have paid a fair amount of attention to the Gulf Oil Spill. The Gulf oil spill disaster started on April 20, 2010 with an explosion on Deepwater Horizon oil rig. It has been a hundred days since the catastrophe began. Looking back, we must all ask ourselves what was learned from this asset management nightmare.
The Effect of Maintenance Gone Wrong
There is no doubts at this point that the disaster was caused by a combination of under managed operations, poor maintenance policies, and a heavy dose of gambling on the part of BP that the money saved from not maintaining all the proper safety devices to prevent the gas bubble blowout, was worth the risk of life and environmental damage that an oil spill could cause.
100 Day Lowlights and Facts About the Gulf Oil Spill
- Day 6 - safety device that was supposed to stop the flow of oil fails.
- Day 19 - The first tar balls are reported on Dauphin Island.
- Day 29 - Almost 20% of fishing in the Gulf is stopped and oil hits the marshlands in Louisiana.
- Day 43 - Oil hits the Alabama coast and almost 1/3 of federal waters in the Gulf are closed to fishing
- Day 67 - BP shares hit a 14 year low on the New York Stock Market.
- Day 79 - Every State surrounding the Gulf of Mexico has reported tar balls on their beaches.
- Day 99 - Tony Hayward is relieved of CEO duties from BP and replaced with Bob Dudley.
- Day 100 - The Governor of Florida reports that 640 miles of shoreline is oiled.
"Approximately 640 miles of Gulf Coast shoreline is currently oiled: 100 miles in Florida, 362 miles in Louisiana, 108 miles in Mississippi and 70 miles in Alabama... About 1.84 million gallons of total dispersant have been applied: 1.07 million on the surface and 771,000 subsea. "
Source: thegovmonitor.com
- Day 100 - The impact on tourism is expected to last up to 3 years, a negative $23 Billion impact, if the oil does not move our way. The University of Florida issued a report stating that the oil is likely to head to Florida with a wind, hurricane or current change.
- Day 100 - BP's costs are estimated to be over $3 billion and rising.
What Have We Learned About Maintenance Management?
The most important thing that we have learned is that we have all been reminded that maintenance management is not an option for industry. This is not new as the world has already seen its share of maintenance related tragedies when cutbacks are made to save a few dollars. We have also seen how fast an executive can lose his job (99 days) and how maintenance management really is "Pay me now or pay me a lot more later".
It would be difficult for any business leader not to recognize that BP should have made sure that proper maintenance procedures were enforced. Sadly, history has shown us that someone is bound to make the same mistakes again because of the false belief that this could not possibly happen to them. Still, we hope this does not occur again.
Finally, we learned that maintenance management is more than just making sure work requests are being handled or work orders are completed. It is a discipline using skilled professionals dedicated to ensuring that assets are in optimal operational condition in order to obtain their maximum value. Good asset maintenance with an EAM/CMMS is the difference between a marginal bottom line and a great financial performance in a company.
What does the Future for The Gulf States look like.
Industries that have been impacted by the Gulf oil spill such as hospitality, fishing, and oil will eventually recover. Less certain is the environmental impact of the oil spill as it is just too early to tell the true damage done. For those businesses facing a revenue shortfall as a result of the catastrophe, it is important that they take this opportunity to revisit their operations and look for areas of productivity and energy efficiencies that can be garnered both now and when business returns to normal.
Marinas, hotels and lodges near the affected areas can also use this time to make sure their assets are protected from potential oil damage is the winds change. One method of doing this is to use an EAM/CMMS system to schedule the regular inspection of assets to identify early signs of oil issues. A slow period is the perfect time to organize the maintenance management function.
As for the Oil industry, now would be a good time to check maintenance management procedures and tools to make that you do not end up as the next headline.
Share with us your thoughts on how best to handle adjusting to lower tourism.
Below is a list of all our prior posts on the Gulf Oil Spill. We hope that you have enjoyed reading them:
 | Leave a Comment, We'll Plant a Tree!Mintek believes that proper asset management & maintenance will help the environment. We are dedicated to helping the world be a better place. If you leave a comment we will plant a tree with PlantaBillion |
What happens when governments run out of money to perform asset maintenance on buildings? All across America, schools, jails, historical sites, police stations, fire houses, courthouses and so on are being neglected. Excuses come in the forms of a budget crunch, storms or age, but the bottom line is our nation's buildings are starting to fall apart when they do not need to be.
We are a nation built upon ingenuity, independence and hard work. However, somewhere down the line, the people we have trusted with our nation's infrastructure stopped making intelligent facility management decisions and replaced them with short sighted, self preserving actions. This has essentially dug such a great big hole that many times it makes more sense to demolish a dilapidated building than to repair it.
Where Did the Courage Go
It is fact, not fiction, that when buildings are properly maintained, they last longer, have fewer major repairs and are more energy efficient. Most importantly, the costs of maintaining a building are just a fraction of the costs in relation to new structures being built. So the question becomes, why? One cause is that government officials, town councils and school boards are elected for short periods of time. This makes it more important to elected officials to make short sighted maintenance budget cuts versus investing in a way that will preserve our heritage as well lower the burden our children will inherit.
Short sighted or tunnel vision from elected officials occurs because it is important for them to demonstrate that they are taking action. If the budget can be reduced for the given year then they look good. Unfortunately, very little thought is given to the mid-long term outlook. For example, when given the choice between improving maintenance operations versus cutbacks, government officials choose the cutbacks too often. This action fails to recognize that improving maintenance operations with tools such as an EAM/CMMS will actually save us more money over the years.
There is also an eerie similarity to the corporate world that is taking place. The average tenure of a CEO is about 3 years. Too often someone is brought in to increase profitability or conduct a turnaround but fails to make lasting changes. Perhaps the most visible issue of the day is energy efficiency. Going green is a time consuming endeavor as retrofitting or new construction may take several years. From data center energy management to industrial sustainability good ideas take time to reach fruition.
Maintenance Common Sense for Governments
Maintenance is not optional for government facilities management, it is required. Poorly maintained buildings pose a public hazard long before they need to be condemned or torn down. Failure to perform maintenance lowers property values, has a tendency to increase crime and can pose significant health and safety hazards as a result of pest infestations, water damage and rot. How much money will one good lawsuit against a government cost?
There are several reasons why government officials need to think more about maintaining their communities than looking good. Fortunately, an EAM/CMMS solution can make politicians happy. Some of these reasons include:
An EAM/CMMS System Makes Voters Happy
- Lower labor costs with no lost jobs; An EAM/CMMS enables more to be done with the same amount of resources, reducing overtime due to better scheduling and planning. Voters happy.
- Fewer Capital repairs; Capital budgets are decreased because there will be fewer major repairs due to better maintained facilities. Voters happy.
- Fewer major construction needed; Building are lasting longer, freeing up monies for refurbishment of schools and parks. Voters Happy.
- Historical preservation; Historical landmarks can be saved preserving the communities heritage and pride. Voters Happy
- Fewer liability issues; Better asset maintenance history, fewer lawsuits, lower legal fees, Outside attorneys very unhappy.
No one is suggesting that an EAM/CMMS system can turn around a budget deficit but it can help. The real question is whether or not the officials you have elected have the courage to do the right thing before our cities start looking like the movie scenes from Escape to New York or I am Legend. I normally do not write opinionated articles but it is a Wednesday morning and my coffee spilled.
Share with us how your elected officials are handling the crisis. If you liked this article you may also enjoy reading:
| Leave a Comment, We'll Plant a Tree!Mintek believes that proper asset management & maintenance will help the environment. We are dedicated to helping the world be a better place. If you leave a comment we will plant a tree with PlantaBillion |
As we approach the end of July, those of us near the Gulf of Mexico are on a constant lookout for tropical storm systems that can easily ruin a weekend. This weekend many of us will get a little extra rain as TS Bonnie makes her way up the gulf. We are all keeping our fingers crossed that the storm will help speed up the breakdown of oil from the Gulf oil spill disaster and not push unwanted oil onto the shorelines.
We only posted one article this week titled the Improving Asset Maintenance for Industrial Wastewater Systems. The post points out that industrial wastewater treatment is a very important issue for maintaining the quality of groundwater supplies. We hope everyone had the opportunity to read our blogs and check out our website, but just in case you did not have the time to see our blogs and voter links as they were published, we have summarized them for you here. Please enjoy them and be sure to check back for new articles during the week. You can find a complete listing on the Mintek Blog.
1. Improving Asset Maintenance for Industrial Wastewater Systems
Author: Stuart Smith
There is always a lot of buzz concerning municipal water systems and their issues but industrial wastewater management has unique issues due the toxin cleanup that must occur. This article talks about the sources of industrial wastewater, the types of treatment involved and how an EAM/CMMS can help.
Key Point: Industrial wastewater treatment is subject to additional corrosion effects as well as a greater variety of treatment assets.
Read Relevant Articles That We Found Last Week
But wait there is more. We have found several more articles that you might find to be interesting and even put them on our website for you to vote on. The 5 best this week are:
1. The CMMS Difference
Authors: Leon King
Leon's article gives a quick look at why CMMS software can help asset intensive facilities. Leon points out the features of a CMMS solution are designed to reduce unplanned downtime by enabling maintenance management to be able to see the maintenance history of equipment as well provide more preventive maintenance.
Key Point: A CMMS program helps make maintenance far more proactive by organizing and automating the work order process.
2. Prevention is better than cure
Author: Richard Rosales
Good article by Richard emphasizing the value of Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) as part of the overall preventive maintenance of a facility. Richards article points out the need for a good RCM analysis on equipment to help define when maintenance should be performed.
Key Point: An RCM is a valuable part of a preventive maintenance program and will help staff better understand their equipment.
3. Business and Enterprise Software Resources
Author: n/a
Sometimes we run across good resources for research on EAM and CMMS products. Software Net is a one-stop site for where you can review different software solutions for various needs.
Key Point: A good resource to help you identify products that you may have an interest in.
4. Narrowing The CMMS Field
Author: website
CMMS Global is a site designed to help you better understand your CMMS needs. The site links directly to a questionnaire to help determine the scope of CMMS that might be suited for your company.
Key Point: A web site is just one way to find out information about CMMS. Another is direct contact with an experienced CMMS provider such as Mintek.
5. CMMS Directory - Maintenance Resources Center
Author: website
CMMS directory helps companies better understand the role of CMMS within a maintenance operation. You can search for a variety of vendors on their site.
Key Point: A web site is just one way to find out information about CMMS. Another is direct contact with an experienced CMMS provider such as Mintek.
What We Learned This Week
This weeks lesson was actually a result of comments placed on our blog as well as several social networking groups. The comments were all related to our article The Despicable Facilities Manager The interesting part was that of 10 comments or so, facility professionals were all able to relate the post back to their experiences. The lesson is that preventive maintenance and the tracking of work order history is often misunderstood and under appreciated until it saves the day. The challenge for facility managers is how to get this across to the big wigs before major repairs are needed.
Too read more visit our Vote on Links page.
| Leave a Comment, We'll Plant a Tree!Mintek believes that proper asset management & maintenance will help the environment. We are dedicated to helping the world be a better place. If you leave a comment we will plant a tree with PlantaBillion |
When people think of wastewater management more often than not the smell of a sewage treatment plant comes to mind. On the other hand, the thought of industrial wastewater brings to mind pictures of green luminescent radioactive liquids leaking into water supplies causing mutations and illness. Fortunately, the latter is not the case as industries that generate large amounts of wastewater typically have their own on-site treatment systems. For plants without their own system it is common to have a pre-treatment system to remove toxins before sending the water to municipal wastewater plants. In either case, it is important to make sure wastewater assets are properly maintained with a CMMS to avoid contaminating groundwater supplies.
Sources of Industrial Wastewater
Major industry producers of wastewater requiring pre-treatment or on-site wastewater treatment are usually industries that require water for cooling or processing. Major industrial waste industries include:
- Iron and Steel: Water is used as a lubricant and as a coolant and can pick up a variety of toxins including benzene, hydraulic oils, particulate solids, and acids.
- Mining and Quarry Operations: Water is used to wash minerals which becomes contaminated with slurries of rock particles, hydraulic oils, discarded metals, arsenic and other particulates that form very fine slimes which are difficult to separate. In addition, rainfall on terrestrial mining surfaces wash unwanted particles into water.
- Food Industry: The processing of food requires a lot of water to wash away organic particulate matter and organic residue. In addition, when animals are slaughtered the water used to clean the parts becomes contaminated by hormones, parasites and antibiotics.
- Chemical Plants: Chemical plants produce the widest range of contaminants depending on what is being produced. Contaminants can range from oils to pesticides to complex compounds byproducts.
- Nuclear Power Plants: Nuclear power plants use enormous amounts of water to cool radioactive rods. This water is contaminated by radium and other decay products. In addition, nuclear facilities produce enormous amounts of spent fuel that must be stored until the threat of radiation has been neutralized. Improper storage can result in leaks which is an environmental disaster.
- Water treatment: Many industries demand water that is of very high quality to reduce impurities or enhance production. An example would be the use of water in Boilers. This waste generated from such operations produces organic and mineral sludges high in calcium, magnesium and carbonates.
- Water purification: Desalination is an example of a water filtration process designed to produce drinkable water from sea water. Naturally, putting back high levels of salt into the environment can have a negative impact on the eco-system.
Treatment of Industrial Wastewater
The treatment of industrial wastewater will obviously vary depending on the type of contaminants and treatment is asset intensive. Each method or process is performed by specialized equipment. Some equipment may be straightforward to operate and other equipment may require IT support. However, the most common forms of industrial wastewater treatment include:
- Solids removal using sedimentations and filters.
- Oil and Water Separators often using heat intensive skimmers that keep grease fluid.
- The removal of biodegradable organic material using biochemical components and a myriad of tanks used for aeration or settling and trickling filters.
- Advanced oxidation process, adsorption,vitrification, distillation and incineration.
- Acid neutralization
- Advanced Oxidation Process
- Aerated lagoons
- Fermentation
The object of wastewater management is to reduce the amount of contaminants that can find their way back into the groundwater or reclaimed water. There is a growing need for reclaimed water in industry, as reusing water for other purposes can lower energy costs. For example, cooling towers do not normally require the same quality of water as a boiler. Water could also be used for toilet flushing or any other purpose that does not require drinking water.
CMMS Software Can Ensure Energy Efficiency
The treatment of wastewater produced through industrial activities requires a fair amount of energy. This is because the equipment needed to perform the detoxification needs power to operate and with some equipment like, oil and water separators, may require intensive heat generation. In addition, wastewater systems components are subject to accelerated corrosion due to particulate matter reacting with water and other chemicals. Equipment left uninspected for damage or lacking regular preventive maintenance can deteriorate quickly.
Deteriorating assets causes the assets to try and draw more power to accomplish the same results as well as subject them to excessive repair and downtime losses. A CMMS solution reduces this outcome by automating work order processes eliminating manual tracking systems. More importantly, CMMS software provides wastewater maintenance teams with a powerful scheduling tool that ensures inspections and preventive maintenance are performed routinely. Combination automation and scheduling frees up valuable time for inspections and preventive maintenance allowing maintenance teams to operate in a proactive environment resulting in greater asset energy efficiency.
Wastewater efficiency is important to everyone, share with us how your plant is addressing wastewater maintenance issues. If you liked this article, you may also enjoy reading:
| Leave a Comment, We'll Plant a Tree!Mintek believes that proper asset management & maintenance will help the environment. We are dedicated to helping the world be a better place. If you leave a comment we will plant a tree with PlantaBillion |
The middle of July, a relatively slow time but a good point in the year to reflect on the maintenance performance of assets as compared to budgets and problem projections. If your budget year started in January, asset managers should have a pretty good idea how the year will turn out but if the fiscal year just started it is not too late to adjust expectations with the right EAM/CMMS tools.
Our most popular article of from last week titled the 7 Deadly Sins of Asset Management continues to draw readers at a record breaking pace. This weeks early article discussed prison asset management from a decision making perspective about when is the proper time to retire an asset versus continuing to sink money into repairs. The final post today was a parody of the Universal Studios movie Despicable Me. We hope everyone had the opportunity to read our blogs and check out our website, but just in case you did not have the time to see our blogs and voter links as they were published, we have summarized them for you here. Please enjoy them and be sure to check back for new articles during the week. You can find a complete listing on the Mintek Blog.
1. The Despicable Facilities Manager
Author: Stuart Smith
The post is the story of an asset manager wanting to make a case and purchase a new boiler for his facility and what he willing to endure to achieve his goal. Making reference to the new movie release Despicable Me, from Universal Studios he overcomes the obstacles through the use of a super EAM tool.
Key Point: If you can achieve buy-in from the minions you can achieve anything.
2. Repair, Refurbish or Replacement Maintenance Decisions for Prisons
Author: Stuart Smith
The article discusses the type of detailed information that is required to make sound decisions about repair, refurbish or replacement within a prison system. Knowing what to detail to have is important but is useless unless you have the tools necessary to collect historical information and then produce usable management reports that can view the maintenance history over the lifecycle of the asset.
Key Point: Prisons don't just need maintenance tools they the capability to use the information to manage assets effectively using an EAM.
Read Relevant Articles That We Found Last Week
But wait there is more. We have found several more articles that you might find to be interesting and even put them on our website for you to vote on. The 5 best this week are:
1. Baseline and monitor efficiency of compressed air systems
Authors: Bill Scales and Ron Marshall
The authors have put a nice piece that identifies the use of compressed air as a non-efficient source of energy in a plant that is often the biggest end user of a plant's electricity. Despite its use of energy, there are some things a plant can do to increase efficiencies such making a plan that best understands compressed air as a system and then executing a 7 step action plan detailed in the article.
Key Point: The use of compressed air and its management is often misunderstood and leads to a fair amount of waste.
2. You Don’t Pay for What You Don’t Use
Author: Larry Simpson
Larry's post reflects the growing importance that total real estate management takes in achieving an environmental sustainable facilities solution. Include in Larry's post are the importance of understanding how the different components from occupancy planning to maintenance costs play a role in defining operational success.
Key Point: Building and facility management especially over multiple locations takes careful planning and analysis.
3. Energy Efficiency Examples For Your Business
Author: Daniel Stouffer
Daniel discusses the impact of a PEW Center report on Global Climate Change for business that do not wait for EPA regulations before they action. The article discusses some of the low hanging fruit that business can reach for that can curb their carbon footprint.
Key Point: Energy efficiency is directly tied to lowering maintenance costs.
4. Who is in Charge of Maintaining a Building?
Author: Connor R Sullivan
This article discusses a little known public fact about how and where large buildings keep their equipment and supplies to conduct maintenance. Conner describes how mezzanine locations can enable out of sight storage as well as strategic placement of need maintenance support. I like the reference to ghost floors.
Key Point: Have you ever wondered where a skyscraper hides it maintenance staff, critical equipment and supplies? It may not be in the basement but located properly can increase the efficiencies of staff.
What We Learned This Week
This weeks lesson centered around making you have the best information available to make intelligent decisions. Defining the best information is going to be different for every company but it will include a good historical record of past maintenance history. However, the steps are similar, the first step is making sure you have the right tools to collect the necessary information to make your case. Making use of a tool like an EAM system will help validate your decision.
Too read more visit our Vote on Links page.
| Leave a Comment, We'll Plant a Tree!Mintek believes that proper asset management & maintenance will help the environment. We are dedicated to helping the world be a better place. If you leave a comment we will plant a tree with PlantaBillion |
Did I get your attention - laughing? There is a movie that was just released titled Despicable Me. It is the story of an evil super villain and his army of minions as they plot to steal the moon. To pull off the great caper, Gru (the super villain) needs to get additional capital assistance from the bank. The bank turns him down until he can acquire a special asset (shrink ray) to carry out the plan. After Gru gets the shrink ray it is promptly stolen from him.
To get his shrink ray back, Gru adopts three beautiful little girls to use them as tools to infiltrate the thief's lair. Gru manages to get the asset back, steals the moon but finds that he has lost the girls (who have now become his favorite tools). I can't tell you any more of the plot because that would make me The Despicable Author. Oh what the heck - The Butler Did It! - lol.
The Facility Manager's Asset Quest
No, I am not suggesting that Facility Managers are evil super villains (or am I)? I think the movie can be an analogy to the lengths some facility managers are willing to go to obtain the assets that they need. For example, a facility manager may instinctively know that a boiler that has been acting up a lot lately needs to be replaced. They go to the boss who tells them they need to acquire proof to justify his fear. The facility manager knows that the aging maintenance team probably cannot remember how many times the boiler was worked on so he sets out a plan to gather the information from the stacks of paper work orders in the storeroom.
The Quest Tool (An EAM System)
The facility manager soon realizes this is nuts and need a better way especially, since other assets are showing signs of wear and tear. The decision is made to acquire a special EAM tool that will provide a detailed history of the asset including its age, location, work order history, what was done, by whom, the cause and cost to repair. The tool will also be able to provide evidence that the unit has been maintained properly through inspections and preventive maintenance programs.
Minions (Maintenance Team) To The Rescue
Before the tool can be fully implemented, a terrible recession steals the money for the EAM system training. However, with the help of his dedicated minions (Team of skilled maintenance professionals tired of working overtime and fighting fires) providing feedback, the facility manager is able to record enough work request and work order information to approach the big bosses for a capital expenditure. Unlike the movie, he does get the financing for the boiler but more importantly, he has fallen in love with his new EAM system for which his life would no longer have meaning if he lost it.
The Maintenance Efficiency Reward
What did the minions think? The extra time they have as a result of proactive maintenance practices and a reduction in paperwork have them chatting about it around the water cooler just before they head out to inspect the remaining assets for potential problems. Despicable Facility Manager - NO, Smart Facility Manager - YES.
We hope that you liked our short story and would like to thank Universal Studios 2010 for there gracious approval of the screenshots used in this article. Please watch the Despicable Me trailer below. We hope you have a great weekend and go watch the film. Several completely unrelated posts include:
| Leave a Comment, We'll Plant a Tree!Mintek believes that proper asset management & maintenance will help the environment. We are dedicated to helping the world be a better place. If you leave a comment we will plant a tree with PlantaBillion |
Prison maintenance management is a challenge no matter where the prison is or how old it is. Inside of every prison, maintenance decisions are made daily that determine the future of its assets. When work requests are received, decisions may need to be made on whether to repair, refurbish or replace (RRR) the asset. For some assets this may be an easy call, yet for other more expensive pieces of equipment, such as a boiler the choice may not be so clear cut. These decisions become harder to make if the prison is not managing assets over their entire useful lifecycle.
Asset lifecycle management starts at the planning phase and continues until the asset is either retired or replaced. This is sometimes referred to as managing assets over the course of their useful economic life and requires that prison maintenance managers have access to all the relevant details of the assets. Without this information, a decision to continue applying temporary fixes may prove to be less cost effective than refurbishment of the asset. One of the best methods of collecting this information is to implement an Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) system. A prison EAM system will organize the collection of the important asset details.
Components of Asset Detail (at a minimum)
- Location: Where is the asset located?
- Description: Physical description of the asset, note if it was new or refurbished at the time of purchase
- Age: Date manufactured and date installed.
- Condition: It is important to note the changes in condition from purchase to the last inspection.
- Purchase price: Cost of the asset and terms
- Expected useful lifespan: What was the initial planning projection economic lifespan?
- Vendor information: Manufacturer, vendor, warranty, terms, service availability, contact information.
- Other documents: Includes contracts and other documentation.
- Asset maintenance history: Good data collection enables good output reports, detail is critical.
- # of work request generated: How many times have problems been reported on the asset?
- # of work orders completed: How many work request resulted in a completed work order?
- # of work orders outstanding: Are there any work orders outstanding? Will they impact the RRR decision?
- Repair history: When, who, what, where, how was the problem fixed, costs, parts used, notes, follow-up date and so on. Detail is critical.
- Inspection history: Schedule and results of regularly scheduled inspections.
- Preventive maintenance history: Scheduled work orders for the purpose of performing minor maintenance to optimize performance.
- Other maintenance activities: Scheduling of the use of predictive or infrared testing activity, safety tests etc.
- Expected Useful Lifecycle: What is the assets projected retirement date?
When the detail is collected using an EAM system, prison management can use the reporting features to organize and sort the information needed for good decisions. For example, a leak has been discovered in a chiller, maintenance management can now look and see if this is unique occurrence or if it is something that is occurring every week. A review of the work order history will also tell them who fixed the leak the last time, what was the cause and how the work order was completed.
If the leak is one of many from the chiller unit, prison maintenance can also look at the age of the asset and make a better determination of whether the unit should be repaired or replaced. Prison management can also use reports to identify who has been performing the work and if training is needed. Similarly, the historical database also becomes a resource for maintenance staff researching the fix to a problem.
Ultimately, the asset database created by an EAM system can be used to provide the needed documentation and justification for capital budget proposals.
One of the true advantages for prison systems of an EAM solution is that the same system can be used for multiple facilities. When used for multiple locations, prison management can view all their assets at one time, prepare more accurate capital budgets, assess the success of standard operating procedures but most importantly know where all their assets are and their condition.
Other benefits include being able to identify and consolidate vendors, standardization of maintenance practices and the creation of a system wide knowledge base that protects the know-how developed by maintenance staff over the course of time. The knowledge base is an area of growing importance as the average of the skilled maintenance professional is over 50. Without the collection of maintenance history, the knowledge these maintenance professionals have would be lost upon their retirement.
An EAM system will also have an impact on public perception. Government run facilities are constantly on the radar of critics who derail the prison system as archaic and inefficient (only speaking of maintenance). The implementation of an EAM will greatly reduce the need for paper, increase energy efficiency through better maintained equipment, and lower labor costs that are a result of unplanned emergency maintenance and repairs.
Share with us how your prison handles repair, refurbish or replacement decisions. If you enjoyed reading this article you may also want to read:
| Leave a Comment, We'll Plant a Tree!Mintek believes that proper asset management & maintenance will help the environment. We are dedicated to helping the world be a better place. If you leave a comment we will plant a tree with PlantaBillion |
The end of a holiday week is a time catch up on the latest news and events in the world. The World Cup reached its conclusion this weekend with Spain taking the honors but Paul the Octopus basking in international glory after picking 8 of 8 game winners. Now the challenge for South Africa is how to maintain their investment in their stadiums and infrastructure improvements for the long term by using an EAM/CMMS.
Our most popular article of the week was titled the 7 Deadly Sins of Asset Management which was somewhat humorous look at signs that asset management professionals make. We hope everyone had the opportunity to read our blogs and check out our website, but just in case you did not have the time to see our blogs and voter links as they were published, we have summarized them for you here. Please enjoy them and be sure to check back for new articles during the week. You can find a complete listing on the Mintek Blog.
1. 7 Deadly Sins of Asset Management
Author: Stuart Smith
The 7 Deadly Sins describe actions by people that are considered negative or prevent harmony. This article applies the 7 deadly sins to asset management for a somewhat humorous look at how to discover what is going wrong. A special bonus sin was added for good measure. How many sins is your organization committing?
Key Point: Find a struggling asset management operation and you will find a deadly sin.
2. Plugging the Water Utility Leaks with Increased Inspections
Author: Stuart Smith
How bad is our nations water infrastructure? The amount of water lost from leaks in an average city is 3-10 times the amount of the Gulf Oil Spill. Government estimates indicate that over $ 300 billion dollars is needed to fix our nations water supply problems. This number will increase significantly as cities with 70-150 year old pipes see a staggering increase in asset failures.
Key Point: Municipal water utilities still have time to act before catastrophic asset failures occur.
3. Halting Wastewater Inefficiency with a CMMS
Author: Stuart Smith
The article looks how CMMS software can help address the corrosion and the subsequent water loss in our nations wastewater systems. Keys to success include getting back control of maintenance operations to be come proactive in the early detection of leaks as well as increasing preventive maintenance.
Key Point: It is not to late to start using a CMMS solution as it will help wastewater management understand where all their assets are and what condition they are in.
4. It's not necessary to become a geek to learn how wind energy works
Author: Mary Jones
This guest post by Mary explains how wind energy actually works and how costs per watt are related. Mary's detailed explanation of how wind energy works is outstanding and a must read.
Key Point: Non-polluting energy source, a great back up for small businesses or homes and just a few parts to maintain with an EAM system.
Read Relevant Articles That We Found Last Week
But wait there is more. We have found several more articles that you might find to be interesting and even put them on our website for you to vote on. The 5 best this week are:
1. An effective PM program requires a solid foundation
Author: Jeff Shiver
Jeff's article makes a good point that an effective preventive maintenance program needs to have the proper top management support. Top support is required because it helps set the needed expectations in an organization. Jeff makes another great point that any maintenance solution needs to be thought out before implementation.
Key Point: It is difficult for any maintenance management solution to achieve the desired results if the organizational maintenance needs and expectations have not been carefully integrated.
2. Corporate climate change activities are being driven by evolving customer demands
Author: Posted on Plant Services.com
This relatively short article reports recent survey results from approximately 300 companies over 1 billion in revenues. Of interest was that 82% of the executive were committed to investing in energy efficiency as a result of consumer pressures.
Key Point: Energy efficiency is big business.
3. Proactive Facility Maintenance
Author: LinkedIn Forum Discussion
Sometimes a discussion forum is a good place to find information. We are happy to link you to a very active discussion occurring on LinkedIn. The discussion began as "in facility management we typically operate in the reactive mode responding to work orders and trouble calls daily. What has anyone done to operate more proactively?
Key Point: There may not be just one solution for your facility. In addition, there is lots of misinformation on the internet as people try to promote one methodology over another.
What We Learned This Week
This weeks theme was that basic preventive maintenance activities using an CMMS can help our nation's aging water systems infrastructure by helping management teams take back proactive control of maintenance operations. However, even better asset management come from using an EAM system which provides the tools necessary for asset lifecycle management.
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The 7 deadly sins of asset management are what some people may call mistakes and others refer to them as negative barriers to success. However, the reality is asset intensive organizations must balance the mix of sub-cultures, management styles, and shareholder desires with operational realities in order to sustain production of goods and services at a reasonable margin. To achieve a higher level of asset maintenance and management, the harmful effects of the 7 deadly sins listed below need to be mitigated.
Pride: Thinking you have nothing left to learn about your assets.jpg)
Pride as a deadly sin refers to a narcissistic pattern of behavior from asset maintenance executives that are unable to acknowledge a need for Maintenance, Repair and Operations (MRO) improvement. Pride can be as small as ignoring maintenance team suggestions for work order improvements or tunnel vision that is developed by overdeveloped egos that are blind to the need for change and use better, more efficient tools such as an EAM system. Recognizable by increasing labor costs, employee turnover, greater capital repairs and a Can't Do Attitude.
Greed: Poor asset maintenance to save money .jpg)
The easiest of the 7 deadly sins of asset management to identify. Just look at the headlines behind many of the tragedies of major disasters. The Gulf Oil spill comes to mind as a perfect example of how safety, preventive maintenance, and common sense were swept aside to save millions of dollars in operational costs. Greed can also be identified as a short-term mindset. For example, a facility under cash flow pressure decides it is easier and faster to slash headcount for quick relief versus addressing the operational inefficiencies. Recognizable by red hands and unemployment lines.
Sloth: Slow to adopt technology for asset management
Sloth can be best be described as a resistance to change. Many facility and plant operations have performed asset maintenance functions the same way for decades. When this occurs new ideas such as integrating technology that can automate manual maintenance processes go largely ignored. It also means that swift adjustments to remain competitive cannot be implemented without resistance. Sloth is one of the main reasons organizations must bring in turnaround specialists. Recognizable by the slogans We have always done it this way and If it ain't broke don't fix it.
Envy: Failing to improve maintenance management
Envy is the most difficult asset management sins to identify, yet it can be a complete show stopper. Envy leads maintenance managers and staff on a path to make the boss happy but not necessarily make good decisions for the useful lifecycle of an asset. The result is asset neglect, unplanned work orders and major capital replacements. Eventually it all backfires when an asset fails unexpectedly causing substantial downtime and major capital dollars to fix. Recognizable by brown noses and no established preventive maintenance program.
Lust: Neglecting maintenance to obtain new assets.jpg)
Lust is when management spends more time pursuing new assets instead of taking care of the ones you have. New toys always look shiny and fun but are often not needed when current assets are properly maintained with an EAM system. Extreme lust is allowing assets to fail in order to get a new replacement. Lust often surfaces after trade shows and product demonstrations. Recognizable by too many maintenance magazines on the table and excessive downtime.
Gluttony: Terrible asset energy efficiency 
Poorly maintained equipment becomes a glutton for more energy to function as the asset must worker harder to achieve the desired operating levels. The increase in energy use can normally be avoided through proper asset maintenance. When assets become energy hogs two things will happen. First, utility costs will go up which is important when energy costs account for 30-50 percent of operating expenses, Secondly, assets will fail sooner due to the extra stress in achieving operating targets. Gluttony increases operating expenses and shortens the useful lifecycle of assets. Recognizable by high energy costs.
Wrath: Bad asset capital budgets
Wrath can be defined as what will happen when shareholders and owners realize you are not effectively managing the lifecycle of assets. Clues to owners that something is amiss include unbudgeted capital expenditures, unplanned downtime, an inability to identify where your assets are, what their condition is or their asset maintenance history. The worst sign of all is when the shareholders have to explain a tragedy that has occurred due to a lack of asset management or neglect (example: BP and Gulf Oil spill). Recognizable by the colors black and blue and of course pink slips.
Bonus Sin: Apathy When good asset management isn't on your radar
Apathy is when you know how to make your maintenance operations better but simply do not care enough to do something about it.
"Acedia (Latin, acedia) (from Greek ακηδία) is the neglect to take care of something that one should do. It is translated to apathetic listlessness; depression without joy. ... apathy was considered a refusal to help others in time of need."
Source: Wikipedia
Enterprise Asset Management Can Help
No one person or organization is perfect and there are countless barriers to great asset management. The good news is there is help. An Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) system is a software solution that can manage the complete work order lifecycle as well as provide the tools for long term capital budget planning. A properly implemented EAM solution can help automate time consuming work order lifecycle processes freeing up valuable time for preventive maintenance and inspections.
More importantly, an EAM system creates a databank of asset information that allows management to track an assets complete history from purchase to retirement. Included in the asset database are a total history of work orders, work requests, who did the work, what the results were, condition of assets, location and everything else needed to make intelligent operating decisions. EAM eliminates the excuses for not taking care of assets. Better asset management and maintenance will mitigate the 7 deadly sins.
Tells us your analogies for the 7 deadly sins. If you enjoyed this article you may also want to read:
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Running water is something most of us take for granted. In fact, outside of a few camping trips, I would be hard pressed to imagine life without taking a daily shower, running the dishwasher, washing my hands, flushing the toilet or visiting any business that did not have indoor plumbing. However, after researching this article I can't help but wonder if our water safety blanket is going to burst faster than a municipal water main. Our nations water systems need help, is an utilities EAM system part of the solution?
The Disrepair of Our Municipal Water Systems
The typical costs per gallon of water are about $.001 or 1/10 of a cent per gallon to $.005. Water cost, as compared to other utilities, is very much dependent on the Cities proximity to water sources as water is expensive to pump and transport. Beyond the relatively low price for water there is reason for great concern.
"The Government Accounting Office (GAO) in a 2002 report stated that 33 percent of water utilities did not adequately maintain assets and a further 29 percent had insufficient revenues to even maintain current service levels."
Source: United States Environmental Protection Agency
The EPA report goes on to discuss how pipe failures due to age and corrosion should be expected to increase exponentially.
Asset Management Issues
- Many municipal water systems were installed soon after WWII making the average age between 50 and 70 years.
- Annual leak rates for 3 major cities
- Rochester, NY - loses 24% of the daily water supply or 7.1 million gallons per day or 2.6 billion gallons per year. For scope, this amount is approximately 3.5 times the amount of oil leaking from the Gulf Oil Disaster on a daily basis.
- Buffalo, NY - loses 41% of the daily water supply. Buffalo is slightly larger than Rochester
- Philadelphia, PA - loses 33% of the daily water. Philly is 4 times the size of Buffalo and Rochester added together.
Can you imagine how much is lost nationally?
- Miami, FL fixes over 1400 leaks a year
- Estimated cost to repair California drinking water infrastructure - $17.5 billion
- Estimated cost to fix the USA aging water supply system over the next few decades according to the EPA - $325 billion
There are three major reasons for the thousands upon thousands of leaks fixed by municipal maintenance teams annually. The first is the age of actual water infrastructure which can be well over 50 years. The second is the result of corrosion as water contains impurities that can cause pitting and other forms of pipe or valve corrosion. The third reason is for many years municipal water systems were not properly maintained. More specifically, cities have long operated on a reactive maintenance basis performing only limited inspections and water audits. The result is small leaks are becoming gushers on a regular basis washing away needed revenues.
As the water infrastructures have aged and corroded, water utility maintenance teams have become overwhelmed. To make matters worse, the average age of skilled maintenance workers is over 50 which is contributing to a skilled labor shortage to complete work orders. This leaves municipalities with only a handful of choices to avoid life altering water disruption for residents and businesses as well as avoiding skyrocketing water costs. The choices local governments have are:
- Propose a tax increase to fix major infrastructure issues. Probably not a voters first choice unless they are made aware of the consequences for failing to act.
- Float a municipal bond issue to fix the infrastructure issues. The problem is finding enough investors because so many cities and States are facing an economic crisis which lowers their capability to repay.
- Raise water prices to end users in a never ending spiral to make up for lost water.
- Continue reactive maintenance until either a catastrophic disaster takes place or corporatization occurs (private or corporate ownership of water utilities). Corporations will fix the problem but will also raise prices to accommodate their investment.
- Try and do a little more proactive maintenance each year in an effort to identify small leaks before they become major repairs. The investment a city must make is minor compared to the cost of replacing its entire infrastructure. Capital replacements can be phased in over time.
The last option above makes the most sense for municipal water systems. Taking better care of water utility assets through preventive maintenance and inspections will slowly but surely enable water maintenance teams to take back control and manage their own destiny as well as lengthen the useful lifecycle of assets. However, in order to accomplish this goal, municipal water utilities need EAM features to organize information and help streamline the work order process.
An EAM system contains two major tools that can help water utility management. The first is an EAM system sets up and organizes asset information in such a way that management has access to complete asset information such as location, decryption, age, condition, and costs. Each asset record will also contain a complete maintenance history including work request, work orders, who performed the work, what was done, time spent as well as tools/parts used. The database created can then be used by water managers to better plan infrastructure replacements as well become a knowledge source for new recruits.
The second major tool is that EAM software has a very powerful maintenance management design. Using an EAM system will automate manual work order processes and give water maintenance managers the ability to schedule all maintenance activities including work orders, inspections and preventive maintenance. Slowly but surely maintenance will regain the ability to be more proactive in reducing the number of leaks. The work order automation process allows for more work to be done with the same amount of resources.
Share with us how your municipal water works are plugging the leaks. If you liked this article you may also want to read:
| Leave a Comment, We'll Plant a Tree!Mintek believes that proper asset management & maintenance will help the environment. We are dedicated to helping the world be a better place. If you leave a comment we will plant a tree with PlantaBillion |