Menu
Reliability and Maintenance
Articles & Videos
from the knowledge leaders of IDCON
Leadership in Maintenance
5 Steps to make your Gemba walks successful
Christer Idhammar
Many Reliability and Maintenance improvement initiatives fail to deliver sustainable (and continuously improving) results in improved safety, manufacturing throughput, and costs. There are many reasons
Reliability or Cost? Prevent Disasters Through a Partnership System
Christer Idhammar
Reliability is a term that has become more commonly used in the industry. Many organizations are using this word to describe their predictive maintenance department.
What Reliability and Maintenance Managers Need to Do
Torbjörn Idhammar
Are your managers trained in Management of Reliability and Maintenance? In this video, Tor Idhammar, IDCON’s President and CEO, explains why it is imperative that
Walking the Plant Floor – What to Look For
Christer Idhammar
In Part I of his Gemba Walk Series, Christer will walk you through what to look for when walking the plant floor. Cleanliness Safety And
Your Maintenance Cost is Too High!
Torbjörn Idhammar
The Covid-19 pandemic is still creating casualties around the globe and many companies’ finances are shaken to their core. If you manage maintenance, you are
Work Management / Planning & Scheduling
How to Calculate the Backlog and Manage Your Resources
Owe Forsberg
Are you finding it difficult to manage your maintenance and reliability resources? Do you feel like you cannot catch up on the work order backlog?
Do We Need Planners?
Christer Idhammar
In this video, Christer Idhammar answers the question for. Someone is always planning a job whether you have the role of planner or not but
How is an annual shutdown like a family vacation? Without a clear strategy and plan, they can both be a nightmare!
Owe Forsberg
How do you plan your family vacation? In most cases you have to check when you can take off from work, decide where to go,
The Simple Solution for Duplicate Work Orders
Terry Taylor
We have all experienced duplicate work orders in our work order system. The problem is generally rooted in the way the current system is designed
Are your work requests all high priority (1 or 2)?
Torbjörn Idhammar
When all work requests are high priority (1 or 2) the result is a reactive work environment. This is a common occurrence for organizations that
How Many Maintenance Planners and Supervisors do we need?
Torbjörn Idhammar
My personal free time has radically increased over the past six months. Our three sons, ages 12, 14 and 16, all played icehockey until very
Preventive Maintenance
Preventive Maintenance: Start with the Basics
Owe Forsberg
IDCON VP and Preventive Maintenance expert, Owe Forsberg, lays out the basics of Preventive Maintenance and explains (with examples from the field) why it is
Short Story: The Truth about Kimberly the Hydraulic Unit’s health
Torbjörn Idhammar
By: Kim Hydraulic a.k.a. Torbjörn Idhammar, IDCON – a Reliability and Maintenance Management Consulting firm Hello, My name is Kimberly, but you can call me
Know Why to Inspect – Evaluating Your Preventive Maintenance Inspections
Christer Idhammar
When your team knows why they are doing even the simplest task, this can instantly improve your Preventive Maintenance program. Knowing the reason behind what
Could your Preventive Maintenance (PM) program use a tune-up?
Terry Taylor
We commonly work with clients with a high amount of “Reactive” maintenance. In the worst-case scenarios, this translates into unscheduled downtime and lost production. The
Pre-Operational Checklists Reinvented: Data Driven Reliability in Mining
Dale R. Ekmark
Pre-operational checklists are not “new”, “sexy” or exciting. What they are is the leading foundation of a safe, highly efficient, reliable and cost effective mining
How to preserve the life of bearings
Owe Forsberg
A bearing has a random life due to a complex set of factors that determine the life of a bearing. SKF confirms that bearing life
Root Cause
Root Cause and Thinking: Part 2 of the Root Cause Video Series
Torbjörn Idhammar
What tools are effective when you’re conducting a root cause investigation? In this second video of the series “Root Cause and Thinking”, Tor Idhammar discusses
Root Cause and Thinking: Part 1
Torbjörn Idhammar
In his new video series, Tor Idhammar goes through how become effective in Root Cause Problem Elimination. This 1st video unlocks the importance of employing
Reliability Tips: The layers of root cause
Torbjörn Idhammar
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
Why vs Who: Root Cause Problem Elimination
Torbjörn Idhammar
In Root Cause Problem Elimination (Analysis) it is vital to abstain from the “Blame Game” of “Who” is responsible. A common situation is a Root
Smart Tools for Failure Analysis
Torbjörn Idhammar
Some plants buy a high-powered microscope in order to do failure analysis. While this sometimes is necessary, it could be good to consider other options
Corrective Maintenance…Opportunity for Practical Root Cause Problem Elimination (RCPE)
Owe Forsberg
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
Technical / Equipment
What Can Be the Impact of Dissimilar Metal Corrosion?
Owe Forsberg
A trailer was repaired after scraping the side a few years ago. The bolts that hold the cross members to the aluminum frame on the
Infrared Thermography – not just for Electrical Switchgear
Michael J. Sherbak II
Infrared (IR) thermography has become an essential tool in many Predictive Maintenance (PdM) Programs. In spite of becoming more user-friendly and affordable, there is a
Listen to your Cog Belt
Torbjörn Idhammar
Are you hearing a slapping noise? This can be caused by poor tension, which may cause a reduction in performance and lead to belt breakage.
Reliability Tip: OTR Inspections- Gear Coupling
Torbjörn Idhammar
Subjective OTR inspections on gear couplings should include Noise, Visual, Temperature, grease leaking, guards and keyway. Noise could be caused by:
Measuring a bearing condition without a vibration analyst
Torbjörn Idhammar
Scenario: You are the Reliability Engineer responsible for developing an in-house condition based PM program. One item you’re monitoring is an important process fan. This
Materials Management
Where are the parts that I need?
Owe Forsberg
Are you sure that the parts you need will be in the storeroom when you need them? Materials and Spare parts management is an opportunity
Dispelling the Myth about Obsolete Parts
Torbjörn Idhammar
When is a part obsolete? There are a few myths surrounding obsolete parts:
Reliable Storeroom and Spare Parts Organization – What Good Looks Like
Angel Custodio
Our storeroom and spare parts organization are usually the area with more opportunities regarding reliability operation. What does good look like? What elements are needed?
Spare Parts Description Naming Convention
Angel Custodio
Spare Parts naming has always been a challenge, from the lack of description standardization among parts manufacturers to CMMS & ERP systems templates (parts classification)
Spare Parts Classification
Torbjörn Idhammar
The definition of Spare Parts Classification can fluctuate depending on the vision and/or focus assumed at any given moment. Some examples of definitions:
Spare Parts Kit Age
Torbjörn Idhammar
Kitting and staging parts sounds good but… It is a good idea to check the aging of these staged kits on a regular basis. It
Swedish Articles
Varför misslyckas många förbättringsinitiativ inom underhåll?
Christer Idhammar
Svar på fråga Kritikalitet av utrustning har inget med inspektionsintervall att göra. Det är felutvecklingstiden som bestämmer hur ofta en komponent bör inspekteras. Om kostnaden
Skador och planerat underhåll
Christer Idhammar
Jag har länge påstått att det finns ett starkt förhållande mellan skador och planerade underhållsarbeten likaväl som det finns ett starkt förhållande mellan planerat och
i en organization som jobbar i ett partnerskap
Christer Idhammar
Jag har skrivit mycket om att arbeta i ett partnerskap i stället för att arbeta i ett kund och leverantörförhållande mellan drift och underhåll. Jag
Kulturförändring
Christer Idhammar
Alla som medverkat i förbättringsinitiativ inom produktion och underhåll inser snart att det handlar mer om en kulturförändring och ändrat beteende än om teknik. Teknik
Implementeringsmodell för bättre Driftsäkerhet och lägre underhållskostnader I
Christer Idhammar
I denna och följande krönikor kommer jag att beskriva de steg en organisation bör ta för att framgångsrikt åstadkomma en bestående förbättring av driftsäkerheten och
Helhetssyn på Utrustningsdriftsäkerhet. Del 3.
Christer Idhammar
I den här krönikan kommer jag att fortsätta att beskriva en helhetssyn på de element som påverkar en maskinell utrustnings driftsäkerhet och kostnad. Som framgår
KEEP THINGS RUNNING
At IDCON, we understand the pressure you face trying to build a reliable plant
We provide side-by-side, reliability and maintenance consulting and training designed to keep your equipment running.
For over 45 years, we’ve partnered with hundreds of manufacturing plants around the world to eliminate the costs and the pressure caused by unreliable equipment.
And we’d love to do the same for you.
