Like many organizations, Cathy’s company was storing surplus parts—parts the company has not used in a given period of time. Those parts were just sitting on the shelves, forgotten, but still costing the organization money.

Cathy’s team knew they were storing unneeded parts. But it was an easy thing to ignore… until Cathy reviewed their MPulse CMMS data and saw the numbers on the report.

We all have fallen for this trap.  We talk about the stuff that is bad.  We present accidents and near misses in the hopes that workers will learn and be better…in a way we want to deter your accident by scaring you with someone else’s accident.  It does not really work, but hey when has that ever stopped us.  Bet you a dollar you can find Heinrich’s Pyramid someplace in your plant - worse yet - I’ll bet you can find somebody that believes if you have 300 sprained ankles the next event will be a death.

Maintaining the health of the assets that make up a steam system brings benefits that are measured by cost reduction, improved product quality and decreased risk to safety. When employees undertake a project that delivers on goals like these, a fourth win is returned by default — improved reliability culture.

When steam system health is ignored, components degrade and efficiency erodes. Over time the system reaches a point where it is no longer able to deliver on its engineered purpose. The maintenance manager’s phone rings. Production needs a fix, and they need it fast. Now it is time to fight fires again.

Why Your Operators Need To Be Part Of Your Reliability Program You drive your car (almost) every day, you will immediately notice a new noise, vibration, or feel to the car.  Once you detect this you would report the issue to your mechanic (or if yourself and do the repair), and he would investigate the issue.  The repair would be made and the car returned to you. This same approach is what should be happening in your plant.  The operators of the plant equipment, operate the equipment every day and know the equipment.  Any changes or variation in the equipment