Welcome to the twenty-third edition of M-News.

You are receiving this newsletter because you have requested subscription to
the newsletter. If you do not wish to receive future copies of this
newsletter, please complete the form at register at
www.plant-maintenance.com/registration.shtml.

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IN THIS EDITION...

Web Site News - Toolstore Now Open
Feature Article - Maintenance is For Ever
Feature Article - Work Order Priority Setting
Feature Article - Condition Based Maintenance for improving Power Plant
Economics
Feature Article - Vee Belt Drives
Limited Time Offer - FREE Three Months Trial Subscription to UPTIME
Survey Results - Maintenance Salaries
Current Survey - Condition Monitoring and NDT Practices
Book Review - Overall Equipment Effectiveness, by Robert Hansen
Recommended Books
On the Lighter Side - Engineering Humor

For bandwidth reasons, this newsletter is in plain text, but an HTML version
is available at
www.plant-maintenance.com/m-news/edition23.shtml

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This edition of the newsletter is sponsored by Reliability Center, Inc.

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Web Site News - Toolstore Now Open
In yet another new feature to our website, we are pleased to announce that, in
association with amazon.com, we now provide the
capability to purchase tools and hardware through the Plant Maintenance Resource
Center website. Whether shopping for tools and
hardware for your home renovation and repair projects, or for your workplace,
why don't you have a browse through the toolstore
at www.plant-maintenance.com/toolstore.shtml.


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Feature Article - Maintenance is For Ever
This article is the first in a series of five offered by Pete Peeters of the
Maintenance Excellence Institute which presents a
strategic approach to Maintenance and Reliability Improvement. An introduction
to the entire series can be read at
http://www.plant-maintenance.com/articles/JourneytoMaintenanceExcellence-Introdu\
ction.pdf. The first article is titled
"Maintenance is Forever", and defines the need for long-term continuous
reliability improvement (CRI) within the business of
maintenance and physical asset management. It sounds the alarm to support
maintenance leaders in their quest to maintain
facilities and equipment with diminishing funds while often gaining new
production assets and facilities along with new
maintenance requirements for these physical assets via new minor/major additions
or acquisitions. It also strives to explain how
four very basic but interrelated challenges can almost exponentially grow the
scope of overall maintenance work requirements.
The full article can be read at
http://www.plant-maintenance.com/articles/MaintenanceisForever.pdf. Note that
you will need to
have the free Adobe Acrobat reader installed to be able to view this file. We
will progressively feature additional articles in
this series in future issues of this newsletter, but if, in the meantime, you
would like to receive the entire series, we would
suggest that you contact Pete Peeters via email at RalphPetePeters@...


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Feature Article - Work Order Priority Setting
This article was offered by Bryan Weir of Perspective MMS
(http://www.pemms.co.uk) in response to some related discussion on the
plantmaint Maintenance Discussion forum (see
http://www.plant-maintenance.com/discussion_forum.shtml). It discusses a method
for
setting Work Order priorities which uses a simplified method of combining work
and equipment types to calculate work order
priority. This article is available at
http://www.plant-maintenance.com/articles/WOPriorities.pdf. Note that you will
need to have the free Adobe Acrobat reader
installed to be able to view this file.


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Feature Article - Condition Based Maintenance for improving Power Plant
Economics
This article from Dr. V. Bhujanga Rao of the Naval Science & Technological
Laboratory in India states the case for improved use
of Condition Based Maintenance in the Indian Power Industry. The demand for
electrical power is growing at a rate of about 8%
per annum in India, and for environmental, and economic reasons, Power
Generators, as well as those involved in Transmission and
Distribution, should expect considerable benefits from improved use of Condition
Based Maintenance techniques. You can read this
article at http://www.plant-maintenance.com/articles/CBMPowerPlants.pdf. Once
again, you will need to have the free Adobe
Acrobat reader installed to be able to view this file.


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Feature Article - Vee Belt Drives
This article, submitted by Mike Sondalini of Feed Forward Publications, is a
sample of the type of information that is available
to subscribers to the Process Plant & Equipment UP-TIME newsletter. For a
limited time, you can receive a three month FREE trial
subscription to this newsletter (see below). This particular article discusses
the use of vee-belt drives. It covers some basic
theory of friction drives and lists 11 factors to be considered in order to
ensure reliable operation of vee-belt drives. You
can read the full article at
http://www.plant-maintenance.com/articles/Vee-beltDrives.pdf. Note that you will
need to have the
free Adobe Acrobat reader installed to be able to view this file.
--------------ADVERTISEMENT-------------------------------

This edition of the newsletter is supported by Process Plant & Equipment UP-TIME

Give your operators and maintainers the knowledge to improve Operations and
Maintenance at your site. For a limited time,
register for a FREE three month trial subscription to the regular engineering
newsletter specifically aimed at Operators and
Maintainers - Process Plant & Equipment UP-TIME.

Visit www.plant-maintenance.com/uptime.shtml NOW to learn more, and register for
your FREE trial subscription.

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Limited Time Offer - FREE Three Months Trial Subscription to Uptime

As outlined in the advertisement above, we are pleased, to offer to M-News
newsletter readers and subscribers a three month FREE
trial subscription to the Process Plant & Equipment UP-TIME newsletter produced
by Feed Forward Publications. This is a limited
time offer, and will only be available to those who register for the trial
subscription before June 15, 2002. If you were to
purchase these three issues individually, then this would cost you A$45 (about
US$25) - so this is an excellent value-for-money
offer.

To our knowledge, there is no other newsletter available which is specifically
targeted at improving shop-floor level knowledge
and skills, allowing them to proactively engage in maintenance and reliability
improvement. We think that once you have started
receiving and sharing the newsletter with your Plant Operators and Maintenance
workforce, you will soon discover the value that
it can bring to your organization. We are sure that you will then choose to
subscribe to the newsletter on a more permanent
basis.


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Survey Results - Maintenance Salaries
This survey has now closed, and the results are being compiled. I hope to be
able to bring you an analysis of the results in the
next issue of M-News. In the meantime, sincere thanks to the 181 people who
participated in this survey.


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Current Survey - Condition Monitoring and NDT Practices
Which Condition Monitoring and NDT techniques do you use at your workplace? Do
you use contractors to perform these tasks? Which
techniques give you the best results? Let us know in this survey which will
remain open until May 15, 2002. You can complete the
survey, or view the results to date at
http://www.plant-maintenance.com/survey.shtml.


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Book Review - Overall Equipment Effectiveness, by Robert Hansen
Disregard the title to this book. While it certainly covers the theory and
practice regarding the establishment and use of
Overall Equipment Effectiveness as a performance measure at your site (and does
this well), this book in fact covers much much
more. In reality, it is a highly practical guidebook for Reliability Improvement
in general. While there are a couple of areas
where highly experienced Maintenance practitioners may have some quibbles,
overall these are minor. This book is a recommended
and worthwhile addition to the range of books available on Maintenance and
Reliability Improvement. You can view our detailed
review, and/or purchase this book through amazon.com, at
http://www.plant-maintenance.com/books/0831131381.shtml.


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Recommended Books
View our current Top 5 recommended books, and the current Top Ten Best Selling
Maintenance Books, and reviews of all the books
that we have previously reviewed in this newsletter at
http://www.plant-maintenance.com/maintenance_books.shtml.
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On the Lighter Side - Engineering Humor
Engineers and Light Bulbs

How many first year engineering students does it take to change a light bulb?
None. That's a second year subject.

How many second year engineering students does it take to change a light bulb?
One, but the rest of the class copies the report.

How many third year engineering students does it take to change a light bulb?
"Will this question be on the final exam?"

How many civil engineers does it take to change a light bulb?
Two. One to do it and one to steady the chandelier.

How many electrical engineers does it take to change a light bulb?
None. They simply redefine darkness as the industry standard.

How many computer engineers does it take to change a light bulb?
"Why bother? The socket will be obsolete in six months anyway."

How many mechanical engineers does it take to change a light bulb?
Five. One to decide which way the bulb ought to turn, one to calculate the force
required, one to design a tool with which to
turn the bulb, one to design a comfortable-but functional- hand grip, and one to
use all this equipment.

How many nuclear engineers does it take to change a light bulb?
Seven. One to install the new bulb and six to figure out what to do with the old
one.
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I hope you have enjoyed this newsletter. All feedback, comments and
contributions to future editions are very welcome (as are
enquiries about contributions to, and sponsorship of, this newsletter).

Alexander (Sandy) Dunn
Plant Maintenance Resource Center
webmaster@...
http://www.plant-maintenance.com