For the last 15 years, Mike Trainor, SKF manager, asset reliability consulting, has seen it all when it comes to maintenance. Over the years, he has compiled many tales of maintenance woes (and some successes), as well as more than 100 reliability-centered maintenance (RCM) studies. He’s logged all of these into his computer and analyzed them so thoroughly that, to hear him speak, it would seem he’s lived each story with those he interviewed and consulted, sharing their pain and victories.
During SKF’s annual Technical Press Day in Philadelphia, Trainor explained the roadmap to maintenance success—as well as keeping your plant up and running—starts with four basic principles. “It’s [first] about universal agreement on your business’s critical criteria and then taking the same path forward.” The second principle—and probably the most critical—is understanding how an asset (e.g., motor, machine, control valve, etc.) fails and the failure’s effect on production. Third is prescribing maintenance to detect, prevent or eliminate an asset’s failure. “Fourth, learn from what you’ve done and know what it means to take action,” concludes Trainor.