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March 2004:
Welcome:
Please select "subscribe to newsletter" on our contact form. RE: PLC TrainingWelcome to the March issue of our Feed Forward Newsletter! My name is Don Fitchett, the author of "The Maintenance War Newsletter". This first area of the newsletter is for introductions and commentary. We have added so much to the website, it all can not be covered in the newsletter. So please browse around and find your gold nugget.If a friend has given you this copy of the newsletter, you can find an online version on our website www.feedforward.com.au Every month we add new book titles for you to download, free articles and other resources. In the Management section and in the Tech Tips section you will see advice about PLCs. (Programmable Logic Controllers). There is no doubt, some will want to ask..."Why?". I encourage you to please send me an email and ask why. I will answer every one and some may make it into next months newsletter. Well, Mike Sondalini comes through for us again with another new eBook release. Helical Rotor Pump - Progressive Cavity Pump Guide by Mike Sondalini If your facility production involves pumping or dosing food, beer or chemicals, you probably need the knowledge Mike shares with us in his new book. Not only are these type of pumps used as chemical pumps or food pumps, but for slurry and applications that need suction too. So even the farmers out there could put Mike's tips and tricks to use on their dam pumps. ( No play on words intended. :>) We have had many requests over the years for a PLC Training CD that individuals could use for self education as well as companies, corporations, and learning institutions. I am happy to announce we now have the best PLC Training CD set available for you. (The 'PLCTrainer' is a CBT, which saves students scores and prints certificate upon completion. Printable PLC manual/work book on CD too.) Of course with me being a PLC trainer, I spent months until I found a product that would exceed my own standards. Then I had to negotiate a great deal for our customers. I strongly recommend you visit our page titled PLC Training and Simulation - 2 CD Set. The PLC training set we put together is priced (limited time offer) for the individual and great for those who want operational knowledge as well as programming experience.
Want more detailed PLC and SCADA training? Please see ...
I have noticed interest in safety related topics. I have also noticed book sales have dropped off a bit. This concerns me, so we will maintain the reduced price of our titles... The CMMS Insider's Guide e-Book, Process Hazards Analysis and Process Safety Audit Protocols e-Book Hopefully this will spark an interest in safety for a few visitors. Management Help:Don't let your automation bring your facility to it's knees!If you have read any of my material over the years, you have no doubt ran into my example of how a plant air compressor is often overlooked as a bottle neck. (Actually they should have higher priority than bottlenecks do.) Another piece of equipment that should have higher importance than bottlenecks when it comes to maintenance and costs is the PLC. (Programmable Logic Controller) If not properly managed, they can stop production of an entire line or facility. In our 'Maintenance Tech Tip' area there are several tips and advice for managing the ever growing population of PLC technology in your facility. The two most important pieces of advice, I would like to reiterate here. First, be aware of how many, what brand and support you have for the PLCs in your facility. If you want an example of what kind of facility assessment you should be doing, I have an excel spread sheet you can use as an example. Just use our contact form and request it, I'll be happy to send you a copy. Secondly, be sure your maintenance and engineering departments have the tools they need to work with the PLCs in your facility and reduce downtime. The tools needed are training, a laptop with PLC software to access the PLCs, and discriptored copies of every PLC program running in your facility. If the above measures are not taken, someday production will be down, waiting on a service tech to schedule a visit to your facility. But worse is the countless hours of un-necessary downtime you have already experienced and may not have realized. The PLC is being utilized as a valuable troubleshooting tool more and more as technology increases. Human Resource:Human Resource EffectivenessThe most evident indicator of human resource effectiveness is not seeing individuals with idle time, waiting on work. There is another aspect of utilizing your human resources effectively that is much more difficult to analyze and improve. That is your work force efficiency. The efficiency at which each individual in your company does their respective job can be greatly improved by two basic metrics. Steps to complete a task and timing. You can brainstorm and come up with the minimum steps to complete a task but still be held up by timing, waiting for an external task to be completed before moving on to the next step in the original task. While it was out of the scope of Bob Giese's article - OEE Reports - Automated Capturing & Recording of Availability Data, I feel the VersaCall automated system deserves mention of how it also improves human resource effectiveness. Their system pages, emails, or communicates in some other form anytime a task is not completed in time to keep production running. The VersaCall system is a way of virtually automating the human aspects of running your facility, thus reducing or eliminating any timing issues that would cause idle, non-effective time. An example would be a machine becoming low on raw material. The VersaCall system would page the forklift operator. If for some reason the forklift operator could not deliver in time (some preset alarm level set), a supervisor may receive a text message on their cell phone. With scenarios like the one above, all automated, you not only result in a smoother running facility, but get OEE reports that help you identify where and how to improve your operating effectiveness. A Good Laugh! You might be an engineering redneck if ... You might be an engineering redneck if ... you have more than two electronic devices that you carry on your person. You might be an engineering redneck if ... you have a key to the company to come into work when no one else is there. You might be an engineering redneck if ... you have used coat hangers and duct tape for something other than hanging coats and taping ducts You might be an engineering redneck if ... you use a PLC to control your Christmas lights. You might be an engineering redneck if ... you have power cord (pig tails) in your desk. You might be an engineering redneck if ... you can say PCMCIA quickly three time in row with out giving it a second thought. You might be an engineering redneck if ... you have a pocket screw driver in your shirt pocket right now. You might be an engineering redneck if ... you have more friends on the Internet than in real life. You might be an engineering redneck if ... your watch plugs into your computer. You might be an engineering redneck if ... if you use CAD for non work-related projects. You might be an engineering redneck if ... If you know the direction the water swirls when you flush. You might be an engineering redneck if ... you read all of the above and feel an uncontrollable urge to email me with your own set of "You might be an engineering redneck if ... " Best regards and thanks for being a subscriber to this newsletter, Don Fitchett www.feedforward.com.au teaches your maintenance crew engineering and asset care knowledge so that they can solve more problems, become more knowledgeable, make better decisions and your plant runs more reliably! Please select "subscribe to newsletter" on our contact form.
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