Everything within the manufacturing environment is a battle between efficiency and waste. It doesn’t take a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt to understand that less waste means better efficiency! However, it does take core knowledge of lean principles to understand how to reduce waste in order to facilitate efficiency. Maintenance is the clearest example of…
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As consumers, we’re constantly advised to reduce our consumption and our waste. We’re chastised about purchasing anything that will just be thrown away and frowned upon for using too much plastic. We all feel a little guilty as we scrape leftovers into the trash, or throw out food that has gone bad on the shelves….
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A frequent and frustratingly common failure in industrial equipment is HMI (Human-Machine Interface) failure. Since it is the piece of the equipment that gets interacted with the most, it stands to logic that HMIs would suffer higher rates of failures. Equipment that has a lot of use can be prone to abuse – as the…
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Major players in both the auto and aero industries recently announced updates to their investments in autonomous vehicles. Ford has begun road testing vehicles in Miami to one day handle ridesharing and deliveries, Bosch and Daimler announced San Jose as a pilot city for their self-driving vehicles and Boeing plans to launch autonomous solar planes…
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Solving a problem means understanding its root cause. Until you’re addressing the root of the problem directly, you’re only attacking symptoms. This is a fundamental tenet of industrial maintenance and a core philosophy of any good maintenance approach. But how exactly do you get to the root of the problem? Moreover, how do you distinguish…
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Whether you realize it or not, there are two kinds of customer service — proactive and reactive. If you have a customer-facing business and customer service is part of your business model, it’s essential that you understand the distinction between the two and why proactive customer service is so vital in today’s marketplace. Reactive Customer…
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The October 2018 Manufacturing ISM® Report On Business® is out, and with it has come another month of fresh insight into a sector of the economy that has experienced no shortage of tumult this year. Figures from the report show trends continuing to take shape — both good and bad — while executives from various…
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You can develop a diligent maintenance plan, invest in employee training and component inventories, and keep immaculate records — but still have an unsuccessful maintenance program. We preach these variables as the pillars of a great maintenance program, but they’re far from the only drivers of success. Other factors may be dragging down your maintenance…
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What’s the difference between a sensor and a transducer? A sensor and transducer have similar functions, so it is understandable that there may be some confusion between them. In fact, sensors are a type of transducer, and a transducer can contain sensors — although a transducer in and of itself is not considered a sensor….
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Welding is one of the key skills needed to do any sort of repair work involving metal materials. A skilled welder can repair cracks to motor housings, metallize shafts, fix broken welds and mounting feet – basically anything that involves joining two pieces of metal together permanently. But with any skill, proficiency varies from person…
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