Motor Maintenance - a source of wasted expenses?
According to industry sources, the U.S. spends over a trillion dollars a year on maintenance expense with more than 75% of those costs attributable to human error. While this is a source of concern for many maintenance managers, perhaps equally concerning is that one third of the expense is wasted expense.
Good motor maintenance is predicated on solid procedures, well documented and understood by both maintenance personnel, and management alike. This means having a plan of action, established procedures and metrics to accurately measure outcomes.
Those were just a few of the opening points made in the recent Motor Reliability Workshop. EECO personnel in partnership with Reliability Center Inc. hosted the one-day workshop to a full house of maintenance personnel from around central North Carolina.
A few additional highlights of the workshop included :
Critical items that should be expected and how to inspect those areas of the motor repair process
How vendors can lower pries with certain practices, and how you can control these to ensure maximum motor run life
Why weight of the rotor is critical to the balancing process to maximize reliability of the bearings and other components
Understanding root cause analysis, when to use it in assessing motor failures
In assessing motor failures, start with the '5 Whys' but don't stop there
Understanding process improvement strategies for better, more cost effective motor maintenance
How motor circuit analysis can be an extremely useful too for any reliability program
The workshop included small group breakouts where participants could apply recently acquired diagnostics skills in assessing broken or excessively worn motor components - from failed bearings to worn bushings and more.
