10/30/2007

Companies looking to improve their preventive and predictive maintenance programs will benefit from a new training series recently developed by Allied Reliability. 

The new four-part training series, called PM / PdM Best Practices, is designed for people with little or no formal training in predictive maintenance and condition monitoring technologies.  This includes maintenance technicians, supervisors, planners and schedulers, reliability engineers and plant managers.

"To implement a successful reliability program, the whole team needs to be involved", says Allied partner John Schultz.  "That allows a full understanding and appreciation of the technologies and how everything fits together to improve the reliability of a plant's assets."

Too often in training, students don't apply what they learn when they go back to work.  That's why Allied has included six unique software tools to help put new-found knowledge into practice: a roadmap, an equipment walkdown tool, a criticality analysis tool, asset health tool, PM evaluation tool and a self assessment tool. 

"Our customers told us they wanted to do a lot of the work themselves", according to Schultz.  "So this is a good way for us to give them the tools we actually use to design and implement condition monitoring programs."

By the end of the series, participants will know how to use each of the software tools.  The result is a more complete transfer of knowledge and a more self-sufficient client.

Another key feature of the training is its comprehensive approach to PdM.

"Most courses in the industry only focus on one PdM technology", says Allied partner John Langhorne.  "You can go to a vibration training class, an infrared class, a Weibull class, a life cycle costing class - and still not understand how it all ties together into an overall reliability initiative."

"This includes all the essential PdM technologies, the thought and theory behind them, and how much of each to apply.  And with the software tools included, clients get the knowledge and the tools they need to maximize their return on investment in PdM.  There really isn't anything that compares to this class in the industry."

Instructors were chosen from Allied's predictive and reliability professionals after a demanding 6-week selection process. 

"Our job is to help our customers have really great reliability programs" says Langhorne.  "But that's not something they can buy from us.  A successful reliability program is created in-house - or through a partnership with a company like ours who can help them get there."

Faced with energy and labor costs at all-time highs, many manufacturers view reliability as one of the last frontiers for significant costs savings.  As more people become familiar with the principles and concepts of reliability, there's a greater need for education. 

"Education is a great way to break down organizational barriers and build the culture that is so critical in implementing a successful reliability program", says Schultz.  "That creates teamwork, trust and shows how different people in the organization add value."

Allied Reliability is offering the PM/PdM Best Practices Series as both public and private seminars.  The public training will be offered at Life Cycle Engineering's state-of-the-art training facilities in Charleston, South Carolina.  Private, onsite training is available at client locations on request.