The manufacturing sector is expanding, but the pace of growth is slowing down
Economic activity in the manufacturing sector expanded in July for the twelfth consecutive month, and the overall economy grew for the fifteenth consecutive month, say the nation's supply executives in the latest Manufacturing ISM Report On Business.
The 2010 asset performance management report: Provide your insight
Aberdeen's fourth annual study on the topic of asset performance management (APM) will look into how industrial incidents have impacted organization's asset management strategy.
Standard 90.1: Setting the energy foundation in buildings for 35 years
This year marks the 35th anniversary of publication of the ASHRAE/IES energy standard, now known as ANSI/ASHRAE/IES Standard 90.1, Energy Standard for Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings.
Energy productivity, management and innovation might create a safe harbor from the rising tides of global demand
Energy Expert Peter Garforth says reliability, cost and environmental factors can affect availability.
Optimize your PM program [Maintenance Tip]
Too many Preventive (PM) Maintenance programs contain ambiguous and needless tasks at unnecessary frequencies. What makes this so shocking is that plant facilities send out their craftspeople to work thousands and thousands of hours each year, performing what should be the plant’s most important work, armed with ineffective and inefficient PM tasks and standards. The first step to optimizing your program is determining where to get started. In most plants, there are several sources of…
MP-2 and You (Part Three) Seeing Colors in MP-2 [Maintenance Tip]
Another common misunderstood area of MP-2 is the SCHEDULING and UTILIZATION of crafts and employees. If established properly the calendar within MP-2 should be green, yellow, or red. There are a few things that must be established to take full advantage of SCHEDULING and UTILIZATION capabilities of the system. For example: The site SCHEDULE must be established with the normal workdays for the site. If the site works 24/7 then the site SCHEDULE would be…
Asset Identification [Maintenance Tip]
An important corner-stone of any maintenance program is asset identification. Experienced maintenance workers know every machine within their area intimately, but for many others that may be given the task of lubrication it is not as easy to identify each machine (let alone each lubrication point). Each asset is to be clearly identified so there can be no mistaking machines and missing lubrication rounds. Each lubrication point is to be color coded as well as…
Working North to South in MCC’s [Maintenance Tip]
The safest practice for any electrical inspection, regardless of voltage or Arc Rating, is to freeze a good image and step clear to analyze (wearing appropriate PPE of course). However, in many plants, the escort will open all “buckets” in a vertical row and then move on. The Thermographer will typically scan the row, and then shut the buckets just to the latch. The escort then fastens them tight and the process repeats. If this…
UMS Group Inc. Appointed a PAS 55 Endorsed Assessor by the Institute of Asset Management [Maintenance News]
PARSIPPANY, N.J., /PRNewswire/—UMS Group is pleased toannounce its appointment by the Institute of Asset Management as a PAS 55Endorsed Assessor. This appointment will enable us to certify compliancewith Publicly Available Specification 55 - the emerging global standard forAsset Management excellence, and now on the path to becoming an ISOStandard. As one of the contributors to the evolution of PAS 55, we at UMSGroup are proud to be among the initial group of 12 Endorsed Assessors.
UK manufacturing performance exceeds expectations, but road ahead to diverge
Britain's manufacturers have outperformed expectations in the first half of 2010 but face the prospect of greater global economic uncertainty and financial market volatility in the rest of this year, according to latest analysis of the sector published by EEF.
The future of manufacturing is in the third grade
Celebrating its 30th anniversary, the SME Education Foundation is focused on improving the quality of manufacturing education by encouraging increased attention to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education.

