Conveyor belt splicing from the maintenance side: hot vulcanised splices for fabric and steel cord belts, cold vulcanised splices and mechanical fasteners compared, how a stepped fabric splice is set out, cut, laid up and cured, the faults that show a splice going bad, and a splice register with length measured at each inspection. With a plan and section drawing of a stepped splice.
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Reliability and maintenanceNovember 2026 · 8 min read
Mechanical seals from the maintenance side: the faces, springs and O-rings and how a seal runs on a liquid film, component and cartridge seals, single and dual arrangements, the common API 682 flush, buffer and barrier plans, how seals fail and what the faces show, and the pump condition and fitting checks that decide seal life. With a half section drawing of a cartridge seal.
Chute liners from the maintenance side: impact and sliding wear and where each happens in a transfer chute, abrasion resistant plate, chromium carbide overlay, ceramic, rubber, polyurethane and low friction liners compared, laying liners so the flow steps over every joint, the failures that cost most, and a measured wear program that plans liner changes into shutdowns. With a hood and spoon liner layout and wear trend.
Loop diagrams explained: what an instrument loop diagram shows from the field device through junction box and marshalling to the control system channel, how to read one, two wire, four wire, analog and discrete loops, scaling a 4 to 20 mA signal and the NAMUR NE 43 fault levels, and how loop diagrams are used from design and loop checks to fault finding and modifications. With an illustrative loop drawing.
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Reliability and maintenanceNovember 2026 · 8 min read
Centrifugal pumps from the operating and maintenance side: reading a pump curve and a system curve and finding the operating point, the best efficiency point, the affinity laws and what speed control saves, cavitation and NPSH, the failures that come from running far from the best efficiency point, and the maintenance tasks. With a drawing of pump and system curves at two speeds.
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Reliability and maintenanceNovember 2026 · 8 min read
Thickeners from the operating and maintenance side: how feedwell, flocculant, settling zones and the rake work together, conventional, high rate, high density and paste thickeners, the parts and what to watch on each, rake torque, bed level, underflow density and overflow clarity, problems from bogged rakes to ratholing, and the maintenance program. With a section drawing of a high rate thickener.
Vibrating screens and screen panels from the maintenance side: inclined, horizontal, multi-slope, grizzly and dewatering screens, decks, side plates, cross members, exciters and springs, polyurethane, rubber and woven wire panels, problems from blinding and worn apertures to fatigue cracking and wrong motion, and the inspection and motion checks that keep a screen sizing and in one piece. With a side elevation drawing.
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Reliability and maintenanceNovember 2026 · 8 min read
Hydrocyclones from the operating and maintenance side: the inlet, cylinder, vortex finder, cone, spigot and liners, how the spinning flow separates coarse from fine and what the cut size d50 means, the effect of pressure, density, vortex finder and spigot on the cut, spray and roping discharges, and the spigot, liner, gauge and sampling work that keeps a cluster performing. With a section drawing and partition curve.
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Reliability and maintenanceNovember 2026 · 8 min read
Slurry pumps from the maintenance side: the casing, liners, impeller, throatbush, seal and adjustable bearing assembly, what drives wear from speed and particles to the duty point and cavitation, hard metal and rubber liners, gland, expeller and mechanical seals, the routine tasks, and planning wet end changes with recorded wear life and exchange units. With a section drawing marking the wear parts.
Stacker reclaimers and stockyard machines: stackers, bucket wheel reclaimers, combined machines and scraper reclaimers, cone shell, chevron, windrow and strata stacking and how they blend, the long travel, slew, luff, bucket wheel, conveyor, power and structural systems and how each fails, structural fatigue inspection under AS 4324.1, and trending the slew bearing. With a drawing of a machine and a chevron stockpile.
Bolt torque and bolted joints on plant and machinery: how preload clamps a joint, where tightening torque goes, an indicative torque table for property class 8.8 and 10.9 bolts calculated from T = K × F × d, torque, part-turn, tension indicator, hydraulic tensioning and ultrasonic methods, how joints fail from self-loosening to fatigue, and the practices that keep them tight. With a drawing of preload, the torque split and a tightening pattern.
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Reliability and maintenanceNovember 2026 · 8 min read
Industrial gearbox maintenance on plant: gearbox types, lubrication from oil grade and type to cleanliness and breathers, routine checks on rounds and at planned stops, oil analysis and what wear metals and particle counts show, gear failure modes from wear and micropitting to scuffing and tooth breakage, and mounting, torque arms and alignment. With a drawing of a gearbox's check points and an oil analysis trend.
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Reliability and maintenanceNovember 2026 · 8 min read
Shaft alignment for coupled rotating machines: offset and angular misalignment, a commonly published tolerance table by speed and the ANSI/ASA S2.75 approach, laser and dial indicator methods, the kinds of soft foot and why they come first, working out the shim change at each foot, thermal growth, and recording as-found values so repeat misalignment is caught. With a drawing of the correction at the feet.
Apron feeders for mining and bulk handling: the pans, chain, rollers, sprockets, drive and skirts and what each does, the capacity calculation from bed width, depth, speed and density with a worked example, the design points at the hopper outlet and discharge, drive power from bed shear, and the wear and maintenance of each part, including trending chain pitch. With a side elevation drawing.
Conveyor pulleys and pulley lagging: drive, head, tail, snub, bend and take-up pulleys and what each sees, how a drive pulley grips the belt through friction and wrap angle, plain, grooved, ceramic and polyurethane lagging and where each suits, how pulleys fail from shell weld fatigue to locking assembly slip, and what to inspect and record. With a drawing of the belt path, drive wrap and a pulley section.
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Asset management and dataNovember 2026 · 9 min read
SAP PM, SAP Plant Maintenance, from the maintenance side: the master data objects from functional locations and equipment to task lists, maintenance plans, measuring points and catalogs, the work order cycle from notification to settlement with its system statuses and classic transaction codes, notification types and codes, plans and scheduling, and the master data problems that spoil the history. With a drawing of the master data and work cycle.
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Planning and work managementNovember 2026 · 8 min read
Wrench time, or tool time, explained: what counts as direct work and what does not, how to measure it with a work sampling study and how many observations are needed, where a maintenance shift goes, the losses that eat it and what removes each, and how to use the result without turning it into a target. With a drawing of a shift before and after planning and kitting.
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Planning and work managementNovember 2026 · 8 min read
Maintenance backlog as a measure decisions can be made on: calculating it in crew-weeks by trade, total and ready backlog, the statuses that show where work is held up, the commonly cited healthy range, what the trend says, the weekly backlog review, and why a growing backlog is usually a reliability symptom. With a drawing of a backlog trend over half a year.
The documents in a request for tender for engineering and maintenance work, from the conditions of tender and contract to the scope, specification, price schedule and returnable schedules, what tenderers send back, the stages of the tender process, setting and applying weighted evaluation criteria, RFT, RFQ, RFP and EOI compared, and the gaps that cause disputes after award. With a drawing of the tender timeline and documents.
Document and report automation for engineering and maintenance: generating procedures, job packs, test records, data sheets, recurring reports and proposal content from data and a Word template, the parts of a template, getting the data into shape, the approaches and tools, the checks before and after each run, converting existing documents, and keeping people in charge of drafted content. With a drawing of data, template and generated documents.
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Reliability and maintenanceNovember 2026 · 9 min read
Condition based maintenance as a maintenance strategy: when it pays, the kinds of trigger from measured limits to inspection findings, the alert, action and minimum limits every condition task needs, planning the work from the trend, converting time based tasks, and making a crossed limit become a planned work order in the CMMS. With a drawing of limits and a trend projection.
How to write a technical specification for plant and equipment: functional, performance and prescriptive specifications and where design risk sits, the sections of a specification, the parts of a good requirement with its verification and acceptance criterion, the words that make requirements untestable, and the maintenance and handover requirements most often missed. With a drawing of one requirement written in full.
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Planning and work managementNovember 2026 · 8 min read
What an equipment maintenance log should record, why the condition as found matters more than the work done, failure mechanism, cause and action codes simplified from ISO 14224, what the history is used for, and keeping it in a CMMS or a spreadsheet. With a drawing of one asset's history and a free Excel maintenance log template.
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Reliability and maintenanceNovember 2026 · 9 min read
Rolling bearing failure analysis: why most bearings fail long before their rated life, the six failure modes of ISO 15243 and what each looks like, the common causes from lubrication and contamination to installation and electrical current with their signs and prevention, and the steps for examining a failed bearing so the cause is corrected. With a drawing of the failure modes.
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Planning and work managementNovember 2026 · 9 min read
What a work instruction is and how it differs from a procedure, a job plan and a form, the parts of a good step from the action and key point to the value and its source, how to write one that gets used, the formats, and the triggers that keep instructions current. With a drawing of one step opened out.
What a unified namespace is, how its topic tree follows the ISA-95 equipment hierarchy, the broker, gateways, payloads, publishers and consumers that make one up, how it compares with point to point integration, MQTT and Sparkplug, where it fits and where it does not, and what to settle before building one. With a drawing of a topic tree.
ISA-95 and IEC 62264 explained: the five functional levels and their time frames, the role based equipment hierarchy from enterprise to work unit, the four kinds of information exchanged between business and operations, manufacturing operations management, the parts of the standard, and ISA-95 against the Purdue model in OT security. With a drawing of the levels and hierarchy.
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Reliability and maintenanceNovember 2026 · 9 min read
How to maintain jaw, gyratory, cone and impact crushers: the wear parts of each, why the closed side setting drifts as liners wear and how to hold it, the routine checks by interval, planning liner changes from tonnes and measured wear, what fails and the response, and working safely inside a crusher. With a cone crusher cross-section.
What a shift log should record and what it should not, the sections of a structured shift handover, paper, spreadsheet and electronic logs compared, where each kind of entry should end up beyond the log, and what an electronic shift log needs to do to be worth having. With a drawing of a day of entries and handovers.
Why a conveyor belt runs to one side and how to fix it: the rule that a belt moves toward the end of the idler it meets first, the causes of mistracking and how to tell them apart, how to train a belt, training idlers and other devices, and the inspections of idlers, pulleys, belt, splices, cleaners and take-up that keep conveyors running. With a drawing of the tracking rule.
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Software and technologyNovember 2026 · 10 min read
What a manufacturing execution system does, the MESA functions and the four IEC 62264-3 operations areas, MES beside the ERP, historian, CMMS and control systems, the production management, reporting and metallurgical accounting systems that fill the role in mining and process plants, one agreed set of shift numbers, and the questions to settle before buying or building. With a drawing of MES in the ISA-95 levels.
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Reliability and maintenanceNovember 2026 · 10 min read
How a maintenance store should manage spare parts: the classes of stock and the rule for each, setting min and max levels from lead time, usage and safety stock, the catalogue every other process depends on, kitting for planned work, the measures of a store, and the review of slow moving and obsolete stock. With a drawing of a stocked item's levels over time.
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Asset management and dataNovember 2026 · 9 min read
What an asset tag identifies on an industrial plant, how a site convention of area, type and sequence is built, the three aspects of an IEC 81346 reference designation, the tag schemes in common use, the rules that keep a convention clean, plates and labels in the field, and how to retag a plant that is already running. With a drawing of a tag and its parts.
The engineering study phases from scoping to detailed design, the AACE estimate class and accuracy each typically supports, what each phase delivers, the decisions at the gates between them, FEED and the scope freeze, the design reviews held along the way, and the maintainability review that decides decades of operating cost. With a drawing of estimate accuracy by phase.
What makes a control system screen show abnormal conditions early: grey backgrounds and colour saved for alarms, analogue indicators against the normal range, the four level display hierarchy, alarms on the screen, the HMI life cycle from philosophy and style guide to screens under ANSI/ISA-101.01 and IEC 63303, and how to move an existing system across. With a drawing of the hierarchy and an analogue indicator.
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Software and technologyNovember 2026 · 10 min read
The difference between PLC, DCS and SCADA systems in scope, control, database and communications, where each sits in the ISA-95 levels, the questions that point toward one, SCADA and remote sites over radio and cellular links, and what to plan for over the life of a control system, from obsolescence to backups and cyber security. With a drawing of the three architectures.
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Software and technologyNovember 2026 · 10 min read
What system integration covers on an industrial site, the interfaces between control systems, historian, MES, CMMS and ERP, the three patterns from point to point to publish and subscribe, how integration crosses the boundary between the plant and the business, and how to run an integration project so the interfaces survive handover. With a drawing of the patterns.
How each way of starting a three phase induction motor trades starting current against torque, from direct on line and star delta to soft starters and variable speed drives, the questions that point toward one, what a drive adds and costs, the motor control centre the starters sit in, and what fails in each. With a drawing of the starting current curves.
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Asset management and dataNovember 2026 · 10 min read
What asset performance management covers, the loop from collecting an asset's data to measuring the result of the work it raised, the data underneath it and the usual gaps, what APM software does and what each capability needs, how it sits beside the CMMS, historian and condition monitoring, bought or built, the checks before starting, and how to tell it is working.
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Planning and work managementNovember 2026 · 10 min read
The three maintenance leadership roles on one time scale: what the supervisor, the superintendent and the manager each own, who decides what, the rhythm of meetings each runs on, where each stops against the planner, scheduler, reliability engineer and operations, the competence and statutory layer, and how the roles break down.
What a piping and instrumentation diagram shows and leaves out, the line types, valve and equipment symbols, the ISA-5.1 instrument bubbles and what each shape says about where the function lives, how to read an instrument tag, how to follow a P&ID from the source, how it differs from a PFD, and what keeps it true. With an example drawing.
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Reliability and maintenanceNovember 2026 · 10 min read
How fault tree analysis works: the symbols, defining a top event with a boundary, building the tree through OR and AND gates to basic events, reducing it to minimal cut sets and turning them into action, putting probabilities through it and the common cause trap, and how it differs from FMECA and root cause analysis. With a worked example.
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Planning and work managementNovember 2026 · 10 min read
How permit to work systems are usually structured: the stages of a permit and who signs at each, the permit types a site holds, the steps of isolation and proving dead, how the permit and the work order fit together so the permit lead time is in the schedule, and handover, suspension and close. A description of common practice, not a substitute for a site procedure.
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Software and technologyNovember 2026 · 10 min read
A method for modernising a legacy system: assessing what it really does and what is really wrong with it, the options from retain and rehost through refactor and rebuild to replace and retire, why incremental replacement beats a big bang and how the strangler fig pattern works, migrating the data, and the checks before the old system is switched off.
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Asset management and dataOctober 2026 · 11 min read
Where the factory and site acceptance tests sit between design and start-up, what each can and cannot prove, how a test procedure is written so it tests the design rather than the code, the categories of test, how fails become punch items, and what has to leave each test for the next stage to start. With a free checklist template.
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Reliability and maintenanceOctober 2026 · 10 min read
The EN 13306 tree that sorts every kind of maintenance into preventive or corrective, each type against the others on what triggers it and where it fits, what separates predictive from condition based from condition monitoring, and how the type is chosen from what the failure looks like rather than from preference.
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Asset management and dataOctober 2026 · 10 min read
What an as-built drawing is and what it is not, what a redline has to carry to be usable, the seven steps from a field mark-up to an issued revision with a check at each end, which documents go as-built and what changes on each, and why as-builts continue for the life of the plant rather than ending at handover.
The chain of documents a control system is designed through, from the P&ID and the control philosophy to the functional design specification, the cause and effect matrix, the IO list, the loop diagrams, the HMI design and the software as tested, what each holds and who owns it, and why a change to one reissues everything after it. With a free IO list and cause and effect template.
A CMMS implementation as seven phases with the trap in each, selecting against weighted criteria with scenarios run on the plant's own data, the design that comes before configuration, the data build and why it cannot be a copy, where configuration ends and customisation begins, and what go-live actually is. With a free selection scorecard and migration checklist.
What a single line diagram shows and leaves out, how to read one from the supply down, the elements on it and what each tells you, the levels of single line a site holds, the isolation planning, protection coordination, arc flash studies, maintenance and modifications done from it, and what keeps it true. With an example drawing.
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Reliability and maintenanceOctober 2026 · 11 min read
The loop an operator round runs from the route to the feedback, what makes a rounds sheet work and why the limit has to be on it, the seven steps to autonomous maintenance and why they are in order, where the line between operators and maintenance is drawn, and what happens to the readings. With a free rounds sheet template.
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Asset management and dataOctober 2026 · 11 min read
What obsolescence is and why it is certain for electronics and software, the supplier's life cycle stages and the plant's move at each, the seven ways out and what each costs, what actually sets the risk rather than age, the register that holds every item at risk with its years of cover, and designing it out. With a free register template.
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Asset management and dataOctober 2026 · 11 min read
What document control is for, the documents a plant depends on and who owns each, the states a document passes through and what each may be used for, what a number has to carry, the register that indexes it all, tying documents to the asset, and why a modification ends with documents reissued. With a free register template.
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Asset management and dataOctober 2026 · 11 min read
Decommissioning done deliberately: the decision and the function it settles, the plan, making safe with nothing on an assumption, removal, reinstatement, and closing every record that said the asset existed. The six questions a disposal answers before the asset leaves, how mothballing differs from abandonment, and where it goes wrong.
The test for whether something is a change at all, the eight steps from request to close, review in proportion to the class, temporary changes and their expiry, the updates that close a change, and the register that records it. With a free change register template.
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Reliability and maintenanceOctober 2026 · 10 min read
The role between what the plant records and who changes it: what a reliability engineer reads, what they decide, who gets each decision, where the role stops against the planner, scheduler and supervisor, the rhythm it runs on, the skills and certifications behind it, and the ways the role is lost.
What an alarm is for, the ten-stage lifecycle ISA-18.2 and IEC 62682 describe, what the philosophy settles once, the questions rationalisation asks of every alarm, the performance measures and their benchmarks, how the bad actors are found and fixed, and the systems around it. With a free rationalisation worksheet.
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Reliability and maintenanceOctober 2026 · 11 min read
The bathtub curve fits a few per cent of items. The six patterns the airline studies found, what each implies for the kind of task, how failure rate relates to MTBF, how the Weibull shape parameter reads the pattern from data, and how a reliability block diagram puts the parts together into a plant's availability.
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Reliability and maintenanceOctober 2026 · 11 min read
The electrical program as a path from the incoming supply to the motors, with the dominant failures and the tasks for each class, the four kinds of task that do most of the work, the hidden protection functions that need a test rather than an inspection, motors and drives where the volume is, and how the statutory floor relates to the program.
The time model that makes downtime add up, the three-level code hierarchy that makes it comparable, capturing events with times from the control system and the cause from the person who was there, what the log carries, how the hours feed OEE, the cost of downtime and the maintenance measures, and where tracking fails. With a free log template.
The four protocols that carry most plant data were built for different problems at different levels of the plant. What each was built for, how it works, what it carries, what security it has and what to watch for, set on a map of the plant with a rule for choosing by what the link has to do.
What makes OT different from IT, the zones and conduits every reference agrees on, the IEC 62443 security levels in plain words, the eight controls that fit a plant and how each differs from its office form, the Essential Eight applied with judgement, and how remote access and the supply chain are handled.
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Asset management and dataOctober 2026 · 12 min read
The stages from mechanical completion through pre-commissioning and commissioning to the performance test and handover, the gate at the end of each, why commissioning runs by system and not by discipline, how the punch list is run and categorised, what the pre-startup safety review holds, and what handover has to include. With a free punch list template.
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Reliability and maintenanceOctober 2026 · 11 min read
The four classes of spare and why each is held, the questions that make up the stocking decision, the alternatives worth checking before a spare is bought, the register that ties every spare to the equipment and the failure it serves, what holding a spare properly involves, and how the holdings are reviewed. With a free register template.
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Reliability and maintenanceOctober 2026 · 12 min read
What preventive maintenance is and is not, where tasks come from, the four kinds of task and how the kind is chosen, how intervals are set and corrected, what a checklist has to ask for, how the program is run and measured, and how it is reviewed so it gets smaller and better. With a free checklist template.
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Reliability and maintenanceOctober 2026 · 12 min read
When a failure earns an investigation, the steps of one, how evidence is preserved, the methods and when each fits, the physical, human and latent levels of cause and why the level reached decides what the fix is worth, actions that are actually actions, and the defect elimination routine. With a free RCA template.
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Planning and work managementOctober 2026 · 11 min read
The work order is the record every maintenance function reads. What it is and is not, the types, the fields it carries and why each matters, the eight statuses and the gate into each, priority by rule, what closing one properly means, what the CMMS has to hold, and the measures that say whether the process is working.
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Asset management and dataOctober 2026 · 11 min read
The five stages of an asset's life and what each decides, where the whole of life cost is committed against where it is spent, the information that has to pass between stages, how the lifecycle plan sits in an ISO 55001 system, and how a renew or dispose decision is made on condition, cost and risk rather than age.
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Planning and work managementOctober 2026 · 11 min read
A maintenance KPI is only useful if it is defined once, measured the same way every week and read beside the others. Fourteen measures defined the SMRP way, leading separated from lagging, with the formulas, what a bad number means, how targets get set without inviting editing, and how each one is gamed.
A data historian stores a plant's time-stamped measurements at high rates for years and gives them back fast enough to trend. What makes it different from a database, why tag naming matters more than hardware, where it sits between the plant and the business, how to size one, the options from commercial historians to open source, and what makes one get used.
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Planning and work managementOctober 2026 · 14 min read
A shutdown is the most expensive week in a maintenance year, and its cost is decided months out. The timeline and its gates, where scope comes from and how it is challenged, what the scope freeze does, how jobs become a resourced schedule, readiness proven at gates, execution control and close-out, with a free checklist workbook.
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Planning and work managementOctober 2026 · 13 min read
Planning decides how a job will be done, scheduling decides when and by whom, and the weekly cycle with a freeze in it is what makes either measurable. What the plan, program and schedule each are, what makes work ready, the cycle step by step, one path for break-in work, the five measures, and the CMMS setup that holds it, with a free weekly schedule template.
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Asset management and dataOctober 2026 · 12 min read
ISO 55001 is the requirements standard for an asset management system, and it is widely misread as a maintenance standard. What the ISO 55000 family covers, what each clause asks for, what the 2024 edition changed, when certification is worth it, and how to adopt the standard without the paperwork.
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Asset management and dataOctober 2026 · 12 min read
Asset integrity management keeps the equipment that contains, controls or protects against a hazard fit for purpose across its life. The three legs it stands on, safety critical elements and performance standards, the assurance tools, how it fits with maintenance and the asset management system, and the Australian regulatory frame.
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Reliability and maintenanceOctober 2026 · 13 min read
Fixed plant runs continuously, wears by the tonne and can only be opened up when it stops, which makes its maintenance a different discipline from the mobile fleet. How to choose a regime for each kind of equipment, why the shutdown calendar is the real schedule, how wear parts and spares are managed, and the systems and measures the work depends on.
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Asset management and dataOctober 2026 · 11 min read
Most industrial organisations keep two asset registers: the engineering register in the CMMS, built to maintain equipment, and the fixed asset register in finance, built to account for it. What each holds, why they drift apart, and how to build and keep a reconciliation between them.
Most bulk handling failures are decided before any steel is cut, in what the designer was and was not told. What a conveyor or chute design brief has to state about the material, the duty, the interfaces, the environment and maintainability, which standards to call up, and how to review a design against the brief.
A stack should follow the shape of the problem, not a favourite tool. How to define an application's context, choose each of its nine layers, and connect it to plant systems from PLCs to ERP without opening the control network.
AI coding tools let anyone who knows a problem build a working app in days. What it takes to turn that prototype into software a team can rely on, area by area, and why the answer is rarely a rewrite.
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Asset management and dataOctober 2026 · 11 min read
A CMMS manages maintenance work. An EAM system manages the asset across its whole life, including the money. Where the line really falls, how ERP and APM fit around them, and how to choose on capability rather than on the label.
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Asset management and dataSeptember 2026 · 13 min read
ISO 14224 gives maintenance data a common structure: nine taxonomy levels, equipment classes with defined boundaries, and standard codes for failures and maintenance. What the standard covers, how to apply it in a CMMS, and what to do about the register you already have.
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Planning and work managementSeptember 2026 · 13 min read
A job pack is everything a crew needs to do a job once, without hunting for it. What goes in one, how a planner builds it, how job plans get reused and improved, and why the pack decides how much of the shift is spent on the tools.
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Asset management and dataSeptember 2026 · 14 min read
An asset management strategy, written down as the strategic asset management plan, turns business objectives into asset management objectives. The asset management plan beneath it says what will be done to which assets, when, at what cost and to what level of service. What each contains, what ISO 55001 asks for, and how to write them so they change decisions.
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Reliability and maintenanceSeptember 2026 · 17 min read
FMECA works through how equipment can fail, what each failure does and which failures matter most, so maintenance effort goes where the risk is. The method step by step, how to score criticality, where the risk priority number falls short, and a free worksheet template to start from.
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Reliability and maintenanceSeptember 2026 · 13 min read
Condition monitoring finds failures while they are still developing, so the repair can be planned instead of rushed. The main techniques and what each one detects, how to choose between them, how often to check, and how to build a program that pays for itself.
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Planning and work managementAugust 2026 · 9 min read
The titles get used interchangeably and the roles are not the same. What a planner owns, what a scheduler owns, where the long term view sits, and how the job changes between a routine week and a shutdown.
The phrase means everything and nothing. What digital transformation looks like when the starting point is a working operation, why the technology is the easy half, and where the value genuinely accrues.
Most registers carry a criticality column. Fewer can defend how it was set. How consequence and likelihood are actually scored, the workshop that sets them, and what each band should change.
Reliability centred maintenance is rigorous, defensible and expensive. What RCM analysis involves, how PMO actually compares, and when a criticality-led approach gets you most of the value for a fraction of the work.
Discrete Element Method modelling gets talked about like magic. Here is what it genuinely shows you about flow, wear and blockages in a chute design, what it cannot tell you, and where it earns its keep.
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Asset management and dataAugust 2026 · 21 min read
Commissioning proves a new asset can run. Operational readiness proves you can keep running it. The checklist, methods, standards and CMMS build that get a plant, fleet or rail line ready to operate and maintain from handover, and what gets skipped when they are left late.
Schedule compliance and break-in say more about a maintenance organisation than most dashboards. How to read them together, and what the patterns actually mean.
Plenty of operations collect condition data. Fewer act on it. What separates monitoring that changes decisions from monitoring that just fills a database.
Notes on building applications that operations depend on around the clock, where the interesting design question is not uptime but what the system does when something upstream fails.
