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You are here: Home / Archives for Mike Sondalini

Mike Sondalini — Thought Leader

Author of Plant Maintenance, Maintenance Management, and Life Cycle Asset Management.


This author's archive lists contributions of articles and episodes.

by Mike Sondalini Leave a Comment

Reliability Assessment and Acquisition Method

Reliability Assessment and Acquisition Method

Asset reliability assessment when buying running and used operating plant and equipment. Aging asset reliability assessment can be done quantitatively if all past component stresses are know, or it is down qualitatively when only operating and maintenance history is available.

I am a developing reliability professional and often read your articles. I was wondering if you could give me a bit of advice about the subject of aging asset reliability assessment for operating assets?

Can you please share your thoughts on reliability assessment for a thermal power plant, and its importance in acquisition of a running ageing plant. Is it a common practice to look at this aspect prior to acquisition and is it practical? And if so, how do we go about it?

Thank you for your advice.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Articles, Life Cycle Asset Management, on Maintenance Reliability

by Mike Sondalini Leave a Comment

How Well should a Maintenance Job be Planned?

How Well should a Maintenance Job be Planned?

 How well should a maintenance job be planned ? All maintenance work needs a plan that lets the maintainer do the work correctly, safely, in the least possible time and for the least cost. Selecting the information and details that go into the maintenance job plan is vital to its success. Leave out necessary specifics and facts and you put the job at increased risk of failure, loss and waste. Exactly what details are necessary to allow maintenance work to flow wonderfully well at minimal cost and time are important for a maintenance planner and their managers to know. 

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Articles, Maintenance Management, on Maintenance Reliability

by Mike Sondalini Leave a Comment

Decoding the ISO 55001 Asset Management Standard – Understanding ISO 55001 Clauses

Decoding the ISO 55001 Asset Management Standard – Understanding ISO 55001 Clauses

Understanding ISO 55001 clauses is vital for building a compliant ISO 55001 Asset Management System. Understanding ISO 55001 clauses is easy with a logical flowchart.

The meaning of the contents in the ISO 55001 asset management standard must be correctly interpreted and properly addressed in your asset management system

To fully understand the implications of an ISO 55001 clause, it is necessary to strip each sentence, phrase, and sub-point down into its logical elements

Learn how to turn the text in an ISO 55001 clause into a logical flowchart that lets you fully appreciate the implications and build the correct application in your asset management system.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Articles, Life Cycle Asset Management, on Maintenance Reliability

by Mike Sondalini Leave a Comment

Using Predictive Maintenance in a Plant Wellness Paradigm

Using Predictive Maintenance in a Plant Wellness Paradigm

Traditional Predictive Maintenance strategy results in out of control production from random planned equipment outages. A Plant Wellness strategy reduces the need for condition monitoring because you get ahead of failure and eliminate all root causes so there cannot be failure.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Articles, Maintenance Management, on Maintenance Reliability

by Mike Sondalini Leave a Comment

Extreme Wear on the Back Plate of Centrifugal Pumps

Extreme Wear on the Back Plate of Centrifugal Pumps

Why is extreme wear occurring on the backing plate behind the impellers of these centrifugal pumps used for irrigation pumping service?

Engineering investigations into the causes of wear, erosion and metal loss on the back-plates behind the impellers of two year old centrifugal pumps pumping water about an irrigation system

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Articles, on Maintenance Reliability, Plant Maintenance

by Mike Sondalini Leave a Comment

The Role and Responsibilities of the Engineering Manager

The Role and Responsibilities of the Engineering Manager

Advice on the Key Duties and Responsibilities of the Modern Engineering Manager Role

The duties of the engineering manager role usually include capital project management and maintenance management, two vital aspects that must be done exceedingly well in an industrial operation.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Articles, Life Cycle Asset Management, on Maintenance Reliability

by Mike Sondalini Leave a Comment

Business Process Redesign the Plant Wellness Way

Business Process Redesign the Plant Wellness Way

A presentation slide set titled “Simpler Industrial and Business Process Redesign”. Presented by Mike Sondalini to The Institution of Engineers, Malaysia, Electrical Engineering Technical Division.

The presentation opens with examining three universal business problems:

  1. Wasted effort and resources
  2. Wrong business process for the purpose
  3. Wide and out-of-control process variation

He also explores the implication of the quality loss function and then incorporates the concept of maintenance work quality. Then Mike explore specific steps you can implement to improve the fundamental processes within your organization.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Articles, Maintenance Management, on Maintenance Reliability

by Mike Sondalini Leave a Comment

The Instantaneous Cost of Failure from Breakdowns

The Instantaneous Cost of Failure from Breakdowns

The Instantaneous Cost and Failure from Breakdowns is Huge. When a failure incident occurs, there is a consequential loss of profits and amassing of costs. The cost of failure includes lost profit, the cost of repair, fixed and variable operating costs wasted during the downtime, and a myriad of consequential costs that surge through the business. They are all paid for by the organisation and seen as poor financial performance. The costs of failure cannot be escaped and are counted in fortunes of lost profit per year. Total defect and failure true costs are not normally recognised by managers, yet they can send businesses bankrupt. In the instance of a failure, all its costs and losses are automatically incurred on the business. These costs can only be prevented by not having the failure in the first place. This article explains the ‘Instantaneous Cost of Failure’ (ICOF) and introduces a proactive technique, ‘Defect and Failure True Costing’, that helps companies recognise and prevent this tremendous waste of money.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Articles, Life Cycle Asset Management, on Maintenance Reliability

by Mike Sondalini Leave a Comment

How to Write the Contents of the Lead Quality Manual Document

How to Write the Contents of the Lead Quality Manual Document

Read about the Requirements for the Content of the ISO 9001 Quality Manual Lead Document from which the rest of an ISO 9001 Quality System Cascades

An ISO 9001 Quality Management System requires a ISO 9001 Quality Manual that contains all the details of how your business is run to produce your products or services to a quality standard.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Articles, Maintenance Management, on Maintenance Reliability

by Mike Sondalini Leave a Comment

Screw Conveyor Auger Shaft Drive End Break

Screw Conveyor Auger Shaft Drive End Break

How operational loads break the drive shaft of a horizontal screw conveyor auger

Questions and queries asked following a screw feeder shaft breakage on a 15m long fertiliser dust transfer feed conveyor


If you have rotating shafts breaking at the drive-end of the auger shaft you may have a combination of bending and torsional fatigue. You are welcome to read the series of emails and responses below to a screw conveyor auger drive end failure.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Articles, on Maintenance Reliability, Plant Maintenance

by Mike Sondalini Leave a Comment

15 Ways to Remove Operational Risk

15 Ways to Remove Operational Risk

To increase reliability, you need to decrease the chances of failure occurring. Each chance of failure creates risk. Operating risk can be mitigated and managed by meeting all 15 Precision Maintenance excellence targets.

This list of precision maintenance excellence targets is how to ensure component parts, and the equipment they are in, always operate with optimal reliability. Each requirement must be met to the highest standard. By doing this your equipment and machinery are operating with the least microstructure stress possible and getting utmost reliability.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Articles, Life Cycle Asset Management, on Maintenance Reliability

by Mike Sondalini Leave a Comment

The Company That Made Its Machines Breakdown

The Company That Made Its Machines Breakdown

Abstract: Many companies struggle with constant plant and equipment problems despite doing the very best they know how to keep their plant and machinery reliable. Their real problem, which they cannot see for themselves, is that what is done in the company is completely wrong for creating highly reliable production equipment. If you cannot “see” how reliability is destroyed in your business, then you are doomed to suffer poor reliability and low uptime forevermore.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Articles, Maintenance Management, on Maintenance Reliability

by Mike Sondalini Leave a Comment

Example ACE 3T Maintenance Procedure with Inspection & Test Plan (ITP)

Example ACE 3T Maintenance Procedure with Inspection & Test Plan (ITP)

Here is a great example from an industrial operation of a maintenance procedure using an Accuracy Controlled Enterprise (ACE) 3T standard operating procedure (SOP) format. To make it better would need photos and/or videos included for critical tasks. 3T stands for Target-Tolerance-Test, which are the minimum criteria needed to specify maintenance task quality and prove compliance. The 3T’s are a simple maintenance work quality assurance technique we invented to maximise the chance of doing outstandingly high-quality maintenance work that brings you outstanding plant and equipment reliability.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Articles, Life Cycle Asset Management, on Maintenance Reliability

by Mike Sondalini Leave a Comment

Screw Conveyor Auger Shaft Mid-Point Breaks

Screw Conveyor Auger Shaft Mid-Point Breaks

Are your screw feeder and trough screw conveyor auger shafts snapping in half?

Analysis of a broken screw feeder shaft on a granular Copper Sulphate Bagging Hopper Feed Screw explains how stress cause shaft failure


If you have rotating shafts breaking at the centre of the span then you quite likely have a metal fatigue problem. Take a read of the report below.


The 316L stainless steel screw feeder shaft on a 3200mm long, 260mm diameter, 1:1 pitch flight screw broke in the middle. The shaft was 50mm Schedule 40 316L stainless steel pipe. The screw flight was 6mm thick 316L plate stitch welded to the shaft. The screw had been replaced new only 4 weeks prior. The screw was removed from the trough in two pieces and the break was at the middle of the screw. The break was generally square to the shaft.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Articles, on Maintenance Reliability, Plant Maintenance

by Mike Sondalini Leave a Comment

The Connection Between Equipment Risk and Equipment Reliability

The Connection Between Equipment Risk and Equipment Reliability

A slide deck of a presentation made by Mike at the SIRFRt WA Maintenance Roundtable November 2011.

Mike goes into depth with risk quantification, plotting techniques, along with connecting maintenance related risk to business risk levels. The presentation also explores using reliability as an element in the risk equation and discusses a few different ways to minimize risks.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Articles, Maintenance Management, on Maintenance Reliability

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