Maintenance & Reliability Technology Committee

1. Developing Maintenance Leadership
2. Enhancing Craft Skills
3. Partnering Production and Maintenance for Business Success
4. Providing Professional Development and Problem Solving Opportunities
5. Pursuing and Recognizing Best Practices and Methodologies
6. Promoting the application of Predictive Maintenance Technologies.

Past AIST Committee Activities

Current Activities

The Maintenance and Reliability Technology Committee (MRTC) met Aug. 18–20 in Fort Wayne, Ind. The MRTC has two subcommittees, one for their Specialty Training Conference and one for their Reliability Achievement Award. The Specialty Training Conference Subcommittee (STCS) met first to review the status of their conference. They reviewed registration, the status of the presentations and other details. Follow-up activities were identified to ensure completion of all open issues. Tentative venues for next year’s conference were then discussed, and the STCS decided to look into holding the conference together with a related activity. STCS members were asked to submit ideas for a theme, topics and potential presenters, to be discussed at the next meeting. Following this, the Reliability Achievement Award Subcommittee (RAAS) met to review the audits from this year’s RAA entries. The leader from each of the audit teams presented the audit results, and each member rated every submittal. After the results were tabulated, the gold, silver and bronze award winners were determined. Following this evaluation process, there was discussion on whether any changes were needed to the process. The main suggestion was to change the deadline for submissions to May 31 instead of June 30 to allow the auditors more time to schedule and perform their audits. The following day, both subcommittees provided an update to the entire MRTC. Members were encouraged to support the committee’s Specialty Training Conference within their own companies. To begin preparation for the MRTC’s 2009 activities, additional volunteers were accepted as members of next year’s subcommittees. The benefits of participating in these activities were espoused by both new participants and those who have participated for several years. Plans for AISTech 2009 were discussed, with a review of the available abstracts. Committee members in attendance also offered presentations for 2009. After the AIST business part of the meeting, Tim Stiers of Castrol made a technical presentation on contamination control for hydraulic systems. Vern Martin of Flowcare made a presentation on fan performance issues critical to purchasing retrofit components for new fans. A discussion on NFPA 70E, the standard for electrical safe work practices, was presented by Ed Miltenberger of Siemens. The day’s sessions closed with ArcelorMittal Dofasco’s Mike Keenan’s discussion on maintenance task analysis. On the final day of the meeting, Don Sanger of IVC gave an overview of predictive maintenance basics. A round table discussion was then conducted on items that were being worked on by members and any other current issues. Future meeting locations and agendas were then discussed. The meeting closed and the members attended a tour of the SDI Structural and Rail Division’s new medium section mill, which was arranged and hosted by Bill Bennett of SDI.

The Maintenance Processes Operating Committee (MPOC) met at AISTech in Pittsburgh on May 6. Their first item was to review the status of the integration plan for the AISI committees, which resulted in this committee becoming the Maintenance and Reliability Technology Committee (MRTC). They then discussed the quality of the presentations they had attended at AISTech 2008. It was recommended that there be two MRTC time slots at AISTech 2009, so that some longer presentations can take a full hour. They also encouraged committee members to attend the MPOC sessions at AISTech 2008, particularly the ones featuring the Reliability Achievement Award. Jim Dunn updated the group on the status of the upcoming Specialty Training Conference that will be held in Memphis, Tenn., Oct. 1–3, 2008, featuring a tour of Nucor Steel–Memphis. He also discussed the trip report that will be a part of this conference, and the chair responsibilities in collecting this information. They then discussed the entries, audit process and timeline for the 2008 Reliability Achievement Award (RAA) and identified a subcommittee to work on the audits of the submissions. New officers were elected for the upcoming year: Jim Dunn as chair, Jason Roche as vice chair, Doyle Hopper as papers chair and Colleen Reeves as Specialty Training Conference chair. After a review and approval of their mission statement, they discussed options and technical presentations for their next meetings and then adjourned.