November 2024 Volume 6

MAINTENANCE

• Basics of shop layout and construction design for the press installation. • Very thorough knowledge of step by-step procedure for all operations involved in the project. • Deep knowledge of the quality control methods for every operation. The important part of quality control is assembling and running the equip ment at the rebuild company plant, including the run under load. It allows eliminating problems that otherwise will pop up at the customer’s plant. Of course, no matter how you run your project, the preparation stage is very impor tant. At this stage you should: • Examine the shop layout and condi tions of the foundation and building. • Make a first assessment of the equip ment conditions and determine large critical parts with the longest lead time. Once you are ready, you should create a project schedule using MS Project.

Another very important piece of informa tion would be the combined part list for the whole project. This list can also be used for the purchasing of all necessary items; another derivative of this main list should be a list of parts that are going for machining, whether you are making a new part or repairing an old one. Tracking project expenses is very impor tant. Different companies use different approaches, but the bottom line is that this is a must if you don’t want your project to become a money eating black hole. I suggest doing constant tracking of the project progress in MS Project and running weekly meetings with the project team discussing the current situation and correc tive actions to resolve all problems. Once the project is completed, it is impor tant to have a team meeting to analyze the project performance both from a technical and financial perspective. It is always benefi cial to have financial specialists involved in the discussion.

Also, at the post-project stage, it is impor tant to offer the customer a plan of period ical equipment inspections and a list of parts and components they have to have handy in his stock. If you wish, you can share the details of your project, and I will be glad to discuss your project with your team.

Michael Slavin Machine Design & Repair LLC Email: mpslavin@gmail.com Phone: 1-248-224-4756

FIA MAGAZINE | NOVEMBER 2024 19