Tuesday, March 24, 2009

RCM09 Photos at Flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/reliabilityweb/sets/72157615258202591/show/

How Much is Your Machine Condition Monitoring Program Costing You?

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – RCM-2009 (booth #315) – March 23, 2009 – Global condition monitoring services company Azima DLI today announced its new WATCHMAN™ In-House Condition Monitoring Program Cost Calculator. The online program allows plant and maintenance managers to quickly calculate the annualized cost of current machine condition monitoring programs to help determine the right mix of on-site and outsourced solutions. Azima DLI will feature the new Cost Calculator in booth #315 at the RCM-2009 event taking place March 23-26 in Daytona Beach, Florida.



For those companies that have decided to launch a condition monitoring initiative for the first time, or are planning to expand their current program and need help getting started, Azima DLI also announced its WATCHMAN™ Quickstart Program. The six-month program is designed to help companies quickly achieve return on investment by breaking the program down into three distinct phases that emphasize guided study, mentorship and on-going support.



Calculating the Cost of Condition Monitoring

After users complete a brief questionnaire on the Azima DLI website (www.azimadli.com), the WATCHMAN Cost Calculator produces a detailed assessment to help plant and maintenance managers better answer questions such as:

· What is the annualized cost of current condition monitoring programs?

· What are the costs associated with condition monitoring program expansion?

· Is outsourcing a cost-effective choice to address existing condition monitoring needs?

With the Calculator’s ability to quickly analyze factors such as start-up costs and cost-per-machine, managers don’t have to spend time wrestling with complex spreadsheets to gain a better understanding of the financial impact of current condition monitoring programs. Azima DLI’s detailed, accurate reports help determine if existing programs are as cost-effective as possible, and if expanding or outsourcing certain elements would be a sound business decision.



“The WATCHMAN Cost Calculator has been a big eye opener for customers that are re-evaluating existing programs, and for prospects that are just getting started with considering condition monitoring options,” said Jonathan Hakim, president, Azima DLI. “For companies that have decided to launch in-house programs, we have already had great success with the personalized, hands-on Quickstart program that helps customers meet their goals for establishing a continuous, sustainable and cost-effective condition monitoring program.”



Establishing Rapid Time to Value for Condition Monitoring Programs

Azima DLI’s research has shown that many condition monitoring programs struggle in their first year. This can be attributed to ineffective implementation or protracted start-up phases that cost companies money in lost opportunities and unrealized benefits. In order to speed the development of sustainable, cost effective programs, Azima DLI’s WATCHMAN Quickstart offering is implemented over a six month period across three specific phases:

· Initialization – Azima DLI engineers handle initial on-site machine set up and create databases to support data collection and review.

· Structured study and co-analysis – Azima DLI’s expert analysts kick off monthly data reviews, fine-tune databases and generate machine condition reports and alerts.

· Mentorship and continued training – Customers are trained to analyze their own data and understand the best courses of action based on the data analysis. Azima DLI provides a second review of all analysis and provides feedback to the analysts, helping them to further their new skills.



At the end of the six month training program, customers will be able to confidently manage an effective condition monitoring program. If a customer experiences staffing or business model changes, Azima DLI can be available to manage the entire program as a fully outsourced service.



To learn more about Azima DLI’s Cost Calculator and Quickstart program, contact Azima DLI’s WATCHMAN Reliability Services professionals toll free in the U.S. at +1 (800) 482-2290 or worldwide at +1 (781) 938-0707.



About Azima DLI

Azima DLI is the only global condition monitoring services company exclusively focused on delivering accurate and timely equipment diagnostics to industrial plants, transportation organizations and the military. Azima DLI’s expert analysts, advanced software and flexible, Web-based delivery model provide customers with the information they need for insightful decision making that lowers maintenance costs and improves industrial reliability. Azima DLI’s WATCHMAN™ Reliability Services combine industry best practices with advanced technology to support sustainable, ROI-driven programs that improve equipment uptime and performance. Azima DLI is headquartered in Woburn, Massachusetts with offices across the U.S. and international representation in Asia-Pacific, Central America, Europe and South America. For more information, call +1 (800) 482-2290 or visit http://www.azimadli.com

RMB celebrates 12 years of being global industry leader in ALM

Denver, CO (March 13, 2009) – As RMB celebrates our twelfth year, we consistently manage to be the mogul in knowledge and expertise in asset intensive industries. Our consultants have implemented hundreds of successful maintenance & EAM projects throughout the world, more than any other business partner.

To further expand our knowledge, we joined the Aladon Network in 2008 delivering our customer the most up to date skills and services. RMB is certified to deliver training and consulting services for Ivara RCM2 and MTA.

We are also an authorized reseller of Ivara EXP Professional – the leading asset reliability strategy development software. “With The Aladon Network and EXP Enterprise, Ivara is the only vendor with the reliability leadership, expertise and technology to develop and execute an RCM-based reliability strategy that drives optimal asset performance,” says Matt Miller, vice president, RMB. RMB has always been a world-class EAM (Enterprise Asset Management) consulting company, helping customers achieve financial, operational and organization objectives to improve productivity, efficiency and profitability.

RMB consultants assist clients to manage and increase the useful life of their assets, reduce costs and increase productivity. RMB helps customers maximize the configuration, consulting, customized training, report development and other services.

We increase production reliability/availability/output and strive to decrease the risk of asset failures. With headquarters in Denver, Colorado and offices in Toronto, Canada and Coconut Creek, Florida, RMB places consultants in engagements around the globe.

http://www.rmb-golive.com

http://www.ivara.com/other.php?tID=5&p=press/05_21_08.htm&news=1

Monday, March 23, 2009

RCM09 Welcome Reception and Expo today

RCM09 Welcome Reception and Expo today

Please join us at 4:30 pm – 6:30 PM for the RCM09 Welcome Reception and Expo on the 3rd Floor Coquina Ballroom.

Visit over 50 Solution Providers and Oracle Partners who can support your journey to improved reliability and global competitiveness.

Please wear your badge and make sure to bring your drink tickets. Look for the signs for bonus drink tickets at select booths.

Be sure and bring your Alienware passport so you can enter to win the Laptop.

RCM09 Photos at Flickr

Take a look at RCM09 Photos at Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/reliabilityweb/sets/72157615258202591/

You can upload and share your photos to the RCM09 Upload page here
http://tinyurl.com/cjhbya

Signum Group Launches Signum EAM Analytics

New Offering to Support Oracle Business Intelligence (OBIEE)


ATLANTA–March 23, 2009- Signum Group LLC (Signum), a leading enterprise asset management systems integration and asset reliability services company, has expanded its service offerings with the launch of Signum EAM Analytics™, a custom dashboard toolkit for deployment on the Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBIEE) that allows organizations to streamline and coordinate daily operational measures and dashboards for Enterprise Asset Management activities.

Designed to integrate seamlessly with Oracle’s E-Business Suite Release 12, Signum EAM Analytics™ includes a pre-built end user layer (EUL) dashboard interface that features over 30 key performance metrics, allowing executives and management to efficiently access information, evaluate performance, and respond based on real time results.

Signum EAM Analytics™ delivers superior value to clients with a flexible approach that assesses current business performance management and still offers customers the option to add substantial extensions to meet the unique information and reporting requirements of their business.

Bob Lullo, Senior VP Operations at Signum said, “With the addition of Signum EAM Analytics™, Signum continues to expand the high-quality services and solutions that drive our unique value proposition for Oracle customers.”

The leading consulting and integration company for Oracle maintenance and Enterprise Asset Management deployments, Signum has supported delivery for over 150 live Oracle eAM sites across a wide range of maintenance-intensive industries. The announcement of Signum EAM Analytics™ was made at the Oracle Asset Lifecycle Management Summit, where Signum is a Gold Sponsor.
About The Signum Group, LLC

Founded in 1994, Signum Group is the leading enterprise asset management (EAM) systems integration and asset reliability services company. Signum’s team of senior asset management consultants has supported delivery for over 150 live Oracle eAM sites across a wide range of maintenance-intensive industries.

Signum ensures on time and on budget delivery by leveraging Signum Way™, a suite of proprietary implementation, data management, and training toolkits that combines the benefits of streamlined software implementation with a business process management approach. For more information, visit http://www.signumgroup.com or call 770-514-8111.

General Physics Corporation and Allied Reliability Announce Joint Venture: GPAllied

Leading a customized, integrated approach for Sustained Reliable Operations, Reliable Capital Delivery and Reliable Maintenance Execution

Elkridge, MD and Charleston, SC. March 23, 2009 - Global performance improvement solutions provider General Physics Corporation (GP), a subsidiary of GP Strategies Corporation (NYSE: GPX), announced today that it has entered into an agreement to form a joint venture with Allied Reliability, Inc. (Allied), a global engineering firm specializing in predictive maintenance and reliability engineering, to address global client needs in changing corporate climates.

The joint venture, called GPAllied, will provide diverse reliability and operations consulting and services. GP and Allied believe that by combining their resources, the joint venture will be able to develop significant value propositions for clients by delivering solutions across different industries, different geographies and across different aspects of any operation. GP and Allied will contribute to the joint venture extensive experience in the specialty fields of Lean, Reliability Engineering, Six Sigma, Condition Monitoring, Change Management, Maintenance Planning and Scheduling, Workforce Development and Maintenance Craft Skills training.

GPAllied is expected to have a global presence, with local footprints in the Americas, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific region. The joint venture will be focused on serving clients in asset-intensive industries, like petrochemical, mining, energy, manufacturing, food and beverage, and life sciences to name a few. The GPAllied joint venture will bring together unique capabilities and synergistic strengths of two thought leaders and allow for global implementation never before realized by the industry.

GP and Allied will unveil the new joint venture at the Reliability Centered Maintenance Managers’ Forum (RCM-2009) in Daytona Beach, Florida, on March 23, 2009. Representatives of GPAllied will conduct eight presentations and workshops at the conference. Doug Sharp, President, and Chuck Kooistra, Senior Vice President of GP, and John Langhorne and John Schultz, Partners of Allied Reliability, will also attend the conference.

GP and Allied believe that The formation of GPAllied began when Mr. Kooistra and Mr. Schultz discussed candidly what their global clients were asking for and identifying the extraordinary talent within the ranks at their respective firms. It became instantly apparent to both men that the combination of the two companies would bring significant differentiators to their global customers. The result is the joining of People, Processes and Technologies in one total package never before realized - now available to the global marketplace.

GPAllied will bring inspired solutions, reliable results, and global reach to clients looking to do more than survive during these tremendously tough economic times. The capabilities of this joint venture should be attractive to manufacturers looking to reduce production costs and achieve increased ROI by utilizing optimized processes and reliability.

About Allied Reliability

Allied Reliability helps companies build wealth and competitive advantage through world-class predictive maintenance and reliability across a global manufacturing network. Allied Reliability is one of the largest consulting, engineering and service firms focused on predictive and preventive maintenance. Allied Reliability is the industry leader in designing and implementing a customized, integrated approach for identifying defects in assets utilizing predictive maintenance (PdM) and condition monitoring (CBM) services and has developed an innovative method of reliably measuring Return on Capital Investment in Asset Management. Utilizing Life Cycle Costing and advanced engineering methods, Return on Asset Reliability or (ROAR™) modeling has been successfully utilized by clients on many levels including Enterprise, Business Unit, Plant, Process, System, Asset, Component and Failure Mode. Allied Reliability provides Reliability training, Reliability Engineering consulting and PdM technical services to over 200 plants and facilities in the U.S., Canada, Europe and Latin America.

Additional information may be found at http://www.alliedreliability.com.

About GP

GP is the principal operating subsidiary of GP Strategies Corporation (NYSE: GPX). GP is a global performance improvement solutions provider of sales and technical training, e-Learning solutions, management consulting and engineering services. GP’s solutions improve the effectiveness of organizations by delivering innovative and superior training, consulting and business improvement services, customized to meet the specific needs of its clients. Clients include Fortune 500 companies, manufacturing, process and energy industries, and other commercial and government customers. Additional information may be found at http://maintenance.gpworldwide.com.

Saturday, March 21, 2009

MX Rider Kelly Rigg O'Hanlon


ohanlon_0309 019, originally uploaded by Reliabilityweb.com.

In her off time RCM09 Organizers enjoys riding dirt bikes with her family!

Share your RCM09 Photos

As you take photos - please share your favorites with the group.

You can uplaod photos to share here:

http://reliabilityweb.formbin.com/forms/rcm09_photo

You can upload individual photos or zip them to include a group.

We will add them to the RCM Photo stream

RCM09 Group at Maintenance.org

To extend your conference experience and maintain contact with new friends and associates you meet at RCM09 - join the Association for Maintenance Professionals at www.maintenance.org

Once you build your profile, join the RCM09 group here
http://www.maintenance.org/index.php?page_id=1107&group_id=1

Meals at RCM09

Meals at RCM09

All meals at RCM09 offer menu alternatives like diabetic, vegetarian etc...

Breakfast is a full hot breakfast – so do not stay in holed up in your room with room service – come on down and meet your peers.

Sit a new table everyday and introduce yourself

Breakfast begins at 6:30 am on the North Tower

If possible - please email customerservice@reliabilityweb.com in advance so we can make note of your special dietary requirements or you can let someone know upon check in. If the dietary choice you seek is not on display, please aks a hotel staff person to bring one from the kitchen. They are well versed and can provide details for you as well as make sure you get the type nof meal you seek.

Friday, March 20, 2009

RCM09 Share Your Biggest Challenge

10:00 am March 26

The strategies, techniques, tools and technologies for successful Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM), Enterprise Asset Management (EAM/CMMS) and Maintenance Training are well known and documented yet a large percentage of this improvement initiatives fail to produce results.

Please join us for the RCM09 Biggest Challenges Session on Thursday March 26 at 10 am for a group discussion and good practice sharing.

Please take a moment to share your biggest challenge relating to Reliability Centered Maintenance, Enterprise Asset Management and Maintenance Training

You can remain anonymous or use you name as you choose.

Submit your challenge here:
http://reliabilityweb.formbin.com/forms/rcm09_challenge

Check list maximum RCM09 productivity and happiness

___Send Postcard home as soon as you arrive

___Advise Conference Organizers about special meal requirements

___Choose Pre Conference Workshops

___Map your learning sessions for maximum impact

____Make time for social networking opportunities

___Meet at least 2 new people each day

___Eat breakfast and lunch with a different group each day and introduce yourself

___ Join Twitter and follow RCM09

___ Join the Association for Maintenance Professionals and join the RCM09 group (www.maintenance.org)

___ Establish at least three goals for the event

___Ask event organizers specific questions about sessions

___Post questions for speakers at Twitter and Maintenance.org

___Ask your managers to set a goal for you

___Read a book on the subject prior to attending

___Ask a question in each session

___Introduce yourself to an author who’s book you have read

___Prioritize Expo meetings with solution providers – email them or Tweet in advance to request time

___Learn the process to submit a paper for future events

___Sit for professional certification exams

___Document your participation

___Write a report about the event and your learning

___Participate in roundtable discussions

___Provide candid event feedback on survey forms

___Prepare for Change Resistance upon your return

___Follow up with people you met via email, Twitter and Maintenance.org

___Buy wife/husband flowers at home airport

___Buys kids presents

Other ideas?

Tweet them and use #RCM09 to mark them so our search engine finds them

Download the RCM09 program guide

A PDF version of the RCM09 Program Guide is available for download here:
http://tinyurl.com/chuhbj

Download it and make a plan in advance to get the most from your conference experience.

Terry O

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Ventureforth Releases Mobile Solution for Distributed Maintenance Environments

ATLANTA, Feb. 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Ventureforth, Inc., a leading provider of enterprise mobility applications for Oracle asset lifecycle management customers, announced today that it is introducing Distributed Mi2K for eAM, a powerful distributed solution for remote maintenance environments, including offshore drilling platforms and vessels, as well as remote refineries and plants.


Ventureforth has provided mobile and disconnected solutions for Oracle eAM to a wide variety of customers across multiple market segments. Now, Ventureforth is offering a maintenance solution tailored to industries that have remote network communication challenges, such as the offshore oil and gas environment. Distributed Mi2K for eAM essentially provides a "mini" eAM instance at each remote location, allowing all users at the location to perform relevant maintenance and supply chain operations in real-time, regardless of connectivity back to the corporate data center.

Distributed Mi2K's architecture allows maintenance crews to provide nonstop service, even when the environment has little to no network connectivity to the corporate Oracle eAM instance. Additionally, the Manager's Workbench for Mi2K allows maintenance crew managers and supervisors at each location to generate reports, assign/reassign work orders, view global inventory levels, and approve purchase requests for spare parts, all while in disconnected mode.

When connectivity is restored, Mi2K's intelligent 2-way synchronization updates Oracle EBS maintenance, inventory, purchasing and HR data at corporate and at each remote location.

"This is an exciting and unique solution for customers with distributed environments and spotty network coverage," stated Kevin Wilson, Vice President of Oracle Sales with Ventureforth. "I began formulating this solution for partners in the oil and gas sector while I was with Oracle. Ventureforth already provided a strong mobile platform, Mi2K, with out-of-the-box integration to Oracle's E-Business Suite eAM. We were able to enhance this product to provide full functionality to environments in remote locations that have inconsistent communications."

"As a key member of Oracle's global Oil & Gas partner community, our distributed Mi2K for eAM solution will provide Oracle customers with the performance and reliability needed to ensure their maintenance work can be completed at all times, in all locations. Our first implementation of Distributed Mi2K for eAM is scheduled to go live with an offshore maintenance company by end of March 2009," stated Wilson.

Charles Farnell, president and CEO at Ventureforth, commented, "As an Oracle certified partner with a long history of providing mobile maintenance and supply chain solutions, Ventureforth is committed to supporting Oracle's Oil and Gas customers globally. Ventureforth's mobility solution for Oracle eAM simplifies the way maintenance technicians interact with Oracle back-end systems, ensuring that maintenance and supply chain information is being captured timely and accurately."

About Ventureforth, Inc.
Founded in 1995, Ventureforth is a global leader in mobilizing the workforce. By combining industry-leading technology solutions and best practices, Ventureforth mobile computing, asset tracking, integration, and business intelligence solutions deliver real-world quantifiable value.
Ventureforth's global customer base spans every industry, from multi- national corporations to mid-sized businesses.

Today, the company continues evolving its mobile technology, integration products, and business intelligence solutions to help organizations mobilize their workforces.

Ventureforth has headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, USA and offices in the United Kingdom and India.

http://www.ventureforth.com/

EAM-2009 Exhibitor AssetPoint Grew Revenue 33%

AssetPoint announces financial results for 2008

Greenville, SC – March 23, 2009 – AssetPoint (http://www.blogger.com/www.assetpoint.com), a leading provider of Plant & Enterprise Maintenance Management software and industry best practices consulting, announced the company achieved record revenue and earnings in 2008. Revenue growth was very strong at 33% above 2007 levels. AssetPoint signed a record number of new clients during 2008 and this pace is continuing into 2009.

AssetPoint’s services revenue grew at a phenomenal 95% rate over 2007 largely due to the new AssetPoint Reliability Solutions business unit that was announced during 2008. AssetPoint’s Software as a Service (SaaS) hosted solution also grew at a record rate of 25% as clients continued to realize the benefits of using AssetPoint’s TabWare OnLine hosted solution which features a low total cost of ownership (TCO), eliminating many of the operating cost items that result from having application software installed onsite.

"The company is benefiting from its continued investment in technology and innovation. TabWare Xi, our new browser-based solution, began shipping in Q4 of 2008 and was quickly accepted by the market. We have an aggressive product plan for 2009 with many new modules quickly coming available to add even more value for our clients. We are seeing encouraging results in early 2009 to continue our record-setting pace," says Eric Miles, CEO of AssetPoint.

"Our direction of continuing investments in our products and technology plus our relationship with Microsoft Corporation as a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner coupled with our passion to continually add value for our clients are clearly the reasons for AssetPoint’s on-going growth and expanding client community."

About AssetPoint:
Established in 2002 as a spin-off from a major engineering, construction and maintenance corporation, AssetPoint has a legacy of over 30 years in delivering integrated enterprise asset management / Computerized Maintenance Management (EAM/CMMS) software and services that improve profitability and productivity for the process, manufacturing and facilities industries. Thousands of users manage billions of dollars every day in critical plant and facility assets worldwide using TabWare. The scaleable software solution is delivered as an onsite option, as a Software as a Service option, or as a fully secure, web-based solution. For more information see http://www.assetpoint.com/.

ALM Summit News: STR Software Automates Printing of Oracle Attachments with AventX

STR Software Automates Printing of Oracle Attachments with AventX

Richmond, VA – February 25, 2009 – STR Software, a Certified Partner in the Oracle® PartnerNetwork and leader in document solutions for email, fax, internet fax and print, announces the release of AventX Attachment Printer. AventX Attachment Printer provides Oracle Enterprise Asset Management users the ability to print and collate any Oracle document (Work Orders, POs, SOAs, Statements etc.) with corresponding database attachments.

Typically, Oracle Application users print business documents with supporting MS Office format (Word, Excel, Project, etc.) attachments in two separate steps. This is because MS Office attachments are not directly printable on a UNIX platform. Attachments must be opened in their native viewers and printed.

"STR Software’s print attachment allows Oracle Enterprise Asset Management users to easily print work orders and attachments together in a complete work package," says Jennifer Allen, Director of Oracle Product Strategy. "With the AventX Attachment Printer for Oracle, users submit ONE standard print command to the Concurrent Manager and the software automatically prints a complete packet of documents. As a result, manual intervention and user training are not needed."

Minnkota Power Cooperative is saving more than 4,500 staff hours annually by implementing STR Software’s AventX Attachment Printer. Tim Sanger, Systems Programmer II at Minnkota Power Cooperative reports, "The best part is, we did not have to perform any user training – (users) just print as they did before, but now the output contains the attachments."

For additional information view the white paper, "Automated Work Order Attachment Printing" PDF Document http://storage.pardot.com/9904_White_Paper_Printing_Attachments_from_Oracle_eAM_final.pdf

Presentation Details: Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Halifax Room

Exhibitor Information:
Coquina Ballroom
Booth 400

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

New Author Ramesh Gulati to present at RCM09


mr_bp_gulati, originally uploaded by Reliabilityweb.com.

This book is a must read if you are working toward improving maintenance and reliability.

To manufacture quality products or provide services at competitive prices is essential to survive in today’s business climate. We are forced to look for better ways of doing things on continual basis. To meet customer’s needs – on their schedule – requires (high) availability and reliability of equipment and systems when they are needed. But it is not as simple as putting something into effect. To truly realize a best practice requires learning, re-learning, benchmarking and implementing better ways of ensuring high reliability and availability of equipment and systems.

Maintenance & Reliability Best Practices is designed to support that learning process. Written by professionals with 60 plus years of shop floor and management experience in a variety of industries, this practical resource will help seasoned professionals and novices understand the basic principles of maintenance and reliability. Written in an easy-to-read format, each chapter discusses the concepts with specific questions and answers. Each topic answers the what, why or how of the topic being presented. Understanding and implementing M&R practices in a cost-effective way is essential. This is perfect book for all in the work force of an organization who need to have a solid understanding of M&R.

Ramesh will deliver 2 papers at RCM09.



More online at http://books.mro-zone.com/Maintenance_Reliability_by_Gulati_Smith_p/ip9780831133115.htm

Running on the Beach at RCM09


beach_run, originally uploaded by Reliabilityweb.com.

If you love to run or even walk bring your running clothes and shoes to RCM/EAM 2009 Conference. Ricky Smith with Allied Reliability will be leading this fun run (easy run) each morning of the conference, March 23 – 26.

Run begins at exactly 6:00am and finishes at 6:20-6:30am. Just in time to return, take a shower and make breakfast.

If you are a walker just come and walk and enjoy the mornings on the most wonderful beach in the world.

Run this awesome beach on Daytona and enjoy the morning air and sounds, beginning your day with in a great way. Join Ricky starting at 6:00am on March 23, on the beach.

Sunday, March 15, 2009

The Design Principles of Low Cost, Useable, Reliable, Maintainable and Safe Systems by Story Musgrave, Astronaut


story in space, originally uploaded by Reliabilityweb.com.

Join us for an out of the world Keynote address at RCM-2009.

Story Musgrave will take you on a journey from farm machinery to military aircraft, construction equipment to the Hubble Space Telescope, to illustrate how the design principles of simplicity and beauty can create low cost, useable, reliable, maintainable, and safe machinery. Discover how, after 30 years as the maintenance test pilot on the Northrop T-38 aircraft, Story contributed to the most reliable and maintainable, high performance aircraft in U.S. Air Force history. Attention to these sound principles also led to the existence of the magnificent, robust, and dependable Apollo Saturn vehicles. 
Story will also explore, on the other hand, how poor maintenance designs can lead to increased cost, inefficiency, and unsafe, unreliable equipment. He will share his years of Space Shuttle maintenance experience to demonstrate how the complexity of design can cause massive problems.

Designing for serviceability in the earliest stages of development is key to maintenance success. Story’s first-hand experience working for 17 years on the design of serviceability and maintainability for the Hubble Space Telescope demonstrates this.

Daytona Hilton


Daytona Hilton, originally uploaded by Reliabilityweb.com.

It is as nice as it looks sitting right on the Atlantic Ocean beach. get out of the cold and join us at RCM-2009 while there is still time.

Twitter for Attendees

Here are just some of the things you can do with Twitter at RCM09

1) Schedule meet ups (morning beach run, meet for a beer, birds of a feather, etc…)

2) Tweet the learning from the presentations (disagree is OK however please be respectful and professional)

3) Tweet questions

The more you – the presentation attendees are allowed to interact with the presenter – the more you will learn. While Twitter may seem like a distraction, it can actually increase your engagement with the presentation.

Twitter allows you to add your own perspective – even if no one reads it. You can sometimes get as many take-aways through the twitter backchannel as you can from the formal presentation.

In the past, you might have lent over to you neighbor and said “What did she mean by that?” or you remained confused. Now, audience members don’t have to wait to clarify things they don’t understand. They can tweet their question and another audience member will tweet back with the answer. Audience members who tuned out because they didn’t understand now stay engaged.

The back-channel blurs the line between the presenter and the audience. Now everyone can be an active participant.

Here’s an account from the web we found from Gary Koelling of a twitter-fueled participative meeting:

And what struck me was the dynamic of this meeting. It was participatory. No one was talking out loud except the guy presenting the ppt. But the conversation was roaring through the room via twitter. It was exploding. People were asking questions. Pointing out problems. Replying to each other all while the ppt was progressing along it’s unwaveringly linear path.

As your presentation sparks ideas, audience members can tweet them and build on each others’ thoughts.

Being at a conference where you know no-one or only a few people can be intimidating. People who know each other cluster together and you can feel out of the action. But if you participate in the back channel, you’ll get to know people virtually, and can then introduce yourself physically at the next break.

Liz Lawley states:

But the backchannel doesn’t have a limited number of chairs. Anyone can join— and as the two-day event wore on, more and more people did. It allowed conversations to occur between people who wouldn’t have known to seek each other out otherwise.

Twittering the real-time information and ideas: GOOD

Twittering snide, insulting, remarks about your fellow conference participants, presenters or exhibitors: NOT GOOD

You can also follow Twitter on your mobile phone or through RSS

Official RCM-2009 Twitter Site http://www.twitter.com/rcm09

Resources:

How to Twitter Conferences Like A Rock Star
http://darmano.typepad.com/logic_emotion/2008/05/how-to-confernc.html

RCM-2009 Group at the Association for Maintenance Professionals

Another way to extend your conference experience is to create a free online membership in the Association for Maintenance Professionals at www.maintenance.org

Once you establish your membership make sure you create a detailed profile and include RCM-2009 as a conference or event you attend.


There is also an established RCM/EAM/MTrain-2009 group area you can join once inside.

Twitter at RCM/EAM/MTrain-2009

In order to support more interaction, communication and participation at the next Reliabilityweb.com conference, we have elected to support the use of Twitter (a micro-blogging and social networking tool).

If you are already on Twitter, follow RCM09 (RCM zero nine) by:

1. Sending "follow RCM09" from IM or your phone.

2. Clicking on the "follow" button on the RCM09 profile page <
http://twitter.com/RCM09>

If you aren't on Twitter, create an account and <
https://twitter.com/home> follow the instructions above.

Don't know what Twitter is? Watch this great introductory video from the folks at Common Craft <
http://www.commoncraft.com/Twitter>

Twitter Help:
http://help.twitter.com/forums

You may also wish to follow other interesting Twitter sites during RCM09 as follows


Reliabilityweb.com
http://www.twitter.com/reliability

Uptime Magazine
http://www.twitter.com/uptimemagazine

Maintenance-News
http://www.twitter.com/MaintNews

To begin posting about RCM09 please precede your post with #RCM09 to make it easy to following using
http://hashtags.org or by using the Twitter search function.

To search for everyone who is posting about RCM09 simply use the Twitter search function to search #RCM09 or simply RCM09.