Internet editorial

Citation

McGaughey, R.E. (2005), "Internet editorial", Benchmarking: An International Journal, Vol. 12 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/bij.2005.13112dag.001

Internet editorial

The editorial staff of Benchmarking: An International Journal is committed to helping those working at a senior level in industry, the public sector, consultancy, or academic institutions, to stay current on developments in the areas of Quality, Technology and Benchmarking. The focus of the journal is on “topics that have substantial management content, rather than being primarily technical in nature”. The Internet editorials will center on sites with a similar focus. I examine sites that I feel would be of interest to BIJ readers and report my findings. I attempt to be fair and objective in the presentation of my findings. This editorial focuses on maintenance. More specifically, I attempted to find sites that might be helpful in benchmarking maintenance performance, or identifying best practice in maintenance.

Effective and efficient maintenance is essential to the success of manufacturing as well as non-manufacturing organizations. Machine, system, and facilities downtime can stop or delay production and can make it impossible to provide an acceptable service experience for internal or external customers. In the 1980s the concept of world class maintenance started to evolve as part of the quality revolution. That is not to say that maintenance was unimportant before that time, but the quality revolution brought new emphasis to maintenance. Effective maintenance is a cornerstone of TQM because effective process control hinges on effective corrective, preventive and perfective maintenance. The purpose of this editorial is to explore sites devoted to maintenance with emphasis on those that offer something of interest to readers interested in measuring performance in this important area. Priority was given to sites with information about best practice in maintenance or benchmarking maintenance performance. It is my hope that resources available on the sites showcased herein will be helpful to our BIJ readers interested in maintenance.

The Searches

As has been the case for my more recent editorials, I used Google and Dogpile to conduct the searches for this editorial. I used the following three search phrases for this editorial: “benchmarking maintenance,” “maintenance best practice,” and “maintenance.” My Google searches produced, 496,000, 4,800,000, and 60,600,000 respectively. My Dogpile searchers, using the same three search phrases, produced 59, 68 and 110 hits. As one might guess, the sheer volume of hits for the Google searches made examining the whole list impractical. Since most relevant sites appear near the top, I only looked down each list 5 to 8 pages (10 hits per page). The Dogpile hit lists contained no useful sites not already discovered using Google. It is noteworthy that fewer than half of the sites herein were found using the two search engines. Most were found by following links on the sites discovered with the aid of the search engines. This highlights the need for one to be persistent in one's search for relevant sites. Quite often one will find it necessary to get started with the help of a search engine, but to continue the search for relevant sites using resources found at sites produced through the searches. Persistence is often rewarded with the discovery of useful sites, even when search engine searches are not fruitful.

I did not include all the sites examined in conducting my research for this editorial. The sites reviewed herein are the ones that I felt might be most useful to BIJ readers. Other sites can be visited and examined by following links on these sites. My inclusion of sites should not be considered an endorsement of the goods or services of the entities that own or sponsor them.

Benchmarking and Best Practice in Maintenance

Maintenance Benchmarkinghttp://www.maintenancebenchmarking.com/

MaintenanceBenchmarking.com works with various subject matter experts and a network of some 32,000 maintenance and reliability professionals. They attempt to identify best practice to help companies establish goals and measure progress in maintenance performance. They boast that half of the companies that visit their web site have maintenance and reliability programs that are “above average”. This was one of the most useful sites examined for this editorial, and the only one dedicated specifically to benchmarking maintenance performance. It was not extensive, but it was right on target. One of the most valuable resources available on the site is the survey currently (at least current at the time of my visit) under way to examine benchmarking best practice in maintenance management. It is a 16 part survey. A link allows visitors to access results of survey parts 1 through 9 (see link entitled “Web Based Presentation of Survey Parts 1-9”). One must register to see the survey presentation (requires media player), but the form takes only about a minute to complete. It is worth the effort! Alternatively, each part of the survey can be accessed through individual links. Other links of interest (Icons on the right side of the home page) include those to “Maintenance Resources” and “Maintenance Technology.” Other resources of likely interest on the site include a primer on “Benchmarking Basics,” in the form of a PDF document and a list of maintenance benchmarks (see the “Physical Asset Management Best Practice” link). Another PDF document that describes a “Computerized Maintenance Management System” can be accessed from the home page. Visitors can sign up for a weekly newsletter that reports relevant news in maintenance benchmarking and best practice. As noted, the site is not extensive, but it is uncluttered, well organized and well maintained. This site is a must see for those interested in maintenance benchmarking and best practice.

ReliabilityWeb.Comhttp://www.reliabilityweb.com/

In its fifth year, ReliabilityWeb.com offers its members a powerful vehicle for sharing information. Its network, made up of more than 40,000 maintenance and reliability professionals from around the world, allows members to exchange information and ideas. Members can ask questions, get opinions and share experiences directly with peers, reducing reliance on vendors. While vendors do participate in the forum, their priority must be sharing information rather than hawking products. Site features include news, surveys, buyers guides, virtual trade shows, a reading room, tutorials, maintenance tips, employment opportunities, links, free stuff and more. Hyperlinks on the home page under “Features” provide access to all of these features. The “Reading Room” contains excerpts from many books about maintenance and reliability. It is a handy place to shop for “how to” books to assist one in efforts to learn more about/improve maintenance performance. Blogs and forums allow members to share experiences and expertise and learn from others–there are nine discussion groups and nine blogs. Perhaps this is the most salient aspect of the site – it is a vehicle to communicate directly with others with similar interest and concerns. Visitors will also find four newsletters, 50 tutorials, a magazine, and a news reader. Visitors can fill out a Reliability Centered Maintenance Survey and elect to participate as part of the RCM scorecard development team. Members of that team have access to the results. This site is a virtual plethora of resources to learn and share knowledge about maintenance. The site is a bit busy, but otherwise well organized and maintained. Those interested in maintenance will want to add this site to their favorites list.

Plant Maintenance Resource Center Industrial Maintenance Portalhttp://www.plant-maintenance.com/

The Plant Maintenance Resource Center was established in 1996 at a time when there was a dearth of information available on the internet regarding Plant Maintenance. While that is no longer the case, this site remains one of the best resources on plant maintenance. It is loaded with information and provides access to many valuable resources. This is a commercial site, so many of the resources and services are available only for a fee. That said, there is something available on the site for even the casual visitor. For example, many articles of interest about maintenance (including some about benchmarking and best practice) are available for anyone to view. The “Articles” link allows one to access articles that are management related and articles that are technical in nature. Be forewarned, I did discover some link rot in this area – targeted articles not found! Under the “Tools” link found on the homepage, one will find a plant maintenance forum, news letters, a free “5 Minute Benchmarking Tool,” and more. Using the “5 Minute Benchmarking Tool,” one can participate in the plant maintenance benchmarking survey to see how one's plant maintenance performance compares the performance of other organizations. One can view survey results by industry or in the aggregate. The “Links” link (also on homepage) accesses a page containing links to maintenance organizations, maintenance forums, training materials, discussion forums, and more. Free software is available under the heading of “Free Software.” Freeware, shareware and software vendor demos are available and they really are free. As with many sites, a free newsletter is available. One need only spend a little time filling out the request form to receive it. This is an interesting and useful site. The homepage is a bit busy, as is the case with many established sites, but it is generally well organized. The site appears to be well maintained on the whole, but as noted, I did discover some linkrot as I browsed the list of articles. That said, the site is a good site and would likely be of interest to anyone interested in maintenance. Do take note of the fact that the site is dedicated to plant management.

Maintenance Worldhttp://www.maintenanceworld.com/

Maintenance World can only be described as a maintenance site–it is all about maintenance. It has links, a discussion forum, articles, an events page, surveys and more. The most prominent aspect of the homepage is the various postings related to the discussion forum. Topics and post dates are included for each. One of the more useful features of this site is the articles. One can follow the “Articles” link and access many articles about various aspects of maintenance. Some articles address maintenance performance, and some address benchmarking and best practice in particular. The list of articles is quite long. The articles list is indexed by category and the links at the top of the page move visitors quickly down the long list to the targeted area. I found many current articles (2004 and 2005). The articles are written by experts of varied backgrounds. Some are in HTML format, and some are PDF files. While I did not access every single article on the page, I found no linkrot, suggesting that the site is well maintained. The discussion forum appears to be quite active. I found many topics, many replies, and much evidence of recent activity. At the time of my visit, there were 498 forum members. It appears to be a good forum for the exchange of information. Quite often one will find a forum on a site that has little participation. That was not the case for this forum. The active forum alone makes this site worth a visit. A newsletter is available for those who wish to sigh up to receive it. The form is short and Maintenance World does not share the e-mail addresses of those who sign up for the newsletter. The Links page contains a long list of links organized by category. Preventive maintenance, maintenance management, facilities maintenance, equipment knowledge, and engineering are among the categories of links. I found many, many links of potential value to those interested in maintenance. This is another good site to add to one's favorites list.

The Maintenance Excellence Institutehttp://www.pride-in-maintenance.com/

The Maintenance Excellence Institute is “an Alliance of highly qualified individuals and organizations with the technical knowledge and practical experience to help you manage and lead your maintenance operation as an internal business.” The institute promotes profit-centered practices and attitudes in large operations and SMEs. Emphasis is on plant maintenance, facilities management, healthcare facilities and fleet maintenance operations. The emphasis of the institute on non-manufacturing operations is noteworthy.

Numerous publications are available from the institute, but they cannot be downloaded directly. One must fill out a request form after which the publications are sent via e-mail. While it seems a bit inconvenient, many seemingly valuable publications are available. Publication titles like “Maintenance Excellence Services,” “Validating results with your Maintenance Excellence index,” and “Planning for Maintenance Excellence” can be ordered. The publications list can be viewed by following the “Publications” link on the homepage. Publications categories include “Information about the Institute,” “Articles,” “Whitepapers,” “Training Form Maintenance Excellence,” “Other Current/Future Articles,” and more. Brochures describing institute services can also be ordered. The “Alliances” link, also on the homepage, describes the institute's alliance of highly qualified individuals, large and small consulting organizations, selected MRO manufacturers and maintenance services. The alliance provides the basis for the services offered by the institute. While this site is not really designed to provide information to the general public, it does describe institute services that may be of value to those pursuing the goal of world class maintenance. Benchmarking and best practice in maintenance certainly can be framed in the context of world class maintenance.

Maintenance Technology Onlinehttp://www.mt-online.com/

The Maintenance Technology Online (MTO) site is probably best described as an e-zine. The many articles and the links available on the site are the strength of the site. If one follows the “Articles” link on the homepage, one can access a page loaded with publications that can be viewed online or printed (see printed version icons atop each article). The publications are organized by category and include: “Control Systems Maintenance,” “Electrical Maintenance,” “Maintenance Information Systems,” “Maintenance Management,” “Maintenance Materials Management,” “Maintenance Strategy,” and more. Each category contains many articles. Titles like “How does your maintenance program measure up” can be accessed and read. Each category contains recent articles and what appear to be articles of primary interest. Also under each category is a link to view all articles in the category – those lists are quite long. The most current issue of Maintenance Technology can be accessed by following the “Current Issue” link. Besides the articles, there are many potentially valuable links available on the MTO site. The Links page contains links organized under the headings of “General Maintenance and Reliability,” “Government,” and “Engineering and Technical Societies.” The links page allows one to find, without the help of a search engine, many useful maintenance and reliability sites. The “Suppliers” link is also worth mentioning. The Suppliers page contains an “Advanced Technologies Maintenance Guide” for looking up suppliers and a search feature. One can perform a search for maintenance service and product providers based on categories and states. This feature makes it easy for one to search for suppliers. While one can find articles pertaining to best practice and maintenance performance on this site, it is not dedicated exclusively to benchmarking and best practice. That said, the site is worth a visit. It is well organized and well maintained.

Maintenance 2000http://www.maint2k.com/

The Maintenance 2000 bills itself as “your source for an inclusive and structured approach for improving the efficiency and effectiveness by which manufacturing equipment is operated and maintained.” Using a process it calls MOSaIC (Management, Operations, Systems and Integrity Check), M2K helps clients improve maintenance, manufacturing, and operational performance by applying leading edge technologies and best practice. MOSaIC is “an inclusive and structured approach to improve the performance of physical assets.” M2K boasts of helping one Fortune 10 company reduce its annual maintenance expenditure by 42 percent while increasing asset utilization. M2K is a “for profit” business, so much of the site is devoted to describing services offers. There is quite a lot of “how to” material available on the site. For example, the “Spares Optimization” link accesses a page describing stock theories and practice aimed at optimizing the management of spare parts. Graphs and flowcharts describe the process. An open forum (see “Forum” link in left navigation bar) is available for anyone to post a question about maintenance or related topics. A very short form must be filled out to post to the forum, but it takes less than a minute to fill out. Some interesting articles pertaining to maintenance performance can be accessed on the left navigation bar. I examined some of the articles. Some were interesting, but they seem to be largely to exist for the purpose of heightening interest in M2K seminars and other services. The “Links” link accesses a page which contained some potentially useful links. It is noteworthy that some links were to other sites featured in this editorial. This site would probably be most interesting to practitioners shopping for help with their maintenance programs. The site was well organized, pleasing to the eye, and easy to navigate.

International Facility Management Associationhttp://www.ifma.org/

IFMA describes itself as “the largest and most widely recognized professional association for facility management.” The organization sports approximately 17,300 members in 126 chapters, 16 councils and one Special Interest Group (SIG), from some 54 countries. IFMA certifies facility managers, conducts research, educates, recognizes facility management degree and certificate programs, and produces the largest facility management-related conference and exposition in the world. In short IFMA is a very influential and active organization. Of the many links of the homepage, the “Research” link, is the one likely to be of value to those interested in benchmarking and best practice in maintenance. That link accesses a page with a list of reports, many of which are about benchmarking. I was not able to examine the reports because they are priced at $100 for non-members, and $50 for non-members. One can examine a fairly detailed summary of reports before ordering. The reports are based on the research of trained professionals, so they could be useful. Some surveys (see “Surveys” link under research) were available. I examined some of the survey links, but found only summaries and, in come cases, the survey document itself. Not much in the way of survey results was available. Nevertheless, that information gives one some clues about the nature of the research conducted by the organization. Relevant books are likewise available through the site by following the “Bookstore” link. IFMA publishes the Facility Management Journal. The “Recognized Programs” link might be of interest to anyone interested in CFM (Certified Facility Manager certification). Links to Universities, with programs in Facility Management and geared toward CFM certification, can be found on the Recognized Programs page. The “CFM Certification” link describes CFM certification and allows one to register for a CFM exam review. This is a well organized, well maintained site with information pertaining directly to maintenance benchmarking. The downside is that one must pay for the most useful information contained thereon by buying reports.

Society for Maintenance and Reliability Professionalshttp://www.smrp.org/

The Society for Maintenance & Reliability Professionals (SMRP) is an independent, non-profit society of some 2000 members created by and for maintenance and reliability practitioners. The cost of an individual membership is $125 per year, while an academic membership is $250 per year. This site does contain articles of interest about benchmarking maintenance, as well as case studies. The organization is conducting a benchmarking study and one can elect to participate in that study. Participation in the study requires corporate membership, which is rather pricey at $1,250. That said, access to the findings of a professionally done study of maintenance benchmarking, as well as participation in the study, could be beneficial to practitioners (my mention of the study should not be construed as an effort to promote it). The “Benchmarking” link on the homepage should be used to access details of the benchmarking study. To access articles and case studies about maintenance benchmarking and best practice, one should follow the “Library” link. Links to both appear on the Library page. The online store is accessible by following the “Store” link. The Store offers products related to CPM certification, and houses a link whereby one can sign up for the exam – for a fee of course. Many useful links can be found on the SMRP site. There is a “Link” button on the homepage that accesses a page loaded with links, and one will find more links by following the “Membership” link, and then the link entitled “Other Helpful Resources.” I found links to many useful links, including links to many of the sites featured in this editorial. I did find some linkrot on the links page, but not much considering the large number of links available. The “Suppliers” link might be of interest to practitioners as the Suppliers page contains links to many, many suppliers of products and services related to maintenance. While the appearance of this site was a bit on the bland side, it does contain many useful resources for those interested in maintenance benchmarking and best practice. The links alone make the site worth a visit.

MaintenanceResources.Comhttp://www.maintenanceresources.com/

The MaintenanceResources.com (MRC) site is really designed for maintenance practitioners – it is all about maintenance resources and provides access to wide variety of such resources. Prominently located on the homepage is a link entitled “MaintenanceResources.Com Survey.” If one follows that link, one will find a structured form for posing questions regarding some aspect of maintenance to the President of MRC. It is not often one gets an opportunity to present a question directly to the president of an organization. Are his answers credible? One must ask to find out. While there are many potentially valuable resources available on the MRC site, the large volume of maintenance related reading materials accessible via the “Reference Library” link would seem to be one of the most valuable site resources. The Reference Library page, organized by category, contains over 500 articles on various topics related to maintenance. One can find articles on topics ranging from failure analysis, to maintenance management, to gears. Many of the articles are somewhat technical in nature. There is even a category entitled “Spanish Articles,” accessing a page with various maintenance related articles in Spanish. A free e-zine is available to those who wish to sign up for it. The current version of the magazine is available for viewing and the e-zine appears to cover a wide variety of maintenance topics. The “PEM Publications” link, will take one to a page where one can subscribe to a variety of maintenance related periodicals. The “CMMS Vendors” link accesses a page with links to over 120 leading providers of Computerized Maintenance Management Systems. This list makes it convenient for anyone shopping for such systems. Also available on the MRC site are a calendar of maintenance events and a Trade Show/Seminar search. The last thing I wish to mention is the “PEM Links” page. Accessed via the same titled link, this page contains links organized by category. One will find links to organizations, magazines, products, resource sites and service providers. Many other maintenance related sites are accessible through these links. As noted in starting my discussion of MRC, it is a resource site. Anyone with an interest in maintenance generally, or benchmarking and best practice in maintenance specifically, will find this site worth visiting.

The New Standards Institutehttp://www.newstandardinstitute.com/

The New Standards Institute (NSI) is a private concern providing training and consulting in maintenance management. It bills itself as a “primary resource for maintenance improvement.” On this site one will find reading materials, software (most for a price, but some of it is free), and opportunities for training and development in the area of maintenance. The NSI site is probably best described as a training site, as that seems to be the primary service provided. On the homepage one will find links describing training seminars conducted by the institute as well as links to products, services, news and more. Under the “Products” link one will find a “Free Publications” link that accesses a page with links to numerous maintenance related articles written by principals of the institute. Most are publications in magazines based in the US or Canada. Among the articles, I found several that might be of interest to those with an interest in maintenance. Also under the “Products” link, one can find an “E-learning” link that accesses a page that advertises the many NSI training products. One particularly interesting product was one called “Measurement Methods,” that emphasizes the measurement tools commonly used in day-to-day maintenance activities. That product could be down loaded for a reasonable price (less than $35) and it was also available on CD. The News page contained various news items about NSI's products and activities, but not much more. The reading materials available on the site were for the most part free, but one has to order them – you cannot just click on them and read them. One need not waste time looking for links to other sites and resources on this page. They are not there! While the NSI site does not contain a wealth of free reading materials pertaining to benchmarking and best practice in maintenance, or links to other sites, I perceived the site to be useful. This is primarily due to its focus on maintenance training. Training is certainly important to any effort to achieve superior maintenance performance.

The Business Industrial Networkhttp://www.bin95.com/

The Business Industrial Network provides training onsite and through online resources. While not dedicated specifically to maintenance, maintenance resources are available on the site. The site is loaded with manufacturing resources, but what caught my interest, and the primary reason I included the site in this editorial, was the articles. One can conduct a search for articles about benchmarking and best practice in maintenance using the search feature available on the site (see “Search this site” link at the upper right hand corner of the homepage). In conducting such a search at the time of my visit, I found seven articles pertaining to maintenance benchmarking and 36 pertaining to maintenance best practice. If one tries to find all these articles using the “See all Articles,” link on the homepage, one will not find all of the articles available. The search feature is thus recommended for finding articles of interest. It is fast too! Visitors might also be interested in browsing the list of e-books available on the site. For this, one should use the “New book releases” link found on the left navigation bar of the homepage. The articles accessible via the site that pertain to maintenance benchmarking and best practice make the Business Industrial Network site worth a visit.

The focus of BIJ is on “topics that have substantial management content, rather than being primarily technical in nature.” The content of this Internet editorial is consistent with that focus. Effective and efficient maintenance is important to the success and survival of manufacturing and non-manufacturing organizations in this era of increased global competition. The 12 sites included in this editorial should help readers learn more about what can and should be done to measure and improve maintenance activities, processes and outcomes. On these 12 diverse sites, one will find metrics, tools, articles, software, opinions, philosophies, research, the latest news, and more pertaining to maintenance. Hopefully, BIJ readers interested in maintenance will find these sites to be valuable in helping them learn more about maintenance and to enhance performance in this critical area of operations management.

I strive to prepare editorials that best meet the needs of BIJ readers. Your views are important to me and will influence the format and content of future editorials. Any assistance you can provide to help me achieve that goal is appreciated. If you have a site or know of a site that you would like to see featured in future editorials, please E-mail me your suggestions. Send your comments and suggestions to Ronald McGaughey atronmc@uca.edu.

Ronald E. McGaugheyInternet Editor