Wes J
Senior Member
Some of you guys might be amazed or terrified at plant maintenance for a large factory. I worked briefly as a reliability engineer in a corn processing plant. The levels of scrutiny for any kind of break down or repair were amazing. Every work order and repair was logged in a database. There were 3 full time people who maintained that database and knew how to access it to get history and reports for everything in the plant. Most machines were vibration tested monthly. Once they reached a know level, bearings or whatever were replaced.
Then there was the parts inventory. The place I worked had $20 million in spare parts inventory in a climate controlled warehouse. You can't afford to have two identical plants so you can just switch backup on when the main goes down. So, you have be able to get the main running ASAP.
We had 5 reliability/maintenance engineers, an engineering manager, a planner, maintenance supervisor, 15 full time company day shift mechanics, 5 company swing shift mechanics, and about the same number of contractors. Then there were the welders, electricians, carpenters, millwrights, etc.
Lot's of layers.
Then there was the parts inventory. The place I worked had $20 million in spare parts inventory in a climate controlled warehouse. You can't afford to have two identical plants so you can just switch backup on when the main goes down. So, you have be able to get the main running ASAP.
We had 5 reliability/maintenance engineers, an engineering manager, a planner, maintenance supervisor, 15 full time company day shift mechanics, 5 company swing shift mechanics, and about the same number of contractors. Then there were the welders, electricians, carpenters, millwrights, etc.
Lot's of layers.