Book offerings: A look inside

Written by Daryl Mather, CMMS: A Timesaving Implementation Process is a broad and structured guide to CMMS implementation regardless of which system you choose.

The book contains pragmatic advice for effective maintenance management, with specific emphasis on getting the best performance from a CMMS.

Mather, a practitioner-turned-consultant, presents his field-proven, practical approach that can dramatically reduce the amount of time and cost required to implement and maintain any CMMS in any corporation. The book sets up a solid foundation, then moves into the nuts and bolts of the development of the program itself in a smooth, logical format.

It also provides guidelines for installing quality checkpoints and outlines best practices for common maintenance management functions.

According to the author, the aims of the book are the following:

• Reduction of CMMS failures

• Reduction of consulting time for implementation of these systems

• Increased accuracy in the selection of CMMSs

• Increased control over CMMS implementations

• Increased ease of calculating possible returns on investment to easily set the limits of required investment.

• The book also recommends ways to define implementation requirements and scope in terms of return on investment, business requirements, and project management.

  It discusses key maintenance areas, key maintenance processes, controls and standardization, maintenance stores, key performance indicator development and reporting, and training.

  During his career, author Daryl Mather has been dedicated to all facets of maintenance management and engineering, principally in the implementation and consulting areas associated with large-scale EAM systems.

  CMMS: A Timesaving Implementation Process by Daryl Mather. CRC Press LLC, 2000 N.W. Corporate Blvd., Boca Raton, FL 33431.

  Project management

  People — far more than processes or technologies — determine the success or failure of a project. The Project Management Workbook by Nancy B. Cobb breaks the people side of project management into an easy-to-follow, step-by-step process.

  The book shows project managers and engineers how to seamlessly combine efforts from all in order to work effectively with the people who complete each step, as well as the decision makers that call the shots.

  From conceptualizing project plans to analyzing their impacts, this hands-on guide reveals how to involve and empower everyone in the project — from managers to employees, and from vendors to end users. The book includes:

  • Methods for building essential partnerships among project teams, vendors, suppliers, end users, and even governmental and educational agencies

  • Strategies for conducting a results-based training needs assessment, developing internal resources, and finding training grants to fund it

  • The “Appreciative Inquiry Approach” — a proven process for interacting with stakeholders by identifying “what is,” brainstorming what “could be,” then creating what “will be.”

  • Author Nancy Cobb is founder and president of the consulting firm Partners in Possibilities, Inc., a firm specializing in organizational development interventions.

    The Project Management Workbook by Nancy B. Cobb. McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., Director of Special Sales, Professional Publishing, Two Penn Plaza, New York, NY 10121-2298.

    Adaptive control

    Techniques for Adaptive Control , edited by Vance J. VanDoren, Ph.D., P.E., a Consulting Editor for Control Engineering magazine, Oak Brook, IL, compiles chapters from a team of expert contributors that allow readers to gain a perspective into a number of different approaches to adaptive control.

    Each contributor provides an overview of a particular product, how it works, and reasons why a user would want it as well as an indepth explanation of their particular method.

    Adaptive control is one of the latest technologies to emerge in the process control field. These latest control methodologies offer a means to transform plant and process efficiency, response time, and profitability by allowing a process to be regulated without human intervention.

    Instead of the academic approach that books on this subject generally take, the contributions to this book outline practical applications of adaptive control technology allowing for a real look inside the industry and the new technologies available.

    The contents include adaptive tuning methods of the Foxboro I/A system, adaptive modeling in the predictive control environment of Connoisseur, adaptive predictive regulatory control with Brain Wave, model-free adaptive control with CyboCon, expert-based adaptive control using ControlSoft’s INTUNE adaptive and diagnostic software, and KnowledgeScape, an object-oriented real-time adaptive modeling and optimization expert control system for the process industries.

    Techniques for Adaptive Control , edited by Vance J. VanDoren, Ph.D., P.E. Butterworth Heinemann, Elsevier Science, Order Fulfillment, 11830 Westline Industrial Drive, St. Louis, MO 63146; 800-545-2522; bh.com .

    Supply chain

    “It’s a simple fact: The rules of business have changed.

    “In the New Economy, it’s all about speed and service. With today’s instantaneous availability of information, new cultural trends can take hold globally within weeks — and fade just as rapidly.

    “With technological advances occurring at such a pace, new products quickly gain in popularity, only to be replaced by more advanced gadgets.”

    Thus begins the book Adapt or Die: Transforming Your Supply Chain into an Adaptive Business Network by Claus Heinrich with Bob Betts.

    The book describes a solution to attain new levels of business flexibility and efficiency — the adaptive business network.

    The authors explain that an adaptive business network will streamline your supply chain and improve your customer service by creating a fast and efficient web of communication among the participants in the supply chain.

    Based on years of research by supply chain experts at SAP, the adaptive business network allows businesses to respond swiftly to changing market conditions, increase opportunities for revenue growth, and lower costs for all participating companies.

    The book describes a step-by-step process for achieving an adaptive business network. The underlying concepts framing these steps include visibility, community, collaboration, and adaptability. Examples are given illustrating the adaptive business network in practice.

    An adaptive business network allows companies to more precisely control inventory, quickly add or drop trading partners, and produce products and services that mirror customer demand.

    Clause Heinrich, Ph.D., is a member of SAP’s executive board. Bob Betts works for SAP as a consultant.

    Adapt or Die: Transforming Your Supply Chain into an Adaptive Business Network by Claus Heinrich with Bob Betts. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Hoboken, NJ, 800-762-2974.

Do you have experience and expertise with the topics mentioned in this content? You should consider contributing to our WTWH Media editorial team and getting the recognition you and your company deserve. Click here to start this process.