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A couple of weeks ago, the quiz at the end of this column was about boneyards. It brought one of the largest responses of any weekly quiz we have ever done.

At the time of this writing, over 92% of the respondents admitted to having boneyards and over 57% of the respondents answered "No" to the question, "...is it neat, orderly and inventoried?" I have some news for that 57%--your boneyard is not an asset, it is a liability.

An axiom you can follow throughout your mill, not just the boneyard: If you don't know where something is, you don't possess it.

Further, if you have an unkempt boneyard, it is a source of potential accidents, environmental fines, attractive nuisance liability suits, and on and on and on.

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Maintenance Month Platinum Sponsor:

RMR Mechanical: We perform as planned! Visit us at www.rmrmechanical.com!

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We humans have a propensity for collecting things; it is in our nature. There is an entire industry that has developed in the last three or four decades to cater to this mental disorder--the self-storage industry. You drive by self-storage units all the time--how many of them do you think hold contents whose value equals just one year's rental on the unit? I couldn't find a current article on this subject, but this old one makes my point.

Just because we are in the corporate world does not mean we do not make poor decisions about keeping junk. One of the worst decisions I have ever seen, and I know I wrote about this one many years ago (but it is worth repeating), involved salvaged parts in an electrical shop. In this particular electrical maintenance shop, there was a pile of electro-mechanical devices that had been taken out of service because they failed.

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Maintenance Month Silver Sponsors:

Fulton Systems: Our designs are built on proven methods and technology. www.fultonsystems.com.

CR Meyer & Sons: CR Meyer takes pride in building complete new facilities and maintaining them long after they are completed. www.crmeyer.com.

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I told my electrical maintenance manager to scrap them. He was appalled. Here was my reasoning that I shared with him. First, I don't want to pay electrician wages to sort through these items, troubleshoot them, order parts and then repair them. It is one thing if you are fixing something in your garage at home on your on time; it is another thing if the company has to pay for your labor. Second, and this is a bigger reason than the first--I do not want to install any of these home-repaired items in our paper machines and have it fail again in another couple of hours, taking us down again. In fact, the second reason is far more important than the first.

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Maintenance Month Bronze Sponsors:

Miami Machine: Miami Machine specializes in repairs and provides annual inspections for your reel spools, suction roll or felt rolls. Visit our website at www.miamimachine.com.

CBG, LLC: We can remove your nuts, bolts, studs or other fasteners quickly and get you back on schedule. cbgmaintenance.com.

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Some of you are immediately coming up with a "yeah, but..." and I already know what it is. It is this: your equipment is obsolete and you can't get parts for it. Understood. If that is the case, do this--find a competent shop that will stand behind the repair of your obsolete parts and ship them out to that shop to repair. This is the safe thing to do--operationally, economically and politically, if you are stuck with such parts (and I know many of you are).

Bottom line, know what you have through a rigorous inventory system. Make sure your salvaged parts are properly repaired by a company that will stand behind them and that you store them according to the original manufacturer's recommendations.
Quit taking comfort in piles of stuff that are undefined as to their nomenclature, location or condition.

We'll give you another chance to comment on this matter. Please take our quiz this week here.

For safety this week, I have seen many boneyards that were safety disasters waiting to happen. Talk about liability!

Be safe and we will talk next week.

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