More from Billy Cassano (105 articles)

What Is Total Acid Number (TAN)?

What Is Total Acid Number (TAN)?

When Oil Becomes the Enemy A maintenance manager reviews the monthly performance report and notices a troubling pattern. Three bearing failures in the last quarter, all on equipment with recent oil changes. Seals were replaced twice on hydraulic systems that passed visual inspection the week before. A gearbox rebuild that wasn't scheduled for another year. The oil looked clean in every case. Filters showed normal pressure drop. The calendar said everything was on track. It turns out the proble

Updated in oct 10, 2025

What is Defect Density?

What is Defect Density?

Monitoring Quality Rates in Manufacturing Defect density measures the count of defects relative to a defined inspection basis, enabling apples-to-apples visibility across products, lines, and processes. A shift lead walks the morning start‑up. Scrap bins appear normal, yet the first-pass yield has slipped overnight, and customer holds are climbing. On Line 2, the same hairline scratch shows up on otherwise good parts. Quality flags the pattern, maintenance checks the usual culprits, and produc

Updated in oct 03, 2025

What is OOE?

What is OOE?

The Complete Performance Metric  A gap exists in traditional metrics between equipment effectiveness during production and efficiency during planned maintenance windows. A complete picture of how well assets deliver value across every available hour remains invisible without OEE. A maintenance manager reviews the monthly dashboard. Equipment availability is up 3%. Quality metrics are green. Maintenance costs are under budget. Yet production output dropped 8%, customer complaints increased, and

Updated in oct 03, 2025

What Is Stockout?

What Is Stockout?

When Missing Parts Stop Everything Missing parts create a cascade that disrupts entire operations, turning routine maintenance into emergency firefighting while costs multiply and schedules collapse. The call comes at 2 AM. A critical pump bearing has failed on Line 3, bringing production to a halt. The technician knows exactly what's needed, and it's a standard bearing that should be sitting in Bin 4-C-12. But when they scan the QR code, the storeroom system shows zero on hand. The backup loc

Updated in oct 03, 2025

Turn Manuals into Insights with AI Document Analysis (AI Document Analysis Features Spotlight)

Turn Manuals into Insights with AI Document Analysis (AI Document Analysis Features Spotlight)

Your plant runs on pages. When those pages live in binders and shared drives, every repair starts with a search party. AI Document Analysis puts the exact step and diagram in a tech’s hand, converting search time to recovery and production. Static manuals and scattered PDFs slow repairs and make consistency fragile. Maintenance teams consistently lose time hunting for the right page, only to find conflicting versions or notes that never made it back into the file. But leading plants and manager

Updated in sep 22, 2025

Boost Wrench Time with AI SOPs: Faster Fixes, Fewer Delays

Boost Wrench Time with AI SOPs: Faster Fixes, Fewer Delays

Wrench time is where reliability is won. AI SOPs put the right steps in a technician’s hands at the moment of work, so fixes start sooner and finish right. On most floors, procedures live in too many places and change without a clear trail. Static or scattered SOPs drift between shifts, approvals sit in inboxes, and the real method survives as tribal know-how. That is when stop-and-ask moments multiply, handoffs slow, and the backlog grows. The cost isn’t only the delay. It is a steady loss of

Updated in sep 22, 2025

Why Pay More for the Same Wrench? Tractian Beats Top CMMS Providers by 15%

Why Pay More for the Same Wrench? Tractian Beats Top CMMS Providers by 15%

Every CMMS promises the same basics: work orders, mobile app, preventive maintenance, parts management, and now AI. Those are the table stakes. If the core functionalities are nearly identical, why would you pay a higher price? The truth is that most platforms charge a premium for features that should be the standard. Predictive insights, multi-site visibility, and customization aren’t extras anymore, they’re requirements for keeping modern facilities running. And yet, many maintenance teams ar

Updated in sep 26, 2025

Get Every Repair Right with AI SOPs + Document Analysis

Get Every Repair Right with AI SOPs + Document Analysis

Improve first-time fix rate maintenance by giving every technician the exact, approved steps for each asset, ensuring accuracy, consistency, and quality in repair execution. Leaders track first-time fix rate maintenance because it determines how often a problem is solved on the first visit, without callbacks or rework. Every repeat visit compounds downtime, increases labor and parts costs, and exposes quality declines that can ripple through the production process. Audit stress increases when i

Updated in sep 22, 2025