Litigation Support
Expert Witness and Advisor
Joel Levitt is one of the leading consultants, speakers and
authors in the field of Maintenance Management.
He provides support for lawyers as an expert witness and to review
the merits of individual cases and provide opinions about the adequacy of the
management system behind maintenance, repair and overhaul activities of
factories, energy and utility companies, mines, fleets and large buildings and
venues.
He can (to support your case):
o
Review maintenance records after an incident to determine if
appropriate systems and procedures were followed or render an opinion if the
procedures were adequate in the first place.
o
Investigate
CMMS (computerized maintenance management systems) use and implementation.
Frequently the only record of the maintenance done is stored in the CMMS. It is
essential to know the reliability, soundness, completeness and accuracy of that
data.
o
Investigate
PM (Preventive Maintenance) activities to see if procedures were followed and
if they were adequate or up to industry standards. The first place to look for
evidence is the PM system. Is the data real or faked? If it is real, is it
adequate for the intended use?
o
The
second place to look for evidence is within the work orders from assets
involved in the incident (and others nearby). Review work orders and work order
procedures and systems. All data in the CMMS comes from work orders but is the
data real and accurate?
o
If
RCM (Reliability Centered Maintenance) or PMO (Preventive Maintenance
Optimization) has been performed, he can help evaluate if the process was
followed adequately and if the organization reacted in an appropriate fashion
to findings.
o
Review
facts about both scheduled and unscheduled shutdowns and outages.
o
Determine
if the negative effects of cost cutting contributed to the incident.
He has consulted with and trained over 15,000 maintenance
professionals since 1987. He has conducted over 500 training sessions in 20
countries, attended by members of most of the global Fortune 500 maintenance
departments. Some of the firms that Mr. Levitt has provided consulting and
training services to include: Abbott
Labs, GE, US Navy, PacifiCorp, BP, Pepsi, Saturn (GM), Alcoa, Valero, SABIC
(Saudi Arabia), Holcim Cement (Switzerland), Iron Ore of Canada, Jefferson
University, Volvo, US NSA, USX, Philadelphia International Airport,
International Airport (St. Maartin), US Army Corps of Engineers, Usibelli Coal
(Alaska), Clark Elkhorn Coal, Cooper Industries, NJ Transit, Cisco Systems,
Merck, Sony, CSX Railroad, Harley Davidson Motorcycle, Washington D.C. Metro
Area Transit, and more.
Examples of recent speaking engagements:
o
Dec 2008 International Maintenance Conference - speech in their
Masters Series, also provided a Lean Maintenance training class
o
Nov
2008 spoke on Lean Maintenance and participated in panel on World Class
Maintenance to the Plant Engineering and Maintenance Association of Canada
(second invitation)
o
Oct
2008 Instructor of 5 of the 7 classes at the University Of Alabama Certificate Of
Maintenance Management
(since 1989)
o
Aug
2008 Spoke to SIRF Round Table in Australia on Maintenance Planning and Scheduling (see
photo on Right)
o
June
2008 Port of Spain Trinidad spoke on Basic Maintenance Management in a seminar
sponsored by the United Nations training arm in the Caribbean, Trainmar
Mr. Levitt has written 7
books since 1996 on maintenance management topics including:
o
Lean Maintenance (2008)
This book is designed to help organization to save money,
energy, and labor by slashing waste without compromising safety, compliance or
the environment.
o
Handbook of
Maintenance Management (used as a text book - second edition forthcoming in
2009)
The handbook has been the standard text at the University of Alabama for over a decade (in the first
edition) and in other programs for the basics of maintenance management.
Incidents occur when the basics are ignored!
o
Managing Factory Maintenance (used as a text book – second edition
2006)
Factory maintenance is a specialty even within the
maintenance world. When organizations get rid of a critical mass of skilled
master maintenance people, bad things often happen because of ignorance. Some
departments will lose 65% or more of their skilled people through early
retirement (not to mention the additional losses from downsizing) in the next
few years. Companies need to prepare now or suffer the consequences.
o
Managing
Maintenance Shutdowns and Outages (2005)
The shutdown is the most complex, time-compressed event in
a company’s life, with thousands of details to manage. The relationship between
the owner, the contractor and the sub-contractors is like that of a huge
construction project compressed into a few weeks.
o
Complete Guide
to Preventive and Predictive Maintenance (used as a text)
PM and PdM are essential techniques for the modern
factory, facility or mine. Yet they are the first projects to be delayed or
deferred when times get tough. The problem is that the consequences of deferred
maintenance might not show up for a year or more. Yet those consequences can
wildly outstrip any small cost-savings that brought them on.
o
Maintenance
Planning, Scheduling and Coordination (collaboration with Don Nyman)
Planning and scheduling insures that the tradesperson gets
the right tools, parts, permits, drawings, protective gear at the right time.
If anything is missing, the worker has to improvise. Improvisation might be
great in the theater but it can be deadly in maintenance.
o
Internet
Guide for Maintenance Management
The Internet is changing the face of MRO procurement.
There are pitfalls that can cause incidents such as buying substandard parts to
save money.
Click here to request information.
