Michael Haak
predictive technologist,
Eli Lilly & Company

Michael Haak says he liked to play with motors when he was a kid. Perhaps that prepared him for his career at Eli Lilly’s medical products plant in Indianapolis.

Today, the 10-year Lilly veteran performs electrical work, vibration analysis and infrared thermography on production equipment, but he is best known for his work with motor current analysis (MCA) tools.

Haak received MCA training in 1998, the first year the plant acquired the technology. He put it to use prior to a scheduled overhaul of motors that year. Before sending the motors out for repair and cleaning, he utilized MCA and pinpointed those that didn’t need servicing. That generated $50,000 in cost savings.

He is now called in regularly to troubleshoot anomalies in fans, centrifuges, compressors, homogenizers, pumps, DC motors and variable frequency drives.

In late October, he presented an hour-long speech on the benefits of MCA at the Society for Maintenance & Reliability Professionals conference in Nashville, Tenn. He was the only non-management maintenance professional out of 42 speakers at the event.

This article appeared in the December 2002/January 2003 issue of MRO Today magazine. Copyright, 2003.

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