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Condition Monitoring Is An Insurance Policy Against Unforseen Plant Downtime Kate Hartigan Schaeffler (UK) Ltd. By using the latest condition monitoring systems and automatic lubrication systems for bearings, oil and gas processing companies can reduce the risk and costs associated with unforeseen breakdowns to critical production plant and machinery, says Kate Hartigan, Managing Director of Schaeffler (UK). As process manufacturers, surely we too need to ensure that our high value capital goods, such as production machinery and other critical plant equipment are adequately insured against the cost of unforeseen breakdowns? In the downstream oil and gas sector, ‘lost’ production time can equate to hundreds of thousands of pounds per day – until the problem is rectified. Although the cost of a machine component such as a bearing, pump or electric motor is very small compared to the total cost of the machinery, the cost of production downtime and any consequential losses as a result of the bearing failure, are often significant. For example, take a petrochemical processing plant. The typical cost of production downtime can be anything from £100,000 to £500,000 per day. Total maintenance costs for a typical oil and gas processing plant are around 10 to 15 per cent of total costs. Of course, every processing plant has a maintenance department to deal with problems like these, but often, because of time and resource constraints, the maintenance team becomes reactive, fire fighting problems around the plant as they occur, with no predictive maintenance systems, little preventive maintenance and often with no maintenance strategy at all. But there should be no excuses for this today. There are numerous technology safeguards out there that, when compared to the cost of lost production, are relatively inexpensive. Using the latest condition monitoring and predictive maintenance systems, including bearing vibration monitoring, acoustic emissions monitoring and thermography to protect plant and machines, is what the more enlightened plants are doing. “Plant managers and maintenance managers need to justify any expenditure on condition monitoring systems and services, to their finance director or MD,” says Kate Hartigan, Managing Director of precision bearings and automotive components manufacturer Schaeffler (UK) Ltd. “We would suggest using a risk management approach for this. Ask the question of your finance director: ‘What will it cost the company in lost production if I lose that critical pump or motor for five hours?’ Or ‘What would you be prepared to pay as an insurance premium, to secure the running of the plant and to protect it against unforeseen breakdowns?’ You may get some very positive responses.” One of the finance director’s responsibilities is to ensure that the company’s assets are protected. Risk assessments should be carried out regularly to see what effect breakdowns would have on critical machinery and equipment. The severity and likelihood of breakdowns on particular machinery are assessed and given a corresponding risk value. Those with the highest risk scores are given priority by the maintenance team and should certainly be protected with some sort of condition monitoring device. Of course, companies can protect their plant without using condition monitoring or predictive maintenance systems, for example, by holding more stock of a particular component such as a gearbox, bearing, pump, coupling or shaft. This means when a breakdown occurs in the plant, the component that caused the breakdown is available to hand, ready for the maintenance team to fix the problem. However, as Hartigan points out: “As well as the obvious increase in stock holding costs, the company also runs the risk of the stock deteriorating or becoming obsolete over time. We would recommend that customers reduce the risk of unexpected failures, by implementing suitable condition monitoring systems on rotating plant and machinery. Don’t think of this as capital outlay, but as insurance against the risk of possible lost production.” So what is the true cost of a bearing failure in each of your key production areas? Hartigan continues: “By installing a predictive maintenance system, the customer picks up any problems early. During the next convenient downtime period, the maintenance team can then remove and replace a bearing with minimum disruption costs and also avoid the risk of breakdown damage to the equipment.” Condition monitoring also prevents maintenance teams replacing components unnecessarily and introducing possible new and unrelated problems. Manufacturing maintenance staff should be using CM systems to predict when failures are likely to occur and plan replacement during production shutdowns. “In too many companies, parts are changed on a time basis rather than on a condition basis because the maintenance team considers this to be the safest option. However, this introduces a further risk, because whenever there’s human intervention, problems can occur,” explains Hartigan. “Most companies work in a breakdown culture which is reactive rather than proactive,” she continues. “Rather than boasting about how rapidly they can repair or replace components and get machinery or pumps back into production, maintenance teams need to be asking themselves ‘How can we prevent the problems occurring in the first place?’ CM is the most effective solution.” If a process plant plans to achieve very high production efficiencies, predictive maintenance is critical. Unforeseen plant breakdowns simply cannot be tolerated. email info.uk@schaeffler.com Vol 24 No 1
Green CMMS The Engine of Sustainability Scott Lasher Maintenance Connection USA These days, when someone says the word “green”, they probably aren’t just talking about the color of your sweater. “Green” and “Going Green” have become the buzzwords du jour for organizations looking to maximize sustainability within their operation. The move to be green is more than just a fad or buzzword, but rather a key component of an effective maintenance operation. A crucial stop on the path to sustainability and becoming “green” is in the implementation of an Enterprise Asset Management / Computerized Maintenance Management System (EAM/ CMMS). When used and implemented to high standards, maintenance software can be the most powerful tool in your belt on the path to sustainability. The proof is in the numbers: U.S. companies spend over $100 billion annually on capital equipment and related services. In terms of energy spending, that number quadruples to $400 billion annually, and that number continues to rise. In a typical manufacturing operation, the highest cost next to personnel is energy. Clearly, it is critical to effectively track and manage energy consumption to remain competitive, and this is where EAM/CMMS comes in. Energy Utilization EAM/CMMS provide several quality tools that, when used effectively, allow for more granular tracking of energy consumption. With countless levels of criteria available, and the ability to correlate those criteria to how much energy is being consumed, energy utilization monitoring is simple and detailed. For example, the ability to determine how much energy is being consumed for an individual asset, manufacturer, or Preventive Maintenance (PM) history is available through a CMMS. The level of detail produced allows for better decision making, such as determining whether it is cost effective to replace an older asset that is consuming a lot of energy with one that is newer and more energy efficient. Imagine being able to determine that an asset from Manufacturer A is consuming more energy than the same type of asset from Manufacturer B. Replacing those energy-hogging assets from Manufacturer A can result in less energy consumption and greater cost savings. Energy consumption can be logged and detailed using Building Monitoring Systems, Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) applications and other specialized monitoring equipment that interfaces with the CMMS to create a tightly wound monitoring and corrective action system. Condition-based monitoring is another important piece to utilizing a CMMS to reaching high levels of sustainability in asset management. Triggering corrective work orders, notifications, and even preventive maintenance schedules based on the level of energy being consumed is something that can greatly reduce energy utilization of given assets. These conditions are user-definable, meaning the level of flexibility is high. Minimum and maximum values are set, and based on those conditions, corrective actions are triggered. Condition-based monitoring is particularly notable in preventive maintenance. Triggering a preventive maintenance action based on a level of usage, like runtime hours, can greatly increase the overall efficiency of a PM program. Going Green = Going Paperless Becoming a more green and sustainable maintenance operation is not solely dependent on monitoring energy consumption. Moving away from paper and into an electronic platform greatly enhances efficiency and decreases costs. The cost of paper, storage of paper, creating an efficient filing method, and time spent filing are all greatly reduced with an electronic platform for the creation, distribution and completion of maintenance work assignments. To be truly paperless, implementing a mobile platform is essential. With a mobile application of the CMMS attached to the tool belt of technicians and supervisors alike, the CMMS becomes easy to access and even easier to use. Work flow becomes timelier, as all parties involved have faster access to more timely data, which in turn decreases average response time to repair requests. Critical documents can be attached to work requests and accessed from anywhere, which saves the time and hassle of finding a document stored in endless file cabinets and binders of information. Distribution of forms turns into the click of a button, and can appear instantly on the designated recipient’s handheld device. The recipient can perform a number of tasks, including further distribution, adjustments, associating inventory, and even completing and closing the assignment with time spent, parts used, and a detailed labor report, all without ever touching a sheet of paper or picking up a pen. The completed work is stored as history instantly, and any data entered can be queried using the CMMS reporting mechanism. Time is of the essence to ensure assignments are being completed and any enhancement to productivity, while also decreasing on the number of trees required to do so, are all benefits of a paperless work flow through a CMMS mobile tool. This allows for machines to stay running and sustainability to increase. Reporting is another area of a maintenance operation that can greatly benefit from going green and paperless. There are an array of features and functions in any quality CMMS that help satisfy the needs of regulatory bodies from every industry. As regulatory bodies increase the need for compliance via more frequent audits and required reports, the importance of having a centralized, organized, and paperless storage system for work history becomes increasingly important. JCAHO in healthcare, ISO in manufacturing, and Sarbanes Oxley for accounting in many industries all allow for the submission of electronic reports detailing the necessary compliance to standards set by the respective regulatory body. Having the ability to query electronically stored data into an electronic report becomes a few key strokes, rather than a painful and exhaustive process of collecting and filtering data on endless paper into a comprehensive history report. This increases productivity and, because it is paperless, saves on printing costs while implementing sustainable practices. With flexibility a CMMS reporting tool provides, users can create reports from a myriad of data sets easily and efficiently, all while maintaining a level of detail suitable to relevant regulatory requirements. For more information about implementing this type of solution using CMMS, visit www.mcaus.com.au. Or contact Andrew Frahm at Maintenance Connection Australia via sales@mcaus.com.au or 1300 135 002. Vol 24 No 1
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