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Maintworld 3/2018

Are You Overlooking a Significant Source of Savings? // Advantages of broadband ultrasonic analysis // Are you in the “circle of despair”? // Future of work

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asset management<br />

An Asset’s Potential for<br />

Reliability<br />

If you design a piece of equipment<br />

poorly, build it cheaply, and install it<br />

hastily, you are not going to have a world<br />

class asset on your hands. More likely,<br />

you are going to have a nightmare for the<br />

next forty years. Let us show that algebraically:<br />

D x B x I<br />

This article is an enhanced excerpt<br />

from the newly released The Reliability<br />

Excellence Workbook, From Ideas to Action<br />

by John L. Ross, Jr.<br />

We need to show this algebraically<br />

to indicate that an improvement in any<br />

of the three integers (D, B, or I) will improve<br />

the overall potential for reliability<br />

where the slightest miscue in any could<br />

cause a real and serious problem with<br />

the whole.<br />

This formula is not calculating the<br />

inherent reliability of an asset, but what<br />

it does do is calculate our chance of having<br />

high reliability. Let us further our<br />

discussion by equating this, somewhat<br />

loosely, with calculating a system using<br />

block diagrams.<br />

Using the formula<br />

For an example, let us assume the following<br />

values:<br />

For D—design, we have got almost a<br />

perfect, flawless design. This is a rock<br />

solid proposal. We will give it a 99 percent.<br />

For B—build, we have got the best OEM<br />

for this product, this is a five star manufacturer.<br />

Just to game our system a bit,<br />

let us give that a 99 percent as well.<br />

For I—install, we are using our trusty ol’<br />

general contractor that has been working<br />

in this plant for years. The old man himself<br />

is coming out to supervise this install.<br />

Everything is perfect, 99 percent.<br />

Using the block diagram approach for<br />

calculating reliability, we have:<br />

(.99 x .99 x .99) x 100 = 97 percent<br />

We have done our part to design,<br />

build, and install the best machine possible.<br />

Near perfect actually. Now it is up<br />

to operations and plant maintenance to<br />

keep the asset humming at this exceptional<br />

level.<br />

But, wait a minute, things never go as<br />

planned. Even the best intentions have<br />

to yield to the project budget.<br />

We likely set out to design the best<br />

machine that is possible, not initially<br />

considering the cost. After all, let us at<br />

least ask for what we want. Our design, if<br />

we are doing it correctly, would hope to<br />

utilize the parts we already have in our<br />

storeroom. These are parts, for whatever<br />

reason, seem to survive in our environment.<br />

Why wouldn’t we want to build<br />

those into our new asset? This is standardization.<br />

Our initial design might call for top-shelf<br />

components. We would plan for redundancy<br />

and built in diagnostics. It’s likely that our<br />

design would even include 110-V convenience<br />

outlets. Ours would be a fine machine,<br />

or, as Jules Verne penned in Twenty Thousand<br />

Leagues under the Sea, “There, sir! [sic]<br />

that is the perfect of vessels!”<br />

Now comes concession time. We have<br />

to carve and round out some features to fit<br />

into the budget. Even the capital spares<br />

idea goes out the window. Pretty soon, our<br />

D—design goes from a 99 percent to an 85<br />

percent.<br />

The B—build does not fare much better.<br />

We are forced to go to the lowest bidder,<br />

this alone knocks us down a few percentage<br />

points. As we discover during construction,<br />

the component we actually wanted, does<br />

not physically fit, so we have to get another<br />

model that is almost as good. Since we did<br />

not specify the exact components we would<br />

accept, we end up with the components the<br />

OEM gets the best deal on. 99 percent becomes<br />

82 percent, just like that.<br />

I—install is the end of this adventure.<br />

We are utilizing space cleared from another<br />

machine, and we do our best to clean up the<br />

site. Someone has the cost saving idea to<br />

reuse the old disconnect and power distribution<br />

panel, saving at least $1,000 against<br />

our budget.<br />

34 maintworld 3/<strong>2018</strong>

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