Why design of Condition Monitoring (CM) Schedule of an equipment is Important in Process Industries?

Condition Based Maintenance Strategy technically is of great challenge in modern age. Even if the state of some types of equipment can easily be observed by measuring simple values as vibration, temperature or pressure, it is not an easy task  to turn this measured data into actionable knowledge about health of the equipment.
Although many failure modes are not age-related, most of them give some sort of indication or warning that they are in the process of occurring or are about to occur. If evidence can be found that something is in the final stage of failure, it may be possible to take action to prevent it from failing completely and/or to
avoid the consequences of failure.The modern condition monitoring tools are capable to determine the time when Potential Failure starts in a component and if not corrected in time and allowed to be deteriorated up to the point of Functional Failure, then it becomes expensive break down Maintenance. Therefore
Condition based maintenance entails monitoring for potential failures, so that actions can be taken to prevent the functional failure or to avoid the consequences of the functional failure.This is called Proactive Approach of Good Maintenance System.
The P-F (Potential Failure-Functional Failure) interval is the interval between occurrence of a potential failure and its deterioration into a functional failure. It is also known as the warning period, the lead time to failure (LTF) or the failure development period. If we want to detect the potential failure before it becomes a
functional failure.The time interval between monitoring checks must be less than the P-F interval. For different failure modes, it could vary from fractions of a second to several years. So there could be different frequency of CM schedule for same type of equipment depending upon failure modes and damage mechanism in the system.

Integrity Strategy Frame work-From reactive to Proactive

1.Integrity Assurance is delivered through an Integrity Management Framework

(Key elements cover all equipment types, standards and practices, inspection, maintenance and remedial works addressing business risks)

• Purpose of systems & Goals
• Asset register / Description.
• Business Risks
• Main Processes/ activities.
• Roles & responsibilities.
• Interfaces – Inputs/Outputs
• Performance measurement.
• Anomaly flagging / Tracking.
• Continuous Improvement Process

2.Integrity Strategy focuses on moving from reactive to proactive via calculative approach

• Risk identification and mitigation is addressed
• Develop strategy to Identify all the critical weak links
• Focus on Risks: Remove dead legs, replace/repair Piping
• Improve inspection and corrosion inhibition
• Implement reliability studies and failure analysis

3.Integrity Division Organization is updated to deliver the integrity assurance requirements

• Operational, Technical assessment and Projects support identified

Practical and reliable approach in carrying out maintenance activities

Applicable for Process/Hydrocarbon Industries :
In order to ensure reliability in any Maintenance activities in the context of  process industries, the SOP are:
1.Prepare SMP (Standard Maintenance Procedures) for each maintenance activities.This should be prepared by  an engineer having minimum 4-5 years of maintenance experience in the field for which he is going to write SMP.The content of SMP shall be:
- Description of Potential risk in executing the actvities and their mitigation plan.
-Mention of necessary tools and tackles to be used
-Mention a caution for Receiving the PTW along with LOTO/RA sheet prior to commence the maintenance job.
-Description of sequential procedure in form of check list in which the activities shall be carried out.This also mention the data/clearances /tolerances/Fits to be maintained wherever necessary.
2.The technician who is executing the activities must also record  the observation data prior to correction/repair in annexure sheet of SMP document
3.The technician should write the corrected dimensions/clearances/alignment in the annexure sheet of SMP document.
4. After closing the job and handing over the work permit,technician should incorporate all maintenance history data in CMMS (SAP-PM module) for future reference.

Can Reliability be considered as subset of Maintenance System ?

 Maintenance is execution of all PM,PdM and corrective repair activities based on CM (condition monitoring) results as per SMP. An effective and efficient maintenance team will result in decreased MTTR which will enhance the Availability of equipment.
Reliability function is basically a function of thinker group who is responsible for developing procedures and checklist, analysing root cause failure analysis (RCFA) ,Optimizing Preventive and Predictive maintenance programme in order to optimize maintenance cost based on improved MTBF.
In my understanding Maintenance and Reliability both are complementary to each other.
As Reliability, Availability and Maintainability are components of Maintenance Effectiveness equation and Reliability is subset of Availability,we may consider Reliability is subset of Effective Maintenance System.

Availability of equipment or system refers to MTTR and defined as ratio of UP-Time /(UP-time + Down Time) assuming yearly calender hours as total of up-time and down-time.
On the other hand Reliability refers to MTBF and defined as probability that an equipment or system shall perform its intended service under given duty point or operating conditions,given environmental conditions under given time period ( In this case budgeted production hours are normally taken as given time period)

The above explanation shall be more accurate if both the business objective terms MTBF and MTTR are accurately quantified to the extent possible.

Reliability,Availability and Maintainability (RAM)

Maintenance is execution of all PM,PdM and corrective repair activities based on CM (Condition monitoring ) results as per SMP.An effective and efficient maintenance team will result in decreased MTTR which will enhance the Availability of equipment.
Reliability function is basically a function of thinker group who is responsible for developing procedures and checklist, analysing root cause failure analysis (RCFA) ,Optimizing Preventive and Predictive maintenance programme in order to optimize maintenance cost based on improved MTBF.
In my understanding Maintenance and Reliability both are complementary to each other.
As Reliability, Availability and Maintainability are components of Overall Maintenance Effectiveness equation and Reliability is subset of Availability,we may consider Reliability is subset of Effective Maintenance System.
Availability of equipment or system deals with MTTR and can be defined as ratio of  UP-Time /(UP-time + Down Time) assuming yearly calender hours as total of up-time and down-time.
On the other hand Reliability deals with MTBF and can be defined as probability that an equipment or system shall perform its intended service under given duty point or operating conditions, given environmental conditions and under given time frame ( In this case budgeted production hours are normally  taken as given time period).
Maintainability deals with ease and rapidity at which the repair /maintenance activities are carried out as per SMP.This will have impact on MTTR. Higher MTTR will reduce the availability and low MTTR will enhance the availability.

Overall Effectiveness = Reliability X Availability X Maintainability
Its value varies between 0 to 1 in a 0---1 point scale.

Tips to Maintenance Engineers to become successful in Career

I am sure the 7 points habits of Maintenance Engineers shall be the key for their success in their career.


1. Know the Standard Maintenance Procedures of each maintenance activities.

2. Focus Only on the Most Important Things

3. Document the Baselines (example: Existing MTBF/MTTR/MTBM, past failure history etc)

4. Use Tools to be More Effective (Use Check lists as a tool)

5. Discuss and Communicate Results ( post maintenance equipment performance) to all concerned
   preferably in business terms (e.g Improved MTBF, Decreased MTTR, Increased Up-Time ,% age 
   increase in reliability/availability)

6. Keep Learning (Never Stop learning).

7. Share Your Knowledge with others (Sharing your knowledge with others can help to make you and them more effective.For your own success, if people understand what you do, they will have a better
appreciation of the value you bring to the company. It’s hard to downsize someone that
brings a lot of value..

Frequent loosening of nuts caused by system vibration - becomes a Reliability issue

  

Checks points to prevent loosening of nuts/ bolts:

1. Ensure nuts don't have appreciable lateral play on bolts. This could be judged by visual inspection.

2. Nuts should sit on perfect flat surface .Avoid point or line contact between nuts and seating surface.

3. In case seating surface is not machined face, use of spring washers beneath the nuts can help.

4. In case spring washers cannot accommodate on seating surface because of increased size of bolt hole dia, place suitably machined flat washers on seating surface and then place spring washers on top of it beneath the nuts..  

Asset Management as an Enterprise Strategy For Profitability-A Methodical Approach

A methodical systematic approach for  measuring a company’s current reliability performance and establishing  “Asset Management Opportunity” in terms of dollars is very much necessary for  long term sustenance of an Enterprise or an Organization.

In the context of fast growing global competitions, major manufacturing companies in many industries
(including process industries) have started to realize the importance of  Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) as an enterprise strategy, if  correctly implemented, will definetely improve financial performance. Typical results of an effective EAM Strategy include a 20% - 50% reduction in repair and maintenance expenses accompanied by a 5% - 10% increase in real production volume, with no significant investment in production equipment.
Profitability is the return on an investment. Measurements of return include cash flow and net income while measurements of investment include operating assets, total assets and equity. Typical measures that affect Senior Management  premium are Return on Net Assets (RONA), Economic Value Add (EVA), and Earnings Per Share (EPS), etc. Each of these can be directly correlated to Asset Utilization, the effective measure of a Strategic Asset Management Program.

CATEGORIES OF OPPORTUNITY FOR POTENTIAL RETURN ON INVESTMENT
There are mainly four categories that offer significant potential return from an Asset Management Program:
1. Fixed Cost Expense Reduction
2. Increased Product Throughput
3. Capital Spending Avoidance
4. Reduction of Inventory Investment

The easiest of these to achieve is the reduction of fixed costs in terms of maintenance expense, a waste elimination mechanism. It is critical to identify the inefficient business processes and infrastructures that create the waste and to replace them with well designed processes and structures. This mechanism is employed by reducing the amount of unplanned equipment outage or down time and becoming more effective in managing the resource allocation function.
Increasing product throughput by developing a more reliable operation, while more challenging, has a double impact on financial performance. It significantly reduces the unit cost of the product while reducing the level of maintenance repair required on the equipment. This is a particularly effective mechanism in industries where fixed costs represent a significant per cent of the total cost of making product as all additional units produced are made at a total cost equal to the variable cost of production, yielding the highest profit.
In an industry where product demand is high and Capital Investment is needed to increase plant capacity, a strong Asset Management Program can often achieve the required additional throughput, avoiding the requirement for capital spending. This mechanism often provides the greatest thrill in terms of financial improvement as it prevents the cost of borrowed money for investment in facilities as well as the increase of asset values on the company’s books. (Remember that profitability is a measure of return on assets employed.)
Raw material, finished product, and spares parts  inventories are held to account for unreliability in the manufacturing process. In a Lean Manufacturing environment where inventories of raw materials and finished product are minimized, it is critical that the company establish and maintain an effective Asset Management Strategy. As the manufacturing process and associated assets become more reliable, inventories of both of these as well as spares parts supplies can be significantly reduced with little risk.
FIXED COST EXPENSE REDUCTION
According to A.T. Kearney, Maintenance Cost to Equipment Replacement Value Ratio (ERV) in the early 80’s were used as determining  a benchmarking during survey for DuPont. It is calculated as:

ERV ratio = Maintenance Cost/Equipment (Asset) Replacement Value

-expressed as a per cent. Industry experience has shown that maintenance expenses can be considered to be genuinely justified if it is lower than  1.5% - 2.5% of ERV depending on the industry type and complexity of manufacturing process.

INCREASED PRODUCT THROUGHPUT
It is generally believed that shareholder return is a result of three factors:
• Asset Growth: Compounded Asset Growth Rate
• Cash Flow Margin: Ratio of Cash Flow to Sales
• Asset Productivity: Ratio of Sales to Asset
The most effective way to increase Fixed Asset Productivity is to maximize asset utilization by increasing the Reliability of the Assets through an effective Asset Management Program.
To calculate  current level of Fixed Asset Productivity (FAP) or Asset Utilization (AU) one can use the following formula:
FAP = Sales Volume x Selling Price/Net Fixed Assets
 Sales Volume= Max Daily Rate x Asset Utilization x 365 days

Where utilization is calculated as:
AU = Actual Annual Production / Max Daily Rate X 365 days
Max Daily Rate = Demonstrated Capacity

A company can look for opportunity for improvement up to the difference between current AU and AU = 100%.

CAPITAL SPENDING AVOIDANCE
When demand for a product of a manufacturing unit is strong, there is often a significant motivation to raise Capex for expanding capacity of the facility.Thus a proposal is put up before Top Management for seeking approval for enhancing capacity with justified capital investment.It has been experienced that if  current AU is less than 70%, the generally accepted strong probability is that one can achieve the desired enhanced capacity by implementing an Asset Management Program that raises AU to the 90% range.

REDUCTION OF INVENTORY INVESTMENT
Various manufacturing industries hold raw material and finished product inventories as insurance against manufacturing delays and unexpected demand. They maintain large spares parts Inventories (parts and maintenance supplies) for similar reasons. These inventories can amount to a significant portion of the Asset Value carried on Corporate Balance sheets, negatively impacting profitability. The objective of Lean Manufacturing concepts is the reduction or total elimination of these inventories. Poor reliability resulting from ineffective Asset Management will destroy any Lean Manufacturing benefits.
The Opportunity in this case is the total value of Raw Material and Finished Product Inventory that is maintained to account for unplanned manufacturing outage as well as a significant piece of the spares parts Inventory.
CHANGING THE PROCESS
Once opportunity is defined, one must be able to address the question of how one can achieve all or part of this opportunity. This means changing the existing business processes. The first step is to evaluate the current state; the second is to identify the process changes that will yield the expected financial benefits. Remember, without change in processes, one cannot achieve the future state that will deliver the benefits. 

Steps for effective lubrication for improved reliability

 Oil monitoring system is a positive step to achieve proper

 Lubrication. There are two methods:

1 .Performing routine periodical oil analysis and trending the results to determine quality of oil.

2. Using condition monitoring devices. There are many available devices in the market that provide moisture/water levels, viscosity levels, vibration analysis, etc.

 Using one or both of above methods to determine when oil

Changes are required should be based more on need basis rather than routine to achieve long term benefit from  cost and reliability point of view...

Steps for effective lubrication for improved longevity:

•  Evaluate current lubrication methods and procedure
•  Set target cleanliness levels
•  Identify sources of contaminations & degradation mechanism
•  Take specific actions to achieve targets
•  Analyze lubricant health frequently
•  Distribute the results - increase visibility