Leveraging the “Visibility of your IR/T PdM Program” at the Corporate Level: Part 4

Leveraging the “Visibility of your IR/T PdM Program” at the Corporate Level: Part 4



Above is a graphical depiction of a MEL. Note, data starts with the Class and Subclass of every asset in a facility. Following the blue highlighted area, this listing will start with class=bearing, then subclass=ball, then attribute=type and then value=precision ground. The minimum would be four levels within the MEL. There are many variations that would make up the MEL, the graphic is only a single example of one such asset. Also this MEL is made up of all of the individual components of an asset and will serve as the base for the Bill of Materials.



Once an accurate MEL is built, the remainder of the technicians data work is in building the route list. Above is an example of a tree leading to the route based location of individual components on an inspection route. Note: Bldg 1, lower level, MCC and the equipment name is similar in nature to the MEL described above. This tree can and should be linked to the MEL which will then feed directly into the EAM/CMMS and therefore, feed directly into the Planning and Scheduling areas of a facility. Below is another example of how this tree list might appear in a graphic user interface (GUI) on a route based data collection device.



Enterprise Asset Management (EAM)

Definition: The whole life optimal management of the physical assets of an organization to maximize value. It covers such things as the design, construction, commissioning, operations, maintenance and decommissioning/replacement of plant, equipment and facilities. "Enterprise" refers to the management of the assets across departments, locations, facilities and, in some cases, business units. By managing assets across facilities, organizations can improve their utilization and performance, reduce capital costs, reduce asset-related operating costs, extend asset life and they may subsequently improve ROA (return on assets).

Asset intensive industries face the harsh realities of operating in highly competitive markets and deal with high value facilities and equipment where each failure is disruptive and costly. At the same time, they must also adhere to stringent occupational safety, health and environmental regulations. Maintaining optimal availability, Reliability and operational safety of plant, equipment, and other assets, is therefore, essential for an organization's competitiveness.

The functions of asset management are taking a fundamental turn where organizations are moving from historical reactive (run-to-failure) models and beginning to embrace whole life planning, life cycle costing, planned and proactive maintenance and other industry best practices. However, some companies still consider physical asset management as another term referring to maintenance management. Once these organizations realize the enterprise-wide impact and interdependencies with operations, design, asset performance, personnel productivity and lifecycle costs, will this shift in focus progression from maintenance management to Enterprise Asset Management.

EAM/CMMS, forms the enterprise system and corporate philosophical base by which maintenance Planning and Scheduling, parts order and replacement etc… may be managed and optimized, it is the life and blood of a proactive maintenance driven organization. It also provides a centralized source for standardized information.

Leveraging the “Visibility of your IR/T PdM Program” at the Corporate Level: Part 3

Leveraging the “Visibility of your IR/T PdM Program” at the Corporate Level: Part 3

Turning Data into “Reliability Information”

Thermographers spend countless hours capturing thermal images, analyzing thermal images, creating and producing reports, tracing results of work completed and communicating. Translating the benefits of thermography across all areas of the organization will instill “buy-in” across functional departments. The explanation of program effectiveness and how it contributes to improved business performance and bottom line results will become the “Wow” factor.

Defining the Master Equipment List

An accurate Master Equipment List (MEL), describing all physical equipment and their functions, will become the cornerstone for developing a sound Reliability program and streamlining daily maintenance processes.
The completed MEL will:

• Aid in critical decisions and strategies, facilitate correct cost roll-ups in the EAM/CMMS or ERP software, and improve the usefulness of historical maintenance data.


• Introduce efficiencies into the daily planning activities and speed the maintenance strategy and Bill of Material (BOM) development effort by making it easy to locate equipment and to identify duplicate or similar equipment.


• Provide the ability to easily identify all of the in-service equipment a spare part can be used on when couple with BOMs. This crucial information will allow for informed decisions when establishing spare part stocking levels or removing unnecessary parts from inventory.


• Assist the maintenance department planners and technicians in establishing standardized procedures to be used in maintaining equipment. Because duplicate and similar equipment can be identified, procedures can be copied to all applicable equipment. The copied procedures are then useable with only minor changes needed to meet specific equipment requirements.

Leveraging the “Visibility of your IR/T PdM Program” at the Corporate Level: Part 2

Leveraging the “Visibility of your IR/T PdM Program” at the Corporate Level: Part 2

Including Thermography within a Reliability Program

We should appreciate that Reliability may be defined in several ways:

Reliability is the idea that something, an asset, a process or a component, is fit to perform its function at a given time; that is, it will remain in operation without a functional failure for the duration of a specified period in which it is required to perform said function.

Reliability may be the capacity of a device or system to perform as designed; therefore, if a given pump is designed to pump 100 GPM, it continues to do so at that design capacity within the specified period.

Reliability is the resistance to failure of a device or system; therefore, the described asset, process or component has a quantified resistive failure factor. This could include aspects of the physical strength of the component, horse power, insulation factor for a motor, or size and wall thickness for pipes.

Reliability is the ability of a device or system to perform a required function, under stated conditions, for a specified period of time and the probability that a functional unit will perform its required function for a specified interval under stated conditions.
Reliability engineers rely heavily on statistics, probability theory, and Reliability theory. Many engineering techniques are used in Reliability engineering, such as Reliability prediction, Weibull analysis, thermal management, Reliability testing and accelerated life testing. Because of the large number of Reliability techniques, their relative expense, and the varying degrees of Reliability required for different situations, most projects develop a specific Reliability program to be performed on an intended system.
The function of reliability engineering is to develop the reliability requirements for the equipment, output, or system. A Reliability Engineer establishes adequate reliability programs, by performing appropriate analyses and tasks to ensure the equipment, output or system will meet its requirements. Reliability engineering is closely associated with maintainability engineering and logistics engineering. As you can see by this description of Reliability engineering, the thermography component of your PdM program aligns with a number of areas within the overall Reliability objectives of your organization.

The thermogram, Example A, below provides a technician with a significant amount of information. The second set of standard photographs, Examples B and C, gives the operations department of a facility even more information. However, this thermal image and the photographs alone do not tell the whole story. How and where this information fits into your Reliability program should be considered in order to align this information with all other thermographic and PdM data that will be reviewed and analyzed as part of your overall Reliability program. Once the data and information is integrated, translated, analyzed and the results applied will it become meaningful and valuable to, not only the Reliability initiative(s), but across the entire organization.

Example A: Thermal image of a hot spot located on the back wall of a power generation boiler.



Example B: Standard photo matching above thermal image after burn through of hot spot



Example C: Close up standard photo showing actual burn through area seen in thermal image

Leveraging the “Visibility of your IR/T PdM Program” at the Corporate Level

Leveraging the “Visibility of your IR/T PdM Program” at the Corporate Level

Introduction

Thermography is one of, if not THE, most visible technology within your predictive maintenance program (PdM).

Reliability initiatives and successful Reliability implementations are of great interest to all industries and therefore seek to capitalize on the benefits of the Predictive Maintenance and Reliability programs within these industries. Whether you are involved in the actual data acquisition or in managing the Reliability initiative or PdM program, the intent of this presentation is to give you some ideas and methods by which you may be able to capitalize on the visible benefits of the thermography component, within your PdM program. Thermography may act as, or become a change agent within your organization. Capitalizing on the WOW factor and presenting the business benefits and maintenance values to the corporate decision-makers is where “buy in” to thermography programs begin and from where the entire organization will “buy into” a truly reliable operation of your facility driven from the top down.

We are all aware that thermographic inspections can find all variants of anomalies, anything from the visibly obvious to the very subtle issues - i.e., how a problem on a PCB may trip a 200 Megawatt Generation system. Yet more often than not, the information that a Thermographer produces travels, at most, no further than the Planning and Scheduling department followed by the crafts people who are tasked with the repair. Many times, maintenance personnel are not only pleased, but surprised, when they actually receive an infrared image attached to the work order. Why the pleasure…or surprise? It’s simply because an infrared image is one of the best ways to “see” a temperature related problem that has been located. It is the ONLY PdM technology that provides pictures along with other key data. Pictures, as we know, are worth a thousand words and help illustrate the importance of thermography and its applicable methods to ensure successful and scalable Reliability initiatives throughout your organization.

In order to fully understand the integration of thermography into a Reliability program, we must first become familiar with the other components involved in a Reliability program. Although the actual thermal image is the most critical aspect of the thermography portion of the program, this thermal image is integrated with data. Data forms the foundation for all Reliability components and how they are managed; the Enterprise Asset Management Systems and Computerized Maintenance Management Systems (EAM/CMMS), and the Master Equipment List (MEL), to name but a few, all feed into the Planning and Scheduling efforts.

Maximize the Benefit of your EAM’s Scheduling Module

Maximize the Benefit of your EAM’s Scheduling Module

Most facilities take little advantage of the scheduling capability of their Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) System. This is in part to the way this information is displayed. Experience has shown that many rely on exporting the scheduling data to an Excel spreadsheet and use this as their weekly schedule. This format is, of course, limited to the functionality of Excel as a scheduling platform. On the occasion where Microsoft Project is used, data is manually entered to generate the schedule.

If you can easily get your scheduling data from the EAM system into an Excel spreadsheet, a Microsoft Project is really minutes away. A standard week schedule project format can be created as a template. Use this as the basis for future weekly schedules. Once your scheduling data is in Excel format, it can be easily imported into Microsoft Project. The Excel spreadsheet and Microsoft Project column headers must match and data imports directly field to field from Excel to Project. Simply verify print format and you now have a Microsoft Project schedule based on your EAM system scheduling data.

The Importance of Asset Criticality

The Importance of Asset Criticality

Here’s the scenario. You’re a recently hired Asset Manager/Reliability Engineer and you’ve been tasked with defining and implementing plant-wide Reliability initiatives. Your initial assessment reveals a significant number of asset breakdowns, overall asset health is degrading, and reactive/emergent maintenance is the norm. It’s a daunting task and you’re not entirely sure where to begin.

When determining which assets to address first, the asset criticality/priority matrix should serve as your guide. Initiatives such as RCM, FMEA, Bill of Material (BOM) development, PM/PdM application, etc., should be targeted toward the most critical assets first with an eventual progression towards the least critical. In your new role, you should first review the Master Equipment List (MEL) for completeness, accuracy and prioritization. Properly ranked/prioritized assets take into consideration all aspects of an organization and have been ranked using mathematical formulas or quantitative analysis, thus eliminating the “gut” feel and subjectivity from the ranking process. Criticality criterion regarding Maintenance, Production/Operations, Safety, Environmental and Quality should be developed and personnel from the aforementioned departments should be represented during the ranking process. An added benefit to having asset criticalities is greater accuracy when prioritizing work during Planning & Scheduling activities. So in conclusion, utilize those asset criticalities to “eat the elephant” one bite at a time and make an overwhelming task seem much more manageable and achievable.

Work Order Maintenance Tip

Work Order Maintenance Tip

When is a work order truly complete? There’s more to work order completion than simply performing the actual maintenance tasks and changing the WO status to “Complete” within the CMMS. Although tasks will vary depending on the type of work performed, consider the following activities to ensure a successful WO completion.

• Perform general housekeeping activities and return the work area to an operating condition. Work area should be clean of rags, grease/oil, trash, etc. and all items have been properly disposed. Scaffolding, safety barrier tape, etc. is removed as required.


• The Craft have notified Operations personnel that the equipment is ready for Post Maintenance Testing (PMT). Job related LOTO is removed and equipment PMT is satisfactorily performed.


• All unused job material/parts are returned to stores.


• All specialty tools and equipment are returned to their proper location.


• All work permits are closed-out as required.


• WO completion information is captured (hardcopy/electronically in CMMS)
  
  • Detailed description of work performed
  
  
  • Proper Failure Code information is documented (Failure/Cause/Remedy)
  
  
  • As Found/As Left conditions
  
  
  • Any materials not originally issued/purchased against the WO. Compare against the asset BOM and Job Plan to see if these materials should be added.
  
  
  • Labor hours for all craft
  
  
  • Start/Finish time
  
  
  • Job Plan feedback such as missing material, inaccurate procedures and improvements.
  
  
  • Recommendations for adjusting PM frequency
  
  
• If follow-up work is required (additional repairs, modifications, etc.), a separate WO should be entered into the CMMS.


• If the nature of the work met the requirements to trigger a Root Cause Failure Analysis (RCFA), all documentation, failed parts, etc. should be provided to individuals responsible for conducting the RCFA.


• If a repairable spare was removed, ensure the spare is returned to the appropriate location for repairs and the “move” history of this spare is captured using the CMMS rotating item/asset functionality.


• If a new asset was installed, ensure all related information is captured and updated in the CMMS including nameplate information, the asset BOM, Job Plan and PM/PdM information, etc.


• New PdM baseline readings are taken as required.


• Drawings and schematics are updated to reflect any changes.


• All change control documentation is completed as required.

A properly completed work order will benefit many departments within an organization. For example, good housekeeping practices align with a facility’s safety and environmental directives. Storeroom & purchasing personnel will use this information to streamline their inventories and improve their services to the craft person. Detailed and accurate job plan feedback will improve the planning & scheduling process. Reliability engineering personnel will use this information to improve asset reliability. Incorporating the aforementioned work order closeout activities as a part of the work control process is crucial for a facility if they’re to achieve their overall asset management and reliability initiatives.