3.06 Reliability Engineering

A practical and efficient condition based maintenance (CBM) program is built of two fundamental elements-one for rotating and dynamic assets in the adopted term of a (PdM) or Predictive Maintenance program and one for static assets known as Risk Based Inspection (RBI) program. This presentation will highlight these NSPI asset management programs for monitoring the state and reporting condition based (CBM) deficiencies on our physical assets. The discussion will review the development, management, integration and day-to-day application of our PdM/RBI programs including tools and techniques for VA, IR, MCA, HEP/FAC inspections and more. Participants will also discuss the general journey to condition monitoring for equipment over the thermal fleet. NSPI consciously chose innovative vendors, technologies and techniques. The audience will learn what challenges it faced internally and externally. The differences between how the CBM programs are integrated into our business today as opposed to piecemeal prior to AM program implementation starting in 2012.

In an effort to increase equipment reliability and reduce unscheduled downtime, many organizations have taken the proactive step of implementing a Predictive Maintenance (PdM) Program. Unfortunately, only an estimated 20% of these initiatives actually achieve the anticipated results.  This presentation will explore how to avoid the ten most common pitfalls substantially improves PdM results and provide participants with tools they need to implement a best practice preventative maintenance program.

Reliability is a powerful concept that applied properly makes the difference between success and failure of installations, processes and systems; nevertheless, reliability does not need to be difficult, complex and overwhelming. Quite the opposite: reliability applications  are more likely to succeed if they are easily understood by the different levels of the organization from trades to CEO. This is achieved by explaining reliability concepts easily understood by everyone within the organization.The general objective of the workshop is to provide theory and practical guidelines to the audience for identifying and addressing reliability issues that are impacting the productivity and profitability the assets they are responsible for.The workshop will provide basic knowledge and understanding regarding the tools and methodologies available within the reliability discipline, for the design, analysis and implementation of equipment strategies to systematically improve the performance of assets.At the end of the training the assistants will be able to:- Understand the current Reliability Engineering terminology- Understand and apply reliability concepts at all levels of the organization- Understand and overcome the typical reliability paradigms- Collect the adequate data and calculate basic maintenance and reliability Metrics- Understand the different reliability methodologies and the right application framework for each one- Combine different reliability methodologies to create an effective reliability program- Understand the role that Reliability Engineering plays within the Asset Management FrameworkThe workshop is specifically designed for current or future reliability engineers, maintenance supervisors and planners with maintenance, engineering and/or operations background that desire to be involved in improving reliability, availability and maintainability of assets through the application of modern reliability methodologies and tools.

James Gunn, one of PEMAC’s 2015 Capstone Project Winners in the Business Process category, presents his Maintenance Management Professional Capstone Project: Proactive Process Development, during this lunch and learn webcast. The Capstone is the final project course of the Maintenance Management Professional program. Serving as an introduction to Lake Utopia Paper’s operation, this MMP capstone project dives into the reactive maintenance practices of a corrugating medium paper mill, and examines tactics to develop a proactive maintenance culture.  Acting as a proof of concept, this project narrows its scope to focus on the pumps and rolls around the paper machine.  With a core focus on developing proactive tactics, the project is expanded to also provide analysis of inventory optimization and workforce management practices to drive cost initiatives and engagement.  Even as a proof of concept, the application provides a structure that is able to be deployed to all areas of the facility.  The payback period for this project is less than one year, provides a Year 5 net present value in excess of $1.7M, and an internal rate of return of 170%.James Gunn has been involved in maintenance and engineering for the last 12 years, working as a Professional Engineer in a variety of fields, including aerospace, automotive, food & beverage, and pulp & paper. Starting his MMP education while working with JD Irving’s Lake Utopia Paper operation as a Mechanical Maintenance Team Lead, James is now the Director of Maintenance and Engineering for JD Irving’s Irving Consumer Products division.

Hydro facilities rely on spillway gates to protect the dam integrity by releasing water when too much water is entering the reservoir.  Spillway gates are critical flow discharge components in the dam design and need to be available to operate on demand.  This session explores the learnings from BC Hydro projects, over an 8 year period using reliability methods for project planning and spillway system equipment analysis for improvement projects and for new spillway systems.  See how Spillway projects can benefit by including reliability methods in their pre-detailed design phase. Early deployment of reliability analysis allows for optioneering work and the development of suitable design alternatives.  Reliability Block Diagrams (RBD) can be applied to improve design and to evaluate alternative design configurations.  

In early 2014 a large Canadian owned mine approached Toyo looking for input on reducing down time and operating costs at one of their primary slurry feed stations.  Existing slurry pumps were lasting three weeks. Annual operating costs exceeded $400,000 on this one pumping application. This session shares Toyo's assessment methodology and the resulting custom built pump with a patent applied for pressurized sealing system. The pump was put on trial and ran for 26 weeks - an 800 % improvement in operating time and estimated annual operating costs reduced by a factor of six. Learn more about how the pressurized seal system helps ensure clean oil across the mechanical seal faces extending pump life and maintenance requirements dramatically. 

Reliability Block Diagrams (RBD) help organizations achieve new project goals which makes them an especially important tool under the restriction of budget and production cuts that are currently typical due to economic constraints such as low oil prices. At design stages and under new budget cuts, management should consider a few things besides meeting the projects budget like: New plant capacity expected; Plant overall reliability and availability; Operating risks; and Projected maintenance costs. Participants will see that by building an RBD the project team will have a document that will help in the decision making while supporting both in production and economic terms a decision. 

Today, leaders of organizations are stretched to do more with less. They are asked to cover more areas with fewer resources, with less time and smaller budgets. Given these constraints, how can we continue to drive improvement and achieve success? We must focus tactically to drive improvement and eliminate issues that impact our ability to perform. In this session participants will see how focused improvement efforts can provide significant bottom line impacts and be sustained after the project. Learn how chronic and persistent reliability issues can be solved using a targeted Process Performance OptimizationSM (PPO) approach that integrates best practices in change management, lean and asset management. In order to effectively drive PPO, organizations should focus on this four-step approach along with weaving in an appropriate level of change management to sustain the gains.

The evolution of Preventive Maintenance (PM) is based on analyzing equipment operating conditions, its criticality to production and maintenance cost. In this case study, participants will see the journey starts with setting safe PM schedule and parts stock to sustain production. Then root causes of failures are analysed, and plans for improvement are launched. Learn how plans-in-action should be supported by motivating everyone to the expected achievement. Ahmed will share that implementation is not the end of journey - it is where we need to evaluate whether we landed on the right solution from all aspects. He will also show that sometimes, touch ups are needed. Participants will see the real journey of RajhiSteel, started with a greenfield mini mill 8 years ago. See real examples of doing more than PM in the harsh environment of steel melting Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) and its specific equipment as Water Cooled Cables (WCC).

In the face of global competition organizations must innovate to achieve their strategic goals as cost effectively as possible. In this session hear how the BHP Billiton Maintenance and Improvement team worked to validate the capability of the world’s biggest greenfield potash project. Using key pillars such as: asset management plan aligned with business goals, reliability design, maintainability by design, work management implementation plan, and asset care strategy development, this team unlocked new horizons of effective development for reliability and maintainability professionals. Thinking outside the box, using common and accessible tools, while determining the best stage each method should be implemented has been key to the team’s success.