4.4 Preventive Maintenance

As I spend more and more time in and around maintenance, reliability and asset management professionals, and though my own experiences as both an end user and now a contractor, it has become more and more clear that there is a definitive gap in most maintenance and reliability plans....the electrical system. This is not to say that there is not maintenance being done, or that people are not recognizing that their electrical system is critical. But do you understand what you are doing? Do you understand why? Is what is being done correct? Is the budget that is set aside for electrical adequate or too much? How do you know? What are the best practices and where do you start? As discussed this is not a technical presentation but rather a look at a basic electrical system and where an end user can start in regards to assuring themselves that they are doing the right things. There are some new technologies that are in the market place that can assist in determining if there is a potential problem with parts of your system...this presentation is not about those. Alternatively it is about "the basics", learning to walk before you can run: Looking at the system as a whole and learning where most trouble areas are; Assisting end-users in looking at past test results and planning next steps; Determining what needs to be done based on predictive tests such as transformer oil samples or IR scans, and what can be pushed into next year’s budget; What cannot be skipped because, if it is, it may not only cause catastrophic plant failures but potential fatalities. In conclusion what this presentation will focus on is assisting Maintenance Management professionals to treat their electrical assets with the same care that they keep their mechanical assets. It is not overly technical and you do not have to be an electrical professional to understand or benefit.Presented at MainTrain 2017 

Preventive Maintenance (PM) Optimization is often thought of as an activity to improve the effectiveness of the maintenance strategy, looking at the activities in the PM routine and matching them with known failure modes. While this is the first step to improving any maintenance strategy, it is just a beginning. In order for an organization to achieve its highest performance, they not only need to do the right maintenance, but they also need to do it efficiently.This is where PM Optimization can unlock the hidden potential. When PM Optimization is combined with known and accepted Lean techniques, the efficiency of maintenance is truly unlocked. When performing PM Optimization, the team should be aware of the 8 types of waste: (1) Defects, (2) Overproduction, (3) Waiting, (4) Not utilizing talent, (5) Transportation, (6) Inventory excess, (7) Motion waste, and (8) Excess processing. Once the team is aware of the waste, there needs to be an unrelenting focus on eliminating the waste and minimizing planned downtime. To eliminate the waste, the team uses various Lean tools, such as SMED, 5s, and Visual Factory. When the 8 types of waste are targeted, the amount of planned downtime goes down, allowing higher levels of asset utilization. Presented at MainTrain 2017

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.

​Fully understanding the maintenance and reliability strengths and weaknesses within a facility can be a huge undertaking.  Traditionally, a study to understand reliability is performed by either calculating, tracking, and comparing key performance indicators, or through a qualitative approach, observing compliance with best practices of maintenance and reliability activities to determine perceived strengths and weaknesses. Both approaches have downsides.  In this session, participants will learn about a more effective and repeatable reliability assessment that includes a quantitative assessment using plant CMMS work history to develop trends, key performance indicators, and comparisons that will either validate or invalidate strengths and weaknesses as determined in a qualitative assessment with plant personnel.  See how the ability to reliably gather and assess historical CMMS data will depend on determining a set of requirements or data signatures which can be used to validate strengths and weaknesses.  Additionally, the quantitative cost information can be effectively used to justify projects, programs, and personnel required to improve maintenance and reliability activities. Learn how a reliability assessment can most efficiently and effectively be administered in this way; the use of a qualitative assessment to better focus a quantitative analysis provides the best combination of overall understanding from personnel with the accuracy and reliability of historical data. 

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).

Electrical accidents, such as arc flashes occur daily; however there are ways companies and individuals can reduce the occurrence of these accidents and protect everybody concerned from the physical, financial, and statutory consequences. In this session we will discuss how the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) regulation 70E provides a reference for facilities to meet the requirements of electrical workplace safety while regulation 70B outlines the best practices for setting up and maintaining and Electrical Preventive Maintenance (EPM) program. Hear about experience-based results and case studies that demonstrate the value realized from maintenance, reliability and asset management improvement initiatives.

The Sheerness Generating Station, a large power plant, has process and machine health data feeding into the DCS and plant historian database continuously from thousands of field sensing elements. This session is a case study of project at the plant that utilized ‘cloud’ technology to stream data about plant performance and initial equipment failures not yet notified by the Alarm Management System, to technical experts, who analyzed the information and communicated the findings back to the plant for further troubleshooting, validation and correction. The session will describe the data security and connectivity issues, the communication protocols and the benefits observed. If you are considering changes in the collection, analysis, and reporting of your own plant performance and equipment health, this session will be useful.

This presentation was given as an online lunch and learn sponsored by the Alberta Chapter. The case study covers an impressive project at Suncor in which a risk-based inspection program was set up (as part of an overall system-wide maintenance plan) on a greenfield project using 3D drawings. You can access both the Powerpoint presentation and the recording of the session here.