8.0 Material Resource Mgmt General

SIGGA Technologies deployment with Votorantim Cimentos SAP PM

We are in unprecedented times. Covid-19 wreaked havoc on supply chains; decreased production during times of increased demand. Labor shortages, chip shortages, long lead items turning into “maybe next year, if you’re lucky” items. The Russia Ukraine war added further stress to supply chains through sanctions, port closures, fuel shortages and much more. What once was reliable is now unreliable. So how can companies overcome an unreliable supply chain to maintain their reliability? There are several ways to mitigate unreliability; scenario planning, supplier management, and technology. There is no one size fits all and what may work for one company will not necessarily work for another. Scenario planning involves reviewing every potential situation that could occur, then working through to see how the company would be impacted. Ultimately this results in mitigation plans for each scenario. These can then be reviewed and implemented. Proper Supplier Management includes ensuring all suppliers have their scorecards reviewed on a regular basis. Their information updated and kept current. It can also include reviewing which suppliers can become substitutes for others in the event one is not able to provide the required product in time. Technology is important as it links all the information together. Algorithms can be created to let management know that certain parts are low, equipment is wearing out sooner, it also collects information on suppliers for the scorecards. Overall technology is the glue that binds and provides real time information updates. This presentation will review how to best use technology to help mitigate reliability and supply chain issues.

The Global Forum on Maintenance & Asset Management and highlights of the second edition of it’s recently published Maintenance Framework, including the project to develop the document and differences from the first edition.

Most asset owning and operating organizations managing maintenance activities use a computer system – either a CMMS, or an EAM, or possibly a module in their ERP. Usually they want to sustain reliable performance of their assets to deliver high availability to their operations or production groups. These systems are often sold under the moniker, “solution”. Implied in that is the solution to some sort of a problem, one might imagine that it will deliver high reliability, or better maintenance practices, yet they don’t and can’t. Many have fallen victim to slick marketing, buzz words, and promises of functionality that are little more than dreams – vapourware. To get those practical business results you need to change what you are doing and how you are doing it, not how you are tracking it and managing the activities. Those systems do provide some help with data storage, reports, keeping organized and work flows, but they don’t help you define what work to do, nor how often, nor who should do it, they don’t do anything to ensure you actually do the work, and then record what you did with any accuracy. The result is often a system that is riddled with inaccurate, incomplete, or otherwise unfit data that can actually make work for, and be misleading to the system’s users. Interestingly, after seeing hundreds of different instances of different systems in a large variety of organizations, there are some common problems. If you are a supplier of these systems, you can probably relax now. Very few of the problems m have anything at all to do with the software itself. This presentation will explore the reasons for those disappointments and some of the possible solutions.

Often organizations order recommended spare parts as part of a capital project. While well-intentioned, organizations often end up with many parts that are not needed, while not having enough of the right parts to support commissioning and operation. So, if organizations can’t rely strictly on recommended spare parts form the vendor, how should the required spare parts be identified? A reliability engineering analysis should be conducted to understand the specific failure modes that the asset will experience during it’s commissioning and during operation. The analysis should also identify the likelihood or frequency in which the failure will occur. This analysis can then be used to specify which parts should be purchased, at which quantities. There are a few different analysis tools that can be used to assist with the decision, such as a Failure Mode Effects Analysis or a Maintenance Task Analysis. A Failure Mode Effect Analysis (FMEA) is the process of reviewing as many components, assemblies, and subsystems as possible to identify potential failure modes in a system and their causes and effects. Using this information, the analyst can recommend the specific parts to stock. A Maintenance Task Analysis (MTA) is the identification of the steps, spares, and materials, tools, support equipment, personnel skill levels, and facility issues that must be considered for a given repair task. Often is completed after the FMEA has been completed, but further refines the ability of the organization to plan for maintenance activities. Once the specific parts needed have been identified with one of the reliability analysis, there is another analysis required to determine the right level of parts to stock. Stocking parts cost money, not having parts costs money, so the analysis of the spare parts enables organizations to find the right balance. This presentation will walk the audience through the process of using the reliability engineering tools to identify the likely failures to evaluating stocking levels of spare parts. This will ensure that the organization can support the asset throughout its life at an optimized cost.Originally presented at MainTrain 2021

This article will be discussing the issues and some causes of bad parts.

How well is your MRO Stores system integrated with your maintenance requirements to ensure effective support of your organization’s maintenance efforts?Most of MRO stores efforts are to provide parts and materials to both Operations and Maintenance. For this article, the focus will be upon MRO stores support of Maintenance.

Enbridge Liquids Pipelines is at the midpoint of a multi-year journey to advance the M&R program for its electrical and mechanical assets. This presentation will share successes and challenges while aiming to apply M&R best practices to a midstream pipeline operator. Our initiative will improve M&R processes and culture, with a focus on improving multiple work streams. These include the planning, scheduling, and execution of preventative and predictive maintenance, information management, spare parts, and CMMS use.

Even today, many organizations see maintenance as a necessary evil neglecting the importance it has toward attaining optimum business results. These organizations have maintenance managers, supervisors, and technicians who are responsible for the preservation of their physical assets. Upon talking to and sharing experience with many maintenance colleagues in various countries, I've learned that most maintenance supervisors and managers don't have a formal maintenance educational background, yet they must make important decisions regarding assets affecting their business's bottom line. We learn about maintenance the hard way, learning from equipment failures and guessing how to avoid them by applying what has resulted well in the past and what the equipment manufacturer tells us. When organizations realize they must do something about maintenance to improve their business bottom line, they're exposed to a lot of information about many tools boasting to offering what they need to do better. This presentation will showcase the results of various case studies performed by our consulting firm at crude oil pumping, pharmaceutical, and water treatment organizations located in North and South America. Several methodologies ranging from Uptime (Strategies for Excellence in Maintenance Management) to RCM-R, ACA, RCA, and even PdM were used to tackle situations at the strategic, tactic, and operational levels.

Ross Markowski was part of the final phases of construction of a gas plant that was experiencing a change of ownership. Ross used the Capstone Project and the myriad changes happening at his site as an opportunity to think through the possibilities of a new organizational design and leadership model to achieve site-wide engagement in proactive maintenance for the upcoming commissioning and operation of the plant. Ross’s presentation summarizes the pros and cons of the existing and proposed organizational structures and touches on some of the challenges of implementation.Whether you are in oil/gas, manufacturing, forestry or another industry, you will find the lessons learned through Ross Markowski’s Capstone Project applicable to most situations where changes are occurring, work still needs to planned and executed and people are your most important resource in getting the work done.