UpTime

From Near or Far

2009-08-02T02:10:58Z

An Overview of Remote Machine Condition Assessment
by John Bernet

Fifty years ago, when labor costs were relatively low compared to operating expenses, managers found that they could simply use more staff to cover the increasing demands of maintaining plant machinery. As labor rates started to increase and competition drove profitability down, technology came to the rescue. Almost every big company was equipped with a team of vibration analysts with small, portable data collectors that paved the way to increased plant production while lowering maintenance costs. Years later, companies were looking for ways to cut costs in an era of sky rocketing labor rates and the highly paid analysts came into the cross-hairs. Many well established reliability programs fell to the wayside. We are now looking at technology again to bridge the gap between labor and maintenance with new Remote Machine Condition Assessment Programs.

A Brief History

1950s - Most industries began by following a maintenance strategy of Run-To-Failure. Labor rates were low and profits were high. They just let machines run until they failed and then fixed them.

1960s - Labor rates rose and profits shrank. Managers looked for ways to manage their maintenance costs. They first looked at Calendar-based Preventative Maintenance which helped reduce costs.

1970s - Industry leaders found Condition-based Predictive Maintenance which revolutionized maintenance planning. Vibration specialists arose to start up the field of vibration analysis. Data collection was labor intensive but still saved maintenance costs over PMs alone. The equipment was heavy, expensive, fragile, slow and complicated to use.

1980s - Portable data collectors became available which drastically reduced data collection labor. Soon, almost every one of the big companies had a team of vibration analysts and they were enjoying the benefits from increased production, decreased maintenance costs, and energy savings.

1990s - CEOs needed to find ways to cut costs because of dwindling profits from increased competition. Reliability programs didn't contribute directly to the bottom line and all the CEO saw was the increasing labor rates of the highly skilled vibration analysts. These CEOs were not around during the 70s and 80s, when the CBM programs turned the maintenance industry around and saved millions of dollars, which went straight to the bottom line. So, they cut the reliability programs because the bad effects would not be seen for years, and the cost savings could be seen instantly.

2000s - A global recession and increased competition continues to shrink profits. Maintenance costs are rising and energy costs are eating away at the bottom line. Companies are looking for a way out of this mess and they are making alliances with some unlikely partners - maintenance with operations; management with IT; customer with vendor. Managers are finding that technology has brought the price of remote monitoring down to the point where the cost is below the rising labor costs needed for portable CBM programs. The Operations manager is willing to provide budget they would have used to hire more labor and give it to the Maintenance manager in order to purchase Remote Machine Condition Assessment programs.

What Does Online Monitoring Mean?

Here are several different examples of online monitoring programs:

Permanent Online Protection - Many large, critical machines are monitored with overall vibration systems that will sound an alarm or flash a light to notify the operator if a threshold is exceeded. Some of these systems are even designed to shut down critical machines to prevent catastrophic failures if the overall vibration level increases dramatically in a very short amount of time.

Continuous Overall Protection - Smaller, vital machines are monitored with less sophisticated vibration systems such as vibration switches and low cost overall vibration systems that will sound an alarm or flash a light to give a warning if a threshold is exceeded. These devices sometimes become a nuisance with spurious warnings that eventually lead to the system being placed in override.

Remote Machinery Monitoring - multi-channel systems that are installed to monitor a sensor or two from each machine. This involves a large number of cable runs and vast amounts of data that no one has time to decipher. Some systems are better and involve a sensor or two per bearing from each machine which is wired to a device that transmits data to the network. A network server then sends the data to a remote analyst who diagnoses the machine condition.

Wireless, Automated Machine Condition Assessment - sorry to get your hopes up, but we are not there yet. Someday, all rotating machinery will have automated self-diagnostic capability that is integrated into the plant's control network. Wireless sensors are on the horizon, but not ready for prime time yet. The current technology does not provide the battery life needed to send complete data often enough when compared to wired sensors. Once wireless sensor technology is better, the machine vibration data can be sent directly to a network server with automated diagnostic software. The data is processed and machine condition information is sent to the manager or planner for repairs to be performed.

Remote Machine Condition Assessment - Taking data away from machinery is expensive; so, we need to move the diagnostics as close as possible to the source of the problems. There are automated diagnostic programs that have over 25 years of proven experience and consistently deliver benefit-to-cost ratios of over 20:1. These programs are now available with state of the art remote monitoring which makes them price conscious in today's high labor markets.

Look Mom, No Hands

If skyrocketing labor rates are the problem, then Remote Machine Condition Assessment is the solution. Over the years, Condition Based Maintenance (CBM) has been documented to save hundreds, thousands, and for some customers millions of dollars a year in maintenance costs. So what can you do to receive the benefits of CBM but reduce or eliminate the high cost of labor? Taking data away from machines and getting machine condition information from the data can be expensive. But now, you can choose the amount of labor you want to take on yourself, and either outsource the rest or implement programs using the latest technology.

Remote machines - you can now wire sensors from your machines in remote or hazardous areas to multiplexers. The traditional method is to use portable data collectors which mean high labor costs.

Remote data collector - you can now install remote data collectors right on the machine floor. You can access them remotely using Remote Desktop Connection (MS Windows XP) and control the data collector from the comfort of your office. The traditional method is to use portable data collectors (high labor costs).

Remote analysis - you can analyze the data yourself, or send the data to an experienced analyst to analyze, or pre-configure the data collector with the machine templates and a diagnostic screening program. This way, the diagnostics are being done down on the machine floor and the machine condition information is sent directly to the maintenance planners to schedule repairs. The traditional method is manual analysis which means high labor rates and high expenses for training your staff.

Remote support - you can contract an experienced analyst or an engineering company to access your database remotely to fine-tune and mature your baselines, set up parameters, and provide a full machine condition report. The traditional method is to pay high rates for annual service and support contracts.

Machine Condition Assessment - not just overalls for warning or protection, and not just a bunch of data that you don't have time or experience to analyze. This is a proven data screening and machine fault diagnostic program loaded right on the computer of the remote data collector. The traditional method is manual analysis.

What Do You Need to Implement a Successful Program?

Before you rush right out and order your own Remote Machine Condition Assessment program, you should do your homework - look at the four main topics that will ensure you receive the benefits for years to come:

1. Collect complete and accurate data - To get the best results, you need more than overall vibration levels. Overalls are fine for protection systems, but diagnostic systems need more detailed FFT spectral data.

You also need more than one sensor per machine in order to accurately diagnose machine condition. At a minimum, you need one vertical or horizontal reading from each bearing and one axial reading per shaft.

In order to save on cable installation costs, you should use multiplexers that combine sensor wires from multiple locations to a single multi-pair cable. The multi-pair cable is then daisy-chained from multiplexers to a small network device with a data acquisition card. The diagnostic fault templates and individual machine baselines are loaded right onto the mini-computer on the machine floor. Data is screened on the machine floor, and then machine condition fault exceedances are transmitted over the company network.

2. Turn the data into useful machine condition information - many programs for data screening, analysis and diagnosis are labor intensive. You need to find a program that can analyze more machines in less time.

Figures 1, 2 and 3 show three screening methods (left side of the figures) with their respective report outputs (on the right).

Using an expert system does not replace the human analyst, but provides a powerful, accurate and proven screening tool to reduce hours required to analyze machine data. Recent studies on a mature program found the expert system was 98% accurate in identifying no-fault machinery and 86% accurate in fault identification compared to a senior engineer. The automated diagnostic program was 8% more accurate than manual data review by analysts with 2-4 years of vibration experience. Most significant was the time saved - the expert system could analyze more than 300 machines and produce a report in 20 minutes versus 3 man-weeks utilizing manual review techniques without producing an equivalent report.

3. Distribute machine condition information to the right people - paper reports get filed away into folders. Use the company network, web pages, email and pagers to get the word out.

Use Remote Desktop Connection (part of MS Windows XP) to remotely access your data acquisition computer down on the machine floor from any computer on your company network. Use MS Excel and Internet Explorer to view your machine condition information from any computer.

Use web-based software (Figure 4) to review reports, vibration data, and machine condition trends from anywhere in the world. Monitor your freezer compressors in Seattle, your wind turbines in North Dakota, your oil rig pumps off the coast of Brazil, your nickel mine crushers in Labrador - all from the comfort of your office.

Integrate multiple technologies on the same web page from various data collection sensors - vibration, oil, motor current, pressure, speed, temperature, power generated, efficiencies, etc. Information from different sources can give the operator priceless insight when faced with making tough decisions about securing machinery. Multiple indicators supporting a suspected fault can save thousands of dollars in repair costs or lost production.

Today, many companies are combining the results from online and portable systems with the same software program. You can use the same hardware to support diagnostic programs (machine condition) and protection systems (catastrophic failure). You can combine wireless and wired sensors in the same machine condition assessment program. Some examples of combining protection and diagnostic systems are:

a) If you already have sensors on your machines going to a protection system, then you
     can tie into the connections on the back of the panel and run wires to a multiplexer
     which can then feed a remote data collector. The results would then be the sent to a
     diagnostic software program.

b) If you install new sensors on your machines for a diagnostic system, you can use a
     channel of the multiplexer to send a signal to a relay output adapter. This could then
     flash a light or sound an alarm.

c) If you are implementing a new diagnostic and protection system, you could use dual
     mode sensors. One part of the sensor would be 4-20mA signal to a PLC for warnings
     and the other signal would be from an ICP sensor to the multiplexer for the diagnostic
     software.

4. Get support from inside and outside your company - in order to build a solid program, you will need support from the following groups:

    Management - budget to invest in equipment, support and training

    Operations - start and stop machines for data collection

    IT - company network and server assistance

    Maintenance - run program and make repairs

    Engineering Vendor - program implementation, training, support.

Many vibration programs in the past failed over the years due mainly to changes in company priorities or lack of support from their vibration vendor. The longest lasting and most successful programs were developed with full engineering support during program implementation, during the first year to fine-tune machine fault templates and develop baselines, and through the years with annual database/program audits. Select machines in small groups as you develop your Remote Machine Condition Assessment program - critical first, vital second and important third. Consider remote and hazardous areas that pose access problems when trying to collect data with portable programs. If you spend a little time and resources ensuring the successful implementation of your program, then it will take less labor and resources to keep it going over the years.

Conclusion

With all of the additional pressures being placed on today's maintenance staff, and the demands for improved financial performance with fewer resources, you need to choose the right partners and the right tools. Technology has shown us ways to bridge the gap between maintenance costs and skyrocketing labor rates in the past, and the latest advances will lead to fewer analysts performing analysis on more machines. Portable data collectors and manual analysis will transition to remote monitoring with proven automated machine condition assessment programs. Someday, wireless sensors will transmit complete data directly to our network programs and detailed machine condition reports will automatically be sent to the worker to make the repair.

In fifteen years at Azima/DLI, John Bernet has worked in technical support, sales, training, and installation of Machine Condition Assessment programs. Prior to Azima/DLI, John served in the US Navy for twelve years where he operated and maintained nuclear power plants. John can be reached at jbernet@azimadli.com or 206-842-7656 x1019.

Speed UP Low RPM Data Collection

2009-08-02T02:00:44Z

Using Ultrasound for Effective Inspection of Slow Speed Bearings
by Thomas J Murphy, Eng

Measuring the condition of bearings rotating at speeds below 60rpm using vibration is fraught with difficulty. This article describes using a portable ultrasound system as an "intelligent sensor" in association with a normal vibration data collector to overcome this problem. It includes results of measurements taken on a group of rotary crushing machines where this combined approach reduced the measurement time from 21 minutes per measurement to less than a minute per reading.

Background

One of the more difficult areas to apply vibration successfully is to slowly rotating bearings. A misunderstanding of the basics such as sensor selection, measurement procedure and the FFT process itself has often led people to proclaim that measurements on machinery rotating below 60rpm is not possible. This is untrue, it is perfectly possible - as long as you understand how.

The first mistake most people make is that they use the wrong accelerometer. Consider this: at 3,000rpm, a velocity of 1mm/s corresponds to an acceleration of 0.03g, whereas at 30rpm that same velocity is now 0.0003g. If I were using my normal 100mV/g accelerometer, that would give me a voltage of just 30µV of signal in the presence of typically 20µV of noise. That is clearly not going to be easy to deal with.

The answer, of course, is to increase the sensitivity of the accelerometer to say 500mV/g. Some care is required here, and it is highly recommended that you test it before you but it because some of these accelerometers might actually be 100mV/g accelerometers with built-in 5x gain amplifiers. This is also not desirable since, in all probability, the net result of amplifying the signal and the noise is likely to be a reduced signal-to-noise instead of the increase we need.

There are also considerations in terms of electronic noise as well as the noise created by the FFT process itself. With such low frequencies, electronic noise such as Schott or 1/f (one-over-f) becomes critical. As the name suggests, this is a noise source which increases with decreasing frequency. But this noise source, which will be in my measurement chain, is in acceleration. If I integrate this signal to velocity, my 1/f becomes 1/f2 . An increase by a factor of 10 in my acceleration, for example, now becomes an increase by a factor of 100 in velocity. So integration is not a good idea.

The FFT process itself is also a source of noise at these frequencies. To overcome that noise, I must spread out the overall amount of noise present in my system across as many lines of resolution as I can, so that the noise/line is minimized.

At this stage, there is also a temptation to add averaging in order to "smooth out" even more of the noise sources. However, always remember that averaging not only reduces the effects of random noise, but it also acts as a filter for any short duration events which may result in valuable data being lost.

Increasing the resolution means increasing the amount of time it takes per reading. A 10Hz frequency range with 3,200 lines of resolution represents a block of time data 320 seconds long. If you were to take 4 averages, that is over 21 minutes per measurement!

The Ultrasound Alternative

Ultrasound is recognized as being a much quicker way of "listening" to bearing condition. Because it is working at much higher frequencies than vibration, there is no need for an ultrasound system to take the slow rotational speed into such a critical account.

The SDT170 ultrasound system used for this work measures at 38.4kHz and processes the signal to provide an audio output 2kHz wide which contains data from roughly 36-38kHz and 39-41kHz (Figure 1).

Therefore, this audio signal contains all the activity which is occurring at that much higher, inaudible, frequency. When dealing with bearing defects, what is actually going on up there is normally the broadband noise of friction caused by poor lubrication, and is impulsive or impacting in nature. In the case of bearing defects, this signal is rarely periodic, which makes them all the more difficult to detect when performing long, slow, averages.

Since the ultrasound system is listening to these impacts, the need to work using slow signal processing methods is not required.

By taking the audio output and feeding it into a vibration data collector, the SDT170 can be effectively used as an intelligent sensor. By fixing the amplitude setting of the SDT170, the measurement chain will provide repeatable and comparable data.

In fact, the only consideration is that of how much data should be gathered in order to be considered representative. For a machine rotating at 12 rpm, for example, I would want to have a sample of perhaps 30 seconds in order to be sure that I have representative data.

If I am working with an ultrasound detector in conjunction with a vibration data collector, there is also a limit caused by the selection of frequency range and sample length. Since my ultrasound system produces an output of just 2kHz, there is little point in working with any higher maximum frequency. If I work with the maximum number of lines, say 12,800, then the maximum time sample that I could acquire would be limited to 6.4 seconds.

Clearly, I now have a potential conflict of interest between what I would like to record and what I can record. I can overcome this conflict to some extent by monitoring the signal before I store it to ensure that what I have is representative. Alternatively, I can scrap the idea of using a vibration data collector as my recording device and consider instead using a digital recorder working with a .wav file.

There are devices now available in the professional audio industry which are perfect for this application - small, battery operated, manual gain, .wav file format recording to SD card - which are capable of recording 360 minutes of data onto a 4Gb memory card.

The selection of a suitable device is critical. Because of the transient nature of the signal, auto gain control and MP3 recording are going to cause problems. The automatic gain control will be constantly changing the recording level which makes it very difficult to record comparative signals. MP3 compresses the signal, elevating the level in the quieter parts and compressing the peaks. This will clearly cause corruption of the signal.

The Results

Figures 2, 3 and 4 show results taken on some crushing rolls. This type of machine has two rolls crushing stone down into a powder. This data was taken directly from an SDT170 ultrasound system into an Adash VA3 vibration data collector. The length of the signal was 1 second. These comparison time signals compare the four bearings on one machine.

The two inboard bearings in Figure 2 are of particular interest - the inboard bearing on the moving roll (top left) is exhibiting a classical suspect bearing pattern where the bearing on the fixed roll (bottom right) shows a combination of suspect bearing and what was eventually defined as pocket noise - a fairly periodic noise corresponding to 84x rotational speed.

Figure 3 shows a suspect bearing on the inboard bearing on the fixed roll (bottom right) - note the strong impulsive nature of the signal and the lack of any periodic nature.

There is often an interesting, and sometimes heated, debate on the topic of whether measurements should be taken in loaded or unloaded conditions in this application. The argument for unloaded is normally a concern about the random nature of the operating process, which makes it easy to hide a defect in the presence of all the noise.

The counter position, which I support, is that only in real-life operating conditions do we see the true forces being experienced by the machine. The comparison chart in Figure 4 compares the same two bearings with measurements in loaded and unloaded conditions.

This difference is clearly enormous. Measurement in the unloaded condition would never convey the nature of the extremely high forces present in normal operation - surely providing an unfortunate false sense of security.

Conclusions

A portable ultrasound inspection of slowly rotating machinery can be successfully used to inspect bearing condition. The nature of the measurement method means that the time taken to survey such bearings is significantly reduced.

Analyzing the audio output signal for an ultrasound data collector provides diagnostic information in a fraction of the time required to collect and analyze similar information from a vibration measurement.

Tom Murphy is an Acoustics graduate from Salford University and has 25 years experience in the world of industrial ultrasound and vibration measurement - 15 of those years have been involved with the use of Operating Deflection Shape techniques in the paper, printing, petrochemical, power generation, pharmaceutical and food industries. Tom is the Managing Director of Adash 3TP Limited, based in Manchester, England, a Company specializing in the application of vibration, infrared and ultrasonic technologies to improve maintenance. More info can be found at www.reliabilityteam.com and Tom can be contacted at +044 161 788 9927 or at tom@adash3tp.co.uk

Aug_Sept_2009_Ultrasound.pdf

Developing the RCM2 Mindset

2009-08-02T01:19:34Z

The Building Blocks of a Maintenance Philosophy
by Michael Rezendes

The focus of this article is to familiarize the reader with the concept of Reliability-Centered Maintenance Mindset (RCM2) as a methodology to focus attention on the maintenance developer. The current methodology of RCM in industry today is focused on the Preventive Maintenance (PM) developed for hardware. RCM2 is the methodology applied to the selection and training of the potential maintenance developers. This article will discuss how a successful preventive maintenance program starts with the maintenance developer.

There are many different types of RCM that are practiced in the world today. The experience that I have is centered in the world of Classical RCM maintenance development based on Mil-P-24534A. This RCM methodology is based upon the work done in 1978 by Nolan & Heap. As with other types of RCM, the Classical version is a method of determining Preventive Maintenance (PM) based on analysis of the likely functional failures. The one subject that is never raised in the development of PM is the ability and mindset of the actual person performing the analysis; the maintenance developer. This paper will attempt to determine what type of personality is best for the development of maintenance procedures and how we should develop that person, including making sure that their mindset aids them in their task.

Maintenance Need and How It Can Go Wrong

A Need for Maintenance -- Your organization has recognized that they are in need of a brand new maintenance program for the assets they currently have or need to make their existing program more efficient - where do you begin? Prior to interviewing any potential candidates, management should first have a good understanding of RCM and how it can help their business. There are two different scenarios that occur in the world of maintenance development; either you need maintenance developed on your facility or developed on the equipment you are building for sale to other parties. In the first case we have a company that has an established facility with HVAC, plumbing, electrical and machinery used to produce their product. In this case the company may require PM procedures for their facility, product or both. The other case is solely based on the need for maintenance procedures to be delivered to the end user along with the finished equipment. Currently the Department of Defense (DoD) requires that military equipment purchased from a contractor needs to have RCM performed and maintenance procedures developed. My experience is in development of PM procedures for military equipment.

Whether you need maintenance for your facility or a product, the principles of RCM apply equally to both. The management team needs to focus on making sure the personnel chosen for the task are suited to the task.

Applying the RCM Philosophy to the Maintenance Developer - How Can the Maintenance Developer Fail?

In the world of RCM, the focus has always been on the hardware that is being analyzed, but what if we were to apply the RCM philosophy to the maintenance developer? The output of the analysis should tell us the tasks and their periodicities that would be performed on our personnel.

As we start our analysis, refer to Figure 1, we note that the main function of the maintenance developer is to "develop good maintenance". It follows that the functional failure would be that they "fail to develop good maintenance". Now that we've determined that the maintenance developer can fail we need to list the "failure modes".

After reviewing the failure modes we can see that our maintenance developer is flawed and the effects of the failure always results in a "poor quality of maintenance procedures developed".

Through the use of RCM we know that there are PM tasks which we can "perform" on our maintenance developer to preserve their primary function - to develop good maintenance.
Discovering the Reliability-Centered Maintenance Mindset

Human Reliability -- Now that we've determined that our maintenance developer can fail we need to develop PM tasks that will preserve their function. It is unrealistic to assume that an individual will develop good maintenance without fail unless we apply periodic PM tasks. These tasks are listed below and if performed to the right periodicity will produce an RCM Mindset that will result in a valuable asset to your maintenance program.

      TASK                                  PERIODICITY
      Rest and relaxation        Daily
      Hobbies               Weekly
      Health Maintenance         Daily
      Vacation                          Annually

RCM2: A Philosophy to Live By -- When searching for good maintenance developers, one key trait is a person who is equally as much a pessimist as an optimist. In the development of maintenance it is always good to realize that everything at some point is going to fail (loss of function). The pessimistic knows this and then lets his optimistic side determine that there is a way to stop it from failing (preserve function) by performing periodic preventive maintenance. Just as important is that he also realize that there are times when it's alright to let the equipment fail and then perform corrective maintenance because through the use of RCM we've determined that the maintenance task is not both applicable (restore or maintain reliability) and effective (value added).

How the Mind of a Maintenance Developer Works -- As we start to delve into the cognitive psychology of a maintenance developer, we need to understand exactly how the mind works when it comes to developing maintenance. Cognitive psychology is the branch of psychology that studies mental processes including how people think, perceive, remember and learn. The core process of cognitive psychology is how people acquire, process and store information. All of these play an important role in the process of developing maintenance by increasing decision making accuracy.

In 1956, Benjamin Bloom and a group of educational psychologists developed a classification of levels of intellectual behavior associated with learning. The structure they devised showed levels from the most basic learning to the most complex learning (see Figure 2).

During the 1990's, a former student of Bloom, Lorin Anderson, updated the taxonomy so as to reflect the relevance of 21st century applications. The structure did not change drastically but now the highest level of learning was associated with creativity. The next two tiers, evaluating and analyzing, can be directly related to the mental attributes of our maintenance developers (see Figure 3). The taxonomy shows the relationship between higher, more complex, learning functions and our maintenance developers.

Now that the levels of learning have been established, we can further associate these levels with the process the maintenance developer uses to perform RCM. In the analyzing section of the taxonomy, the section is broken down into several key aspects - appraisal, examination, and question. If we relate these aspects to the RCM analysis we can see that we perform an appraisal when the maintenance developer analyzes how his equipment will be broken down, or subdivided into sections to make the RCM analysis easier to accomplish. The examination is conducted when the functions and functional failures of the equipment are established. Finally, the main questions are asked to answer what are the local, subsystem, and system effects of the functional failures. In addition, the question is asked as to the applicability and effectiveness of the maintenance tasks derived for the RCM analysis.

Within the evaluating level, the key aspects are listed as defend, select and support. All three are directly linked to the RCM process. The main question we ask is why maintenance is needed - we must defend our decision. Now we must select the types of maintenance that should be applied - Time-Directed (TD) or Condition-Directed (CD), for example. Finally, we must support our decision with justification and rationale.

Viewing Your Surroundings Through Functions -- One of the key aspects of the RCM Mindset is that the maintenance developer must start to see the world around him in functions - even something as simple as sitting at your desk will turn into a lesson in functionality. Almost every item at your desk is meant to perform a function that will enable you to complete your daily tasks. Below is a list of equipment and the functional failures that can occur while sitting at a typical office desk

• Telephone - receiver cord becomes intermittent
• Stapler - jams due to incorrectly loaded staples
• Computer - overheats due to dust that you never clean off the back
• Monitor - couldn't see the decimal point due to a dirty screen
• Desk drawers - drawer jams
• Printer - can't print because you never ordered the replacement ink
• Pens - fails due to using them as a pry bar and to open your juice box.

All of the above functional failures could be avoided by a small amount of time and effort invested in preventive maintenance. With regular preventive maintenance all the desk functions will be available when needed, resulting in the user to be able to perform there daily tasks.

The Path of the Maintenance Developer

It is important now that we've decided that the need for equipment maintenance exists and all that is left is to make sure the people we choose to perform the maintenance development are suited for the task. There will be an investment made in both time and money in training a maintenance developer so a process must be performed to be sure that we determine qualified individuals.

The first step is the Initial Screening Process (ISP) (see Figure 4). When interviews are set up, we need to assess the candidate maintenance developer for the following:

• Has been formally trained in the RCM philosophy - this is a good starting point but as
    we've seen - being trained doesn't mean you know what you're doing or that you have
    a maintenance mindset.

•   Previously developed Preventive Maintenance - another good point. The person
    should be able to talk to the experience and relate the details of the maintenance
    they developed.

•   Have they performed actual PM tasks on assets - there's the talent of being able to
    develop maintenance and then there's the person who's actually performed PM on
    equipment. They have seen, first hand, the result of bad maintenance development.
    Maintenance is sometimes developed and the developer never lets the maintainer
    know the relevance of why they're doing the maintenance. If the maintenance
    developer relates why the maintenance is needed - it adds value to the actual task.
    This will result in the maintainer performing the task with diligence and purpose.

•   Open a discussion of examples of PM in their lives - finally, we need to understand the
    type of person we are planning on training.

If our candidate has good cognitive skills and they have a whole life maintenance mindset - then they're a good potential maintenance developer. At this point, our future maintenance developer should be brought into the Maintenance Developer Program (MDP).

It is crucial that management realize that they should not automatically accept and train the staff you already have on site. This could be a disaster to the maintenance program that you are taking care to develop. Its fine to run staff through the ISP - but if they don't pass - don't give them the job anyway. Some individuals were never meant to develop maintenance. They simply do not process the RCM Mindset and never will.

Maintenance Developer Program

Now that our maintenance developer trainee has entered the Maintenance Developer Program, it's time to attend formal RCM training. There are many different types of RCM that is taught and management should perform research to determine which method is right for their application. No matter what type of RCM you have chosen to perform, everyone needs formal training - including management. Unless management understands the RCM philosophy and processes an RCM Mindset, the program is doomed to failure.

Mentoring Program

One of the most important aspects of the RCM Mindset is for the novice maintenance developer to know that there is someone there to help him along the path of developing good maintenance. The person he will rely upon to lead him will be his mentor. The novice maintenance developer will have many questions and without the guidance of an experienced RCM practitioner - the results could possibly be faulty maintenance which will impact cost and schedule down the road. The figure below represents the information flow which should take place between the mentor and the new maintenance developer (see Figure 5).

The end result of a well planned and executed mentoring program will be both applicable and effect asset maintenance.

RCM2 - Closing Thoughts

After reading this article, it should be clear that if any maintenance program is to succeed, we must first focus on the fact that the human factor can not be overlooked. Without the knowledge and mindset well established in our maintenance developer, then the program will only deliver substandard maintenance procedures. When this happens, management will conclude that establishing a maintenance program based on RCM was not worth the investment of time and money. On the other hand, when management and developers all have a true RCM Mindset, the results of utilizing an RCM philosophy will return a maintenance program that will conduct maintenance on the right equipment and at the right time.

Michael Rezendes is the Reliability-Centered Maintenance Lead in Logistics Engineering for the Zumwalt Class Destroyer for Raytheon Technical Services Company LLC.

During his 33 year career at Raytheon, Michael has gained experience in everything from production and test; to field service work with equipment installations and maintenance development. He has been active in the RCM field now for several years now and in that time he has developed a philosophy to try to understand the relationship between the mindset of the maintenance developer and the maintenance that is developed. His Reliability Centered Maintenance Mindset, when effectively applied, will help to produce a both applicable and effective maintenance program.   Michael can be reached at 401-842-5948 or michael_rezendes@raytheon.com

Aug_Sept_2009_Reliability.pdf

The 5S Method of Improvement

2009-08-02T00:01:56Z

Enhancing Safety, Productivity and Culture
by Mike Bresko

Let's face it, we all face tough challenges. Competitive pressures continue unabated. Prices are too low, and costs are too high. Companies strive to reduce costs. Some look to improve technology. Some reduce headcount. Too few have become operationally excellent. Costs pile up in the form of defects and waste. Consider these all-too-familiar situations:

•   Output does not meet its potential due to crew-to-crew variations.
•   Utilization suffers because product changeovers take too long.
•   An important part cannot be found, so another is rushed in.

Companies attempt to improve through Lean, Six Sigma, or Total Productive Maintenance initiatives. However, studies since 1998 report that two-thirds of these initiatives fail to meet the expectations of company leaders. Learning about the methods isn't the challenge, putting them into daily practice is, as evident in these situations:

• Process improvements often backslide.
• Continuous improvement is just a phrase.
•   The methods of the initiative aren't institutionalized.

The root of these failings is the inability to achieve culture change. An Aberdeen Group survey (2005) reinforced this conclusion when it found that significant culture change remains the top challenge in over 80% of the companies surveyed.

One Answer is 5S

Some companies beat the odds and foster strong, positive cultures. Danaher and Toyota are two of the better known examples.

The method of 5S is one way to engage people and contribute to culture change. 5S is a visually-oriented system of cleanliness, organization, and arrangement (Figure 1) designed to facilitate greater productivity, safety, and quality (Figure 2).   It engages all employees and is a foundation for more self-discipline on the job for better work and better products.

5S is a foundation for more disciplined actions. If workers cannot even put a tool back in its designated location, will they follow standards for production? Its visual nature makes things tat are out of place stick out like a sore thumb. And, when properly supported, it builds a culture of continuous improvement. The benefits of 5S are:

•   Cleaner and safer work areas -- when a work area is clean and organized tripping
    hazards and other dangers are eliminated.

•   Less wasted time through more workplace organization -- when tools and materials are
    accessible and orderly, workers need less time to "go get" and less time to search.

•   Less space -- when unneeded items are eliminated and the needed ones are organized,
    required floor space is dramatically reduced.

•   Improved self-discipline -- the 5S system, especially its visual nature, makes abnormal
    conditions noticeable and makes ignoring standards more difficult.

•   Improved culture -- when 5S is applied systematically, it fosters better teamwork
    and enthusiasm.

People like to work in a well-organized and clean environment. They feel better about themselves and better about their work, and they restore the self-discipline that is found in winning teams.

What are the 5S's?

5S consists of:
• Sorting -- separating the needed from the unneeded. Sorting activities aim to
    eliminate unneeded items from the work area and to perform an initial cleaning.

• Simplifying -- a place for everything and everything in its place, clean and ready for
   use. Simplifying arranges the workplace to ensure safety and efficiency.

•   Systematic Cleaning -- cleaning for inspection. Systematic daily cleaning and inspection
    of work areas and equipment help you understand current conditions and determine if
    corrective action is required.

•   Standardizing -- developing common methods for consistency. Standardizing
    aims to make abnormal conditions noticeable and to document agreements
    to ensure consistency and sustainability.

•   Sustaining -- holding the gains and improving. Sustaining is aimed at maintaining the
    improvements from the other 5S activities and improving further.

Implementing 5S

Often, companies mistakenly view 5S as a housekeeping activity. Housekeeping is housekeeping, not 5S. 5S is a visual system and a system for engaging employees. 5S must be a team effort and the results must enable anyone to "tell at a glance" what is right and what is out of place. It also must make doing the work easier. Implementing 5S occurs in two phases: initial implementation and later refinement.

Since organizing is a key to 5S, eliminating unneeded items comes first. It is wasteful to find a home for something that is not needed.

Sorting -- Sorting clears the deck for the remaining activities. It can often take weeks to accomplish in any given area or department. The steps of sorting are:

• Establish criteria for what is not needed. For example, if something hasn't been used
    for a year, it may be a candidate for disposal.

•   Identify the unneeded items and move to a holding area.

• Dispose of the not needed items, either by transferring to a department that needs
    them, selling them, or discarding them.

• Conduct an initial cleaning.

Once the initial sorting is completed, the natural sequence is to get the work area organized. Simplifying, systematic cleaning, and standardizing go hand-in hand. Simply simplifying - organizing the work - area will deteriorate if the standards are not set. The next paragraphs cover each "S" separately, but they work as a system, and must be performed at the same time, or nearly so.

Simplifying -- Simplifying finds a home for everything. The home should be where the item will most efficiently be stored. Frequently-used items must be as close to where they are used as possible. The steps of simplifying are:

•   Determine a location for each item based on frequency of use and proper safety zone
    (decreasing the likelihood of strain injuries, for example).

•   Develop shadowboards and label items - a home for everything.

• Determine how to replenish supplies.

• Document layout, equipment, supplies, and agreements for returning items to
    their homes.

Systematic Cleaning -- Systematic cleaning provides a way to inspect, by doing a clean sweep around a work area. This means visually as well as with a broom or rags. The idea is make the job of doing daily cleaning and inspections easier. The steps of systematic cleaning are:

• Identify points to check for performance.

• Determine acceptable performance.

• Mark equipment and controls with visual indicators (e.g., gauges show
   the correct range).

• Conduct daily cleaning and visual checks.

Standardizing -- Standardizing assures that everyone knows what is expected. Since the workplace team establishes the standards, everyone should have had some involvement in establishing the 5S in their work area. Still, it is important to make these standards very clear. The steps in standardizing are:

•   Establish a routine check sheet for each work area. The check sheet is like a pilot's
    pre-flight check list. It shows what the team should check during self-audits.

• Establish a multi-level audit system where each level in the organization has a role
    to play in ensuring that 5S is sustained in the work areas and that the 5S system
    evolves and strengthens.

•   Establish and document standard methods across similar work areas.

•   Document any new standard methods for doing the work.

Sustaining -- Sustaining is usually thought of as the toughest "S." However, it doesn't need to be. The trick is to let the 5S system work for you. When you get to this point, you should have engaged everyone in the work area during 5S activities and have a "tell at a glance" visual workplace. If this is so, then sustaining is much easier. That is important, but not sufficient. A more systematic way to prevent backsliding and to foster continuous improvement is needed. The steps of sustaining are:

•   Determine the 5S level of achievement - the overall grade.

•   Perform worker-led routine 5S checks using the 5S check list.

• Address backsliding and new opportunities found during routine checks.

• Conduct scheduled, routine checks by team leads or supervisors or by people
    from outside of the workgroup.

• Perform higher-level audits to evaluate how well the 5S system is working overall.
   For example, are there systemic issues with sustaining 5S? Often, the company's
    safety committee is an excellent body for conducting these audits.

It is through sustaining activities that the practice of 5S is refined. When items aren't returned to their homes, the cause is most likely to be that the home was inconvenient. When the work team addresses these problems, they improve the sustainability of 5S and, more importantly, they improve safety, morale, and productivity.

Measuring the 5S Level of Achievement

Applying the adage, "what gets measured gets done", 5S uses a five-level maturity matrix to grade the 5S level (illustrated in Figure 3). To illustrate the use of the matrix, look at the levels from I to V for Simplifying. Level I is a typical starting level where the work area is an unorganized mess. Achieving Level II for Simplifying requires that needed items are safely stored according to frequency of use. Frequently-used items should be close to the point of use. Achieving Level III requires that the correct quantities of those items have a clearly marked home. Often work areas can achieve this level relatively quickly by installing shadowboards (outlines showing visually where items belong). Levels IV and V require additional refinement. Level IV requires that the number of items in an area are minimized. That means fewer consumables, fewer files or paperwork, and fewer tools. Level V requires that anyone, even people unfamiliar with the area, can retrieve any needed item within 30 seconds and with minimal movement. The overall 5S Level of Achievement is the lowest level attained for any of the S's. 5S is only as good as its weakest link. If a work area has not addressed Standardizing and Sustaining, no matter how high the level achieved for the other S's, the area will eventually revert to a non-5S state.

Conclusion

Although 5S will not solve today's competitive challenges, it does provide a solid foundation for achieving operational excellence. In fact, some world-class companies claim that there can be no improvement without 5S.

The teamwork and discipline built through 5S improve worker-to-worker and worker-to-manager relationships. When people see that what they do makes a difference, and when they see that they have eliminated wasteful practices, their pride grows. This is perhaps the greatest benefit of 5S.

Mike Bresko is a Lean Six Sigma Master who coaches and instructs practitioners, front-line associates, and executives; and guides clients to accomplishing and sustaining operational excellence. He has performed both Lean Six Sigma as well as Maintenance and Reliability conversion projects; and is an experience senior-level executive who is also a hands-on practitioner of process excellence. Mike has 30 years of industrial experience 15 being at Alcoa and the last 13 being with GPAllied or its parent. While at Alcoa, Mike held positions in product engineering, strategic planning, internal consulting, and as President, Alcoa-Zepf and Global Manager, Packaging Equipment where he took a hand-on approach to slash product lead times 60% and product development times 40-60%, and improve the reliability of Alcoa's packaging equipment. While a consultant, Mike has worked with a wide variety of industries from automotive to smelting, insurance, and high tech. Mike has benchmarked world-class companies and published papers or books on 5S, Goal Deployment, Lean Transformations, Lean Reliability Culture, Daily Management, and Reliability Excellence. He holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in Civil Engineering from Carnegie-Mellon University and an M.B.A. from the University of Pittsburgh. Mike is currently Principal Advisor at GPAllied, and can be reached at 206-484-0816 or mbresko@gpallied.com

PrecMaint_Aug_Sept_2009.pdf

What Torque Can Tell You

2009-08-01T19:50:47Z

PdM of Mechanical Failures Using Electrical Measurements for Instantaneous Torque
by Ernesto J. Wiedenbrug

Electric dynamic predictive maintenance is a field of continual rapid technology development. The same theoretical background, which made the first torque controlled VFDs possible, is now utilized to monitor the shaft torque by measuring only the stator currents and voltages. The first diagnostic use of the instantaneous torque signal as part of an off-the-shelf solution for field maintenance reached the market in 1999. In the last ten years, it has shown a dramatic increase in the quality of the information obtained over previously used techniques.

The main benefit to predictive maintenance by the use of instantaneous torque signature analysis is the ease of data assessment. This article covers a variety of case studies on a diverse set of motors (1.5hp to 1250hp) in several industries. These studies aim at fault types that relate mainly to the mechanical field for line operated and VFD driven loads. The faults include looseness, impeller deterioration, mechanical unbalance, bearing failures, eccentricity, VFD-regeneration, VFD dynamic overloading and VFD oscillations.

Looseness

Often the motor and driven load are relatively inaccessible. This is also true for automated machinery in manufacturing environments. Due to safety considerations, it is uncommon that maintenance professionals investigate the functionality of automated machines during operation. Most faults are noticed only after a failure causes work stoppages. Mechanical failures that reach this state will require more downtime to repair than if found at an earlier stage.

Dynamic technology allows measuring the electrical input to motors, and diagnosing the driven process. This concept uses the motor as a sensor for the driven load. Figure 1 shows the instantaneous torque versus time graph in a manufacturing environment. The load is driven by a 1.5hp, 4-pole motor. Understanding the busyness of the predictive maintenance professional's schedule, clearly, the cost of the motor itself is not sufficient to warrant a line shutdown; however, the cost of potential downtime warrants a closer look.

The red line shows the upper limit of the rated operation or rated torque. This signature shows a steady state average torque, onto which torque band increases are added. These band increases represent fast torque changes. Looking at the size of the highest peak to the lowest valley, we see that this dynamic torque changes in a range of full rated torque. This happens literally thousands of times per second, so frequently, that it cannot be counted in this graph without zooming in. This signature shows that there are extremely large pulsations on the driven load that cannot be explained by the nature of the load. A basic understanding of the mechanical setup of this load, however, allows diagnosing looseness and rattling. The fact that the amplitude of the torque bands are varying from band to band, the changing time intervals between these occurrences, as well as the varying duration of the torque band changes, are hallmark limitations of finding signatures using the frequency domain.

There are no reoccurring patterns in the time domain, hence there are no clear distinguishable peaks resulting in the frequency domain. Random patterns, like this one, only elevate the noise-floor in the frequency domain, and are difficult to diagnose there. Fault signatures containing relatively high transient energy levels are optimally found in the time domain. This fault type may or may not have consistent inner frequencies. If the fault lacked consistent inner frequencies, then diagnosis is difficult in either the frequency or demodulated domains.

Finding this fault during general operation and at the MCC was advantageous. It allowed for a safe diagnosis and shortened downtime. Less than one hour was required to readjust the load. Figure 2 shows the torque signature of the same load after the readjustment. The torque band increases are gone, and the torque signature describes a steady state operation.

Impeller Deterioration

Deep well water pumps are used in many community water supply systems. Sand and other foreign materials are pulled into the intake of the pump, which grind inside the pump, causing erosion. The results of this phenomena are shown in Figure 3.

Being able to observe whether foreign materials are being pumped allows for the forecasting of pump degradation. Simple changes such as a reduction in pump speed can help rectify this problem. However, if pump speed is relevant to the process, then an understanding of this deterioration process is beneficial.

A lab setup was used to verify the sand signature of a VFD driven submerged pump. Data was acquired for 120 seconds. For the first 40 seconds the pump operated without sand intrusion into the intake. Increasing amounts of sand were introduced during the remaining 80 seconds. Figure 4 shows the instantaneous torque curve in red, and the short time averaged curve in blue. Notice that the short time average is flat while only water is pumped; however, it shows a strong variation once sand was introduced. Between seconds 100 and 115, the amount of pumped sand is above the acceptable level. After further increases in sand, between seconds 115 and 120, the pump reaches such a high level that it begins to bind.

Mechanical Unbalance

Predicting failures of motors or bearings is important in industry. One of the most critical environments for predictive maintenance is the nuclear industry. Over several years, it was noted that in-duct mounted fans were failing due to bearing problems at an unusual rate. The failures were not successfully predicted by using top of the line portable vibration monitoring equipment. Lacking permanently wired sensors on the motor, vibration data is limited to the outside of the air duct in which the motor is mounted. The mounting bars of the motor to the duct were dampening the vibration signatures. These failure modes, which are easily diagnosed on the motor's case, did not reach the outside of the duct. In an effort to find alternate methods of failure prediction, two failure modes were planted onto a duct-mounted fan. The first experiment was comparing the baseline, well-balanced operation of the fan with a mechanically unbalanced operation, shown in Figure 5.

The torque spectrum shows a 1x peak for this 4-pole motor. This peak amplitude was found to be a reliable measure of the severity of unbalance. This technology can be used for baselining and identifying worsening mechanical unbalance conditions.

Bearing Failures

The second failure mode investigated was an outer bearing failure. Figure 6 (following page) shows a typical bearing signature pattern. This bearing had a BPFO of 107Hz. The failure pattern in the torque signature showed a high peak at 107Hz, and its third harmonic at 314Hz (in red). Additionally it showed the sidebands at ±2 x electrical (in green) to the BPFO.

The result of this investigation showed that it is possible to find deteriorating bearing failures in this type of application. The measurements of currents and voltages were taken at the MCC.

Eccentricity

According to Peter Vas in his book Parameter Estimation, Condition Monitoring, and Diagnosis of Electrical Machines, it is possible to detect eccentricity by using the stator current's frequency components created by rotor bar pass frequencies. Modern work focuses on the use of these frequencies, taking into account that the amplitudes of the current spectra calculated before are not always visible on every motor design. There are rotor bar-stator slot combinations, which will not show the signatures, regardless of the amount of eccentricity. Babour and Thomson investigated the effects of rotor slot design (open or closed bridge), saturation and skew. Their conclusions were that the frequencies observed by variations due to skew, rotor bar design in combination with stator slot design and saturation, make an accurate assessment of eccentricity based on the rotor bar pass frequencies unreliable. If the maintenance professional does not know what combination of rotor bar and stator slot counts work with the rotor bar pass frequency method, an inaccurate assessment could be made. The analysis of 1x and 2x electrical frequencies in the demodulated torque spectrum is a method that does not require knowledge of rotor bar and stator slot combinations.

Cryogenic pump motors are operated at liquid nitrogen temperatures. These low temperatures can introduce a bend into the rotor if not well tempered. This dynamic eccentricity disappears the instant the motor is removed from these extreme conditions. This situation is challenging to determine with vibration analysis because accelerometers do not function well at cryogenically low temperatures, and the fault does not show when the motor is elevated to normal temperatures.

Our research has shown that the AM demodulated torque signal is a reliable way of identifying dynamic eccentricity. An additional advantage is that dynamic eccentricity shows at the same frequencies that it does for vibration technology: at 1x and 2x electrical. Figure 7 shows the frequency spectrum of the AM demodulated torque signature for a motor with dynamic eccentricity. You will notice a significant amplitude increase at 60 Hz and 120 Hz.

VFD - Regeneration

Variable Frequency Drives (VFDs) are challenging to diagnosis, due to the dynamic changes of operating conditions. Lacking a steady state, the analysis requires the work be performed in the time domain.

This pulp and paper industry application is a 60 hp conveyor belt, which feeds logs into a saw. When there is no log in proximity to the saw, the conveyor's 6-pole motor runs at maximal rated speed (1200rpm). This is the operation's first 0.7 seconds, and from 3.7 seconds to cycle completion. The blue line shows the constant higher speed at 1200rpm during these times. At 0.7 seconds, the log reaches the saw. This causes the PLCs to slow the conveyor's speed to cutting speed (250rpm.) The deceleration takes 1 second. Cutting the log takes 1 second, and then, at 2.7 seconds, the PLCs accelerate back to 60Hz.

The red line in Figure 8 is the torque signal. It keeps a steady average value during the steady state operations. During the deceleration and acceleration, it keeps constant low and high torque values, respectively. This behavior matches expectations, by remembering that

Force = mass X acceleration

In Figure 9, we see the same torque signal, represented at a higher resolution. Typically, the resolution in Figure 9 is used for understanding trends in the system. The resolution in Figure 9 scrutinizes the particulars of the system. It also shows the dynamic rated torque boundary. This is calculated as a function of voltage level, frequency and motor nameplate information. This line represents the equivalent of the full rated operation's temperature stress to the motor.

Three interesting items were identified in this figure. First, A, shows the torque is negative. This means that during the deceleration, the motor is operating with a negative torque, trying to stop the load from running fast. The negative torque means the motor is operating as a generator, taking energy from the driven load and passing it to the electrical grid.

The motor can operate as a generator without any trouble; however, not all loads can withstand a push-pull type operation. In this case, the conveyor was designed for a push-pull operation.

VFD - Dynamic Overloading

Secondly, B in Figure 9 shows the instantaneous torque surpasses the rated torque. The rated torque is 220 Nm, while the operating torque keeps an average of 300 Nm with a peak surpassing 400 Nm.

Overloading is a fundamental reason why motors overheat. A closer look shows that the motor overloads during acceleration. The solution is simple. Slowing the settings for acceleration (Hz/seconds) will keep the motor from overheating. If the 1-second acceleration from 20Hz to 60Hz is lengthened to a 1.3-second acceleration, the torque will drop by the percentage by which the acceleration time is extended. Again, remember the equation:

Force = mass X acceleration

Commonly, there is no problem in slowing down the acceleration for such an application. It results in a reduced production of 0.3 seconds per log. If this 0.3 second was prohibitive, the cruising speed of the conveyor could be adjusted higher. It is set at 60Hz, which is a common 'rated' setting. NEMA MG1 allows motors of 4-poles and up to be run up to 110% of rated frequency. The needed adjustment would make up for 0.3 seconds during the 4 seconds of 60Hz speed. Setting the cruising speed from 60.0Hz to 66.0Hz will rectify the lower acceleration rate's lost productivity. This small change in cruising speed will not noticeably affect the health of the mechanical system.

VFD - Oscillation (Hunting)

Finally, section C in Figure 9 shows an inconstant torque while the motor is running at a set speed. The torque is showing a low amplitude oscillation. This type of oscillation is typical within VFDs, and can be explained as the mechanical system 'talking' to the electrical regulation of the VFD. The electro-mechanical system can start swinging, or oscillating. This mode frequently is called 'hunting' by the field. Even though the motor sustains no damage under this operation mode, the mechanical system is constantly accelerated and decelerated. This swinging will stress the entire mechanical system, including the conveyor belt and all parts holding it in place. Such an oscillation represents unnecessary wear on the system.

Most VFD's produced during the last 15 years have adjustable PID settings. The PID settings' function is to counteract the 'talking' between the load and the VFD. Since the VFD manufacturers do not know in advance what mechanical system properties the motor will face, they cannot pre-set the VFD in its optimal state. Ensuring that the PIDs are set to avoid oscillations is the responsibility of field maintenance. They may do this task themselves, deal with the VFD manufacturer's service group, or hire a third party.

Comparing Current And Torque Signals

Current signature analysis has been on the market for nearly twice as long as torque signature analysis. It also has the enticing simplicity of not requiring a synchronous measurement of multiphase currents and voltages, nor does it need additional computation. So why go to the trouble for the added complexity of the torque calculation? The answer is in the commonly used domains of torque analysis: Time and Demodulated.

Time Domain -- The same process, in which the cryogenic pump manufacturer checks for low temperature induced eccentricity, is used for overall functioning of the pump.

In Figure 10, it is virtually impossible to distinguish the quality of the signatures of the good and the poor operation.

In Figure 11, the two torque signatures show tremendous differences. Through basic understanding of pump operation, a steady state is expected with nearly no torque ripple. With the use of the torque signature method, the visual difference between a healthy signature and a faulted one makes it unnecessary to compare one signature with the other. The torque signature results in a simple, intuitive and definitive assessment, whereas the current signature offers an unrealistic fault assessment.

Demodulation Domain -- Evaluation of the demodulation signals quality for current and torque signals is performed by looking at the field example of eccentricity quality control. As discussed previously, the rotor bar pass frequency is not a reliable identification of eccentricity faults for motors. Table 1 compares the signatures obtained using the identical data for the four motors tested. The signatures are investigated at 1x and 2x electrical frequencies.

Table 1 shows that the difference in amplitudes of the demodulated current's signatures is maximized at 31% in the motor showing a fault. This level barely suffices in the field for defining useful thresholds. The torque signature, however, shows an increased signature of almost 600%. This signal would be of reliable quality for setting pass-fail criteria. Here again, the torque signal proves to be a better quality tool for field use than the current signature technology.

Conclusions

Instantaneous torque was used to identify a variety of field relevant fault modes. Looseness and pumping of sand were successfully diagnosed with the time-domain torque signal. Mechanical unbalance and bearing faults were recognized with the torque vs. frequency representation. Eccentricity was diagnosed with the demodulated frequency representation of the torque signal. Dynamic VFD applications showing cases of regeneration, dynamic overloading and hunting were diagnosed with the time domain signal.

Many of these diagnoses are impossible to make successfully using the current signature analysis technology. The advantages of the modern and proven torque signal were contrasted to the results obtained using the same data.

Ernesto J. Wiedenbrug (S'94 M'00 SM'01) holds a Dipl. Ing. from Aachen, Germany and a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Oregon State University. He is the project manager for Baker Instrument Company's on-line technology. He has worked as an intern for Siemens SA in Buenos Aires, Argentina and as a power engineer for ISCOR, in VanderBjilpark, Rep. of South Africa. During his doctoral degree he had a one year fellowship with Volkswagen AG Germany, and was subsequently employed as the general manager of the Motor Systems Resource Facility, an EPRI funded center. His main area of interest is predictive and preventive maintenance of electrical motors.

References
- Analysis of Electric Machinery, Paul C. Krause, IEEE Press
- NFPA 70E
- Measurement Analysis and Efficiency Estimation of Three Phase Induction Machines
   Using Instantaneous Electrical quantities, E. Wiedenbrug
- In-service testing of Three Phase Induction Machines, E. Wiedenbrug, A. Wallace
- Parameter Estimation, Condition Monitoring, and Diagnosis of Electrical Machines,
   Peter Vas
- Selection Criteria of Induction Machines for Speed-sensorless Drive Application, S.
   Nandi, S. Ahmed, H.A. Toliyat, R. Bharadwaj
- Mixed Eccentricity in Three Phase Induction Machines: Analysis, Simulation and
   Experiments, S. Nandi, R.M. Bharadwaj, H.A. Toliyat
- Finite Element Study of Rotor Slot Designs with respect to Current Monitoring for
   Detecting Static Airgap Eccentricity in Squirrel-Cage Induction Motors, Babour,
   W.T. Thomson
- NEMA, Motors and Generators MG1-1998

MotorTest_Aug_Sept_2009.pdf

Why PdM Programs Fail

2009-08-01T19:32:03Z

Why PdM Programs Fail: Misuse of Technology
by Alan Friedman

A very good mechanic knows that you need the right tool for the job, but a common problem with PdM programs is that sometimes people acquire the tool before fully understanding what problem needs to be fixed. Of course, when you have a hammer all of your problems look like nails, and what follows from this mistaken view is a whole list of reasons why PdM programs fail. The biggest lesson I learned from engineering school is that the solution to a problem is most often found in its correct definition. That is, solutions become obvious when you really understand what the problem is.

We laugh when we read the exchange between the tech support person and the new computer owner who calls to say his wireless Internet is not working. After the tech support person laboriously goes through all of the steps to verify that the hardware and software are all installed and functioning, she asks who the person's Internet service provider is - and, in the pregnant pause that follows, we suddenly know what the real problem is!

One reason PdM programs fail is because the goals of the program are not well defined or well understood. A company purchases a technology like a vibration analysis system or infrared camera and then they get trained to use the tool, but not what to use it for. What they often fail to do is change processes and procedures in the plant to take advantage of the information this new tool provides. In other words, you buy a screwdriver, you learn how to loosen and tighten screws but you somehow fail to see how this does or doesn't relate to the plant's overall operation.

So, what are the goals of a successful program? Depending on your background, experience or role in your organization, you may have differing ideas about this, but how you view this will have a large impact on how you employ the technology and on the sorts of benefits you will receive. It will also ultimately dictate your view of what is the best tool for the job. To reiterate, I believe that the failure of many PdM programs can be traced back directly to confusion or disagreement on this core question: what is the goal of the program? Why are we purchasing this tool (or service), how will we use it and how will we measure our success? In many cases, the tools are purchased before these questions are answered, if they are ever answered.   In other cases, the benefits one hopes to achieve are not in line with how the technology is actually being employed.

Let's consider two common viewpoints regarding the goals of a vibration analysis program. One typical view is that vibration analysis is one of the best non-destructive technologies available to detect and diagnose mechanical faults and degradation in rotating machinery. The goal of using the technology is to detect and diagnose faults in rotating machinery - period.

Another common view is that because vibration analysis can be used to detect wear in rotating machines, one can utilize this machinery condition information to better plan maintenance actions. This leads to an increase in uptime, quality and plant performance and a decrease in unplanned maintenance, catastrophic failures and accidents. These benefits, loosely defined as Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE), lead to higher profitability. In this view, the lofty goal of the vibration analysis program is higher plant profitability.

This is the crux of many failed programs. Perhaps a manager agrees to purchase a vibration monitoring system or a monitoring service. In his mind, he imagines a 30:1 return on his investment. Maybe he hasn't thought it completely through, but when he considers the benefits of such a system, his mind leans towards the goal of higher profitability. He has read plenty of articles about condition monitoring and profitability and he is sold on the idea of it. Now, a product has been purchased, some technicians and engineers have been given some training, but they understand the goal differently. They use the equipment to detect problems in their rotating machinery; perhaps they even become quite skilled at it. But beyond this, no organizational changes have been implemented to schedule maintenance based on vibration test results, nor have metrics been introduced to calculate and measure the impact of the technology on uptime and spare parts and, ultimately, its impact on the bottom line.

From the point of view of the engineers and technicians using the system, it appears successful. They are able to troubleshoot machines and diagnose problems but imagine what happens when a recession hits and upper management goes around looking for programs to cut. How will these technicians make the case that their vibration program should be preserved? Where is the 30:1 ROI? This is one major cause of terminated PdM programs. The original idea was to impact the bottom line, but the technology was actually used in a more limited fashion. The organizational and procedural changes required to utilize machine condition information to meet the goal of higher profitability were not implemented.

Another issue is the tool itself, the actual equipment or service that one purchases. If we consider the two separate goals mentioned above, it will soon be obvious that the equipment we purchase, and how we use the equipment, will vary based on our goal. Again, I will reiterate that most people purchase the equipment first and never fully reconcile the goal.

Here is a common scenario that describes a plant using vibration analysis to troubleshoot machines and determine what is wrong with them. The plant either has a vibration expert on-site or uses an outside consultant. Typically, someone hears a weird noise coming from a machine or they feel that the machine is vibrating too much. Maybe the machine keeps failing unexpectedly or seems to have more problems than a similar unit. Whatever it is, someone in the maintenance department believes there is a problem, and so they call the vibe guy to troubleshoot it.

The on-site expert or consultant will require customizable high tech equipment that allows him to set up a variety of special tests to troubleshoot the machine. The data collection equipment may have a big screen because the analyst will do a lot of his analysis on the plant floor. The equipment may also have many channels and it will likely be complex and difficult to use. Because there is no historical data, the focus will not be on trending or looking for changes over time, therefore, his equipment will not require any advanced alarming or trending capabilities. It would not be uncommon to expect the analyst to spend multiple hours or even multiple days in some cases, diagnosing the problem and submitting his report. This would most likely be a costly, but hopefully, infrequent expense.

Summary Scenario #1

Data collector needs:
   • Big screen
   • Many test types
   • Customizable, multi-channel, magnet mounted sensors
   • Intelligence in the analyzer

Does not need:
   • Alarming
   • Trending
   • Reporting
   • Intelligent software

Analyst:
   • Highly trained
   • Highly paid
   • Experienced

Program manager:
   • Not much program management required

Now let's consider that the goal of the program is to use the technology to better plan maintenance, ultimately leading to a measurable impact on plant profitability. What type of equipment will be best suited to meet this goal?

In this next scenario, the emphasis is placed on trending because the goal is to look for changes in machine condition and then base maintenance decisions on this information. Time is spent up front defining standard test conditions and organizing the program. This scenario calls for a low cost, efficient worker to collect data in exactly the same way, day in and day out, year after year on the same equipment. The data collection equipment would be "idiot proof" with limited or controlled options for the user, or it may be an online system. Test points on the machine would be screw type sensor pads or installed targets for magnet mounts to insure repeatability. Initiation of a standard test should take no more than a button press. Because the data collection tasks, including the required equipment, have been defined in such a way as to ensure repeatable, relevant and historical data, there is no reason for the person collecting the data to look at or analyze the data on the plant floor. This eliminates the need for the data collector's big screen.

The software will have to be very good at looking at trend data in an efficient way because this scenario also calls for testing most of the plant's machines frequently, not only machines with known problems. Therefore, the analysis software will require the sophistication, not the data collector. There won't be time (or need) for an analyst to spend multiple hours looking at data from each machine; a couple of minutes will be enough to see if the condition has changed, a couple more will be needed to understand how it's changed and to update the status and add a recommendation in the software. Additionally, because trends based on good data should provide enough information to meet the goals of this scenario, the data collector will not require the capability to perform advanced customized tests, nor will the technician collecting the data require much training.

Lastly, since this scenario is concerned with improving maintenance decisions and relating them to the bottom line, the software should be part of a larger CMMS package or Plant Asset Management program. Linking results to business goals such as improvements in uptime, quality and plant performance allow maintenance managers to accurately quantify their impact on profitability.

Summary Scenario #2

Data collector:
   • Easy to use
   • Human error proof
   • Simple, standard tests or online system

Data collector doesn't need:
   • Big screen
   • Complex customized tests

Sensor:
   • Triaxial sensor and stud mount

Software:
   • Intelligent software
   • Good alarming
   • Trending and reporting features
   • Links to CMMS and asset management software
   • Metrics calculated from maintenance decisions up to plant profitability

User:
   • Data collection technician
   • Low skill
   • Low wage

Program manager:
   • High skill
   • High wage

As you can see, the way we define the goal has a big impact on the type of equipment we will purchase and how this equipment is used. It also points to a common reason why PdM programs fail. People often buy the equipment with the most bells and whistles first, with little to no attention on the software and no idea how the monitoring program will be organized. This is to say they buy the equipment defined in the first scenario with a vague idea that they will receive the rewards of using it as described in the second scenario. They focus more on the tool than on program management. When they receive training from the equipment vendor, it is often training in how to use the tool, not what to use the tool for. People who fall into this trap will typically say that they only test "critical" machines, not understanding that they are doing this because they bought equipment that was not designed to test large numbers of machines efficiently.

Now let's return to the original question: Why do PdM programs fail? One reason that I hope is clear by now is the possible confusion between condition monitoring tools and their accompanying goals. The most common stumbling blocks are in understanding what the business goals are, employing the right tools, people and processes to meet those goals and establishing metrics to show how effective the program is in reaching the goals. Often times, plants employ highly trained individuals to use complex equipment solely to troubleshoot machines that are already known to be problematic. This may be a valid use of the technology, but it is not PdM and does not bring the same rewards or ROI. If you begins with the stated goal of increasing profitability and work down the ladder from there, equipment purchases and the way these tools are employed will be very different and the profitability goal will be better realized.

Alan Friedman is a senior technical advisor for Azima DLI (www.AzimaDLI.com). With more than 18 years of engineering experience, Friedman has worked with hundreds of industrial facilities worldwide and developed proven best practices for sustainable condition monitoring and predictive maintenance programs. Friedman contributed to the development of Azima DLI's automated diagnostic system and has produced and taught global CAT II and CAT III equivalent vibration analysis courses. Friedman is a senior instructor at the Mobius Institute, an independent provider of vibration training and certification, and an instructor for the Instituto Mexicano de Mantenimiento Predictivo (Predictive Maintenance Institute of Mexico). He is also the founder of ZenCo, a positive vibrations company. You can contact Alan at 206-327-3332 or at friedmanalan1@gmail.com

MaintMgmt_Aug_Sept_2009.pdf

Help Wanted

2009-08-01T17:41:57Z

Help Wanted: Maintenance Manager
by Cliff Williams

When asked at school "What would you like to be when you grow up?", how many 10 year olds do you think would reply enthusiastically, "A Maintenance Manager". The safe bet is that the answer would be none.

How many 10 year olds would have any idea what a maintenance manager is or, for that matter, how many 20 year olds or 30 year olds....you get the picture? When you think about it, there is no real reason that those not directly involved in maintenance management could understand what it is.

When was the last time you saw a movie where the super hero's alter-ego was a Maintenance Manager? Or the last time a romantic movie you watched with your significant had the romantic white knight come in the guise of an Asset Reliability Professional? I don't know about you, but I'm looking forward to the new television series entitled "Miami RCM", where teams of investigators will rush out to perform vibration analysis. The best part will be when the team gets together to examine infrared footage, and I just can't wait for the close-up of the oil analysis slide under the microscope.

Am I dreaming? - I think so. So the real questions become:

1. Who are the people that become Maintenance Managers?
2. How does it happen?

3. What, exactly, is it that they do?

In this article, we will look at typical answers to these questions and then take an alternative view to answering question 3 to see how it impacts the other questions.

Question 1: Who are the people that become Maintenance Managers?
The people who become Maintenance Managers tend to have a background in 1 of 3 scenarios.

A. The largest group already work in the maintenance environment as tradespeople, planners etc.
B. They are Engineers who decide that they wish to take their expertise into the maintenance field
C. They are Project Managers/ Engineers who stay behind after installations

Question 2: How does it happen?
For each answer to question 1 there is a different route:

A. They were good at what they did. They were the 'go-to' guys when you needed something fixed. They knew more about the equipment than anyone else. They, and management, believed that these attributes meant they deserved to be Maintenance Managers.

B. They found that there were limited opportunities for true engineering and figured their design and theoretical knowledge of equipment and systems would hold them in good stead in maintenance. Management really liked the idea of having an engineer in maintenance because of that knowledge.

C. Having spent incredible energy and time on the project they decide to stick around and see the fruits of their work. Management are delighted that 'the guy that installed it' is going to be around if something goes wrong.

Question 3 What is it exactly that they do?
This is the big money question and the answer really depends on who you ask but typical responses are:

A. They keep the plant running.
B. They fix machines.
C. They provide a service to production.
D. They look after the tradespeople.
E. They ensure reliability.

You may have more or different answers but the list above is typical. Now, I'd like to suggest an alternative answer to Question 3 --- They manage people and systems.

The end results of this may well be the answers given for Question 3, but I suggest that what they actually do is manage people and systems. I would also suggest that the skills and attributes required to be successful are not the ones usually asked for in job postings for maintenance managers. If a job posting were to really reflect the requirements for a maintenance manager maybe it would look something like this.

Help Wanted
Must Have Skills

Amateur Psychology
Conflict Resolution
Mind Reader
Prioritization
Motivation and Inspiration
Communications Specialist
Prima Donna Management
Interpreter
Bi-lingual
Philosopher
Visionary

So let's take a look at why these skills are important to a Maintenance Manager

Amateur Psychology

'There is not enough time in the day to get done everything I need to.' So many times I've heard that comment from maintenance managers and it's true - if they try to do it themselves. Successful managers only do those things that they, alone, can do. Everything else, they manage through other people, and that's where psychology comes in. Let's look at two definitions of psychology:

1. The emotional and behavioral characteristics of an individual or group
2. Subtle tactical action or argument used to manipulate or influence another

Understanding the first definition, and understanding that it changes from day to day will allow you to modify your response. Late nights, domestic upsets etc. result in different attitudes and require different approaches to get the same outcomes. Knowing this will, in turn, allow you to exert definition number 2, and that enables you to complete the tasks what you need to. You cannot do it alone, you need your people on board and you need to know what makes them tick. Situational Management courses can help as you use psychology to move your under-achievers to self-regulating performers.

Conflict Resolution

'Night shift didn't do anything.' 'That's not my job - it's electrical.' And 'If they knew how to operate - this wouldn't have happened'. Who hasn't heard comments like that - the conflict between groups that ends up taking too much time out of your day and prevents you from getting what you want completed. Most of us are so busy that we just deal with the surface issue, the sticking point, the symptom. We never take (or think we have) the time to look at the underlying causes, and, as such, we'll be facing a similar problem next week.

There are usually a number of root causes, but there is one that occurs in every mix - and that's communication. So if we take the time to resolve the communication problem then we will help resolve the issue before it becomes a conflict. Communication, initially the biggest part of that is listening, will not only allow you to get to the actual cause, but it will also show those involved that you care about their problems - good old psychology again. If there seems to be systemic conflict then approaches like multi-discipline teams or holding combined meetings, Mechanical and E&I, Maintenance and Operations will bring the groups closer together. Once people are aware of each other's challenges, then there is room for compromise and that, in itself, will reduce conflict.

Mind Reader

If only we could read minds then, we wouldn't bring in an army of contractors to be told, 'Sorry but we're running that equipment today.' We wouldn't need call-ins to deal with, 'I know it's not working properly - it's been like it for months'. People tend to be concerned with what is important to them, and generally don't consider the impact on others. A way to reduce the need for this skill is to show them the impact of their actions on you, them and the company and remind them every time they forget. Having people understand that it's not what you know about that causes you problems, it's what you don't know - will help them communicate better.

Prioritization

'I need it done now!' 'I want that report tomorrow!' 'Daddy, when will you be home?' Being a maintenance manager means that your personal priorities are only a part of the process.

You have to take into account the demands of the tradespeople, production, and your boss when you develop your priorities. These are sometimes unreasonable and can be great stress inducers and so staying calm becomes a necessary asset. For those people who always have a million priorities just a calm reminder that yesterday they gave you another 10 'top priorities' and that you really do want to satisfy them but you need them to tell you which is their top 'top priority' may diffuse the situation. Even your boss will have to accept this approach as long as you remain calm. While you're having the discussion why not prioritize the next five 'top priorities' and then send them a copy of the list they agreed to. Invite them to prioritization meetings and if they're 'too busy' to show up, then document that they're 'too busy.' Prioritization is far more difficult if you haven't mastered the skill of 'Amateur Psychology'. Last but most important is prioritizing Work Life balance - you may get another job, you may earn more money but you can't get back time. More on this in the next skill.

Motivation and Inspiration

'But we've always done it that way' 'I don't understand this new fangled technology' 'Boring!' People become complacent or at least comfortable in their work life. There's nothing more challenging to the comfort than change. Change happens, change is constant, it's how we transition after change that makes it good or bad. YOU need to be the champion of change for the maintenance group. Whether it's different equipment, different strategy, a new CMMS or just a change in a procedure or policy, you need to demonstrate how you will embrace it. Only then will you be able to motivate others to accept change. On a day-to-day basis you need to show that you are prepared to go the extra mile, and that you are right there with them in their efforts. There's no better motivator than recognition, so make an effort to recognize every day. A simple thank you, tickets to a ball game, whatever is proportional to the effort, but also make sure that it is appropriate for the person being recognized. Not everyone likes public recognition so maybe a quite word will do, but for those who do like the publicity, the middle of a full lunch room is the place. Giving Mets tickets to a Yankees fan will defeat the objective. Amateur Psychology again!

Being enthusiastic, energized, always willing to help, will help you become an inspiration for those working with you, if you're not enjoying what you're doing - stop doing it - life's too short and you certainly won't inspire anyone else.

For those who would like to understand true inspiration visit:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo

And read the book The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch - a truly remarkable man.

Communication Specialist

' What's the point- they never listen' 'No-one told me about that.' As mentioned in Conflict Resolution, poor or lack of communication can cause a myriad of problems so this skill is essential to a maintenance manager. Being a good speaker certainly helps, but being a good listener is even better because it's not all about you. This is still only half the story, when you've listened- respond - do something, do nothing - but respond. Always get back to them even if you know they won't like what they hear. Set the ground rules for that by establishing that there will be issues that the group controls, issues that they will influence and issues that they will just be made aware of. Communicate reasons for decisions, business, department or personal. Attempt to meet with the group every week, together or in smaller groups where you need to present the three I's of communication:

Involve them - ask opinions, discuss any options
Interest them - make it interesting, give them background, reasons, constraints
In it for them - tell them how they will benefit if possible, affect them if not.

Try to start your meetings with some high notes - get into the meaty part and then leave on a light note - sending them out in good humor will increase productivity.

Prima Donna Management

'Go get Joe, he's the expert.' Every plant has at least one Jo - the guy who fixes certain problems and often little else. He can put out fires quicker than anyone else, but ask him to do a mundane PM and you get nowhere. He enjoys the glory and keeps the knowledge to himself. The secret is to use Amateur Psychology to get him to be recognized for doing the things you want him to do - if someone else gives some training - heap on the glory. If you want him to move to being proactive - prevent fires - then make that the glamorous job.

There are also Prima Donna departments who want to be considered different - break down the barriers, locate the shops next to each other hold multi-discipline meetings. When people are forced to interact with one another, the barriers come down by themselves.

Interpreter

"The ROI is dependent on your OEE and will be influenced by your MTBF and MTTR, and, is a result of your PM, PdM and RCM programs with any FMCEA carried out."

Say what? If they can't understand what you're saying, how can they help you achieve your goals? Interpret what the maintenance gurus are saying into practical everyday examples. Interpret the consequences of what the tradespeople do or don't do into something meaningful to them.

As with communication, the listening side of interpretation is the more important side. Many times tradespeople throw up an argument about something that is distant from what's bothering them. They'll complain about how the area is dirty when what they are really mad about is the schedule changes. If you don't' push and try to interpret what the real problem is, you'll never remove the root cause.

Bi-Lingual

Must be fluent in accounting and one other language. Accounting is the language that counts, it's the language that is understood from the shop floor to the board room - it transcends departmental boundaries. If you want to change something in the department, give it to your boss in dollars and cents, and then use the same dollars and cents to explain why it's happening to the guys on the floor. Plant managers and accountants may not understand the tools or tactics you use, but they will understand the financial implications.

'If we increase our PdM and decrease our PM, our MTBF will lengthen and with some training and early intervention our MTTR will be reduced" means nothing to them. A better explanation would be, "if we do what we want, we'll make more money." And the best translation that all will understand is, "If we invest $5,000 on vibration analysis per year, we will increase uptime by 2% and realize an increase in revenue of $25,000 based on today's production rate."

Discussing the total cost of a work order, including labor, cost of lost production parts, etc. will be much more meaningful to the tradespeople - I'll guarantee that after a few discussions you will start to get really good cost reduction ideas.

Philosopher

Let's take a look at the definition of Philosophy:
1. Love and pursuit of wisdom by intellectual means and moral self-discipline
2. The critical study of the basic principles and concepts of a particular branch of knowledge, esp. with a view to improving or reconstituting them.
3. A system of values by which one lives.

Let's expand on those:
Definition 1: This is about you - get out there and learn what other people are doing in maintenance - attend conferences - develop your own thoughts on how you can apply this wisdom.

Definition 2: The more you know and understand about the basic principles of your chosen field, the more you will find ways to improve it. Remember, if you're not moving forward, you're moving backward because everyone else is moving forward.

Definition 3: You spend more time at your place of work than any other one place - so why would your values be different at work. Trust, integrity, appreciation are words that should form part of your maintenance dictionary. When you have finished gazing out into space, you will need the last skill to turn your philosophies into practices.

Visionary

None of these skills will mean much unless you develop the last, but most important skill - being visionary. You have to push the envelop, think out of the box, reach for the stars or boldly go where no man has gone before or whatever other cliché you like. You need to have a vision of where you want to take the maintenance department. Through a Vision or Mission Statement, you must paint the picture of the future of the department - not just what it looks like, but also how you will get there, incorporating all of the listed above. If you want people to join you on the journey to excellence they need to know the route and what they can expect to meet along the way.

You will also need to develop norms and standards around the values you propose. It's no good if one of your values is 'We will trust our people" and then institute a rigid time keeping system. It's no good if your value is "We will value everyone's contribution" and then ignore them every time they suggest something or not even give them a chance to express their opinion. If there is a doubt that you can support a value with a norm or standard - don't put it in there.

You need to demonstrate the values through your actions not through T-shirts or fancy wall posters. No amount of memos or discussions will reverse any bad feelings your actions have caused. As the sign that hangs on my office wall wherever I go as a reminder says, "You can't talk yourself out of a situation you behaved yourself into."

So, the next time someone asks you 'What exactly is it Maintenance Mangers do?' I hope you'll reply, " We manage people and systems. Let me explain......"

Cliff Williams is a thirty year plus veteran of the maintenance field who has worked in the Pulp and Paper and Steel industries as well as with food giants Coca Cola, Kraft and Wrigley. His present position sees him help drive the maintenance performance at ERCO's plants in North and South America. In an effort to give back to the field that has supported him for so many years, Cliff teaches Maintenance Management at local colleges and writes for trade magazines in Canada. Cliff believes that maintenance is about people first and foremost.

No Outage Inpsections

2009-08-01T17:30:53Z

No Outage Inpsections
Which Tools Are Best for Medium Voltage Electrical Inspections
by Don Genutis

Although there are many useful electrical 'on-line' predictive maintenance technologies available to assess equipment condition, this article will outline and discuss the most effective tools for determining the condition of medium and high voltage equipment. A brief application summary is included for each technology in order to enhance your understanding or, if you are already familiar with the technologies, to serve as a review.

Visual Inspections are very useful but may be limited due to equipment construction. However, it is always recommended to conduct thorough visual inspections in conjunction with any of the other 'no-outage' technologies. Visual inspections may indicate unusual conditions that other technologies may not directly detect.

Infrared (IR) technology is primarily used to detect conductor problems and can be useful for inspecting any equipment where connections are visible. It is important to realize that insulation problems rarely create a detectable temperature rise, so other technologies should also be employed. IR is probably the best on-line tool for detecting low voltage problems.

Partial discharge (PD) testing using electromagnetic signal detection is very useful in identifying problems within switchgear, cables, dry-type transformers and other devices. PD testing is not as effective as Airborne Acoustic or Corona Camera surveys when inspecting "open" constructed equipment. A new handheld PD detector (shown in Figure 1) has been developed that combines ultrasonic and electromagnetic sensor technologies into one easy-to-use instrument which allows medium voltage insulation to be surveyed for defects in an efficient and cost-effective manner.

Airborne Acoustic (AA) or ultrasonic listening can be useful in detecting direct line-of-sight surface insulation problems or when the acoustic signal escapes the equipment enclosure through openings. One advantage of using ultrasonic inspections is that surveys can be conducted quickly.

The Corona Camera detects direct line-of-sight surface insulation or conductor problems very effectively by producing an image of the problem that is normally invisible during daylight conditions. This technology is perhaps the best for outdoor substations or high voltage applications, but also supplements the other no-outage technologies by providing visual proof of surface problems. Just as every apparatus with connections should be scanned with IR, all medium & high voltage equipment should be scanned for Corona.

Oil/Gas sampling and analysis is an effective tool to indicate both the condition of the insulation and the condition of the equipment. Unfortunately, solid insulation cannot be sampled in the same manner, so other on-line technologies must be employed to evaluate equipment constructed with solid dielectrics.

Comparing the No-Outage Technologies

Remember the old saying - "a picture is worth a thousand words"? Below we will display the differences in some of these technologies pictorially to better help identify their differences.

First, we should briefly explain the differences between two popular inspection methods, infrared and partial discharge technologies. Infrared technology detects heat that is generated by current flow or amperage related problems that are often caused by loose connections. So, infrared detects the condition of the conductor. Partial discharge, ultrasonic and corona surveys detect voltage problems that occur from the partial failure of the insulation. So, these technologies detect the condition of the insulation. In order for partial discharges or corona to occur, typically voltages greater than 2,000 volts must be present. Therefore, these technologies are not effective for low voltage applications.

Now, back to the pictures. We created simple, surface discharges in the laboratory by applying an AC hypot to an unshielded medium voltage conductor that was placed upon a ground conductor. We then performed several types of tests as shown in Figures 2-6.

What conclusions can be made from this simple experiment and our previous knowledge of these technologies?

• Infrared is the best tool for low voltage equipment assessment. This should be a
     "minimum" annual test requirement, especially for low voltage equipment.

• For medium voltage switchgear and dry-type transformers that have surface tracking
     or corona problems, the Ultrasonic tester provides a quick and relatively inexpensive
     solution that will detect many problems.

• A Partial Discharge test set using a capacitive sensor can detect "deep" or non-surface
     insulation defects in medium voltage switchgear and dry-type transformers and should
     be used to supplement the ultrasonic test set in order to detect additional problems.

• A Partial Discharge test set using a high frequency current transformer is the best tool
     to detect cable, termination and splice problems

• A Daylight Corona camera is excellent for pinpointing surface discharges in medium
     voltage equipment and is the best tool for high voltage equipment

Conclusion

So what is the "best" No-Outage technology? The answer is the one that will detect the problem. While none of the technologies discussed in this article can single-handedly detect every type of problem, by employing all of these technologies as part of an annual predictive maintenance program, many problems will be detected and many failures will be prevented. The matrix shown in Figure 7 has been created to help identify the best "No-Outage" technologies available for various types of electrical equipment.

Don Genutis received his BSEE from Carnegie Mellon University, has been a NETA Certified Technician for 15 years, and is a Certified Corona Technician. Don's technical training and education is complemented by twenty-five years of practical field and laboratory electrical testing experience. Recently, Don co-founded and acts as President of No-Outage Electrical Testing, Inc. a Group CBS affiliate that focuses on new inspection technologies that are performed while the equipment remains in service. He can be reached at DGenutis@groupcbs.com or 813-752-6051.

Successful EAM Implementation

2009-08-01T17:10:26Z

Successful EAM Implementation & Seven Critical Pitfalls to Avoid
Jim Davis, CMRP

Each year companies spend thousands to sometimes millions of dollars on a new EAM system only to find that one to two years down the road after implementation, they have no better data than what they previously had, and, in fact, find themselves using less than twenty-five percent of the capabilities of the new software.

So what went wrong? Why didn't the investment pan out as anticipated? How then could other companies avoid the same mistakes in the future?

What Went Wrong?

There can be many contributing factors to an unsuccessful EAM implementation. However, the most common ones can be summarized below:

1) IT drove the project, with little to no real user input.

2) The company failed to do a thorough review and update of its business practices,
     especially in relation to how it could and should fully utilize the new software's capabilities.

3) Little thought and effort was put into developing the right "codes & tables" within the
     system, especially in alignment with any new business processes that would collect,
     input and analyze required.

4) User Levels were not well identified and honored.

5) Software training was not aligned with process training. Any association was assumed
     to eventually occur on its own.

6) Critical KPI's and reports were not well thought through.

7) There was not a software super-user/administrator clearly defined.

Let's take a brief, more in-depth look at these critical elements.

A User-Driven Process

The IT department certainly has an important role to play in the purchase and implementation of company EAM software. Elements such as hardware and firmware, supporting software integration issues (if any) regarding other company owned and used software, architecture platforms, hosted/non-hosted solutions, etc., etc. are best coordinated by the IT group. However, they are not always the best judge of end-use software applications, how they will be fully utilized in the field and what access rights certain individuals should or should not have regarding system usage.

Now, with that said, not all end-users are experts either. In some cases, they are even less educated on the full functional features of EAM than are the IT guys. However, if IT is tasked with the ultimate responsibility of procuring and implementing an EAM, it is their responsibility to ensure that the "end-users" are fully involved in reviewing the software's functionality, understand its relative strengths and weaknesses have the appropriate input for system set-up and configuration.

Business Process Review

In order to further assure that the chosen EAM is the right system for the business processes involved, a complete review of those business processes is necessary. This review also helps IT and the end-user teams define the specific functional and technical requirements needed from the software. This is typically not an IT-driven function, but one that should be driven within the primary end-user department(s). At a minimum, the following should be reviewed:

• What data is needed, and in what form, by the various user groups to better do their jobs
   and make better fact-based decisions, versus "gut feel" decisions?

• What current processes (e.g., policies, procedures, and flows) need updating to take full
   advantage of the new EAM's capabilities?

• How will needed data be captured, by whom, and in what format? And, how and when
   will that data be input into the system for later retrieval?

Basically, a user's project manager must be appointed to work with the user group team(s) to determine answers to the questions above, as well as what specific functions of an EAM are required (i.e., absolute musts versus desired elements). If done correctly and thoroughly, this process alone can take weeks to even months.

The Right Codes & Tables

As a part of the business process improvement noted above, some portion of that process should begin to identify specific codes & tables to be set-up in the EAM.

Specifically with regards to the maintenance work management and MRO storeroom and procurement process. When established, these codes & tables will provide the framework for easily inputting key data into the EAM that can later be extracted, viewed and analyzed.

Considerable thought needs to be put into this process. If there are not enough codes, the resultant data may be too general, not providing enough details needed to spot recurring problems and trends. However, too many codes will often result in a great deal of guess-work to zero in on what the field user might interpret as the right code and, thus, filter or dilute a general trend that could be later analyzed by better follow-up means.

One example is work order priority codes. The default, too often, is to have, for example:

    1) Within 24-Hours
    2) 24-48 Hours
    3) 48-72 Hours
    4) Greater than 72 hours, etc.

These typical codes don't really help you establish a true priority, rather they pigeon-hole work into often unrealistic time frames. Most would probably default to Priority-1 or -2 anyway.

Work order type codes, classification codes, cause codes, reason codes, remedy codes, failure codes and delay codes are all important but have to have real purpose, meaning and understanding.

Correct User Levels

Again, configuration data for "user-level" access (i.e., who can do what) in the system should come out of the business process review. These are roughly channeled into four main access types... inquiry only, and/or add/change/delete authority. The less people who have the ability to add/change/delete, the better. This helps to ensure consistent data and minimize constantly changing data that can cause problems in itself.

For instance, with regards to the work order backlog details (i.e., statuses, priorities, WIP, etc.) the Maintenance Planner should typically have more access rights than the Maintenance Supervisor and certainly more than the Maintenance Manager! The MRO Storeroom Supervisor would, likewise, have more add/change/delete access than most storeroom attendants and maybe even the Materials Manager. Obviously you have to have "back-up" personnel with the needed access, but that can typically be accomplished on a "temporary access assignment" basis when required.

In order to maintain consistency in the use of account codes, new part numbers, new equipment numbers, etc., etc. there needs to be a developed standard (set-up format) that those who are authorized have to follow to get new or edited information into the system. Again, the less the better.

Targeted User Training

Once you have defined business processes to adhere to, clear roles and responsibilities on "who does what" and the appropriate user-level access to match, software training should basically be a no-brainer.

The key here is to link the process training with the software training so that the user understands how and why it is to be done and how the EAM system will be used as his/her tool for future data-mining.

There is more to training than throwing up two-hundred PowerPoint slides that could apply (or not apply) to several different users, and show you fifteen different ways to do the same thing. User training should be targeted for like user-groups, centered around the exact process they are expected to follow. In addition, the screens that they see during the training should look exactly like the ones that they will see at their own desk, in the same exact sequence they should be expected to follow. As part of the configuration activities centered around the various user-level access criteria, the screens should be greatly simplified as much as possible. This means, for example, that if you are only authorized to submit a departmental maintenance work request that only requires that you fill out four fields, then you should only see and have access to four fields.

KPI's and System Reports

Obviously the main reason for inputting all of this critical data into the EAM (consistently, cleanly and with some semblance of timing and urgency) is to be able to glean useful information out of it at a later date. This is information that will be used to make better business decisions.

You put data in, you get information out. Reports and KPI's are like codes, you can have too many (i.e., information overload) or too few (not enough of the right kinds of information). If information is going to be useful, it needs to tell you things such as:

• What's not going on that should be
• Deviations from the norm
• Things to do or follow-up on
• Historical information for verifications
• Predictable information for future planning.

The EAM set-up team can and should define some standard reports and KPI's by user level, etc. Custom reports can be developed later either by the IT team and/or the (properly trained, of course) users themselves. Most modern era EAM's feature some "dashboard" capability that "pushes" key information to you without you having to always go and look for it.

EAM System Administrator "Super-User"

Ongoing training and system maintenance is a given with the newer, more powerful EAM systems on the market today. There is a need for database maintenance and integrity, associated software interface requirements, hardware issues, etc., etc. Typically, these activities are handled by the IT department (and, rightfully so).

However, there is also a need for a system "super-user". Somebody who actually uses the system on a regular basis and can provide new training, refresher training, screen layout changes, expose/hide needed or unneeded fields, reports generation, user-level access authority, etc. This person would typically work in one of more of the departments that use the system continuously. This "super-user" would, typically, be the one who controls the input (add/change/delete) of new data entered into the system (e.g., new equipment numbers, new assets in the hierarchy, new item master catalog (stores) items, codes, etc.).

As noted earlier, in order to maintain consistency in the use of account codes, new part numbers, new equipment numbers, etc., etc. there needs to be a developed standard (set-up format) that those who are authorized have to follow to get new or edited information into the system. Again, the less the better.

A Successful EAM Implementation

Obviously, there is much more involved in an EAM implementation that could go wrong than just the seven pitfalls mentioned throughout this article. There are many more things that can go right and lead to not only a successful implementation, but to a system that is well-liked and well-used.

Here are a few key points to remember:

1) Do your due diligence and make sure you buy the right system for your needs.
2) Establish an EAM Project Champion.
3) Involve the end-users extensively throughout the entire process.
4) Take the necessary time to review/up-date all business processes that will be affected
     by the new EAM.
5) Carefully think through the end-use applications and configure the EAM system
     to compliment those applications.
6) Develop a sound and thorough implementation plan.
7) Customize the training for the individual end-user groups.
8) Provide ongoing training and support.

In conjunction with an all out effort to avoid the Top-7 Pitfalls, these key points should lead you to a successful EAM implementation that will provide both staff and management many years of usable equipment history data and enable better, more informed decisions for maintaining company assets.

Jim Davis is currently the Director of Operations/Sales for Performance Consulting Associates with responsibility for various client engagements, project management, sales and marketing support. Jim also assists in conducting client assessments when needed. Jim has extensive experience with team-facilitation, problem-solving, statistical process control, continuous improvement and project management. He is formally trained in the Deming Continuous Improvement methodology, and has extensive knowledge in process redesign, organizational redesign, maintenance "best practices" and CMMS/EAM optimization for maintenance activities. Jim also has a background in MRO stores, inventory and logistics applications, bringing over 20+ years of work experience with a specific background in electric utilities, water and waste water treatment plants, aviation, mining and both discreet and process manufacturing operations.

Jim has an undergraduate degree from Auburn University in Industrial Engineering and three Master's Degrees including an MBA. Jim is a licensed CMRP with the Society of Maintenance and Reliability Professionals organization. He can be reached at davis@pcaconsulting.com

InfoTech_Aug_Sept_2009.pdf

Cutting Through The Hype

2009-08-01T16:19:36Z

Cutting Through The Hype
Understanding the Reality of Filter Element Ratings
by Mike Boyd

Our company was the first in our industry to utilize hydraulics to any significant degree. We used hydraulics for propulsion, for auxiliary functions and for steering. With the implementation of an innovative technology, we had to learn all about it. Wally was sent to the training schools of each of our component suppliers. He returned our company expert.

He had learned from George Altland at the Vickers School that dirty oil caused more hydraulic failures than all other causes. So we listened closely as Wally explained how to determine the condition of our hydraulic fluid and our system and components. Wally was thorough and, at the time, state of the art. When I attended the Vickers School, George told me pretty much the same thing he had told Wally.

You could determine a lot by using then current, state of the art analytical techniques. Wally had explained to us the following protocol. Loosen the drain plug on the reservoir and allow about a pint of fluid to drain into a clear glass jar. Next, hold the jar up to the light to look for chunks in the oil. A few small ones are OK, but more than a few, or any large chunks were a sign that action was required. Next, smell the oil. If it smells badly burnt, change the oil and filter element (spin on). Next, let the jar sit, undisturbed on a shelf for a few days. If water collects at the bottom of the jar immediately or after only a few minutes, drain the water from the bottom of the reservoir after the machine has been idle for several hours. If the water separates out after sitting several hours, don't worry about it, and change the oil at the regular interval. Finally, if there are several chunks in the jar, the first step should be to change the filter element.

Such was the state of the art for hydraulic system maintenance technology in the mid 1960's. I have been continuously involved in Fluid Power since my involvement with Wally and George, and I revel in the changes that have followed, and even more so, in the currently evolving technology surrounding contamination control and fluid management. Let's take a brief look at the history of filtration.

1958-1968

There was very little filtration at all in hydraulic systems, with very few exceptions outside of military and aerospace and a few highly sensitive systems. There was practically no fluid condition monitoring beyond that detailed by Wally, and very few studies published. But, as George was warning, since "improper oil condition" caused more failures than any other cause, we needed to look after our oil. But, how?

1968-1978

More equipment manufacturers started including filters on their machinery, but, for the most part, the filters were coarse, nominally rated filters. There were few other filter specifications that mattered beyond handling the flow and occasional concern for pressure ratings, should the OEM want to place pressure line filters on the machine. Targeted and measured fluid cleanliness was still a concept of interest to only a small number of academics and researchers. Toward the end of this decade the Devil raised his head disguised as the marketing arm of some filter manufacturers.

Filter manufacturers, like all other for profit corporations, are in business to make a profit. That is a necessary goal if they are to stay in business. In a free market the burden of controlling costs is with the consumer. The responsibility for optimizing filter profits resides largely with marketing. So, the most profitable companies will find, and continue to find ways to differentiate their offerings from their competitors at greater profits than their competition.

The superior marketing departments started assembling data from all available sources. They started studies to support their current and developing marketing strategies. They knew that each new strategy had only a short while for them to fully exploit it before the competition would hitch their strategies to the leader. They also engaged heavily in developing standards (favorable to their strategies) and publishing marketing success stories masquerading as technical papers. During this decade the leading marketers were looking to find ways to move their high tech filters into a relatively stone age commercial hydraulic component market place. Only inspired marketing could/would succeed. And, they did.

1978-1988

Led by a growing number of manufacturers of sophisticated machine tools, plastic molders, and other makers of high precision equipment, finer filtration was making large inroads in to the hydraulic industry. With marketing claiming greatly improved cleanliness using fine filtration, the need to verify the results was increasingly important. Microscopic particle counting took too much time and was subject to technician errors. This was all the impetus that was needed to spur on the development of automatic particle counters. Vickers Europe published a paper that has appeared in practically every hydraulic text published since. The document lays out the cleanliness requirements due to system component sensitivity. The filter specifications were limited to the prevailing terms of the day, which were "absolute filter ratings" that were not really "absolute".

During this period, there was a great deal of activity in the field of developing test methods and procedures to help the less knowledgeable better misunderstand filter specifications. I don't believe it was the intent of the researchers and their teams to mislead anyone with their work. I am convinced, however, based on court records and other documents that it was indeed the intent of some marketers and their management to deceive the marketplace with false and misleading test results. During this period the Multipass test gained attention as the best test for evaluating filter efficiency ratings and dirt holding capacity. These are two of the most frequently used specifications used to differentiate filter elements.

A growing number of study results were published and circulated. There followed a growing industry wide awareness of the need for cleanliness. Again, the question was how to achieve it.

1988-1998

This decade saw a big increase in the number of different suppliers of "fine filters", both domestically and from abroad. With the increase in sources of filter elements, it became even more important to be able to verify results. Hence a real push in developing fluid condition monitoring equipment resulted in the rapidly increasing availability of affordable, user friendly, accurate instruments. With the readily available instruments, it naturally followed that an entrepreneurial society such as ours would see a prolonged surge in the formation of independent laboratories. This created a dilemma. Which labs were capable of accurate analysis and how to verify it, became a major concern. It also became essential to be able to sort through all the conflicting claims from so many different sources.

This decade also saw the fine tuning of applicable standards for monitoring and reporting fluid cleanliness. Shrewd filter marketers saw the importance of tying these emerging standards to their marketing efforts. They saw the critical nature of differentiating their "filter" from the competitors. Again, Vickers came to the aid of the end user by publishing the Vickers handbook on Systemic Contamination Control. The publication temporarily refocused the user's attention away from "the filter" to a contamination control system. It also forced the major competitors to talk in terms of systemic control. However, it wasn't long before the marketers were back to differentiating their elements of the system from competitors. Too few people were seeking to improve the systemic approach.

This was also the period of great growth in information technology, with the introduction and phenomenal growth of the internet.

1998 to the Present

There has been a burst of new fluid condition monitoring equipment, as well as in contamination analysis equipment and technologies. Larger users of hydraulic and lubrication equipment are finding it essential to bring expertise and analytical capabilities on board. As a result, whole new information dissemination industries are exploding. There are more conferences and publications dealing with fluid management this decade than in the entire preceding history. Widespread needs for training and certification in areas of expertise are being met by a growing number of independent experts, recently separated from the comfort of corporate life.

During periods of acquisition and "right sizing" , the larger users released their own in- house experts to lower costs, thus creating the greater need to hire back their expertise and experience at premium fees. During this decade there has been a return to relying more heavily on filter ratings because of the shift in expertise from the in-house decision making practices to the greater reliance on consultants. The marketers returned to focus on the filter.

With the filter element again the main focus of the marketers, "absolute" filter ratings fell out of favor, being replaced by Beta ratios. Beta ratios are one of the key filter "specifications" determined by the multipass test. What the marketers won't volunteer to you is that the odds against your application operating parameters approaching the multipass test parameters are greater than you winning the lottery 4 weeks in a row.

Multipass Test versus Reality

An analysis of the differences between the multipass test and real life is helpful, and is shown if Table 1.

Some important points to remember include:

1. Dirt particle size distribution varies almost infinitely so no test case applies
      universally.

2. Test dirt has a relatively high distribution of larger particles, distorting real
      dirt capacity.

3. Constantly injecting high dirt loaded slurry skews real life Beta ratios.

4. Such a low viscosity is seldom seen in real life and also skews results.

5. Filter element manufacturers typically offer many thousands of combinations of
      element constructions, media packs and different media. Since multipass tests are
      expensive and time consuming, it would be prohibitively expensive to test each
      combination. So, only a few are tested.

The marketers rely on your assumption that the test results are uniformly applicable to all combinations of elements in all applications.   Again, they focus on the filter element and NOT the targeted result. (The two worksheets in Figures 1 and 2 provide an excellent way for you to decide what your targeted cleanliness levels should be.) The published test results, relative to real life applications, are almost never comparable, even within a supplier's own line, and certainly not between competitors. It is the marketer's compulsion to differentiate his product at any cost that keeps these reported test results in front of the general public. Also there is no requirement that all data published on an element be from the same actual test. Test results, most favorable to the vendor, from tests with varying parameters can be published without concern. After all, "caveat emptor".

The Best Place To Put A Filter

Remember the assignment of responsibilities. If you want the most cost effective solution, you must control the process. Marketers will almost always recommend filter placement so it's most profitable for them. Several such recommendations have attained almost legendary status through constant marketing efforts (training and success stories) and pressure. As in so many technical disciplines, the vender says, "The customer is the expert in his industry. We will recommend and then wait for him to counter." The customer says, "The supplier is the expert in filtration. We should not invest time and money seeking a more effective approach." Consequently, there is a disconnect that needs to be addressed.

Who Wins? Who Loses? Who is Responsible? What is the Solution?

Many large customers represent enough business to the suppliers to take control of their own performance and results as well as compelling the vendors to deal honestly with them. Other smaller customers can band together within their industry to achieve the same goals. A major step is to compel the vendors to pay for Multipass testing at the lab of the customer's choice, to the specs the customer has developed (See Figure 3), on an element configuration and media pack the customer has selected and purchased anonymously. That way all prospective suppliers' elements will be tested to the same parameters at the same lab by the same technicians using the same equipment and procedures, without the elements receiving special attention before they leave the manufacturer. Sound fair? Will this separate marketing hype from reality? You bet it will.

Now that we have eliminated the marketing hype from element selection, we can deal effectively with filter placement. The most cost effective placement will be driven by system operating and design parameters. Here it is helpful to examine your supplier's credentials and verify expertise in the particular disciplines. Fortunately, professional societies have undertaken testing and certification of applicable expertise. Using this resource can accelerate and facilitate your search for qualified advisors. Now, following a simple strategy (see Figure 4) you should successfully achieve your articulated goals.

Mike Boyd, CLS, CFPS, is the Manager of Fluid Solutions Division, Southwestern Controls. Mike has been in the fluids, fluid management, fluid power business for over 40 years. He has designed and taught classes and seminars at Universities, major corporations and specially organized, topic specific, seminars in The Americas, Europe and Australia. He has also served as an expert witness in state and federal courts, and has worked with and for a number of filter manufacturers over the years. Mike can be reached at 214-325-6243 or by e-mailing him at boyd_61742@msn.com

Lubrication_Aug_Sept_2009.pdf

Lubrication Makes the World (and your facility) Go Round

2009-08-01T15:35:50Z

Effective Guidelines for Implementing a Well-Engineered Lubrication Program
by Kevan Slater, CLS

A global recession, combined with intense global competition, is forcing many companies to review and search for a "proven" method of reducing their overall maintenance costs while increasing the reliability of their aging equipment. Despite the continuous preaching of the benefits of implementing an effective lubrication program, many organizations still lack the formal direction and understanding required. This article will provide a proven methodology and direction to obtain the benefits of a Well-Engineered Lubrication Program.

Many companies' maintenance departments throughout the world have undergone radical changes over the last ten years in how they perform maintenance on plant equipment. Increasing energy and raw material costs are forcing another round of creative measures to produce a reduction in overall operating costs while increasing the reliability and plant equipment availability just to remain competitive in the growing global economy. Many of these organizations jumped into implementing and using the latest maintenance technologies at enormous expense, all with a promised and expected immediate return on their investment. In many cases, those changes have not led to significant improvements and the technologies have not produced the benefits, despite the quality of the implemented technologies.

For decades, these same organizations have been bombarded with information and endless case studies of the benefits of implementing an effective lubrication program. The benefits associated with this program reach out wider than the equipment reliability, plant availability gains, and the reduction in operating costs in most industrialized plants. These gains can also increase the entire business effectiveness by improving risk-safety, environmental integrity, energy efficiency, product quality, and customer service to mention a few.

It appears that despite the efforts in awareness, many plants still ignore, disbelieve or just struggle to define and comprehend the requirements of a quality lubrication program. While the basis of an effective lubrication program is to provide; the right product, in the right location, in the right amount, at the right time, in the right condition and by the right person - there are many other factors required. To successfully implement these lubricant related activities within a plant, it requires that all of the lubricant related activities fit into and become a part of the work process. It cannot stand on its own as a separate or extra task, but must be fully integrated and be part of the work culture.

As with all effective maintenance programs, a review should be performed to understand and improve the effect of implementing, integrating and immersing these controlled activities within your facility. The four main categories that require review are:

Management and Work Culture - A successful maintenance program requires a management team and an organizational structure that, through good communication and informed knowledge, can provide effective maintenance decisions. Management must set forth a business plan that includes the organization's goals, objectives and expectations. By providing a clear understanding of all maintenance rolls and responsibilities, the individuals involved in the maintenance activities can be held accountable.

Maintenance Work Processes - The maintenance work processes must start by identifying the correct maintenance activities while providing a path to include work initiation, work execution and work completion. This workflow process must also include the integration of procurement and scheduling of parts that will be used in the maintenance activities.

People Skills and Human Resources - A well-trained work force is a prerequisite for any maintenance approach to be successful. The work culture, management and staff 'buy-in,' training requirements, and people skills are all critical for success.

Technologies - This category focuses on the tools required to support the staff. There have been significant advancements in the technologies that can help an organization meet its goal of keeping the plant commercially available. These can range from maintenance and diagnostic systems to information integration systems.

Lubrication Management

The Lubrication Program needs to begin in ensuring all equipment-specific information regarding the critical equipment; maintenance, procedures, and technologies that are presently in place are accurate and up-to-date. By evaluating these issues, timely and beneficial recommendations can be made which focus on elements essential for immediate benefits as well as targeting medium and long-term reliability goals for your lubrication program.

An effective lubrication program should produce significant benefits in plant reliability and equipment availability. Conducting an internal or external assessment of your existing lubrication program and comparing it to industry "Best Practices" will provide a needed gap analysis for identifying both strengths and weaknesses. Once identified, a focus on improvements can be made that yield optimal performance from your lubrication program. The areas for review in a Lubrication Program Assessment would be:

   • Standards, Consolidation & Procurement
   • Storage, Handling and Disposal
   • Lubrication and Re-Lubrication Practices
   • Contamination Control
   • Sampling Methods and Collection
   • Lubricant Analysis Program
   • Safety Practices
   • Procedures, Guidelines and Training
   • Program Management
   • Program Goals or Metrics

Although an assessment is a subjective process, the use of a visual graphic spider chart will provide a dynamic overview of the company's strengths and weakness in its existing lubrication program. A spider chart can quickly identify the current status for each section of a lubrication program, which will allow effort to be focused on weaknesses. By improving weaknesses quickly, the lubrication program will be strengthened quicker. Remember, you are only as strong as your weakest link.

Lubricant Selection

The first, and most important step, is selecting and using the correct equipment-specific lubricants. By simply selecting the proper lubricant, the life of both the equipment and lubricant will be extended, which should be a cornerstone goal of the lubrication program.

Many organizations think that the task of selecting the correct lubricant ends at either the directions outlined in the Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) manual or general recommendations from a lubricant supplier. This information is only the starting point and should be considered along with current operating conditions, the operating environment, equipment criticality, historical information, reliability requirements, and the chosen maintenance strategies (CM, PM, PdM, PaM, etc).

Manufacturers of rotating equipment utilize powerful computerized programs that optimize finite element analysis and logarithmic contact profiles to assist in the design of the equipment bearing rollers, roller raceways, gearing sets, etc. This is intended to improve the quality of the materials that, in turn, improves the operating efficiencies of the components.

These elements or components move by sliding, rolling, approaching and receding or a combination of these actions and require a lubricant designed to avoid contact between the surfaces. The specific lubricant (viscosity, basestock and additive package) used will ultimately be based on the equipment design, the material, the surface finish, the geometry of the components and the operating conditions (i.e. load, speed, and temperature). To generalize based on the equipment design, the lubricant viscosity and additives must create an acceptable film thickness to maintain a separation of the moving elements (See Figure 1). If contact of the surfaces occurs, then high frictional forces will lead to high temperatures, lubricant degradation and unacceptable wear of the components.

The Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) plan the life expectancy of their equipment based on many of the areas or elements listed above. Since the average person or company operating the equipment does not typically have access to this design criterion, we must ensure that we follow and understand the lubricant requirements based on our equipment specific operating conditions, which are outlined in either the Operating and/or Maintenance Manuals. Equipment that is operating outside the average operating conditions outlined in these manuals will require active communication with the OEM's technical service engineers in order to achieve the expected reliability of the equipment at an acceptable operating cost.

Lubrication is an essential design principle of the equipment and is accentuated by modern machines that operate at higher speeds, under heavier loads and with closer mechanical tolerances.

Building the Foundation

An effectively installed Lubrication Program benefits most departments within a facility, including engineering, operations and maintenance. It manages the process of lubricant selection, assessment, procurement, storage, handling, monitoring, and disposal, to ensure the safe, reliable and economic operation of lubricated equipment. Identifying the equipment-specific lubricant requirements creates the foundation of this program. This includes OEM design features, operational parameters, maintenance activities or implemented modifications. This data is referred to as the "technical basis" for lubricant selection. Once collected, this data should be maintained within a controlled database (a Lube List) that provides a direct link between the equipment identification and justification for lubricant selection.

Experience has proven that many Computerized Maintenance Management Systems (CMMS) or Enterprise Asset Management Systems (EAMS) do not contain the actual or required detailed equipment information for obtaining this lubricant technical basis. Lack of information within these management databases appears to be due to various reasons, including the initial equipment data installation methodology, upgrades or changes in the software platforms and/or changes of the installed plant equipment. The most common reason identified is lack of manpower along with the associated costs of field verification. Field verification and recording of the installed equipment base and the actual environmental conditions in which the equipment operates is a necessary starting point for all lubrication programs. Figure 2 is an example of a basic walkdown form, which identifies the equipment, the operating conditions and the operating environment. This completed form should provide the necessary information required to review the OEM operating and maintenance manuals.

This walkdown information must include as much information as possible about the equipment, including its internal design, the system design, and the current operating and environmental conditions. Failure to gain full understanding of the equipment's operating needs and conditions undermines the program's effectiveness. The following sections highlight the most basic information that is required as a reference to determine the correct lubricant to be used, along with the information required to set equipment targets and limits.

Equipment Mission Criticality - Safety, environmental concerns, past historical problems, reliability as well as the cost of downtime and repairs must all be taken into consideration when determining the equipment to be included in the lubrication and analysis program. The equipment to be monitored, the frequency and the selections of all health monitoring tests should be determined by the above criteria.

Equipment Component and System Identification - Collecting, categorizing and evaluating all design and operating manuals including schematics is required to understand the complexity of modern equipment. OEM's assistance in identifying the original bearings, wear surfaces and component metallurgy will take the guess work out of selecting lubricants, setting targets and limits and will also assist in future troubleshooting. Equipment nameplate data with accurate model and serial numbers allows for quick and easy identification.

Operating Parameters - Equipment designs and operating manuals reflect the minimum requirements for operating their equipment. These include operating temperature, recommended lubricants, pressures, duty cycles and filtration to name a few. Operating outside the recommended values could require modifications and/or additions to the system to allow the component to run within an acceptable range.

Operating Equipment Evaluation - A visual inspection of the equipment is required to examine and record the equipment components used in the system including filtration, breathers, coolers, heaters etc. This inspection should also record all operating temperatures and pressures, duty cycle times, rotational direction and speeds, filter indicators etc. Temperature readings of the major components are also required. This information verifies that the OEM supplied equipment is still in operation and also reflects the current operating characteristics of the equipment.

Operating Environment - In most cases, hostile environments or environmental contamination are not taken into consideration when the OEM designs the operating parameters. Environmental conditions can influence the degradation of a lubricant, which eventually results in damage to the equipment. All environmental conditions such as mean temperature; humidity and all possible contaminants must be recorded.

Maintenance History - Past reliable history that relates to wear and lubrication related failures can assist in decisions pertaining to lubricant selection and frequency of application. It can also provide guidance when adjusting and tightening targets and limits. These targets should allow for early advanced warnings of historical problems and possible root cause detection.

By combining the information collected during the equipment walkdown with a practical understanding of the plant specific operating conditions, an evaluation can be conducted to determine if there are any items or conditions (i.e. wash downs, temperature changes, summer/winter temperature extremes) that should be taken into account when reviewing the OEM manuals. Figure 3 is an example of a plant that projected their typical summer operating temperatures based on the installed temperature regulating devices (air only). In their case, the OEM referenced the actual operating temperatures for the lubricant selection. Manufacturers tend to provide a reference to either an ambient temperature range or an actual operating temperature in the manuals as the reference for lubricant selection. Once evaluated, this information can also be used in determining some of the lubrication maintenance activities based on the typical life expectancy of the installed lubricant.

Manufacturer's Recommendations

In their operating or maintenance manuals, manufacturers may recommend lubricants by brand name or by specifying the lubricant characteristics required for a particular operating condition. Figure 4 is an example of a manufacturer that provides good detail of the equipment conditions, but little detail on the lubricant requirement itself. Using the information in Figure 4, we can determine that a parallel shaft unit at an operating speed of less than 250 RPM and operating within an ambient temperature range of 90° to 125°F (32° to 52°C) will require a lubricant that is an ISO VG 320 with a mild EP additive. This information and lubricant selection is based on this particular unit with these specific operating conditions. Please note: If identical units are used throughout the plant and they are either in an area that has a different ambient temperature range or are operating at different speeds, then these units could require different lubricants in order to meet and perform within the OEM specifications.

When an OEM suggests or recommends a specific lubricant, these lubricant specifications may become restrictive, or they may be very general, allowing considerable latitude. Regardless, at this point, we must start to research the OEM recommended and preferred oil producers. This product information is published in brochures, pamphlets, handbooks, or on the product container or packaging. Although the amount of information varies from each oil producer, it generally includes the intended use, the additives (AW, EP, R&O), oil type (i.e., paraffinic, naphthenic, synthetic, compounded), and some of the technical specifications or test results. Understanding and comparing lubricant qualities and the provided test results (i.e. Pour Point, "C - ASTM D 97 or 4 Ball EP Test - ASTM D 2783) can become very difficult without a prior knowledge of the test methods and the expected results. Figure 5 is a very basic lubricant comparison chart that can have specific test method results added to assist in the selection or substitution process.

Companies that have very specific lubricant requirements outside the typical OEM recommended lubricants (e.g., "Food Grade" applications), will have to proceed with extra caution when selecting or crossing a lubricant. The selection process must ensure that the lubricant not only meets or exceeds the physical, chemical and performance properties required by the equipment for reliable service, but also meets the food grade qualifications.

Armed with the equipment specific OEM advised lubricant, it does not mean that we have necessarily chosen the best lubricant for the application. This selection is just the starting point, as the final selection should include a process of past operating experience and the equipment criticality outlined within the facility's maintenance strategic objectives.

Operation and maintenance activities that have historically utilized a lubricant which provides acceptable equipment reliability within the desired operating costs could remain the lubricant of choice. However, to remain globally competitive, avenues for continued improvement should be explored. These improvements could be in the direction of:

   • Advanced equipment protection
   • Improvements in Worker Health and Safety
   • Compliance with environmental regulations
   • Lower yearly energy requirements

The next step requires an understanding that all effective maintenance and/or lubrication programs require plant equipment to be categorized into criticality levels. This strategy determines a numerical ranking of the plant assets (systems and equipment) according to their commercial availability, safety, environmental, cost and efficiency requirements. Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) is one method that is a conceptual exercise identifying the most effective and applicable maintenance tasks for each piece of equipment. A full classical RCM study involves an exhaustive investigation of all failure modes and their effects. This approach can be streamlined by investigating the common known failure modes and the effects analysis (FMEA), as well as determining effective and applicable maintenance tasks to address these conditions. Regardless of the method used, understanding and utilizing this ranking system should allow focus on selecting lubricants that provide:

• Cooler operation or lower operating temperatures (less heat from friction)
• Longer equipment and mechanical components life (due to lower friction and wear)
• Increased oil life (lower wear metals and reduced oil oxidation)
• Lower maintenance cost (fewer oil changes and disposal costs)
• Energy Savings (less energy lost to friction)

In many instances, these same lubricant requirements for critical equipment should be reviewed for the equipment deemed to be less critical and moved into the run-to-failure mode. An example would be a gearbox or reducer that, if filled with clean, dry high performance synthetic gear lubricant and then allowed, as per the maintenance strategy, to run-to-failure. This gearbox should provide an increased life expectancy coupled with a reduction in overall energy usage for a very small investment in the synthetic lubricant over a lower priced commodity gear lubricant.

Finally we move into the facility's consolidation of the lubricants. This definitely has advantages, including reduced inventories and reduced storage requirements due to the overlap of "like" lubricants. In too many cases, the sole criterion for consolidation is cost. Often times, decisions to take advantage of price breaks given for bulk purchases result in overlooking the technical requirements, quality implications, or the effects of interchangeability of lubricants. These all have a significant adverse effect on equipment reliability. Consolidation should be accomplished through the services of a lubricant specialist or a facility employee who has knowledge of the equipment's operating characteristics, the lubricating requirements, and has an ability to understand the lubricant producer's technical data sheets.

Lubrication Management

Equipment reliability requires that the selected lubricant meets and maintains specific physical, chemical and cleanliness requirements. A detailed trail of a lubricant is required which begins with the OEM (lubricant supplier) and ends after disposal. Sampling and testing of the lubricants is required to validate the condition of the lubricant through all these phases.

Lubricant Supplier - Quality control programs implemented by the lubricant manufacturer should be questioned and recorded when evaluating the supplier. Sampling and testing new lubricants before dispensing ensures that the vendor has supplied the correct lubricant.

Lubricant Storage - Correct labeling (including MSDS) must be clearly installed to ensure proper use of the enclosed contents. Proper stock rotation and storage methods must be taken into consideration to prevent the degradation of the physical, chemical and cleanliness requirements of the lubricant throughout the storage and dispensing phase.

Handling and Dispensing - Handling and dispensing methods must ensure that the health and the cleanliness of the lubricant meet the specifications required by the equipment. All opportunities for contamination must be eliminated. Pre-filtering of all lubricants must be performed to meet the specific equipment requirements. Information for all Preventive Maintenance activities involving oil drains, top ups, sweetening, flushing or reclaiming, should be recorded and forwarded to the individual responsible for the oil analysis program group in a timely manner. Record keeping of any activity involving lubricant consumption, lubricant replacement and/or lubricant top-ups performed must be implemented and maintained. Visual management techniques should be utilized to ensure the correct lubricant is being used for each lubrication point.

Oil Sampling Location(s) - A sampling location should be determined to allow for trouble-free, repetitive and representative sampling of the health of the equipment and the health of the lubricant. The sampling method should allow the equipment to be tested under its typical operating condition and allow a safe sampling procedure for the technician.

Tests - As a general rule, oil analysis encompasses four categories of tests: (1) Fluid physical properties, (2) Fluid chemical properties, (3) Fluid contamination, and (4) Machine health. A general routine group of tests does not necessarily take into consideration the machine specifics. Equipment specific testing will supply the required data to effectively monitor and trend the health of the lubricant and the equipment, while exception tests verify a root cause of change.

Targets and Alarms - OEM operating specifications or a recognized governing body can be used in setting the minimum alarms. These alarms must be set taking into consideration all of the above collected information. These settings must provide early detection of contaminants, the deterioration of the lubricant and the current equipment health. These achievable targets should be set to supply an early warning of any anomalies, which will allow corrective actions to be scheduled and performed with little or no effect to production schedules.

Waste Oil - Oil deemed unfit for equipment usage must be disposed of in the correct storage container for that type of lubricant and properly marked and labeled. The lubricant must then be classified for the proper type of disposal and removed from the property without delay. Long storage times allow for the introduction of contaminants (e.g. water) and other fluids, and could in some cases result in re-classification.

Database Development - A database should be developed to organize equipment information, the collected data and the equipment specific targets and alarms. This database must allow for smooth operation of data entry as well as have excellent capabilities for performing the analytical work. The end user must have control of the targets and limits in order to reflect the true equipment specific conditions within the plant.

Contractor Overhaul Templates - Components which are not overhauled in an in-house program should have a guideline or template of the overhaul procedures and required component replacement parts. These templates are a quality control measure to ensure the information in the audit database is kept up-to-date, but also to ensure compatibility of components and lubricants currently used.

The Lube List

After collecting, calculating, and evaluating the technical basis for lubricant selection, we need a controlled repository for this information. Microsoft Access and Excel are both flexible enough to accommodate this task, allowing custom fields and entry screens that can be accessed by all required plant personnel. While this Lube List doesn't have to be part of a work management system, an individual that is competent in lubrication management should control it.

At this point, the lubricant specifications are now based on equipment-specific requirements. These consist of the OEM recommendations, the actual environmental and operating conditions, historic and equipment criticality evaluations and an effective consolidation review. This information, the "Lube List", is stored in a controlled location. The final step is to create a document to define these lubricant specifications, the purchasing criteria, and the actual receipt of new lubricants to ensure the quality of the lubricant.

Training

Any high quality lubrication program requires individuals with world-class reliability skills. The operators and mechanics that are directly responsible for lubrication must be properly trained, and individuals that are indirectly involved in the lubrication program should also have at least a basic awareness of the program's goals, primary benefits, and its procedural requirements. In order for the organization as a whole to increase equipment reliability through lubrication excellence, it's vital that a lubrication skill development program be put in place to meet the needs of all individuals who have responsibility for lubrication tasks, or that may have input into the lube program.

Mechanics are most intimately familiar with the internal workings and condition of the plant's equipment, and they need sufficient technical knowledge about lubrication fundamentals to spot and accurately diagnose lubrication-induced abnormalities. These fundamentals also prove the importance of maintaining or restoring cleanliness during repairs and/or lubricant related activities.

Operators typically perform lubrication tasks and conduct inspections of equipment condition. This is a great opportunity to collect simple, inspection-based lubrication information. Beyond the level gauges, the operators should regularly inspect for filter and desiccant condition, evidence of water contamination, foaming and air entrainment, leaks, darkening of the oil, sludge, smoke or fumes exuded from vents, and a host of other easy-to observe conditions. These activities should be set up as a routine and controlled by the work management system to promote accountability and activity adherence. Operator Driven Reliability (ODR) lubrication training should be provided to ensure competency in performing these functions.

Measuring The Program

The establishment of meaningful goals and metrics remains a key element to implementing or improving your lubrication program. The maturity of the program will determine which key performance indicators should be used to move the lubrication program towards lubrication excellence by meeting or exceeding lubrication industry best practices.

The Lubrication Assessment process will assist in identifying the current status of the program, but a focus and vision of your organizations specific goals will ultimately direct the development of the key indicators. These indicators should steer the lubrication program to meet the overall operating and maintenance requirements of the facility.

The primary goal during the early development of the lubrication program is the identification of overall program needs and the development of roles and responsibilities. As the lubrication program matures, the focus of the lubrication program goals and metrics should move from the development process to more proactive measurements. These might include refining lubrication limits and alarm levels, determining root causes of lubricant-related equipment failures, extending or eliminating lubrication PM tasks, improving the lubrication consolation process and reducing oil consumption. The following is a simplified list of potential key indicators that could be used as the lubrication program matures:

Reduce Lubricant Costs - In a lubrication optimization program, the goal is to minimize the purchase of new lubricants through the consolidation of products, the elimination of time-based oil changes, and to minimize waste and leakage. When properly done, all of these measures should have a measurable effect on the dollars being spent annually on lubricants.

Improve Compliance to Scheduled Lubrication PM Tasks - All lubrication tasks need to be scheduled activities - from the daily level checks, sampling for oil analysis, regreasing, top-ups, and scheduled oil changes. Measuring the percent conformance of PM's that were scheduled and completed, to that of PM tasks that were not completed within the required parameters (time, date, frequency, etc) allows for a quick and accurate view of PM compliance.

Adjust or Redefine Analysis Alert or Alarm Limits - Initial temperature, pressure and oil analysis alarms must be reviewed to ensure that the original target values are correct and that they appropriately reflect the equipment-specific operating condition of the equipment components. This is often accomplished by incorporating feedback from the maintenance activities and using lessons learned resulting from root cause analyses of failed components.

Improve Equipment Reliability - Performance indicators that relate to equipment reliability and availability remain significant to the effectiveness of the lubrication program. The goal is to minimize or reduce the number of lubrication-related equipment failures or significant events, but this remains difficult to determine if the actual root cause of an anomaly is not correctly identified.

Improve Oil Cleanliness Levels - It has been well documented that by improving the cleanliness levels of a lubricant, it will have a direct effect on the life of the component. Improvement in handling, storage, dispensing and filtration methods will assist in reducing the acceptable cleanliness levels, which will result in improved equipment reliability with the associated reduction in maintenance costs.

Tracking and Trending Lubricant Disposal Costs - Understanding total consumption, leaks, top-ups, and oil changes, helps drive the efforts and behaviors needed for the effective implementation of the lubrication program.

Many organizations ignore the fact that lubrication is an essential design principle of the equipment and only a dedicated, consistent and enduring effort to increase the plant's lubrication knowledge and maintaining the design requirements of your equipment will dramatically improve equipment reliability, uptime and profitability.

Kevan J. Slater is an independent senior reliability consultant. Kevan has spent the last 20 years as a senior technical consultant developing, advocating and implementing technical, business and operating strategies for improving the reliability of industrial equipment to numerous companies throughout North America. Kevan's expertise focuses on improving and building maintenance foundations that promote continuous improvement of equipment reliability by ensuring people; technology and processes align in achieving a balanced reliable cost effective maintenance program. He can be reached at 416-759-0870 or at kevan.slater@sympatico.ca

Feature_Aug_Sept_2009.pdf

Establishing Proactive Maintenance

2009-06-01T19:13:14Z

Effective Maintenance Structuring - Do It Now
by John Ross

I'm hoping that this is an original quote, "you are where you are by doing exactly what it is that you've been doing"? Said another way, "how can you expect to be better than you are, based on what you've been doing?" It really is a definition of insanity to believe that you would accomplish more by merely doing more of the same. In regards to equipment reliability, and the driving need to continually improve; the status quo just isn't getting the job done.

More of the same has only served to bring us back to where we are. Now that we've entered the 21st century, we maintenance professionals have got to get serious about moving in a different direction, specifically in improving our core services. One issue we must work on is getting fanatical about moving from reactive to proactive. Interestingly, one approach to our reactive vs. proactive battle might be found in an early 20th century concept. Now there's juxtaposition, solving an epidemic problem in the 21st century with good ol' fashion 20th century thinking. Consider it the maintenance equivalent of blood letting, or leech application.

Consider this too, we might in fact be passively contributing to the cause of our reactive nature without being aware. For example, I have noticed in American manufacturing that there is an overwhelming ignorance in establishing a proper maintenance structure. We have by default, structured ourselves to be wholly reactive. Take this simple test. Is your maintenance structure designed to simultaneously address these three activities?

Preventive Maintenance
Corrective Maintenance
Emergency Maintenance

Now up the ante. Same questions, but this time, raise the bar. Can your organization simultaneously:

Complete 100% of the preventive maintenance activities, on time, every time?
Plan and Schedule 100% of all corrective maintenance
- Commencing priority 1s within 24 hours
- Commencing priority 2s within 7 days
- Commencing priority 3s within 14 days
Complete 100% of all emergency work, and not sacrifice preventive or corrective maintenance?

Most maintenance leaders cannot provide objective evidence that their organizations can respond to these issues, in force and with earnest. What is keeping us from being successful? It may be that we are structured wrong; in fact we are not even giving ourselves a chance to support the mission correctly.

Why are these three maintenance services important? The importance of preventive and planned corrective maintenance is that these two systems are primarily responsible for moving organizations from a reactive mode to a proactive mode. In order to address preventive maintenance, though, we have to spend time focusing on preventive maintenance. In order to address corrective maintenance, we likewise have to focus our attention on corrective maintenance. At the same time, we must also respond to emergency work. Preventive, planned corrective and emergency work has an egalitarian relationship; they pull equally against our resources and we act in kind by trying to cover all the bases while in a crisis mode. We must, however, be prepared to and structured to address all three at the same time.

We can't, in direct contrast to this notion, address any of these needs simultaneously because of our maintenance structure. In fact, we operate and manage as if there is a hierarchical relationship. Emergency work takes precedence over corrective; taking priority over preventive. Don't believe me? Do you know of a time when a mechanic working on a corrective maintenance work order was 'pulled' from that job to work on an emergency job? Do you know of a time that a PM was not completed because operations would not shut down the machine, or the technician was needed to work on a priority job?

Our own ignorance and failure to see what is plainly in front of us has literally kept us from moving from reactive to proactive. We aren't guilty of malfeasance; but we are guilty of applying rigid thinking to a malleable problem. It is the totality of our inability to identify our structure and act accordingly that makes this a root cause.

Traditionally, a maintenance organization takes on a centralized or decentralized structure. A centralized organization places the maintenance department outside the functional center of production, where all needs are met from a separate and common base (see Figure 1). At least in a decentralized structure (Figure 2) there is an attempt to divide up the elephant and give each section of the plant a focused effort. Neither is as effective in the 21st century as they could be, and as a result, we sometimes morph versions of these traditional structures; each providing segmented service and response, seeking out that magic 'sweet' structure that will satisfy all our needs; often in vain.

To be certain, there is nothing wrong with a hybrid maintenance structure. What is a common pitfall, though, is a continuously changing maintenance organization, moving in an effort to find what fits best, to find a home, never really arriving at that final evolution. Our maintenance organizations become the Lost Patrol of fable, always looking, but never finding their way home - or their rightful place.

An absolute 'tell-tale' sign that your structure does not fit your needs resides at the bottom of your computerized maintenance management system work order file. If you have a low priority work order (or several) that have been in the 'system' for over 1 year; your structure is not working. If operators classify every work request 'urgent', ''safety', or 'priority 1'; your structure is not working. These are symptoms of a loss of trust in the work order flow. Loss of trust because we've failed to establish a maintenance structure that can cover all needs at the same time.

The rubric for a successfully responsive organization is to design a structure that can equally handle PMs, corrective, and emergency work; each without hesitation and without sacrifice to the other.

My introduction to this concept occurred in 1995 as the maintenance department manager of a major cookware manufacturer. I had just separated from the U.S. Air Force as a senior aircraft maintenance officer, and I was keenly aware of the value of a well-organized, well-staffed, well-disciplined, and well-funded maintenance operation. None of these adjectives matched what I found in my first 'civilian' job. Quite honestly, I was shocked at the poor level of maintenance organization.

This particular company had been in business since 1776; and it was now 1995. They were quite literally the poster-children for reactive maintenance. They had no preventive maintenance, no CMMS, no storeroom, no predictive maintenance, and absolutely no idea that it could be different. I was about to rock their world in terms of structure and give them a working definition of proactive maintenance.

There are two practices, I told them, that will move you from reactive to proactive, and you have to be committed to them in order to make the transition. The first is a disciplined preventive maintenance program; and the second is a planning and scheduling process. Preventive maintenance has to be done with 100% commitment from maintenance and operations. The resistance to compromise should be sacredly guarded. If we believe that preventive maintenance helps us to identify tomorrow's breakdowns, why would we sacrifice 100% compliance?

Planning and scheduling brings in the corrective concept of catching little issues before they become tomorrow's headline failures. There is slightly more flexibility in planning and scheduling than in preventive maintenance. A 90% compliant planning and scheduling effort is most noteworthy and would be a great benchmarking achievement. Planning and scheduling allows us to address the corrective maintenance work orders identified earlier, many coming from the PM process.

Emergency work, quite honestly, is selfexplanatory. Performing dedicated and absolute PM compliance and maintaining a great deal of truth and integrity in our corrective maintenance activities will ultimately net less emergency work.

I told my maintenance team that we had to get out of our reactive mode. So, what was my plan to move this 219 year old company from heavily reactive to heavily proactive? The answer, quite simply was in the structure!

Our first move was to create a dedicated preventive maintenance crew. This team literally created the preventive maintenance program from absolutely nothing. They researched what technical manuals we did have, interviewed more seasoned maintenance technicians, and performed a lot of trial and error. They became, in time, a very dedicated and a very well informed PM crew. These technicians worked on day shift and performed preventive maintenance; 40 hours a week and nothing else.

We developed our off-shift (midnights and afternoon) maintenance personnel into what we called at the time, "hit crews". My logic was simple; between 3:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m., I only needed a workforce staffed and equipped to keep the plant running. There were no heavy corrective repairs or projects on the off shifts. Hit crews were well equipped and very knowledgeable cross functional teams charged with responding to equipment breakdowns. Using any means necessary (legal and safe), they were commissioned to keep the equipment running until the cavalry arrived (day shift). I have since heard this concept referred to as "Do It Now", or DIN squads.

We also created a team of line mechanics on day shift. There were four production lines in the plant, and each was assigned their very own maintenance mechanic. The primary role of this millwright was to walk the line, all day, make small adjustments, repairs, and any scheduled corrective repairs as needed. On day shift, emergency repairs were handled by the line mechanics and hit crews as required; otherwise line mechanics performed scheduled work. PM crews continued their PM duties, uninterrupted.

Organizationally, we took on the structure: shown in Figure 4.

This structure gave me an ability to complete 100% of my preventive maintenance, on time, every time. We had the simultaneous ability to address any emergency work, and to work closely with our operational partners to schedule and repair corrective work with our line mechanics. The collaborative nature of the operations/ line mechanic structure put the scheduling monkey squarely on the back of those holding the reins to equipment access. Our operational partners had to make equipment available, or risk permanent shutdowns. For our part, we never scheduled work we were not ready to perform. Our results were stunning: a move from 95% reactive to 5% reactive in only 18 months.

I have since come to learn that some organizations have capitalized on this approach and have added priority 3 (low priority) work orders to the tasks for the Hit Crew, or Do It Now Crew. When there are no emergency calls, this dedicated team can work on those work orders that seem to congregate and clog the backlog with older and "overdue" work-orders. Thus, the priorities are handled as in Figure 5.

Consider your structure. Complete this simple paper-work exercise with your maintenance supervisors; answer these three questions:

Are we completing all PMs on time, every time?
Are we responding to all emergency work requests WITHOUT pulling someone from scheduled maintenance or deferring preventive maintenance?
Are we completing every corrective maintenance or routine maintenance work order within 6 months?

If you cannot answer yes to each of these questions, maybe you need to re-organize to bring your reactive, preventive, and corrective work under control through a different maintenance structure. If so, I suggest that you Do It Now!

John L. Ross, Jr, Ph.D., is a Sr. Consultant with Marshall Institute Inc., an international maintenance and reliability consulting and training company based in Raleigh, NC (www.marshallinstitute.com ). John has over twenty-two years of experience in maintenance and manufacturing, including the Air Force, consumer goods manufacturing, and steel manufacturing. He can be reached at jross@marshallinstitute.com

MaintMgmt_Jun_Jul_2009.pdf

Clearing the Confusion

2009-06-01T18:40:34Z

Simple is always better. And solutions really don't come any simpler than this one.
Imagine eliminating virtually any chance of cross contamination in all of your grease applications. The solution is as simple as switching the type of grease gun you use.
That's it.
A clear grease gun. Wow! It makes perfect sense once you think about it. So why didn't somebody think about it until now?

Nobody really knows, but now that they are here, companies can experience the simple solution to grease worries. These patented clear grease tubes allow users to have 100% visual grease identification, therefore avoiding costly grease cross contamination errors. Other grease guns on the market do not allow the grease to be seen, which means that proper grease identification is not possible. The clear grease tubes provide a simple, cost effective reliability solution to eliminating grease misapplication mistakes.

Lubrication Engineers is the global distributor of Clear Grease Guns. We talked to their Marketing Manager, Paul Grimes, who as an 18-year veteran of the industry, and former Six Sigma Black Belt & Continuous Improvement Leader, knows a thing or two about improving industrial processes. Here is what Paul had to say...

A clear grease gun? It sounds so simple, why didn't anyone think of it sooner?

Some of the simplest ideas are always overlooked. Some of the best ideas are ahead of their time in the market place. Today we have a product that is simple and provides immediate value to an organization by virtually allowing the elimination of misapplication of greases. Why, because you can see what you are putting into the machine and verify that the grease is correct for the application. Almost makes the old stand by grease gun obsolete.

There is no question that cross contamination during grease application is a major problem across industries. It leads to unnecessary failures and downtime, both of which cost companies money.

Who came up with the idea, and how fast was the process of going form idea to a finished product?

LE was introduced to the patent holder of the clear grease tubes (Kany Innovations, Mike Cline) in December of 2008. Our alignment of our joint business perspectives happened immediately from the first phone call. Lubrication Engineers and Kany both saw this as an exciting opportunity to solve a real problem for customers, especially those investing in the lubricant reliability journey. From our initial business alignment to product launch we were able to release to the market in only three months.

What are the advantages of using a clear grease gun vs the oldschool metal gun?

Again the concept is simple! Today's grease guns have barrels that an operator cannot see through. Someone may load the gun with a particular grease but once they put the gun down and another operator takes it to the floor, do they assume or do they verify what grease is inside? The clear grease gun allows any operator to see the grease whether it is a tube of grease in the packaging or grease that has been bulked filled. Seeing the grease means visual identification for the operator, but that is not the end to the story. LE wanted customers to not only visual identify but to positively verify. Positive verification takes the product to another a whole new level.

Each Clear Grease Gun Tube comes with colored end caps already assembled onto each tube. The colored end caps come in a variety of colors. The color end caps allow the end user to create an additional positive form of identification.

Customers purchasing the clear grease tube and grease gun kit will also get an additional form of color identification. Included in each box will be a sheet of colored marking decals. The decals will allow the operator to mark the tube with yet another form of positive color identification.

We wanted to allow customers the opportunity to establish and follow best lubricant reliability practices by providing them flexibility in how the tubes are colored mapped throughout the lubricant management process.

OK, but how can a clear grease gun be tough enough to stand up to a tough industrial environment?

The product is made of high impact polycarbonate, drop it and it bounces. The end caps are made out of T 6061 aircraft aluminum. The polycarbonate tubes were specifically designed to withstand the day-to-day abuse standard grease guns are subject to in the industrial market.

What are the three top reasons a company should consider switching to clear grease guns?

Eliminate cross contamination of greases in normal and critical bearing applications.
Eliminate the opportunities for staff to apply the wrong grease in any of the equipment.
Eliminate costly equipment failures due to the wrong grease being applied or mixed.
Eliminate unscheduled downtime due to the wrong grease being applied or mixed.

I know....that was four, but I couldn't stop at three. They are all very important, and quite simple to accomplish.

Please give us a success story or two from companies that are currently using clear grease guns.

Easy, this product is already in use with the U.S. Naval Center and, of course, several companies that have implemented the clear grease gun solution as well. All of them are very happy with it. Two that immediately come to mind are Cargill Regional Beef in Milwaukee which says that they had quite a significant drop in cross contamination incidents after introducing the clear grease guns. The other facility that really stands out is the APS Redhawk power plant in Arlington, AZ. The reason they come to mind is because of the way they made the conversion to our grease guns. The maintenance foreman actually saw one of our ads and brought it to the attention of the mechanics as part of their continuous improvement process. They all agreed the guns could completely eliminate the opportunities for cross contamination, and after implementing are even more convinced of their usefulness. They think that anyone using more than one kind of grease should use this product.

Have you met any resistance from lubricators that would be using the clear grease guns?

The early response has been phenomenal! Customers see this product as an easy way to truly solve a problem. It is cost affordable and an easy first step on the road to long term lubrication reliability. Customers can modernize older grease guns by purchasing just the colored grease gun tubes or customers can replace these older grease guns and upgrade by purchasing the entire LE grease gun kit, which includes both the gun and the clear grease gun tube. The cost of the product far outweighs the negative cost implications that grease misapplication provides in an operational setting.

How can interested people get more information about your clear grease guns?

We are easy to contact by either calling us toll free at (800) 537-7683, e-mailing us at webleads@LE-INC.COM or visiting our website at www.cleargreaseguns. com

And I would just like to add that at Lubrication Engineers, we are focused on providing lubrication reliability solutions. The clear grease gun is one tool in our reliability arsenal that helps our customers create and capture value with reliability based benefits.

A Cradle to Grave Approach

2009-06-01T18:35:50Z

Motor Management at Its Best
by Noah Bethel, CMRP

Ask a motor manufacturer how long one of its motors is expected to live, and the response will be something like, "20-plus years in the right environment." Ask the same question in a facility that uses such a motor and the answer is more likely to be, "If we get five years out of it, we'll be happy!" Why does this discrepancy exist? Why do motors die of an infant mortality instead of living to the ripe old age for which they are designed and built? The answer has to do with the failure to optimize motor management and maintenance.

Fortunately, in recent years, there has been a shift in philosophy with regard to motor management and maintenance. Companies no longer regard it as a cost center or a necessary evil. Rather, optimizing the lifespan of motor assets is now considered an opportunity. Business owners have come to recognize motor reliability as a decisive variable in overall profitability and competitiveness. Previously, they purchased information systems and software programs to attack the challenge from different vantage points, but until now, technology has not provided a turnkey solution for optimizing the motor management and maintenance processes.

Four Levels of Software: A Puzzle With Pieces Missing

Now companies recognize that optimal motor management and maintenance brings greater reliability. Greater reliability, in turn, ensures the best return on asset values, as well as less downtime and therefore more cost-effective manufacturing. This recognition led to the birth of reliability centered maintenance (RCM), a coordinated approach to maintenance, communicated through a centralized base and directed toward the overall reliability of assets and machinery. There are four levels of technology that facilitate this coordinated approach. They are:

Level 1: Technology-level software.

The software in this category has been limited to identifying health concerns with motors. It is designed around widely accepted standards for motor reliability and delivers alerts and alarms recommended by IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers) or NEMA (National Electric Manufacturers Association). These serve as a first level of notice that something is wrong with the motor or with the system in which it is installed.

Level 2: Information management software.

A handful of software tools are available that are designed to organize information about a specific asset so that a supervisor, planner or technician can rapidly identify trends or indications of problems related to that asset. Much of this information amounts to historical data on a motor allowing personnel to track which systems the motor has been installed in and what kinds of problems it has encountered in the past.

Level 3: CMMS, centralized maintenance management software.

Best-of-breed CMMS packages provide centralized information management on a company's motor assets in a variety of technologies - electrical, mechanical, vibration, and others. It is the central location where work requests are initiated and work orders submitted and authorized. The software tracks each asset's work request and work order history so that personnel can look up the status and type of maintenance or repair work currently being performed on an asset.

Level 4: EAM, enterprise asset management. Top-level recognition of maintenance as a critical portion of business decisions is the driver behind popular business-level software programs such as those produced by SAP. CMMS software is often linked directly to a company's EAM platform so that reliability and return on investment (ROI) of assets can be monitored directly at the highest levels to ensure cost-effective and competitive manufacturing. Some EAM programs include their own CMMS modules, which are, however, not usually best-of-breed software.

While each of these technology levels is critical to the overall picture, they only present partial pieces of the puzzle. What has been missing is a turnkey approach to tracking motor management and maintenance cradle-to-grave.

Cradle-to-Grave Approach

The ideal technology supports the entire motor management and maintenance effort from cradle-to-grave, without the need to purchase and integrate several software packages. The process of assuring motor reliability begins with specification. It continues on to quality control upon receipt of the asset, then to proper storage, to pre- and post-installation verification, and to monitoring the asset while operational. The final stage of the process is having the right information to recognize when a motor has become afflicted with a terminal disease or is nearing the end of its life for other reasons. Then the process begins again with a replacement motor.

1. Precision Specification

Cradle-to-grave management software includes a tool for precision specification, a growing trend in motor management. When forward-thinking companies buy a motor today, they begin with stringent specifications to make sure it is the highest quality motor available in the marketplace. They know that it is more cost-effective in the long run to purchase a superior, highly reliable motor than to pay a low price up front and then waste resources on frequent repairs. A cradleto- grave approach to motor management includes technology that allows motors to be pre-qualified at purchase to "design out" potential problems from the start.

2. Quality Control

Quality control is a paramount, but often overlooked, component of reliability. Motors are sometimes defective upon arrival. As such, much testing, troubleshooting and repair down the road could www.uptimemagazine.com 37 be avoided with solid quality control at the time of receipt. The old adage is, don't buy a car that was built on a Friday. In other words, don't buy a motor and count on its warranty, hoping for the best. Starting with a new motor that is 100 percent perfect will increase its long-term life expectancy and decrease reliability concerns with its installed application.

3. Scheduling and tracking.

Scheduling and tracking are important to the efficient use of a motor in any industrial environment. For example, just like a human body, a motor needs regular check-ups and maintenance so that any trends pointing toward a health problem can be identified and corrected or reversed before they become terminal illnesses. Because problems directly or indirectly related to a motor can be very subtle, thorough tracking of a motor's history can identify negative trends. Such tracking must be automated because people are generally too busy with other tasks to keep notes on the history of motors. While everyone has good intentions about maintenance, it is generally eclipsed by other priorities. Further, the population of workers available to perform testing and analysis on motor assets is dwindling, making the need for automated scheduling and tracking that much more vital.

Another important reason for tracking a motor's reliability and maintenance history is to be able to recognize the point of diminishing return. If a motor's problems and repairs are not tracked, investments may be made in maintaining and repairing it when it is no longer cost-effective to do so. For instance, if a motor has been rewound 13 times, another rewinding is inadvisable because the motor will be very inefficient despite this maintenance effort.

The fact is, if maintenance activities are not scheduled and tracked, they probably will not occur. Furthermore, in the absence of automated scheduling, analysis and trending of data to identify conditions leading to lower reliability, potential problems will be overlooked, and the plant's competitiveness will suffer.

4. Predictive Testing and Trending

Testing and trending needs to be predictive rather than just preventive or reactive. Let's clarify that important distinction with a medical analogy. Regular medical checkups are predictive in that the findings may predict illnesses. A preventive measure would be taking vitamins on a regular basis to minimize the risk of unhealthy conditions. However, since the body eliminates excess vitamins, it is not necessary to be predictive about taking vitamins, which would amount to taking a blood test every day. Being reactive about one's health would mean to stop eating junk food once diagnosed with a serious medical condition. Like medical checkups, software-enabled predictive maintenance is designed to identify conditions that are conducive to failure or lower reliability, so that they can be corrected to increase the life expectancy of an asset or motor.

Cradle-to-grave reliability software tracks the history of repairs, or mean time between failures, to show faults so that their source can be identified and remedied. Without such historical information, repeated repairs or continual cleaning of a motor may waste a company's resources on correcting symptoms while missing the real disease.

5. Tracking Installation History

Tracking the history of a motor itself is not enough. Turnkey reliability software also tracks the history of the systems in which the motor is installed. This is particularly important when a motor is used in a number of different systems, from fans to pumps to compressors. If a motor fails as part of a pump, is sent to repair, installed in a fan, fails again, is repaired again, installed in a compressor, and fails yet again, it's important to be aware that the motor has failed every time and to know why it failed. Knowing whether it failed for the same or a completely different reason each time is critical to making a decision about its future. If analysis shows that none of the failings are related, the motor may still have 10 years of life and is therefore worth maintaining.

Here's an example. Let's say a motor's application history shows that its last failure was due to a ground fault when it was installed in a ventilation fan. A review of the fan's history reveals that all of the last three motors installed in it failed due to insulation to ground. A common fault mechanism has now been identified and can be further investigated. A technician is dispatched to the site and discovers that the motor above the fan is leaking grease into the fan's motor. If the history of the fan and its motors had not been tracked, several more motors might have failed, wasting resources on repeated repairs. Again, it is critical to automate the tracking of where a motor has been and what problems it has encountered so that personnel can focus on making the right decision rather than spending valuable time on analysis.

New turnkey software at the technology level now enables the comprehensive management and maintenance of motors through all these important stages of an asset's life, from precision specification to recognizing when the motor must be replaced - in short, from cradle-to-grave. The software also delivers that information to asset management platforms so that senior management can make decisions that will continue to increase the company's competitive edge.

A Solution to Last a Lifetime As one of the most critical factors in reducing manufacturing costs, motor reliability has to be taken very seriously if a company wants to increase its return on investment in motor assets.

Keeping around several spare motors is not a profitable solution to reliability issues. Rather, the answer is a cradle-tograve approach to motor management and maintenance that begins with thorough specification and qualification and tracks assets and the systems in which they are installed throughout their lifetime. A company that wants to be world class has no choice but to be world class in its motor management and maintenance efforts. Thanks to new turnkey, best-of-breed software at the technology level, the motor reliability effort has just become a whole lot easier.

Noah Bethel is Vice President of Product Development with PdMA Corporation. PdMA, based in Tampa, Florida, is a leader in the field of predictive maintenance, condition monitoring applications, and the development of electric motor test equipment for motor circuit analysis. For further information, visit www.PdMA. com or call 800 476-6463.

MotorTest_Jun_Jul_2009.pdf

Reaching 99.8% Reliability

2009-06-01T15:26:50Z

Software Increases Confidence in Decision Making
by Amy Davidson

The vast amount of diagnostic information available today about the condition of critical production assets - information that can be of real value to decision makers -- can be confusing and even overwhelming. However, when information from hundreds or even thousands of separate sources is consolidated and organized on a single platform, a more complete picture of the health and operation of critical assets, or an entire process, emerges.

As a result, users can literally see into the future to prevent process slowdowns or unplanned stoppages. The ability to view the health of critical production assets from anywhere in the world may be just what a manager needs to recognize a developing problem and predict what will happen well before a serious breakdown threatens productivity, whether in a production unit or an entire plant. Equipment not performing up to full capability can be identified well in advance, making it easier to decide when to deploy maintenance resources in the most efficient and cost-effective manner.

Look at the results from a multi-plant petrochemical company in southern Africa. When data from various sources was consolidated, a previously unattainable view of the production assets became the basis for predictive maintenance:

Equipment reliability improved from 97% to 99.8%
Saved 11 days of production by minimizing downtime
Saved $200,000 to $300,000 by selectively overhauling control valves

Johan Claassen, previously mechanical and instrument maintenance manager for seven petrochemical plants, said officials were looking for a good maintenance management tool at a newly commissioned plant. This facility had all the latest automation technologies, including HART and FOUNDATION fieldbus instrumentation and was the site of a comparative asset management systems trial conducted in 2005. After the six-month trial, the company selected Emerson's AMS Suite as its basic predictive maintenance software. This included AMS Suite: Asset Portal, a web-based application designed to aggregate diagnostic information from data sources within the plant.

Since that data can be accessed via Internet Explorer, authorized personnel in the plant, or half-way around the world, can view vital information on critical production assets. The information can be organized in a way that is most helpful to the user - by location, asset type, description, health index, or significance to plant reliability. The configurable dashboard instantly presents the highest priority assets. Users can consult appropriate documentation from a manufacturer's website or view internal records on a specific asset directly from the dashboard.

The combined data gives managers a broader view of the current operating condition of mechanical and process equipment as well as field instruments and valves throughout a plant or across an entire enterprise. This can have a strong impact on decision- making.

"After six months of intensive scrutiny," Claassen said, "we decided to standardize on these technologies for their ease of use, the amount of diagnostic information we could obtain from the field, the high level of information received, and the ability to drill down for more detail if required. This was a good choice; they proved their value in their first year of full operation in our plant."

The two major yardsticks used to evaluate the operational effectiveness of the AMS Suite products, Claassen said, were the impact on maintenance costs and plant reliability. In 2003, the first year of plant operation, instrument and valve reliability was 97 percent - not bad, he said, but of course everything was new. Following implementation of AMS Asset Portal, reliability increased to 99.8 percent.

There was also a direct financial benefit in the reduction of maintenance costs. Instrument and valve spending actually decreased in the years following startup. This was largely due to a "big gain", Claassen said, on the control valve side where a program was implemented to use the predictive diagnostics produced by valves equipped with digital valve controllers (DVCs), which provided feedback on valve function and condition.

In the past, control valves were generally removed from service and overhauled every two years. The new valve diagnostics proved that that repair frequency was not necessary.

"We actually changed our valve maintenance philosophy based on the new technology," Claassen said. "When production and maintenance personnel met prior to a shutdown, we would determine which valves had to be removed based on a preventive maintenance philosophy calling for maximum removals just to be on the safe side. When we started basing decisions on each valve's actual performance, by comparing original and current valve signatures, we found that far fewer valves had to be scheduled for overhaul.

"This represented a significant savings," he said, "because removing a control valve requires a huge amount of planning and coordination. For example, the wiring must be detached, and the lines must be drained and removed and the valve placed in a good space where the guys can work on it. It also may be necessary to arrange for scaffolding or get a crane to lift the valve, depending on its size and location in the plant. We saved between $200,000 and $300,000 per shutdown by greatly reducing the number of valves serviced each time."

Claassen concluded, "Even with that impressive savings, the biggest financial impact resulted from increasing equipment reliability to 99.8 percent. The additional uptime was equal to about 11 full days of production per year." He cited still another benefit - faster plant startup following a shutdown. Claassen said, "The biggest concern an instrumentation and valve manager has after a shutdown is whether everything is physically connected in the same manner as it was before the shutdown. A lot of contaminants can get into the system during a shutdown, so we always try to make sure all the equipment is back to normal."

Claassen said, "AMS Asset Portal enabled me to actually see which devices were ready and which ones had problems. If it showed everything was connected and properly configured, it gave us the confidence to sign off on the startup."

Timely information provided by this software includes:

Plant Health Home Page for a quick look at the health of all plants
Asset Health Dashboard Report that organizes and displays information on the condition of plant assets in a concise, yet understandable way (Figure 1)
Enterprise-wide view of production assets, no matter where they are located
Importing capabilities for data regarding production assets not connected to standard sources
Exporting capabilities to send asset data to a third-party, such as an equipment vendor, for analysis and suggestions

Summary

By consolidating diagnostic information from many sources throughout a production unit, or an entire plant, on a single platform, the condition of all essential production assets can be observed. Plant personnel can quickly identify under-performing equipment long before it causes a slowdown or stoppage. They are essentially able to look into the future with the power to predict unexpected failures or off-spec product in time to take corrective action.

With these technologies in place, equipment reliability is raised to new levels, predictive maintenance can be practiced, and hundreds of thousands of dollars can be saved.

Amy Davidson is a Product Manager in the Asset Optimization Division of Emerson Process Management, located in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. An Emerson employee for the past five years focusing on asset management issues, Amy has more than 20 years of experience in project management and marketing in the automation industries. She is a graduate of South Dakota State University with a BS in Chemical Engineering.

InfoTech_Jun_Jul_2009.pdf