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Storerooms are a critical part of any maintenance and reliability program, but they are often overlooked. When a storeroom is operating at best in class levels, the right parts are available at the right time. The storeroom is only able to achieve this when it its into the maintenance department.
We’re excited to be joined again by Doug Plucknette, an author, consultant, and instructor around maintenance and reliability, to talk about RCM analysis. This topic relates to a previous episode on failure curves.
In this episode, we covered:
Performing a PM Optimization is not always as simple as it sounds. Often a Maintenance Planner will assemble a team of technicians to ask what is value-added and what is missing from a PM Routine. While these may be good questions to ask before diving into an analysis, or after an analysis, it does not base the answers on data. Basing the PM Routine on data, not intuition is critical to the long-term success of any organization.
To perform a PM Optimization, there are three main types of analysis to focus on the effectiveness of any PM Routine. The specific analysis used will depend on how mature (or effective) the current PM Routine is, and on the specific type of failures that the PM Routine is trying to address.
We’re excited to have Frank Emery, the product manager of AI at Fiix Software, with us to talk about how to make the Work Order data work. Fiix Software is a CMMS that was initially called Maintenance Assistant. He’s been in the software industry for at least ten years, figuring out how to use data. Frank’s work at Fiix is to try and make maintenance technicians’ lives a little bit easier.
Key highlights from this episode are:
.. and so much more!
In the petroleum, natural gas and petrochemical industries, great attention is being paid to safety, reliability, and maintainability of equipment. This is true in any industry and as such the learnings and information found within ISO 14224 can be applied to any industry. [Read more…]
We’re excited to be joined by Brandon Weil, the operations director at Eruditio. He was also the chair at the 2020 SMRP conference. Brandon will be giving us an in-depth look into becoming a prisoner of your process.
Key highlights from this episode are:
Based on our understanding of the six failure patterns, we can see that there is a large probability of failure when the equipment is first installed and started up. One of the Englisch causes of this increase in probability is the fact that the equipment was not installed or maintained correctly. This may be due to the installer or maintainer not using or following procedures. Having procedures is the first step to reducing these failures, but the procedures must be written in a clear, easy to follow manner. When writing procedures, it is critical to ensure that there are no interpretations in the written instructions. How can this be accomplished?
The universal language for aviation is english, which is considered very safe and reliable. How has this industry been able to overcome the fact that many of the people involved in aviation are not native English speakers? How does a large company such as Boeing supply aircraft all over the world and the customers perform the maintenance in a consistent manner? The aviation and defense industries use a controlled language by the name of Simplified Technical English.
Simplified Technical English is a controlled version of English, that is designed to help the users of English-language maintenance documentation understand what they read. Technical writing can be complex and difficult to understand even for native English speakers. Complex writing can be misunderstood, which may lead to accidents or premature failures. Simplified Technical English makes procedures easy to understand and follow, eliminating language issues and reducing premature and maintenance induced failures.
Simplified Technical English provides a set of Writing Rules and a Dictionary of controlled vocabulary. The Writing Rules cover grammar and style. The Dictionary specifies the words that can be used and those that can’t be used. For the words selected, there is only one word for one meaning and one part of speech for one word. Some of the benefits of Simplified Technical English may include;
The Simplified Technical English specification is not easy to learn, but there are training and software available (if you are interested in this standard, please visit the ASD Simplified Technical English website). The detailed contents of the Simplified Technical English specification will not be covered, but instead, the rest of the post will cover what you can immediately do to make your procedures more readable and drive reliability.
So without becoming an expert in Simplified Technical English, how can you begin to write better procedures? You can begin with some basic writing practices and by reviewing the procedures before it issued. Some of the basic practices to use when writing procedures include;
Once the procedure is written, be sure to review and delete any information which is not relevant (i.e. Instead of synthetic lubricating oil, use only). well-written should help in eliminating any interpretation and driving clarity.
Here is an example of how the wording of a procedural step could be open to interpretation. The task “Replace the filter” could mean either of the following:
Now you can see how one person may perform a task and how another would perform it differently. Once the task is clear, a technical specification should be added to ensure the task is performed to a standard such as;
The end result of ensuring the task is clear, and a specification is present is “Install a new filter and tighten to 15 ft-lbs” This task is simple, clear and easy to understand.
When following these basic steps a well written procedure will be developed to ensure clarity and repeatability, thereby reducing maintenance induced failures. Do you use a Simplified Technical English or a form of it in your procedures or job plans? If not, how are you actively working to reduce maintenance induced and start-up related failures?
Remember, to find success, you must first solve the problem, then achieve the implementation of the solution, and finally sustain winning results.
I’m James Kovacevic
Eruditio, LLC
Where Education Meets Application
Follow @EruditioLLC
References;
We’re glad to have Fred Schenkelberg back to help us understand how to make a complete request. A lot of times, emails circulate through the organization requesting tasks to get completed. However, they don’t define the:
Fred will give us insight on:
… and so much more!
If you were to go into your CMMS and look at the hierarchy and equipment, would it be well laid out and organized? Would you be able to drill down the to the lowest level of components to know what failures have occurred? Can you see how pumps are performing across a specific area or the entire plant? The chances are that for many organizations, this is not possible. Why is that? The asset hierarchy was not thought out ahead of time, nor was the right data collected and recorded in the CMMS.
Having a well-defined asset hierarchy is critical to the ability of the plant to drill down in costs and identify where the improvements efforts should be focused. It also allows reliability staff to identify common issues across specific equipment types and classes, enabling what may be an improvement targeted for a specific area to be spread out across the site. [Read more…]
We’re glad to have Shane Turcott to helps us understand more about decoding mechanical failures. He’s a principal metallurgist from Steel Image and is heavily involved in a lot of professional societies. Shane’s previously worked at a steel mill, a turbine company, and a failure analysis lab specializing in failure analysis. Steel Image was established in 2009 and deals with failure analysis, with a specialty in supporting reliability efforts in the refining industry, mining, energy, and heavy industries like automotive and manufacturing.
Today, we’re tackling important points such as:
… and so much more!
Why is it that some organizations seem to break the reactive cycle and others don’t? After all most organizations have a PM program and some form of a planning and scheduling program right? The key difference between those that do is their ability to use their failure data and systematically eliminate defects and issues from the processes and equipment. This doesn’t mean adding a new PM everytime some fails, which just won’t work.
To eliminate the defects and issues, the organization needs to collect meaningful data to analyze and act on. This is where FRACAS comes in. [Read more…]
Were excited to have Ron Moore and Doug Plucknette get into the topic of age and random failure patterns. Ron’s been involved with maintenance and reliability for a long time. Doug’s from RCM Blitz and is a big advocate for understanding failure modes, reliability centered maintenance, and its different aspects. He has experience ranging from wrenching to supervision and management, and also training and consulting.
In this episode, we covered:
Preventing The Consequences Of A Hidden Failure From Devastating Your Organization.
Ever wonder how some of the worst industrial disasters occur? It is usually the result of multiple failures. Failure of the primary system and failure of the protective systems. Ensuring the protective system(s) are not in a failed state should be of utmost importance to any organization. But how often should we test the protective systems to ensure the required availability?
Establishing the correct frequencies of the inspection/ testing activities of these protective system(s) is critical not only to the success but also to the safety and reputation of any organization. Too infrequently and the organization is at risk of a major incident. Too frequently, the organization is subjected to excess planned downtime, an increased probability of maintenance-induced failures, and increased maintenance costs.
This article will continue the discussion on establishing the correct inspection frequency in a maintenance program. There are three different approaches to use, based on the type of maintenance being performed.
This article will focus on Failure Finding Maintenance.
A protective system or device is a system or device which is designed to protect and mitigate or reduce the consequences of failure. These consequences may be safety, environmental or operational in nature. These devices or systems are designed to;
Knowing what a protective device or system is, you may see that if a pressure relief valve became corroded and seized in the closed position, it would not be evident to the operators. This is a hidden failure. A hidden failure can be defined as; a failure which may occur and not be evident to the operating crew under normal circumstances if it occurs on its own. Obviously, this could lead to significant consequences if the tank that the pressure relief valve is protecting is overpressurized. This is where failure finding maintenance comes in.
Failure-finding maintenance is a set of tasks designed to detect or predict failures in the protective systems or devices to reduce the likelihood of a failure in the protective system and the regular equipment from occurring at the same time. So how to do you determine how often the protective systems should be checked for failure? Establish the frequency using a formula.
There is a single formula that will take into consideration of all variables to establish the failure finding interval (FFI); FFI = (2 x MTIVE x MTED) /MMF
Where;
So if we use an example from RCM2, we can see how this works; The users of a pump and a standby pump want the following from the system.
Therefore the correct failure finding interval would be;
This indicates that the standby pump must be checked every two months to verify it is fully operational. If this check is not performed, the likelihood of a multiple failures increases.
Lastly, if the failure of the protective device can be caused by the failure finding task itself, there is another approach to be used, which is beyond the scope of this article.
Do you have a program in place to check your protective systems? If not, are you aware of the risk that your organization is exposed to? Take the time to determine your protective systems and establish your failure finding tasks.
Remember, to find success; you must first solve the problem, then achieve the implementation of the solution, and finally sustain winning results.
I’m James Kovacevic
Eruditio, LLC
Where Education Meets Application
Follow @EruditioLLC
References;
We’re honored to have Bill Leahy back to talk about Failure Mode Effect Analysis. He’s a principal instructor with Eruditio, having a background in manufacturing and the military. He’s been involved with maintenance and reliability for several years.
Today, we’re tackling important points such as:
… and so much more!
Ever wonder how some organizations make their vibration or thermographic program work, and not only work but deliver huge results to their organization? They use a systematic approach to establishing the correct frequencies of inspection. Establishing the correct frequencies of maintenance activities is critical to the success of any maintenance program. Too infrequently and the organization is subjected to failures, resulting in poor operational performance. Too frequently, and the organization is subjected to excess planned downtime and an increased probability of maintenance induced failures.
This article will continue the discussion on establishing the correct frequency in a maintenance program. There are three different approached to use, based on the type of maintenance being performed;
This article will focus on On-Condition Maintenance. While establishing the frequency for Fixed Time Maintenance activities is complex and is more of science, establishing the frequency for Condition Based Maintenance inspections (or On-Condition) is a mix of science and art.
The first step to determining the inspection frequency for on-condition tasks is to construct the P-F curve and P-F interval. Constructing a P-F curve requires recording the results of the inspection and plotting the result versus the elapsed time. If enough measurements are taken, a fairly consistent curve can be developed for each failure mode. Making sure that the data is gathered carefully and consistently will aid in increasing the quality of the P-F curve. Lets use an example from RCM2;
Now this works quite well for linear P-F curves because it is predictable. So how do you construct a P-F curve for a non-linear failure mode? It is a bit more complex, and a bit more of art. Let’s use another example;
With P-F curve and P-F Interval (PFI) established, the frequency can be determined.
Once the P-F Interval (PFI) is established, the inspection frequency can be determined. Thankfully it is not as complicated as establishing Fixed Time Maintenance frequencies. To determine the inspection frequency, the formula is either PFI/3 or PFI/5.
Now the above works well for linear P-F curves, so how do you establish the frequency for the non-linear curves? You use the same approach as above for the initial inspection frequency.
However, once a potential failure is detected, additional readings should be taken at progressively shorter intervals until a point is reached that a repair action must be taken. For example; the initial inspection frequency is every four weeks. Once a defect is detected, the next inspection will be at three weeks, then two weeks and then ever week.
This is only guidelines and should be adjusted based on the method used to track and trend data, the lead time of the repair parts (if not kept on site), and how quickly the data will be analyzed, and the repair work planned. If your planning process is poor, the frequency should be more frequent, to allow for a high chance of detection sooner.
How much thought was put into your Condition Based Maintenance inspection frequencies? Have you broken down each failure mode trended the data and established the frequency using a systematic approach? As with the Fixed Time Maintenance activities, you may be over or under inspecting, costing your organization reliability or money.
Remember, to find success; you must first solve the problem, then achieve the implementation of the solution, and finally sustain winning results.
I’m James Kovacevic
Eruditio, LLC
Where Education Meets Application
Follow @EruditioLLC
References;
