Your Reliability Engineering Professional Development Site
A listing in reverse chronological order of these article series:
In order to implement an asset management system, it is vital to understand what is involved in an asset management system. The aspects involved have been tested over time through many different industries. These industries have proven to be what it takes to be successful.
So let’s see what it takes to be successful in asset management. [Read more…]
Plant compressed air waste control. Every compressed air system will eventually develop leaks from connectors and redundant pipelines. Compressed air is very expensive to make. It is necessary to institute regular inspections for air leaks and fix them immediately.
Keywords: pressure loss, energy loss, air compressor, pressure switch. [Read more…]
As companies around the globe look to improve equipment reliability I can’t help but think of the Technicians and Craftspeople I meet after a conference presentation. As they step up to introduce themselves to comment on the presentation some will often say “I really liked your presentation but I don’t think our management would ever support a program like this. What you are doing makes a lot of sense but we just don’t have the people and our operations managers don’t understand maintenance and reliability.” [Read more…]
Have you tried to upgrade / replace a piece of equipment due to the high cost of maintenance? What about having the process stopped by procurement because they are not aligned with the high upfront cost?
While there is a generally a common goal of ensuring the long-term success of an organization, the approach is not always cohesive. An asset management program is there to ensure an integrated and cohesive approach is in place. This cohesive approach ensures the organization is working towards a common goal. [Read more…]
Metering and dosing pump operation. Any positive displacement pump can be used as a metering or dosing pump. The purpose of these pumps is to inject a known volume of liquid into a process stream. The primary requirement is that over a given period of time the pump consistently delivers the same amount of liquid. Keyword: gear pump, piston pump, helical rotor pump, diaphragm pump, peristaltic (hose) pump, additive, dosing rate. [Read more…]
All stakeholders have different perspectives, and as a result, place value on different aspects of an asset. Trying to balance all the requirements is not an easy task. Whether the requirements are performance, cost, or the level of risk. Keep in mind, that performance can not only be uptime or OEE, but the beauty of a park, or the condition of a road. This is where asset management comes in. [Read more…]
Is your scrubbing tower working? A wet scrubbing tower is used to clean odors, particles, mists and vapours from a gas stream. The gas is forced through the tower. As it moves from inlet to outlet it is washed and cleaned. The washing is done with suitable chemicals that remove the active components in the gas flow. The gas is cleaned to environmentally acceptable levels and discharged to atmosphere. Keywords: packed tower, packing, fill, mist eliminator. [Read more…]
I have always believed that the equipment that makes your products and the operators who operate it are the most valuable assets you have. From the Janitorial Serves to the CEO, unless you are manufacturing product and putting it out the door, you are overhead – just another additional cost that must be included in the cost of our product. [Read more…]
Ask almost any maintenance professional in your operation what they think about ethics. Chances are the answers will not have anything to do with their job and their role in maintaining equipment.
Ethics play an important role in many professions, such as doctors, engineers, lawyers, etc. Ethics are not typically thought of in maintenance, but in reality, ethics does have a place in maintenance.
To understand where ethics fit into maintenance, you first have to understand ethics. [Read more…]
Flow meters – don’t believe what they tell you. A flow meter is an instrument that measures the amount of fluid (liquid or gas) that passes through it. The meter in the pipe is the detecting device and increases the count when a specific quantity of fluid passes by. There are several types of flow meters in common use. They include magnetic flow meters, vortex flow meters, mass flow meters, turbine flow meters, rotor blade meters, paddle flow meters, and ultrasonic flow meters. Usual the quoted accuracy on the flow meter specification sheet is for water at 20oC. However when the meter is installed in a process application it is unlikely that the meter will meet the quoted accuracy without site-specific calibration. Keywords: calibration, certified test equipment, flow meter accuracy.
The manufacturer performs laboratory trials of its equipment to insure the flow meter meets their claims for accuracy. Since the manufacturer does not know where their meter will be used they standardise the tests by using water at known conditions. Unless the meter is used in a situation identical to the laboratory conditions the given accuracy is unlikely to be achieved. [Read more…]
You drive your car (almost) every day, you will immediately notice a new noise, vibration, or feel to the car. Once you detect this you would report the issue to your mechanic (or if yourself and do the repair), and he would investigate the issue. The repair would be made and the car returned to you.
This same approach is what should be happening in your plant. The operators of the plant equipment, operate the equipment every day and know the equipment. Any changes or variation in the equipment or process would be noticed by them and should be reported to the maintenance department.
Based on this approach that we use every day with our cars, why is it that in many plants the operators do not notify maintenance of changes? Or the notifications go unused or not acted on? [Read more…]
What you will learn from this article.
Some plastics can be joined with glues or cements. One of the most common of these is PVC. PVC can be either unplasticised (uPVC) or chlorinated (cPVC). Some plastics can be dissolved and chemically bonded together. ABS plastic is such a plastic. [Read more…]
Data and the analyses that use the data can be tricky to manage at best, let along extremely difficult.
In this last post of the series on using the maintenance data you have, Fred and James will answer many of the common questions asked about data and the analyses. [Read more…]
What you will learn from this article.
About a year ago, I wrote an article about the 6 signs of a reliable plant that got warm reception and a few nice comments. More interesting however was a private message I received from a Reliability Engineer who asked if I had a list of signs that a plant was in chaos and needed a wake up call to turn things around. I responded to the note, drafted a title page and a list of some of the sure signs a plant is in trouble.
This is the resulting article. [Read more…]