Primetime Programs receive award from Uptime Magazine
Uptime Magazine is proud to feature a special group of people and companies who have risen to the challenges nearly all maintenance program face and have earned the prestigious Uptime PdM Program of the Year Award. This award is designed to acknowledge exceptional predictive maintenance programs and the teams that create them, run them and continuously improve them.
The winners of the 2009 Uptime PdM Program of the Year Awards gathered for the award presentations at the Solutions 2.0 Conference in Daytona Beach from Nov. 16th-19th. We are excited to tell you about each winning program and congratulate them all for their outstanding work in Predictive Maintenance/Condition Based Maintenance. 
We would also like to acknowledge all of the PdM programs that entered this year. The overall quality of the entries continues to make our job of selecting the winners more difficult - but that is a challenge that we couldn’t be happier to have, because it is a clear indication that, as an industry, reliability and maintenance is improving. And, now, without further ado, here are this year’s PdM Program of the Year winners:
Best Overall PdM Program - Pfizer Global Manufacturing, Kalamazoo
Pfizer is the world’s largest research-based biomedical and pharmaceutical company with 89,000 employees in more than 100 countries, including nearly 4,000 in Michigan. Pfizer also ranks number one in sales on the strength of well known products such as Celebrex, Lipitor, Viagra, Xanax, Zoloft and Zyrtec. Pfizer employs about 3,200 people in Kalamazoo County, many of whom work at its large manufacturing plant in Portage—the company’s largest manufacturing plant worldwide.
Pfizer’s PdM team is responsible for more than 10,000 pieces of rotating equipment and over 130,000 total pieces of equipment. That is a sizable amount of responsibility, but they have the expertise to provide an outstanding level of maintenance.
The Pfizer PdM team is a process driven group. Processes are in place and written into a document that covers all the bases. This is a critical step in a maintenance organization’s evolution. A written procedure documenting instructions, and when to perform them, can transform a program from being excellent to being a truly sustainable program. 
The Pfizer PdM team has a strong commitment to both training, as evidenced by 15 people holding certifications of some kind, and to Six Sigma (PdM Technician has led and completed at least one Six Sigma Yellow Belt Analysis).
This PdM team has provided excellent results across the spectrum of PdM technologies. Some of their accomplishments include elimination of: premature gear oil replacement, premature bearing failure, premature belt failure, unplanned production downtime and premature failure of motors. This has led to a drastic overall reduction in suspect equipment and in the estimated budget.
Best Emerging PdM Program - San Antonio Water Systems
The San Antonio Water System (SAWS) is a public utility owned by the City of San Antonio. SAWS serves approximately 1 million people in the urbanized part of Bexar County. This population includes approximately 325,944 water customers and 354,878 wastewater customers, and is the only sewage treatment agency in this area.
SAWS is divided into three sections that cover all of San Antonio, TX and some of the surrounding counties. They have 4 waste water treatment plants, 10 Heating and Cooling plants, over 100 lift stations and over 100 potable/recycle water stations.
The PdM team has gone through the Clemson University training for maintenance. The PdM technicians are all vibration level 2 certified, Infrared Certified and Airborne Ultrasound certified. The PdM techs have also been through precision alignment training, offline motor circuit analysis training and online electrical signature analysis training. The team has equipment for every training program they have completed, and these tools are used to find and correct problems. 
While new at it, they have begun using root cause analysis to examine why failures occur. They are now piloting a PM program where PMs are generated based on need instead of being time based. The PdM team has been successful in dramatically reducing premature bearing failure due to both misalignment and water intrusion, and also in reducing equipment shutdowns caused by overheated electrical components.
SAWS built this program from ground zero with very little outside help. They took two of the best electricians and two of the best mechanics in the company and trained them in PdM technologies and methodologies. The planning team took a newly implemented CMMS and created the entire workflow process for the company, creating standardized pm’s. They are now well on their way to becoming a condition based maintenance structure.
Best Green PdM Program – Alcoa, Mt. Holly
Situated on 6,500 acres in Berkeley County, SC, Alcoa Mt. Holly produces 235,000 tons of primary aluminum annually. Built in 1977, Mt. Holly is the most advanced plant of its kind in the United States, a pacesetter in production efficiency, energy utilization and environmental protection. It was the first primary aluminum plant in the world to be registered totally to the ISO 9002 Quality System Standard. The products produced at the facility include: Commodity Grade P1020 (Tee/Standard), Foundry Ingot (Tee/Standard), Billet and Rolling Slab.
Mt. Holly is also a member of the S.C. Environmental Excellence Program and was recognized by the SC Department of Commerce in 2008 as the best large industry recycling program in the state.
The Ultrasound Program at Mt. Holly has greatly reduced energy consumption. The facility has gone from running seven compressors full time to running five full time, one cycling between loaded and unloaded and one on auto shutdown. Because of this increased efficiency, the facility no longer has to utilize rental compressors in order to do routine maintenance. This, along with other improvements, has led to a savings in electricity of roughly $8000-$9000 per month. As another program positive, interruption to production throughput has also been greatly reduced.
The Ultrasound Program also inspects for corona, arcing and tracking in the high and medium voltage equipment throughout the entire plant, inspects for bearing problems on highly critical equipment and inspects cruces for vacuum leaks.
Best Lubrication/Oil Analysis Program – Calpine Corporation
Calpine Corporation is helping meet the needs of an economy that demands more and cleaner sources of electricity. Founded in 1984, Calpine is a major U.S. power company, operating nearly 90 facilities and capable of delivering nearly 24,500 megawatts of clean, cost-effective, reliable and fuel-efficient electricity to customers in Canada and 16 states in the U.S. The company owns, leases and operates low-carbon, natural gas-fired and renewable geothermal power plants. 
The PdM program is functional at all Calpine plants which approximates to 25,000 MW of generation capacity and generated 89 Million MW hours of power in 2008. The multi-faceted PdM approach includes the application of vibration analysis, airborne ultrasonic detection, on-line motor analysis, off-line motor analysis, infrared thermography, lubrication oil analysis, transformer oil analysis, corona surveys, and ultrasonic pipe thickness testing.
One of the more impressive problems identified by Calpine’s PdM program was combustion turbine lubrication and control oil varnish deposition, which was resulting in failed starts and unit trips (at a cost of $15,000 per occurrence). The solution involved multiple mitigation techniques and system changes, including an ion charged bonding system and installing anti-static filters. 
The reduction of unnecessary PM’s, optimization of existing PM’s and addition of relevant PdM activities is actively pursued on an ongoing basis. Calpine’s transformer and lubrication oil programs utilize the internet to access the data (database downloads are performed periodically and the data stored on servers internal to Calpine).
According to Calpine’s numbers, since its inception, their PdM program has produced a return on investment of over 500%.
Best Precision Maintenance Program - NASA Kennedy Space Center & ISC Predictive Technology Group
Located on Florida’s Space Coast, NASA’s John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC) has helped set the stage for America’s adventure in space for more than four decades. From Mercury through Gemini and Apollo to the space shuttle and International Space Station, the spaceport has served as the departure gate for every American manned mission and hundreds of advanced scientific spacecraft. It contains 489 buildings (comprising 7,345,579 ft2) and 291 other structures. KSC houses some of the most unique facilities in the world.
The ISC Predictive technology Group at Kennedy Space Center utilizes both System Assurance Analysis and RCM2 Analysis on their critical plant equipment to determine the most cost effective job plans for performing maintenance. Critical equipment is that which supports launch related activities that could impact or delay space shuttle launches. Some mission essential equipment (which supports the critical systems) is included as well. 
The program has established an in-house training program for thermography, vibration and alignment/balancing. The most impressive part of their program is the alignment and balancing area as can be seen from the following example..
They were experiencing high vibration levels which were leading to shaft and bearing damage and failures in 64 air handling units (AHU’s) at the space center. This led to indoor air quality issues in facilities that support launch activities. After diagnosing the problem and completing the repairs and balancing ahead of schedule, the vibration levels dropped significantly and every AHU was well below their target level. This work has significantly reduced shaft and bearing damage and averted many costly repairs. In addition, the AHU’s run much more efficiently, which has led to a recurring energy cost avoidance of $26,005 per year.
Best Ultrasound Program – Dmax, Ltd.
Dmax, Ltd., of Moraine, Ohio, manufactures the Duramax Diesel engine for use in General Motors heavy duty trucks. The 650,000 sq. ft. diesel engine manufacturing facility, located on 39 acres, includes machining lines for cylinder blocks, cylinder heads, crank shafts and connecting rods, as well as areas for engine assembly and testing. The facility employs about 540 hourly and salaried employees.
The Ultrasound Program at Dmax, Ltd. has provided a more than substantial return on investment for the company. According to their calculations, the PdM program saved $13,421,714 in potential costs in 2008, and $3,261,380 through the first quarter of 2009. These savings were achieved not only through hard work, but with open minds as well. By trying all of their PdM tools in a wide variety of situations, they are able to see what combination of technologies fits best. The technologies work best when they are used together to identify problems and their solutions.
Here are some examples. After adding Ultrasound for added safety to check main panels before performing the Infrared routes each month, three arcing main panel breaker leads were found last year. In all three of the instances, loose connections were the cause. In two of the panels, the electricians only needed to tighten the connection. However in the third panel, the arcing was so severe the lead welded itself to the breaker, so the breaker had to be replaced as well as the wire. This situation proved not to ever open a panel door without checking it with ultrasound first.
The Dmax facility has over 500 Ball screws in operation, and using ultrasound to trend these has saved hundreds of thousands of dollars. The number of ball screws that can run dry, and need to be lubricated is astounding. Utilizing Ultrasound to monitor and trend the ball screws, has led to an 80% reduction in the number a ball screw failures. In fact, they have now gone over two years without losing a ball screw during production.
Best Specialized Vibration Analysis Program - Peabody Energy, North Antelope Rochelle Mine
Peabody Energy is the world’s largest private-sector coal company, serving 330 customers in 21 nations that are located on six continents. It is the leading producer in the coal-rich Powder River Basin of Wyoming, Colorado and the Midwest. The North Antelope Rochelle Mine (NARM) - the largest and most productive mine in North America - shipped a new industry record of 97.5 million tons of compliance coal in 2008 and more than one billion tons since the mine began. Investments in a world-class dragline, blending technology and conveyor systems at the mine have driven productivity while reducing costs.
This vibration program is performed on 12 mining shovels, which can move up to 100 tons per load, and 3 draglines. Their criticality ranking is an informal one based on risk of downtime and magnitude of repair costs. Using these considerations as a guide, they have determined the need to monitor the variable speed components on the shovels and draglines. They intend to add propel equipment as their manpower capability increases. So currently, the program is monitoring three of the four critical motions needed in draglines and shovels. Production will be lost with any of these failures.
The key element of this specialized vibration program is that they have overcome the short duration cycle time problems presented by the dragline and shovel operations (some equipment operates on an intermittent basis, with durations of only about 5 seconds at a time). Taking up to 16 channels simultaneously allows them to obtain consistent data, record a tach signal, and retain the phase information across all channels. This is all done while causing essentially zero downtime.
Since the vibration analysis program has been implemented there has been a marked improvement in the mean time between failure of bearings on high speed and intermediate speed shafts and improvement in overall unplanned downtime. Job planning and job efficiency has also improved because vibration data has indicated what needs to be replaced with enough lead time to procure the proper parts before the job is performed.
Comments (1)
Also if Reliabilty web can organize to have the E-mail ID of the responsible for each of the above award winning plants, we can correspond on our specific areas of interest and get further details
1) Posted 8:12 am, 13 January 2010 by John George Painumkal