reliability engineering for maintenance

TRC-2018 Learning Zone 31:18
by Paul Hughes and Walter Sanford, PinnacleART

Facilities that are not prepared to perform full Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) analysis can still benefit by employing reliability methodologies to Operations and Maintenance (O&M) tasks. Operating costs for water and wastewater treatment plants can run between 50 and 75 percent of the total lifecycle cost of the facility. When operating costs, maintenance supplies, labor, energy, and downtime are included, O&M costs over the lifetime of a facility can reach up to 85 percent of total lifecycle costs. Optimizing O&M practices can dramatically impact the lifecycle costs associated with a facility. Apparently minor increases in efficiency will aggregate over time to make a significant difference in lifecycle costs. This presentation describes a two-stage O&M improvement initiative at two wastewater facilities experiencing significant operational problems and early asset failures. These facilities were heavily staffed to be able to manage issues, yet staff were underutilized for much of the time. These issues resulted in continually increasing costs for owners, and increasing challenges to meeting facility requirements. In the first stage of improvement, using the principles of RCM, O&M management was focused more on reliability-based and proactive tasks rather than reactive maintenance and “firefighting” failures and other issues. In the second stage, a full, risk-based RCM analysis was performed and implemented, along with further improvements in O&M management. By focusing on reliability, and risk-based Asset Management, these facilities experienced rapid, significant, and sustained improvement in availability, regulatory compliance, and cost performance.

TRC-2018 Learning Zone 41:46
by Nick Jize, JMS Software

We will discuss the classical RCM methodology and its role in teaching the maintenance department how to critically evaluate Maintenance PM tasks, achieve buy-in for recommended changes, and to effectively implement new Job Plans.

TRC-2018 Learning Zone 39:16
by David Anderson, Score Diagnostics Limited

100% Valve Reliability (optimisation of valve performance over time, for minimum investment, with no surprises) is our vision for your valves. Since the year 2000, Score have been working with valve diagnostics equipment and systems to improve valves’ operating performance and reliability, dependent upon their criticality to the process. This track record has allowed us as a valve management company, to identify and develop strategies which optimise process operations and reliability. Being exposed to all of the failure modes in all of the valve designs and types commonly found in process plants throughout the world has shown us what to look for in terms of performance indicators that lead to in-service failures. Consequently, the ability to identify any/all emerging failure modes as early as possible delivers an operational reliability advantage. So, what we are interested in is, can we see and quantify any developing failure mode at any time, through a continuous condition and performance monitoring approach? What is that failure mode going to do to your process? And at what point do we want to make an intervention in terms of our valve management strategy? The most commonly deployed maintenance strategies lead to calendar-based interventions, so we are going to demonstrate new ways of working, to achieve better outcomes. We shall challenge the audience’s thinking on commonly applied maintenance management strategies and focus their attention on maximizing efficiency through an evidence-based approach to reliability centered maintenance. To support this, we shall present a real-life case study where the evidence from condition and performance monitoring of valves can be used to safely extend the MTBMI (Mean Time Between Maintenance Interventions) for critical valves in a gas distribution network. The results of course are minimised production downtime, minimised risks to process and personnel and greater efficiencies in operations.