Scheduling Is Key For Preventive Maintenance

We had a scheduled maintenance that the operators use, with a little comment area to list something out of the ordinary.

When I managed a CNC shop, feed back from the machine operator, was one of the best I've experienced.

They know the personality of the machine best. When they feel a vibration, or a sound that no one else spotted, they bring it up, we start looking.

It may be a little late for the part, but the only down time was always to replace the part, because we had it on hand.

I do not know if there was anything we could have done to avoid part failure. But with the records we kept. some of the parts outlived its expected life expectancy....mostly.

The hardest for preventive maintenance is electronics or circuit board failure. some times it give you a burp or two before completely failing. but most times not.

another good article Milo

Two stories:

1. I took over a 1 man office in southern Ohio back in 1980. The machines were electro-mechanical beasts, and the previous guy apparently didn't believe in P.M.'s. When I got there, I was getting 3-4 breakdown calls a day over a 50 mile radius of customers. After bringing the machines up to spec, I started making more and more P.M. visits to the customers. Over 6 months I went from 3-4 breakdown calls a day, to maybe 2 a week. When I did my first P.M. at my biggest customer, his jaw dropped, and I thought he was going to offer to have my baby! Those breakdowns were causing him a lot of grief.

2. I worked at a pulp & paper mill that basically ran 24/7/365, so there really was no off shift in which to do P.M.'s. But they started doing some of the thermal & vibration analysis that you mentioned. Then they would sit down and draw up a battle plan for fixing things. The parts would be ordered, the maintenance resources and timelines would be planned out to the last detail. Once everything was ready and staged, they would plan the shutdown. The most important thing they did was get EVERY craft involved, so that they could get the most maintenance done during that shutdown. They even made contingency plans, so that if there was a breakdown, and they knew how long it would take to fix, they took advantage of that time to get some of the planned maintenance done. Anything they could work off the list that way meant more resources they could use for other things on the list.

In a direct reduction complex (ıron ore) I managed, I considered my equipment inspector worth a few hundred operating hours a year - he was sharp and into the job.

We worked very hard to get 8300 operating hours per year - anything over about 8000 was considered as very good but hour were money - in the 5,000 to 10,000 USD per hour lost profits while most operating costs continued on. Eventually we started feeding 650 degree C hot iron directly from my plants to the EAF shop. Then downtime would upset the entire scheme. Melting practices are very different when feeding 75% hot material and when feeding cold DRI or scrap!

PM is wonderful! PM is essential! But PM is only as good as the person in charge of the dept and that person is only as good as the support the boss gives them.

When we did have downtime, scheduled or unscheduled, every department was required to have a full work plan available on minute 1 - including who to call in at 0200 hours.

Other plants of the same type operated from 6,000 hours upward - very few beat us and no one did so with consistency.

Russ

One thing I try to impress on my students is try and get away from the old adage, "If it ain't broke don't fix it", or it will come back and bite you on the arse.

e.g.

Connecting rod of a v12 Pielstick engine. The bottom end of #3 rod

Connecting rod end cap and bolts.

Dye penetrant test reveals crack on the connecting rod caused by corrosion related stress. SEMT Pielstick recommends a crack test every 24 000 hours on the serrated ends of all big end bearings. This was not carried out by the shipping company concerned.............result........a very large repair bill that could have been prevented by carrying out preventive maintenance routines

A very good example of the advantages of scheduled preventive maintenance routines.

Phoenix911,kilowatt0,russ123, MOBI:

Thanks for sharing your lessons learned. Those are some compelling stories!

And photos!

Thanks gang! Milo

Even with predictive and preventative maintenance programs equipment will fail. Depending on the level of risk and exposure, we keep spares of certain pieces of equpment on hand. That limits our downtime and inconvenience to our customers. That certainly can't be done with every piece of equipment but for many pumps, motors, bearings etc. it is economically feasible and can limit the disruption.

If a piece of equipment goes out that we didn't have a backup for, we repair it if feasible, and then keep that one for redundancy.

An emergency situation always has a higher cost, in lost productivity, inconvenience, labor required for repair etc. The job of leadership is to anticipate as much as possible and limit the amount of situations that need to be responded to as emergencies.

Like as has been said, a critical component to a smooth operation is the skill and attitude of those implementing the program. It is incumbent upon leadership to listen to those in the field and respond with the resources they need, to keep them satisfied personally and also the equipment. We in leadership need to follow this advice from Ralph Waldo Emerson who said "in every man there is something wherein I may learn of him, and in that I am his pupil". A proper attitude required for a good PM program is required at all levels in the organization.

A good article Milo, and a good reminder to not operate off of assumptions.