We are intending to consoidate all our plant' efforts under a so-called RAMC(Reliability, Availability, Maintenability and Capacity Utilization). Two basic purposes are:
1) to reduce downtime (either planned like plant turnaround or unplanned like plant trips). We aim to increase turnaround interval and/or decrease turnaround duration (product to product)
2) to operate at design nameplate capacity and//or to increase capacity by revamps and/or rejuvanation

Current efforts include root cause analysis (RCA) for equipment failure and multitasks (equivalent to basic equipment care by operators and technicians).

Anybody can share info on what are meaningful focus areas to concentrate for implementation and maximum impact at cost-effectiveness in other plants or facilities? TQ

Josh,

You are approaching it teh right way. I suggest you keep in mind teh following:

1. Operating philosophy has a major impact on downtimw and costs
2. If we take care of basics, i.e. keeping eqpt. clean, dry and lubricated, we get 70%+ of the benefits.
3. Using a Risk Matrix to decide priorities can help you plan and schedule work logically.
4. When these are all under your belt, consuder using RCM, RBI, IPF to plan work better.
5. Measure before you start; a line in the sand helps track progress.
6. Measure all 4 phases of the improvement cycle; Plan, Schedule, Execute and Analyze, all matter.
7. Measure final outputs in prefernce to intermediate ones, e.g., availability rather than backlog.

Good luck. I expect you will succeed, as you have the right approach.

Dear Vee

Are those stuffs you said contained in your book? Thanks the comment. TQ

quote:

Originally posted by Josh:
Dear Vee

Are those stuffs you said contained in your book? Thanks the comment. TQ

Dear Josh

Items 1,2 & 3 in my earlier note are not addressed in the book, but Terrence O'Hanlon has published my paper on Operating Philosophy and Reliability in the reliability.com website.

I will be running a workshop on Reliability Engineering for Maintenance Practioners at MARTS 2005 on May 26 in Chicago. Terrence is one of the Organizers of MARTS 2005.

V.Narayan.

The rest are covered in the book, some bits more extensively than others

quote:

Originally posted by Vee:

quote:

Originally posted by Josh:
Dear Vee

Are those stuffs you said contained in your book? Thanks the comment. TQ

Dear Josh

Items 1,2 & 3 in my earlier note are not addressed in the book, but Terrence O'Hanlon has published my paper on Operating Philosophy and Reliability in the reliability.com website, so that covers one item.

The rest are covered in the book, some bits more extensively than others

I will be running a workshop on Reliability Engineering for Maintenance Practioners at MARTS 2005 on May 26 in Chicago. Terrence is one of the Organizers of MARTS 2005.



V.Narayan.

Dear Vee,

Sorry I'm unable to find your article on operating philosophy and reliability in reliability.com. I searched by your name narayan also unfruitful. TQ

Josh,

Please go to

http://www.reliabilityweb.com/art04/Operating_philosophy_and_Reliability.pdf

to see a .pdf copy of the article. I wonder if there is an opportunity to meet you sometime, for example, I will be conducting two workshops in KL 13-16 June. Perhaps you may wish to attend one or both of them. For details, contact me on eml@effective-maintenance.com

Regards.

V.Narayan

Thanks for the article.

I noted the course date. Anyway, where I can get the course content? TQ

Dear ALL

Can the inherent/designed plant reliability be calculated/quantified during the plant design phase when setting up the equipment configuration prior to construction or even for existing plants (if it was not calculated previuosly)?

My plant is highly-integrated because the reforming system is combined with steam system for heat recovery and high plant efficiency. However, even though the design intention is good, this integration has caused downtimes and long start up procedure after plant downs.

In view of the above, some people think of adding a packaged boiler in efforts to solve these problems.

So if we aim to calculate plant designed reliability & availability (either for existing plants or brand-new one), is there a way to quantify these figures? Any software to facilitate these calculations faster? Do we need to use reliability block diagrams?

We know that the plant designer calculated the plant efficiency figure (probably based on their process simulation software) but the reliability & availability figures are never known. Thus if we intend to know that the targeted plant reliability of 97% is achievable at least by calculation first.

Appreciate your valuable inputs.TQ

Dear Josh,

the answer to your question is yes, it is possible to predict the reliability of the project in advance, during the design phase. It is not possible to go into details here on the forum. In essence you have to build reliability block diagrams and run a simulation model. Software is available to help, but you have to do a reasonable amount of 'hand' work first.

V.Narayan.

Do you know a specialist company who can provide this service? TQ

Josh,

Yes, but off the forum please.

V.Narayan