Efficient Plant January 2018 - 14

feature | data management
to improve asset lifecycles. Best practices to ensure
equipment documentation is ready when the project
team needs it include:
document delivery deadlines-ideally before
equipment is on-site
document delivery standards clearly communicated to vendors
timelines for data entry into EAM and CMMS
standardized guidelines for data entry in EAM
and CMMS.

PROTECTING THE PLANT

Having asset data sheets
and O&M manuals delivered
and organized before a new
project goes live means
having the tools necessary
to protect the plant from
critical issues.

Having asset data sheets and O&M manuals delivered and organized before a
new project goes live means having
the tools necessary to protect the
plant from a significant number
of critical issues. For a maintenance program to function,
technicians need to know not
only what maintenance is required on each asset, but also the
tolerances within which those activities must be performed. Having
data available also makes it possible
to have IIoT system safety alarms
and condition-monitoring programs
ready at startup.
Incorporating asset data and maintenance
requirements at the outset also has an impact on
manufacturer warranties. A warranty is of little value
if the organization is not performing the required
maintenance steps. Complex devices will require
regular checks and replacement of consumables.
These functions include:
filter changes
oil analysis
motor-circuit analysis
backlash checks.
An example of the importance of those functions
involves a polymer company that had a new $35,000
gearbox installed as part of new process startup. Three
months after startup, the gearbox suffered a major gear
failure, requiring complete replacement. The failure
also caused a five-day shutdown of the new process
that was generating $50,000/day in revenue.

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The asset data and manuals for the new process
had been turned over only a month before the failure
and had not been entered in the CMMS. Because the
maintenance team did not have the operation and
maintenance manuals at startup, they did not know
there were critical backlash checks that needed to be
performed before and just after startup that would
have prevented the failure. Because the checks were
not completed, the gearbox manufacturer would not
cover the cost of the replacement. The company lost
not only the $50,000/day revenue, but also the cost of
the gearbox replacement and expedited delivery fees.
For organizations that operate within strict
environmental and safety constraints, equipment
incidents can be costly to more than just the budget.
Environmental or safety incidents can have a lasting
impact on a company's reputation. When reputation
and safety are on the line, maintenance strategies must
be planned before an incident. Without adequate,
accurate data, such a plan will be particularly difficult
to implement.
This is illustrated by a wastewater-treatment-plant
capital-improvement project (CIP) that involved
installing new chlorine peristaltic metering pumps. At
startup the pumps still had "Warning: Insure Pump
Tube is Compatible with the Fluid Being Pumped"
safety tags hanging on them. The O&M manuals had
not been turned over with the list of compatible pump
tubes, so operations personnel assumed the correct
tubes were installed.
During the third night of operation, one of the
pump tubes failed and caused the pump casing to
crack. Chlorine leaked out and filled the containment
area, destroying equipment worth several thousand
dollars and causing an expensive hazardous-material
cleanup. These fees were relatively low compared with
the fine the plant had to pay for dumping improperly
treated water into a stream for two weeks until the
process could be restarted. The follow-up investigation
found that the installed pump tubes were not compatible with chlorine.
The blessing of new equipment at any plant can
quickly turn into a curse if that equipment isn't properly managed and maintained. It is easy to assume that
a maintenance plan will fall into place after a project
is completed, but the reality is that many maintenance

JANUARY 2018

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Efficient Plant January 2018