Plant Services - October 2007 - (Page 60)

ASSET MANAGEMENT Pumps condition, but are still vital to track. This might include the unit’s ease of installation or its accessibility for repair. Safety, too, must be incorporated. Whether safety guards are present is a question that might not directly relate to the asset’s ability to function properly, but greatly affects worker safety. Equipment performance also is critical and questions that help determine if the pump is performing as designed are important. Base your performance questions on measurements that focus on the equipment evaluation and whether it’s delivering the desired level of service. These questions address, for example, capacity, utilization and functionality. Corresponding answers must be as clear-cut as possible. Yes/no answers (e.g. are safety guards present?) act as pass/fail criteria. But condition assessment questions don’t always lend themselves to bilateral answers. More complex answers must be quantifiable and as calculable as possible. In the case of vibration analysis, for example, base the answers on a vibration meter to eliminate the possibility for evaluator subjectivity. Consider how you’d evaluate a continuum such as corrosion. There are degrees of corrosion, so it’s inappro- A valid condition assessment question must have two components. priate to make it a yes/no question. Corrosion can’t be measured using a piece of equipment. Furthermore, using answers such as: • no corrosion • light corrosion • heavy corrosion brings evaluator subjectivity into the assessment. To ensure objectivity, provide as much detail as possible in the answers. A set of appropriate corrosion answers might be: • no corrosion • surface corrosion with no metal loss • significant corrosion with metal loss. The condition weight is a measure of the overall importance of the question to the pump’s ability to safely and properly function and to provide the desired level of service. It’s important to select your condition weight scale carefully and consistently apply it. Questions in Table 1 that reflect low impact on the pump’s ability to function safely and properly have a condition weight of 1, while those representing a large impact have a weight of 5. Each condition weight (1 to 5) 60 www.PLANTSERVICES.com October 2007 http://www.hilliardcorp.com http://www.hilliardcorp.com http://www.PLANTSERVICES.com

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Plant Services - October 2007 Contents Monetize It Letters Step into the Blogosphere What it Takes to be a Leader Up and Running Crisis Corner What Works From the Summit Treat Them Right Access Control Out of the Woods Show Me, Don't Guess Condition Assessment Made Easy The Air Above the Floor Power to the Prime Movers In the Trenches Illuminating Maintenance

Plant Services - October 2007

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