Up Time Magazine - December 2008/January 2009 - (Page 51) “failure” to events costing over $1,000. In “Glossary of Reliability and Maintenance Terms” , McKenna and Oliverson defined a failure as: “The termination of the ability of a functional unit to perform its required function; loss of function when the function is needed; the event, or inoperable state, in which any item or part of an item does not, or would not, perform as specified; any event that results in work performed on equipment, rather than scheduled preventive or predictive maintenance that requires the equipment to be shut down for repair or whose lack of repair could ultimately lead to an equipment shutdown. Synonym: malfunction.” We accept this definition without qualification or reservation, and offer two examples that illustrate why. Years ago, a plant decided to count failures as only pumps that were taken to the shop for repair. One day, a badly mangled pump was being parked on a flatbed trailer near the shop. Because the pump never entered the shop, it did not appear on the failure record kept by this facility. Another plant decided that “rework” should not be counted as a failure. The facility defined as rework any successive event, occurring within three days of repair completion and restart. This plant then counted the second, or third, or fourth event as part of the same repair and made it show up only once on the refinery’s failure log. Those were the games we have seen played when industry deviated from the definitions crafted by people with common sense and logic. So, again answering the intern’s question with an example: If an O-ring worth $2.20 allows oil to leak, it must be counted as a failure. If an impeller replacement were to cost $100,000 plus labor, it would also be called a failure. The most crucial issue identified here is the huge problem many refineries have today: It’s a people and people-management problem. It’s a problem with setting the wrong priorities. An individual tasked with managing equipment reliability must have the time and the motivation to read, to assemble a reference library (see below), to engage in effective root cause failure analysis, and to improve specifications for both new (future) and present (existing) equipment installed at his plant. He must also mentor others, and do so with knowledge and wisdom. If he neglects any of these duties, he should be viewed like a medical doctor lacking in those traits – society would deny him the title MD. Likewise, a mere dabbler in reliabilwww.uptimemagazine.com ity engineering may not deserve to be called a professional. The medical analogy could also be extended to reliability practitioners that feed their minds only on the Internet. Reasonable people would never entrust life and health to a medical doctor whose knowledge was derived solely from the Internet, from its sales-driven advertisers and from conversations with the purveyors of anecdotal knowledge. Needless to say, a medical professional is being taught by other experienced professionals and will consult relevant texts. It should be no different with reliability engineers working in industry. I have compiled an essential reference library for those who wish increase their knowledge, which can be found at the link listed in Reference 3 below. Rest assured that research via exclusively consulting the Internet will, at best, uncover disjointed pockets of information. The information so found will not follow a logical progression and will not even come close to conveying the coherent picture needed by true professionals. We are much indebted to Paul Barringer for providing the many links that will facilitate serious research on reliability subjects. The “Essential Reliability Library, 2008” is the author’s own recommendation. We consider it rather elementary, but representing a good first step for machinery engineers. References 1. Paul Barringer’s complete reading list can be found at the following link: http://www.barringer1.com/read.htm 2. Dr. Bob Abernethy’s website: http://www.bobabernethy.com 3. The Essential Reliability Library 2008, a reading list compiled by Heinz P/ Bloch: www.uptimemagazine.com/reading.htm Heinz P. Bloch (hpbloch@mchsi.com) is a professional engineer with offices in West Des Moines, Iowa. He advises process and power plants worldwide on reliability improvement and maintenance cost reduction opportunities. Heinz is the author of 17 full-length texts and over 400 papers and technical articles. His most recent texts include “A Practical Guide to Compressor Technology” (2006, John Wiley & Sons, NY, ISBN 0-471-727930-8); “Pump User’s Handbook: Life Extension,” (2006, Fairmont Publishing Company, Lilburn, ISBN 0-88173-517-5) and “Machinery Uptime Improvement,” (2006, Elsevier-Butterworth-Heinemann, Stoneham, MA, ISBN 0-7506-7725-2) Vibration Analysis & Balancing VIBXPERT® h Watc O DE VI n e Onli VIBSCANNER® The right tool for every user, job and budget 305-591-8935 • www.ludeca.com 51 http://www.barringer1.com/read.htm http://www.bobabernethy.com http://www.uptimemagazine.com/reading.htm http://www.ludeca.com http://www.uptimemagazine.com
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