Efficient Plant April 2022 - 9

feature | reliability strategies
feature
ALL PLANTS STRIVE to operate at peak
safety and effi ciency. As supply chains are
disrupted, resources constrained, and experienced
personnel become scarce, reliable
operations become even more critical to
achieving those goals. As a result, reliability
teams are working to make condition
monitoring their primary approach to
to operate at peak
safety and effi ciency. As supply chains are
maintenance.
maintenance.
Fortunately, the advanced sensing,
Fortunately, the advanced sensing,
Fortunately, the advanced sensing,
analytics, technologies, and soſt ware that
drive condition monitoring are more cost
eff ective to apply than ever before. It's now
easy for plants of any size and experience
analytics, technologies, and soſt ware that
drive condition monitoring are more cost
eff ective to apply than ever before. It's now
easy for plants of any size and experience
level to automate reliability strategies across
all plant assets for optimal performance
and uptime. Plants having the most success
implementing partially or fully automated
reliability programs are using three key
strategies to deliver the most value from
their investments.
LEVERAGE AUTOMATION TO
INCREASE PRODUCTIVITY
Plants of all sizes-especially small- and
medium-sized operations-have long relied
on manual maintenance rounds, with personnel
using handheld analyzers to monitor
the health of rotating equipment. However,
walking around the plant to collect routine
data from assets is a lower-value task with
high overhead.
With this approach, experienced plant
personnel, already in short supply, spend
most of their time collecting data rather
than performing higher-value tasks such as
analysis, root-cause diagnosis, engineering
changes, and implementation of other technologies.
Or, when consultants are used to
gather data, organizations are seeing costs
and wait times escalate as retirements mean
fewer trained available personnel.
Manual rounds can also risk putting the
plant's most important asset, its personnel,
in harm's way. Traditional route-based
monitoring oſt en requires plant staff ,
equipped with handheld analyzers, to visit
assets located in hazardous areas. Automated
monitoring delivers equal or better asset
health data while greatly reducing
risk exposure.
Instead of automatically monitoring only
Instead of automatically monitoring only
rack-mounted online monitoring systems,
the most critical assets in the plant with
the most critical assets in the plant with
rack-mounted online monitoring systems,
reliability teams are taking advantage of
increased wireless bandwidth to install
smaller, more cost-eff ective wireless sensors.
When these sensors are properly confi gured,
with measurements tailored to each
asset, it becomes easy and effi cient to continuously
monitor all critical plant assets.
When organizations move to automated
monitoring, they see multiple benefi ts. First,
the reliability team collects all asset data
regularly, consistently, and reliably because
exact points of measurement never change
due to variation in personnel technique,
and collection occurs regardless of personnel
availability.
Continuous monitoring increases the
likelihood that other tasks critical to plant
performance are completed, helping ensure
the plant is always running at peak safety
and effi ciency. Furthermore, assets that may
have gone unmonitored in the past due to
limited resources can now be monitored
automatically, providing complete plant
coverage and improved overall reliability.
Continuous monitoring also helps manufacturing
operations build a foundation
for artifi cial intelligence (AI) and machine
learning (ML) platforms.
IMPLEMENT EDGE-ANALYTICS
TECHNOLOGIES
Forward-thinking organizations are also
Left. Replacing maintenance rounds with sensors and automated data collection, in operations such as
this yogurt plant, is a far better use of resources with more reliable results.
APRIL 2022
providing personnel with the tools to make
analytics easier and more eff ective. To do
so, reliability teams are turning to sensing
devices capable of converting raw data into
actionable information at the edge.
Sensing devices with embedded edge
analytics help reliability teams quickly
decipher issues on the plant fl oor. Th ey also
provide guidance and workfl ows to help
plant personnel intervene to resolve issues
quickly and easily.
providing personnel with the tools to make
analytics easier and more eff ective. To do
so, reliability teams are turning to sensing
devices capable of converting raw data into
actionable information at the edge.
Sensing devices with embedded edge
Edge-analytics tools gather more data
faster than is possible with manual rounds
and also use integrated analytics technologies
to quickly identify common issues.
Intuitive human machine interfaces are
accessible at workstations or can be viewed
remotely through secure connections on
mobile devices, untethering workers to perform
higher-value tasks in the plant, while
continuing to monitor asset health.
Today, even the lowest-criticality assets
can easily be monitored continuously,
aff ordably, and automatically using small,
easy-to-install wireless vibration monitors.
Plant personnel can install these devices in
minutes and immediately begin collecting
data.
Outfi tting a wider range of assets with
continuous monitors capable of performing
analytics typically provides rapid return on
investment. One multinational manufacturer
recently installed Emerson's AMS Asset
Monitor to continuously gather and analyze
health data for a series of essential assets.
Shortly aſt er the monitor was turned on,
it identifi ed a lubrication issue in a forced
draſt fan and notifi ed members of the reliability
team.
Maintenance personnel were able to
immediately resolve the lubrication issue
and return the fan to peak performance.
Had the team continued to rely on manual
rounds, the asset could have continued to
run in an under-lubricated state for weeks
until the next data-collection cycle. Th at
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Efficient Plant April 2022

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