Efficient Plant Jan./Feb. 2021 - 25

safety practices

Choose a single asset
or process, such as this
CNC laser-cutting operation, make it safe and
reliable, then add assets
until you've changed
your company culture.

Tie
Safety to
Reliability
ALL INJURIES AND EQUIPMENT
failures are preventable, and no task is so
urgent it cannot be accomplished safely
and reliably. While management must
provide a safe and reliable workplace,
everyone is responsible for preventing
injuries and failures and should be
empowered to stop unsafe and unreliable behavior. Personnel safety and
process safety are not the same. You
can have excellent personnel safety and
still go out of business or have a major
accident. Process safety is improved by
disciplined operation and maintenance
practices.

For more information about reliabilitycentered maintenance, contact the experts at
GracePort.com.

JAN/FEB 2021

EP2101rmcgrace.indd 25

AIM FOR ZERO RISK
If you believe in zero instance in injuries, you
must believe in zero failures and unplanned
downtime. That may seem unrealistic, but it's the
first step toward setting an aspirational goal. That
is where you're going. You're going to work really
hard to get there and you're going to do what you
need to do to move in that direction. It's important
to note that operations and maintenance training
should be on a par with your safety training.
Advancing reliability and safety to their full
potential requires operational discipline and the
tenacious use of this practice in all areas.

START FROM SCRATCH
The most common excuse for not investing in
safety and reliability is " budget. " You probably
think you don't have it because you think you
need millions of dollars. You don't have to start
big; just start. Choose something, any asset,
and make it right. When you have that one done,
choose another and make it right. Next, select a
procedure. Make it right. It's a gradual process,
but over the course of a year or two you'll start to
build credibility and get leadership on board with
doing more. This is about a change in mindset,
better workforce engagement, higher disciplinary
standards, and elevated expectations. This is

followed by support that helps personnel reach
those expectations. All of this is really a question
of leadership.

ENGAGE AND ALIGN
Eliminating small day-to-day problems has a
much greater impact on results than focusing on
major failures. Engaged employees are three times
more productive than average. Most organizations
are not aligned, engaging, or helping their
employees do a better job. Focus on the highlevel goals and think at a systems level. Develop
shared measures between competing groups and
partnership agreements so employees are more
likely to work together. Set clear goals that are
reasonably achievable.

USE CONDITION MONITORING
With condition monitoring, you'll better
understand the degradation process and avoid
or minimize the consequence of failure. When a
squeak or a noise is first heard, it's common to let
it go too long. Eventually it becomes a functional
failure and then quickly deteriorates until the asset
is completely broken. The time interval between
potential and functional failure is when you have
to take action to plan and schedule repairs that will
mitigate the failure or avoid it altogether. EP
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Efficient Plant Jan./Feb. 2021

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