Hydrocarbon Processing - December 2020 - 13

Reliability

HEINZ P. BLOCH, RELIABILITY/EQUIPMENT EDITOR
Heinz.Bloch@HydrocarbonProcessing.com

The elements of a reliability framework
Reliability frameworks have been documented by organizations such the Society for Maintenance and Reliability Professionals (SMRP). Their stipulated " Five
pillars of the SMRP book of knowledge "
are best summarized as an overall strategy
aimed at achieving reliable plants. There
are five pillars, or categories: business and
management, manufacturing process reliability, equipment reliability, organization
and leadership, and work management.
Within each pillar, we see several
more detailed listings of specific tasks.
To lead to reliability, these tasks must
be implemented with experience-based
forethought and accuracy. In other words,
competent individuals and true craftsmanship are needed to achieve reliability.
Business and management. Picking a

sample task from each category, we want
to further highlight just one listing from
each pillar and touch on the degree of detail comprising even a minor part of the
framework.
For instance, under the first pillar, regarding the line entry " Planning and budgeting of resources, " the qualifications for
the personnel resources needed to carry
out different tasks vary widely. Therefore,
some of the workers may need detailed instructions, while others do not. Some may
require close supervision, while others
will not. Some are diligent readers, while
others have little interest in reading.1,2,3
Manufacturing process reliability. Under this heading-the second

pillar-we find " Manufacturing process
reliability. " It indicates that a competent
individual must see to it that machines,
devices, vessels and the like are not operated beyond set limits. Operation beyond
set limits is like driving a car at speeds well
beyond the rated speed of its tires. It can
be done, but it may well end in tragedy
on a fateful day when the tires are worn,
under-inflated and driven on a road where
potholes alternate with jagged rocks.

Equipment reliability. Equipment re-

liability should not be an afterthought.
Imparting equipment reliability will be
hugely expensive after discovering that
the engine in your automobile is simply
not designed to last very long. That being said, defect elimination may require
changing from a business-as-usual attitude to a mindset that consistently
aims for perfection. Acquiring the new
mindset may require apprenticeshipstyle training, loyalty and appropriate
compensation. Is a management sponsor
receptive to instituting these and similar
approaches? Does he or she have the time
to lead in the matter?
It should not come as a surprise that
much work will be required to eliminate
previously tolerated defects. Far more
detailed technical specifications will be
needed. Factors of safety may need to be
increased. Budgets will almost certainly
need to be increased. Rigorous machinery quality assessment strategies may
need to be followed. Recall that defects
are deviations from normal, and when
several deviations combine into potentially massive equipment failures it is
time to take decisive action without delay. Platitudes will no longer suffice; procrastination will kill.

FIG. 1. Good managers are value-adders;
bad managers can do much damage.

interested only in being seen at the helm
of a rudderless ship, then the fourth pillar
is more closely related to one of Potemkin's villages than to Roman colonnades.
Work management. The fifth pillar,

work management, includes the listing of
spares management. In truly reliabilityfocused organizations, all maintenance
events are dissected for upgrade opportunities. If an upgrade is possible, then the
questions of cost and payback are investigated and defined. Stocking up on " old "
spare parts that could and should be upgraded makes no sense. A good reliability
organization first defines and/or designs
better parts; then, if warranted, the organization populates its warehouse shelves
with fewer, but better, spare parts.
LITERATURE CITED
Bloch, H. P., Pump Wisdom: Problem Solving for
Operators and Specialists, John Wiley & Sons,
Hoboken, New Jersey, 2011.
2
Bloch, H. P., Petrochemical Machinery Insights,
Elsevier Publishing, Oxford, UK, 2016.
3
Bloch, H. P. et al., Optimized Equipment Lubrication,
Oil Mist Technology and Storage Preservation,
Reliabilityweb.com, Fort Myers, Florida, 2020.
1

Organization and leadership (O&L).
O&L comprise the fourth pillar. Competency-based learning and training is
one of the listings here, although these
pursuits will certainly be helpful under
every one of the five pillar headings.
One acquires competency through desiring to be an above-average employee;
a value-adder (FIG. 1). Value-adders seek
out mentors. Value-adders are inquisitive readers; they are open-minded and
well-balanced individuals who steer clear
of office politics and always prefer truthtellers over the ever-present self-promoting opinion-voicers.
If an organization is left without strong
leaders, or if the organization's leaders are

HEINZ P. BLOCH resides in
Montgomery, Texas. His
professional career commenced in
1962 and included long-term
assignments as Exxon Chemical's
Regional Machinery Specialist for
the U.S. He has authored or
co-written more than 770 publications, among them
23 books devoted to reliability improvement. One of
the latest, titled Optimized Equipment Lubrication, Oil
Mist Technology and Storage Preservation, was
published in early 2020 by Reliabilityweb in Fort
Myers, Florida. It describes many equipment-related
traditions that should have been phased out long ago.
Hydrocarbon Processing | DECEMBER 2020

http://www.Reliabilityweb.com

Hydrocarbon Processing - December 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Hydrocarbon Processing - December 2020