Power up PdM success - Plant Services · 2017. 7. 27. · Source: Heinz Bloch. SRS SP RPRT of...

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Power up PdM success

SPECIAL REPORT

Sponsored by

http://www.uesystems.com

If you’ve ever had to restart a pre-

dictive maintenance (PdM) pro-

gram, you’re not alone. Everyone

seems to have at least one story about

a PdM initiative that failed or was

ineffective. How can you make sure

yours will go right when it’s

launched and perform well over the

long haul?

Many reliability professionals were

eager to share their advice and ex-

periences. The common themes and

unique pearls of wisdom will help you

to avoid the costs and frustration of

PdM restarts and put your program

on the path to lasting success.

THE ROCKY ROAD

TO RELIABILITY

Programs that fail often go out with

a whimper. “I found ultrasound and

infrared devices in a dust-covered box

in a cabinet when I was hired here 10

years ago,” says Brendon Russ, reli-

ability engineer at Southern Gardens

Citrus, a division of US Sugar (www.

ussugar.com/citrus/). “My job was to

restart a multifaceted PdM program

that had been dropped.”

The plant had fallen into the trap

of thinking that PdM would result

from just buying a tool. This had

caused previous PdM attempts to

fail, explains Russ. “There was this

thought that by buying this device,

we now have PdM, and life would be

great,” he says. “There wasn’t really

any foresight into building a PdM

program, including the processes and

procedures to govern the use of PdM

or the training and information-shar-

ing needed for others to understand

the program and its value.”

Shayne Jones, O&M manager for

maintenance at Salt River Project

(SRP) Navajo Generating Station

(www.ngspower.com) witnessed a

predictive maintenance initiative fail

for common reasons. “There was a

lack of visible support from manage-

ment; no synergy; employee turnover;

poor communication of program

value to equipment owners, main-

tenance, and operations staff; and

infrequent promotion of finds and

saves,” remarks Jones.

It used to be that the PdM technol-

ogy caused problems, but now the

technology is so easy to use that

the problems stem from the people

and their actions (or lack thereof ),

says Michael Trainor, manager of

asset reliability consulting at SKF

(www.skf.com).

“One plant had a mill motor on a

critical sawing operation indicating

a problem over three months, and

even though the vibration analysis

was very sound and the work request

entered in the CMMS was adequate,

the mill’s maintenance team took

no corrective action. In the third

month, the critical motor had a cata-

strophic failure,” says Trainor. “The

team’s inaction caused eight hours

of downtime, more than $18,700 in

repair work costs, and roughly $950

of mechanic labor costs.”

Many companies will initiate a PdM

program and then check the task off

their list as done. This always leads

to failure, suggests Joe Anderson,

senior reliability manager at The

Schwan Food Company (Schwan),

(www.theschwanfoodcompany.

com). “I have witnessed a few

failures and walked into plants that

have remnants of what was once a

good program,” he says. “Usually it

was due to a combination of three

things: The program manager failed

to show the value PdM provided to

the organization, the management

changed, (and/or) there was insuffi-

cient knowledge and training.”

Bob Kazar, director of reliability for

operational excellence at The Won-

derful Co. (www.wonderful.com),

agrees that the majority of programs

fail because of a lack of leadership

support, which leads to a loss in

momentum and continuity. The one

exception to this rule he saw was a

fairly large Texas plant with a strong


PLANT SERVICES: SPECIAL REPORT

Shake off the rustHow to restart your PdM program

and avoid future hiccups

By Sheila Kennedy, contributing

editor



PdM department, many technicians

carrying multiple certifications, and

numerous predictive technologies in

use. “Despite strong middle manage-

ment support, one short-term plant

manager wanted to make a point

by reducing the department to one

PdM technician,” says Kazar.

“Of course, the PdM backlog sky-

rocketed and only the most critical

routes and assets received attention,”

he continues. “After six months,

the plant manager boasted that he

was proven correct in that the site

no longer needed the PdM team.

Sadly, the reduction in reliability hit

hard within nine to 12 months, but

by then the plant manager had left

the company. Eventually the plant

would recover but not as the division

showcase that it once was.”

Most companies do PdM because

it’s the right thing to do, says Tracy

Strawn, president of oil and gas

services at Marshall Institute (www.

marshallinstitute.com), but in many

cases the program is either poorly

implemented or poorly managed.

“About 75% of all the PdM pro-

grams I have evaluated as a con-

sultant are ineffective or failing to

deliver,” Strawn says. “They start out

with great intentions, but the pro-

gram is not implemented thoroughly

or completely, or the program is

downsized to the point of delivering

little value as a result of a plantwide

austerity or cost-cutting program.”

When programs aren’t set up cor-

rectly in the first place, they’ll never

be as effective or efficient as they

otherwise could be. “When reli-

ability practitioners have a vibration

program but ‘don’t have enough

time’ to use other PdM technolo-

gies, that’s when I know there are

missed opportunities,” says reli-

ability improvement specialist

Paul Dufresne. “Their technician

may be spending four to eight

hours collecting vibration data and

then eight to 16 hours analyzing

the data, but if the database had

been set up properly to allow the

software to do the analysis, it would

have cut down on that time and

allowed the technician to use other

tools in the PdM toolbox.”

Training is another area of oppor-

tunity, says Dufresne. “I have seen

organizations make an investment in

the software and hardware but cut

training out of the project.”

Another sign of ineffective imple-

mentation is repeat failures. “We

often wonder why there are so many

repeat failures in the thousands of

machines that are being monitored,”

remarks consulting engineer Heinz

P. Bloch. “The problem is twofold: It

has to do with uninformed manage-

ment and a tradition-focused work-

force. What is needed is a long-term

“My job was to restart a multifaceted PdM program that had been dropped,” says Brendon Russ, reliability engineer

at Southern Gardens Citrus.

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reliability improvement program

that includes root-cause identifica-

tion and correction.”

TIPS FOR GETTING BACK

ON TRACK

Each PdM program restart project is

unique to a plant and its processes.

The steps taken will depend on the

extent of the program’s decline as well

as its causes of failure. Southern Gar-

dens Citrus’s PdM program restart

was on par with a new implementa-

tion, suggests Russ. “We started at

the nuts and bolts of reliability: build-

ing the CMMS, getting the asset

criticality squared away, making sure

we did some PM optimization, and

trying to eliminate some of the waste

and focus our efforts,” he says.

Russ continues: “I built processes

and procedures for each individual

technology, starting with IR, and

incorporated industry best practices

found at conferences and training

classes, including the safety aspects.

We basically built the program

before buying and handing out the

tools. But the most important step

of all was to get buy-in from both

the executive level and craftsman

level.”. Now, he says, “We’re doing

great with ultrasound, infrared, oil

analysis, vibration, motor testing,

and some nondestructive tests such

as liquid dye penetrant testing and

pipe inspections. We can justify

our own existence every year with-

out a problem.”

He strongly urges documentation

of basic roles and responsibilities,

processes, and procedures in a PdM

restart. “If someone wins the lottery

or is hit by a bus, you’ll have some-

thing there to follow,” he says.

Schwan’s Anderson recommends a

five-step plan for restarting PdM:

1. Educate all affected employees

and management about the value

of these programs.

Share the findings that result from PdM, such as this ultrasonic bearing inspection on a high-speed bottling line.

“We must not tolerate unexplained repeat failures.”

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2. Have a detailed plan for how you

will implement the programs and

develop sustainable systems for

their effectiveness.

3. Provide thorough training in the

tools and systems being imple-

mented.

4. Communicate to the organiza-

tion all of the cost savings and

avoidances as evidence of how the

program adds value.

5. Have a plan for continuous im-

provement.

Unfortunately, most organizations

have to go through a little pain

to realize the errors of their ways,

Dufresne indicates. For one facility

experiencing a high level of unreli-

ability, Dufresne evaluated the land-

scape and used the P-F curve to get

the organization refocused on PdM

tasks that would add the most value.

After an inventory and audit of the

technologies the site was using, the

shortfalls of each tool and process

were identified and corrected. Per-

sonnel also were retrained on how to

inspect equipment and collect data.

These actions had an immediate

impact on the organization.

“I recommend starting with the one

discipline that will add the most val-

ue to your organization and making

it right before adding others,” says

Dufresne. “Also, all PdM programs

should be audited on an annual basis

to ensure they are operating as effec-

tively and efficiently as possible.”

Considerable support is needed

from the plant leader to move a

PdM program forward again. “Find

the right person to lead or drive the

effort – someone who is passionate

about the technology and a firm be-

liever in the program,” suggests The

Wonderful Co.’s Kazar. “Sometimes

new software must be purchased,

support licenses reinstated, and

training given to new personnel,”

he says. “Procuring training dollars

is in itself a huge hurdle for some

plant budgets.”

Kazar emphasizes the need to quan-

tify all of the program’s benefits for

upper management and putting the

value into managers’ vernacular –

the language of business. Share the

findings throughout the plant via a

monthly enewsletter or other form

Large multistage process pump on test at Dengyosha Machine Works in Tokyo, Japan (or “Statis-tically, 7% of one’s equipment population devours 60% of available funds.”)

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of communication, because operat-

ing in a vacuum will never breed

the support needed to develop and

sustain a viable PdM program.

SRP’s Jones recommends making

sure the details of the program are

communicated on a frequent basis

to those responsible for maintaining

the equipment. “Weekly meetings

with individual stakeholders would

be good,” Jones says. “Monthly

should be the minimum frequency.

Consider utilization of contractors

for data collection and analysis if

you are lacking qualified, interested

internal resources.”

It’s best to focus on known problem

areas, suggests Bloch. “By inference

and with few exceptions, the most

rapid payback is obtained by eliminat-

ing repeat failures,” he says. “Statisti-

cally, 7% of one’s equipment popula-

tion devours 60% of available funds.”

PdM alone will not improve reliabili-

ty, cautions Bloch. “We don’t pay suf-

ficient attention to the basics, such as

avoiding failure with low-risk designs,

and we must not tolerate unexplained

repeat failures,” he says. “PdM will

tell us what part is deteriorating, but

we must employ other means to un-

cover and then rule out failure causes.

All too often, the root of the problem

is a lack of insistence on conscien-

tiously implemented details. Look

to the growing pool of disciplined,

well-rounded technician-retirees for

help in teaching these details.”

Some organizations will invest in

initial training and tools but not

follow through to keep the pro-

gram alive and well, remarks SKF’s

Trainor. It’s easy to buy hardware

and software for data collection and

analysis, he suggests, but what mat-

ters is the commitment the company

is willing to make to investing in its

people. Education can take place in

informal lunch-and-learn sessions or

as part of daily planning meetings or

operations review meetings.

Finally, track and tell your story:

Document – both in time and dollar

value – and share successes to inspire

your team to continue making

progress. “I think people are wired

this way,” says Trainor.

Email Contributing Editor Sheila Kennedy,

CMRP, managing director of Additive Com-

munications, at [email protected].

COMMON REASONS PdM PROGRAMS ARE NOT ALWAYS

IMPLEMENTED THOROUGHLY:

• Production doesn’t see the value and therefore provides reluctant support,

characterized by not making equipment available to take readings.

• The PdM group doesn’t act on the data derived from the PdM monitoring, les-

sons aren’t learned, and equipment continues to fail.

• The PdM group fails to employ the correct metrics such as cost avoidance and

consequently no one understands the contribution the program is making to

the business.

• The PdM group isn’t provided adequate training upfront or annual refresher

training as the program matures, and their skills diminish along with accurate

data collection.

• The management team doesn’t understand the value the PdM group can

deliver and consequently doesn’t provide leadership support such as asking

challenging questions, removing barriers, reviewing key metrics, insisting that

the PdM group deliver results and the organization act on those results; and

providing adequate funding.

• The chosen PdM group leader has an inadequate skill set.

When a predictive maintenance (PdM) program doesn’t go right, it’s usually not for lack of trying. In our earlier story “Shake Off the Rust,” we uncovered common flaws and recovery approaches for programs that fail, stall, underper-form, or are defunded. The causes of failure usually boiled down to weakness in one or more critical success factors.

The sheer number of identified crit-ical success factors, all interdepen-dent and equally important, may come as a surprise to those who had considered PdM a “simple” reliability improvement initiative. In reality, the failure of any one element has the potential to put the entire program at risk.

To help you reboot and get it right the next time, following are seven critical success factors as explained by industry professionals who have

either “been there, done that” or seen it happen. Their personal ex-periences and recommendations for restarts are well worth noting.

1. MAKE RELIABILITY A

SHARED VISION

Make the commitment from the onset and let everyone know that PdM is part of the way your plant does business, suggests Greg Padesky, SkillPoint account man-ager at Advanced Technology Ser-vices (ATS) (www.advancedtech.com). “Without this kind of commitment, many naysayers will help ensure even a well-considered PdM plan fails.” He believes a cultural shift is required from the production floor to the corner of-fice for a PdM program to receive the focus and follow-through required to yield long-term reli-ability and throughput gains.

How a program restarts re-ally touches on the cultural and behavioral aspects of the orga-nization. Ron Bitely, global E/I reliability manager at Arizona Chemical (www.arizonachemical.com), a Kraton company, recom-mends developing a strong vision and alignment to your “North Star” – a common goal shared by all members of the team or organization. “The current state did not happen overnight, and you need to continually follow up to get it back on track. It’s all

about being an ambassador for reliability.”

2. IT’S ABOUT PEOPLE,

NOT JUST THE TOOLS

Yes, there needs to be an in-vestment in tools or systems to collect and trend the data, but technology is only part of the solution. Someone trained in the fundamentals of PdM is needs to facilitate the program.

Larry Hoing, senior manager of asset care at Wells Enterprises (www.wellsenterprisesinc.com), says predictive technology alone will not advance your abilities. “I have seen programs stall or fail because they do not have the talent or knowledge to use the technol-ogy. The how, when, and where to utilize the technologies is all a part of being successful.”

Sometimes programs fail simply because the reliability technician wears too many hats. “Pulling a person from the day-to-day battle of emergent work and giving them responsibility over only predictive work will in the long run pay off and help solidify the value of the technology,” suggests Hoing.

Building a team starts at the top. “Management must have the fore-sight to assign specific personnel to support the program, and then support them as they support the



Sustain PdM SuccessRecognize the seven critical

success factors that keep

strong predictive maintenance

programs on track

By Sheila Kennedy, contributing

editor



program,” says Bernie Blair, ther-mographer at International Paper (www.internationalpaper.com). He suggests developing and training a set of inspectors and developing very specific inspection processes, preferably using a PdM manage-ment system.

3. THINK LIKE AN ANALYST

AND ACT ON THE DATA

Dedicated time reserved for plan-ning, inspection, and data analy-sis is vital to PdM success. In a really world-class PdM program, the team brings more to the table than just picking out machine defects, remarks Tim Dunton, director of reliable manufacturing at Reliability Solutions (www.re-liabilitysolutions.net). They think like analysts, provide trouble-shooting support, and get to the real root cause of equipment fail-ure. If 90% of an analyst’s time is just routine, day-to-day data collection, then the program can never realize its full value.

ATS’ Padesky believes that predictive technologies may help identify equipment issues before the problems become catastrophic, but too often these findings are ignored because the equipment “looks fine.” It is challenging to stick with the routine data col-lection required of a good PdM program if the findings are disre-garded and not corrected.

4. EDUCATE AND EMPOWER

THE LEADERS

Like all human endeavors, PdM programs succeed and fail for one reason only – the strength (or weakness) of leadership, says Burt Hurlock, CEO of Azima DLI (www.azimadli.com). “Successful PdM programs are the work of strong leaders who (1) set clear ob-jectives, (2) measure their progress toward those objectives, and (3) in-stitutionalize practices and beliefs that make the program sustainable through generational and organi-zational change. The effort to start or restart successful PdM programs begins with identifying leaders with the managerial skills to build and institutionalize the program.”

Reliability Solutions’ Dunton be-lieves in leadership by example. “In our leadership training series, I make the leaders do exactly what I want their people to do, which is to docu-

ment the case histories and show the return. It’s very powerful. With a class of 15 people over 18-24 months, we’re averaging between $4-6 mil-lion per class in documented, hard number savings from applying what we taught.” Once these leaders see the importance of showing justifica-tion, they go back and start demand-ing it of their people.

5. PLAN AHEAD FOR

CHAMPION TURNOVER

When PdM succeeds, it’s usually the work of a rising star and the results are visible. Those champions are often drawn to higher, more lu-crative positions, says Azima DLI’s Hurlock. Without their leadership, managerial skills and discipline, their PdM programs will floun-der unless they have introduced a culture of PdM, in which case individuals and teams following in their tracks will manage to keep the program running.

When PdM succeeds, it’s usually the work of a rising star and the results are visible.

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“In industry today, with the desire to cut headcount and costs, very often it’s the PdM group that doesn’t get the succession plan-ning they need,” observes Reli-ability Solutions’ Dunton. “It can take several years to get a person to the point where they are really adding value.”

Also, outsourcing can prove to be an effective solution when normal personnel turnover rates create a situation where there is no one trained to run the system or analyze the data, says Joe Van Dyke, vice president of operations at Azima DLI.

6. COMMUNICATE THE VALUE

CLEARLY AND PERSISTENTLY

The lack of frequent communi-cation and celebration of PdM benefits and metrics – from the maintenance team on up to senior management – causes support to lapse, says John Bernet, vibra-tion specialist at Fluke (www.fluke.com). Every potential failure caught and corrected before caus-ing unplanned downtime needs to be reported and celebrated.

“Producing regular business-level metrics reports on program per-formance, including avoided costs and ROI, can accurately account

for the program savings and benefits and establish the histori-cal track record that justifies the PdM program under budgetary pressures,” explains Azima DLI’s Van Dyke.

Wells Enterprises’ Hoing recom-mends making the results tangible and visible. “Put the bearing you found with vibration analysis in the hand of the director of operations, and explain how you found its defect and what failure was avoided because of using this technology. Show the IR image of the motor contactor with one leg having a 100 degree F delta from

There are a lot of easy-to-use measurement tools and data management systems specifically designed for PdM.

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the others. Show the wear debris analysis of the oil sample taken from a critical gearbox.”

If the senior leadership doesn’t see the value, the program goes down, remarks Reliability Solutions’ Dunton. “In the old days when I was setting up programs, we used to teach the analysts how to make presentations in PowerPoint. Each analyst was required to make quarterly presentations of case histories to the site or corporate leadership and show the value. The art of putting that type of presen-tation together has declined today, but it remains effective.”

7. FIGHT FOR YOUR

SUCCESSFUL PROGRAMS

When a program is successful, maintenance overhead goes down, failures largely cease, and every-thing looks good. If new manage-ment isn’t aware that all of that success depends on PdM, they may see the PdM expenses as un-justified, cautions Fluke’s Bernet.

In the first two or three years of a PdM program, numerous critical machinery issues are usually iden-tified, but as the program matures, these critical issues are encoun-tered less frequently because the root problems are identified at an earlier stage and rarely progress to criticality, explains Azima DLI’s Van Dyke. “When looking for

ROI, these relatively mature PdM programs are often seen as a cost that is only identifying relatively minor asset issues,” he says. “This ignores the fact that, in the absence of a PdM program, these minor issues would inevitably turn into big and costly issues.”

Business ownership changes, such as mergers and acquisitions, simi-

larly put PdM program support at risk. “The buyer needs to be educated upfront that the perfor-mance they’re buying is the result of a disciplined machine condi-tion monitoring program,” says Azima DLI’s Hurlock. “Other-wise, they may terminate the pro-gram in the belief they’re saving money, only to begin incurring large and unplanned maintenance

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Every potential failure caught and corrected before caus-ing unplanned downtime needs to be recorded.



and capital expenses soon there-after, usually within two years.”

Frequent program justification is needed, vocally and with doc-umented proof points, to ward off anyone with the potential to weaken or defund programs that have demonstrated continuing success.

Even if all the right steps are taken, be prepared for pushback, cautions Padesky. “Many plants have already tried to utilize PdM, and most have failed due to a lack of organizational ownership, lack of follow-through, and lack of vi-sion. Communicate your plan, document your wins, and stick with it.”

Every organization’s PdM program is different. Look closely at your own suc-

cesses, and lack thereof, before planning a restart strategy. Understanding

your big picture is essential.

For example, International Paper’s Bernie Blair has seen PdM initiatives

fail for various reasons such as a lack of executive support, manufacturing

work system dysfunction, lack of leadership from the operations mainte-

nance coordinator, and a lack of knowledge and training on global manu-

facturing system requirements. Course correction may include improving

training, communication, and understanding of the importance of PdM from

the top down.

Another tip is to keep it small and experiment. “Figure out the winning formula

for the particular plant environment by piloting a small PdM program – one line,

system, or set of assets. When you get results, celebrate them early and often

to get buy-in and support for expansion,” suggests Fluke’s John Bernet.

Bernet also advises making the process as easy as possible. Know what your

team or company is good at and can easily do, and what it can’t, and play to

your strengths. “There are a lot of easy-to-use measurement tools and data

management systems specifically designed for PdM that aren’t that expen-

sive and they take a lot of the pain out of doing PdM,” he adds.

The primary steps for restarting PdM according to ATS’ Greg Padesky are:

1. Organizational support and buy-in

2. Appropriate data collection equipment

3. Well-trained staff

4. Standardized data collection process and interpretation

5. Follow-through

HOW TO SIMPLIFY PdM RESTARTS

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Power up PdM success - Plant Services · 2017. 7. 27. · Source: Heinz Bloch. SRS SP RPRT of...

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