Communications & Accountability
are Keys to
Condition-Based Maintenance
(lessons learned at Eastman Chemicals, Kingsport, TN)
Mark Mitchell Forrest PardueSteve Quillen Dick Hancock
Eastman Chemicals 24/7 Systems, Inc Kingsport, TN Knoxville, TN
Presented by:
• Eastman Chemical’s predictive maintenance history
• Focus on improving communication & use of equipment condition status information by both operations & maintenance personnel
• Creating ownership & accountability for equipment reliability
• Using integrated historical condition information to target reliability improvement
This presentation discusses:
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Eastman Chemicals – Kingsport, TN site
• 20,000 rotating equipment trains
• By the mid 1990’s Eastman’s predictive maintenance group was well respected for it’s technical proficiency
• Credited with preventing a significant number of production interruptions by catching equipment problems prior to failure
• However, Eastman’s management felt there was room to improve. 3
Eastman’s early
communication structure for
condition status
information
Condition information not consistently driving
appropriate maintenance activity
Negotiation with Operations over need for repair, change in
operations, or scheduling
Planner / Weekly Meeting
Equipment Repair Action
Area Maintenance
Crew
Vibration Analysis
InfraredThermographyOil
AnalysisMotor
Analysis
Individual Condition Status Reports
Maintenance Contact
Maintenance Contact
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Machinery Analysis
Performance Testing
• Reports were sent to different maintenance contacts based on technology source
• Each technology used a different format:– Route Vibration: custom report via plant mail– IR Thermography: e-mailed PDF file– Oil Analysis: e-mailed PDF file – Motor Analysis: e-mailed custom report– Machine Analysis: e-mailed document– Performance Testing: e-mailed excel file
Eastman Chemicals - 1998distribution of condition status
reports
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• Not sure who was supposed to ‘carry the ball’ for condition-based maintenance follow up
• Limited distribution & non-standardized formats meant no single
person knew everything about a developing machine problem
• Management had poor visibility of reliability issues – accountability was ‘after the fact’ when operations complained
• PDM teams were ‘doing their job’, but not generating the expected benefits of Condition-Based Maintenance
Fragmented communications lead to ‘dropped balls’
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Maintenance & Reliability• Manager
• Planners
• Mechanical Supervisors
• Electrical Supervisors
• Technicians
• Engineers
• PDM Program Manager
Plant & Operations Managers
Vibration Analysis Oil Analysis Motor Testing
Infrared Thermography Ultrasonic Survey Visual Inspection
Plant PDM Teams or PDM Contractors
Many Data Sources + Many Recipients + Many Delivery Channels
Result:
Poor Communication
Lack of Action
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• Create an effective system (kiss) for communicating machinery health status
• Integrate all equipment condition status information
• Hold both operations & maintenance employees accountable for follow-up actions & results
• Analyze overall reliability patterns to identify chronic problems & plan improvement
Keys to taking PDM to Condition-Based Maintenance
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Eastman’s modified
communication structure for
condition status
information
Condition information now a consistent driver of maintenance activity
Equipment Repair Action
Vibration Analysis
InfraredThermographyOil
AnalysisMotor
Analysis
Integrated Condition Status Report (Web based)
Monday AM – Weekly Planning Meeting
Single Maintenance Contact for an Operating Area
Maintenance Planner
WO Backlog from SAP
Area Maintenance
Crew
Plant Manager
Operations & Maintenance
Managers
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Machinery Analysis
Performance Testing
• Many PDM analysts can document results from different technologies – including outside service contractors.
• A single database can ‘force’ consistency in equipment names & fault descriptions
• Plant personnel (including managers) can retrieve status information through their web-browser, without having to install special software
Today’s web-hosted database technology makes it practical
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Integrated Condition
Status Report
• Accessible via web browser; no special software to install & maintain
• Dynamically generated for user’s area of interest
• Problems displayed in order of severity
• All technologies reporting on a machine are shown
• Status-at-a-glance for condition based work
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Details by technology
source
• Concise findings & recommendations
• Linked documents for technical details
• Work order reference
• Check-off notification to indicate work has been completed
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Handling the standardization issue
• Make results documentation easy for the analysts – don’t make extra work
• Force the use of standard location names, equipment faults, & severity scale with drop-down lists
• Also force concise description of findings & recommendations
• Let the formatting of results reporting happen dynamically ‘behind the scenes’
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• Present one simple screen to analysts from all technologies, for concise findings & recommendations
Make results documentation quick & easy for analysts
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Distributing the information to abroad plant audience
• Only present information for each user’s area of interest – don’t create data overload
• Make it easy to retrieve via web-browser, without requiring installation & maintenance of special software
• Update the information dynamically, including the status of condition-based work requests
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• Integrated Condition Status Report for the area is actively used to discuss old & new condition issues
• Work status review & prioritization is the output
• Area operations & maintenance are jointly accountable for equipment reliability
Eastman’s weekly planning meeting is the focal point where area
operations and maintenance work together to prioritize activity - that’s
culture change!
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Holding plant personnel accountable for condition-based maintenance
results
• For equipment with health issues being reported, are timely maintenance responses happening?
• Is condition history being kept & analyzed to spot repetitive reliability issues?
“What gets measured, gets done”
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Integrated Condition
Status Report
• Shows how long condition entries have been open, awaiting work completion
• Shows how many condition entries have work orders opened
• Shows assets where all condition entries have had work completed and are awaiting confirmation by condition monitoring
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Eastman Chemicals in 2004:
• 91% of vibration reported problems were resolved through August
Eastman Chemical customized report:Response to condition based work
requests
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• Circulated monthly to area managers
• Monitors use of PDM info by work crews
• Key tool for PDM techs to gauge response to their information
Track & analyze timely response by
operating area
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Eastman Chemicals – Kingsport, TN2005
• Accountability is consistently based on condition status and work execution rather than informal complaints from operations
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Use of historical condition information
• Identify chronic failure issues & target reliability improvement initiatives
• Change work procedures and justify special training & tools
• Fine-tune condition monitoring activities
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Using condition history to spot reliability gaps
• Reduction gearboxes quickly stand out with the highest number of faults
• Drilling into the report would uncover filter design and lubrication issues as common denominators behind the gearbox faults
• Eastman has significantly reduced chronic equipment problems such as imbalance, misalignment, lubrication, and installation issues by using historical failure mode information to change procedures and justify special training and tools
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Using history to adjust vibration monitoring activity Finds as % of total monitored components
• Generally accepted:• 10% at start of program
• 5% 6 to 8 years into program
• 3% after 10 years
• Eastman’s experience:• 4% 10 years ago
• Now at 2 ½%
• Created opportunity to:• Adjust routine vibration monitoring on less critical equipment from
monthly to every other month or quarterly
• Reassign manpower from routine vibration analysis to higher value root cause analysis projects
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Summary of Results at Eastman Chemicals
• Follow-up of predictive maintenance calls now consistently tracked
• Basic maintenance problems related to installation,
imbalance, and misalignment practically eliminated
• Maintenance budget & personnel count reduced while production capacity slightly increased
• Operating area ‘bosses’ know and care about what’s happening with equipment reliability
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