AUGUST 202119MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY INSIGHTSCXO INSIGHTSAsset Reliability in 2021By Frank Mignano, CMRP, Condition Monitoring Manager, Schaeffler Americas With 2020­ thankfully ­ in the rearview mirror, what will 2021 bring us? Hopefully, continued improvements in machine reliability! Throughout my career, I have kept an eye out for publications and technical articles related to asset reliability, specifically with respect to rotating machinery such as motors, pumps, fans, compressors, and gearboxes. Over the past 30-plus years, I have been involved with vibration systems, both portable handheld systems as well as permanently installed systems ­includingAPI670 shutdown systems for theüber-critical machines.Having spent 23 years of my career in Houston, Texas ­ an area that is No. 1 in the world for installed rotating machinery ­ I have learned about and experienced firsthand the full spectrum of the asset reliability continuum. There are many facets to "reliability," whereby vibration technology plays a key role in helping manufacturers achieve first-quartile reliability rankings.Consider a manufacturing facility with 10,000 assets, for example. Assuming your job is to maintain those assets reliably and safely with minimal unplanned outages, how do you accomplish this?Based on seminal studies performed in the 1970s (e.g., Nowlan& Heap's "Reliability-centered Maintenance, "research by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), and others) it has been conclusively established that the majority of machinery failures are roughly 80% random in nature. When assets fail randomly, the only way to manage them reliably is to implement one or more of the "big 5" condition monitoring techniques (e.g., vibration, oil analysis, thermography, ultrasound, and motor testing) and monitor the asset's health on a regular basis. Condition monitoring is the only way to cost-effectively maintain assets that are widely known to fail randomly. Reliability starts with a well-defined strategy-based on your business goals: Let's say, your objective is to produceone billionwidgets per year, and you have a defined set of assets as well as maintenance and operations dollars to hit that goal. The next step would be to review your plant assets, define the criticality of each asset (including rotating, fixed, and instrumentation), and identify the type of work that will be performed on each asset (by whom, at which interval, etc.).Maintenance work is managed through planning and scheduling activities that include having the right parts, people, and time to perform the work during a planned outage. With all the preparatory work completed, you execute the work defined in your strategy, using your Frank Mignano
< Page 9 | Page 11 >