Traditional roles are blurring. Reliability and maintenance has blurred to include equipment asset management, capacity assurance, asset utilization, and availability engineering. Although the fundaments of the game are still important, some of the rules have changed, and we must adjust our game if we expect to win.

Some winning strategies can be found in books and articles covering the latest business philosophies and techniques. They contain ideas that can be adapted to the world of equipment reliability, maintenance, and asset management.

Some interesting approaches can be found in a book that I have been studying recently. It is called Blur: the speed of change in the connected economy, by Stan Davis and Christopher Meyer from Ernst & Young's Center for Business Innovation.

The authors contend that changing business behavior, which they term Blur, is driven by three forces: Connectivity, Speed, and the growth of Intangible value. They discuss the issues in the book and outline them on www.blursite.com, noting that the line between products and services is blurring (think of consulting companies providing software products and software companies providing consulting services). The authors wrap up with a section on 50 Ways to Blur Your Business. Here are a couple of items that caught my eye:

6. Manage All Business in Real Time: Stop making decisions based on what happened last week, or even this morning. Get a grip on what's happening at this instant, so the right adjustments can be made without delay. Almost always, this will require planting sensors and other feedback mechanisms throughout your operations...

27. Don't Start with Your Customer: The wisdom of the late industrial era was always to start with what the customer needed and backtrack to which products and services those needs called for. That fit when the customer already understood the need and the product & In Blur, the technical change is happening so fast, your product must educate the customer & and the customer must educate you. You can't afford the time delay to put something new in front of the customer. Instead, start with what technology will make possible, codevelop it as fast as you can with the customer, and be flexible and adaptive enough to adjust it according to customer needs as you go. As in software, the first release is your take on things. The customer enters the feedback loop and starts to influence release 2.0 and beyond.

Sounds like a strong case for condition-based maintenance and a call to get started. MT

We are continuously plagued with problems associated with plant rotating equipment and turbomachinery, he wrote. The quality of maintenance on our rotating equipment has deteriorated to the point where we suffered severe losses, including fatalities & To this end, I am seeking assistance, support, and guidance in how I should proceed.

This manager deserves considerable credit for recognizing the seriousness of the situation and asking for help. Encouraged by our quick response, he sent additional details. He candidly outlined what went wrong, his current competency gap, and how he planned to recover, suggesting the following:

1. Carry out an audit of his maintenance systems, procedures, and personnel specific to rotating equipment maintenance.
2. Set up a team of professionals and experts to work with him for an initial period of 6 months.
3. Provide consulting support and follow-up service for some period thereafter.

He continued by highlighting the overall purpose of the team--to complement the existing maintenance team by injecting professionalism, quality, experience, and expertise in the following disciplines: rotating equipment maintenance, electrical and instrument maintenance, maintenance supervision, and maintenance planning.

For members of the rotating equipment team, he specified:

• 10 to 15 years of hands-on experience in maintaining and overhauling rotating equipment, including general purpose steam turbines, high speed/high horsepower turbomachinery, pumps, compressors, blowers, gearboxes, lubrication systems, bearing maintenance, mechanical seals, alignment, and leak repairs.
• Mechanical engineering technician diploma as a minimum requirement.
• Systematic approach to troubleshooting and diagnostics of problems associated with plant rotating equipment, through quality procedures and checklists.

Requirements for the other disciplines were equally rigorous--10 to 15 years experience, technician diploma, etc. Furthermore, he specified that all members of the team must be between 35 and 45 years of age; able to communicate professionally to all levels of the organization; proactive in their approach to work; able to adapt to the local environment and local organizational and societal culture in a very short time period; and more.

We simply couldn't help but notice the age qualifications sought in this instance. The expert retiree is ruled out, and one might wonder as to which qualified 35- to 45-year-old resident of North America or Western Europe is willing to take on the cultural, technical, and procedural challenges that were laid out or implied by the client. Which brings us to the point:

Where were the maintenance and reliability professionals to come from?

Many managers are unaware that best-in-class companies routinely design-out maintenance at the inception of a project. That, clearly, is the first key to highest equipment reliability and plant profitability. Whenever maintenance events occur as time goes on, the real industry leaders see every one of these events as an opportunity to upgrade. Indeed, upgrading is the second key, and upgrading is the job of highly trained, well-organized, knowledgeable reliability professionals.

World-class performance is impossible to achieve without qualified professionals, and the notion that these professionals could always be hired on a moment's notice is unrealistic. Similarly, the idea that contractors can fill the gap surely lacks merit. Where would the contractor's young engineers have received their training?

And, while we will do our best to work with this client, here's our advice to the plant manager who understands the value of a thoroughly well-trained maintenance-reliability work force: Develop them and hold on to them.

Start by compiling a role statement, then progress to mapping out a training plan. Interview a number of interested candidates and select the right ones. Give them periodic performance feedback, defend their goals and contributions as necessary and appropriate. Don''t ever allow the trained reliability professional to become just a pair of hands, or a person whose entire time is spent fighting repair deadlines rather than being immersed in proactive failure prevention. Groom this reliability professional's abilities, judgment, and motivation; do it by encouraging access to his or her peers. Ask this person to use analytical skills to the utmost, to read, to write, to communicate. All parties will benefit if you carefully and consistently implement this grow-your-own formula. MT

Heinz P. Bloch, P.E., president of Process Machinery Consulting Co., Montgomery, TX, has consulted, taught, and been published worldwide in the field of practical machinery management.

Cartridge split seals also offer a high degree of reliability that provides clear environmental benefits. And they address the dilemma that more and more companies face every day: how to increase production while decreasing costs.

Split seals increase uptime and reduce maintenance costs in two ways. First, newer split seal designs take less time to install (typically less than 30 min) than other sealing technologies, including packing and mechanical seals. Second, split seals are highly reliable and can operate for longer periods of time without maintenance. Both factors reduce downtime and maintenance requirements.

Advances make correct installation easy
Traditionally, split seals are used because they are designed to be installed without dismantling the equipment. Components are split in half and can be installed directly to the shaft or packing sleeve.

Design advances make it easier to install the seals quickly and to install them correctly for maximum reliability without any leakage. Cartridge designs eliminate the need to measure or center the seal to the shaft, and provide direct flush connections for cooling and debris removal.

Split seals often arrive with many of the difficult-to-assemble components already connected. That means there are fewer pieces for a maintenance technician to install, making it easier to avoid assembly errors when trying to get back up and running. For example, elastomers and gaskets are often preassembled into the hardware, a plus especially when installing seals in confined areas. Installers will not need to snap or glue o-rings together.

Fig. 1

Advanced materials and design enhancements also contribute to easy installation of newer designs. Old split seal designs used ceramic face materials that were susceptible to fracturing from thermal shock.

The seal in Fig. 1, for example, has a rigid mating ring assembly to promote correct installation. Constructed of a 30 percent carbon-impregnated silicon carbide that has a rough surface at the split, the mating ring halves nest together securely, eliminating the potential for misalignment. Then, a retaining ring holds the halves together while the installer secures the assembly with a specially designed clamp ring. The result is a rigid mating ring assembly that retains the seal faces flat during assembly and operation. The clamp is so secure that this seal achieves vacuum capability.

Reliability nets lower costs
Correct installation plays a vital role in the reliable operation of any technology. Selecting a split seal with correct installation designed in will increase reliability significantly.

Recent advances in this technology add another level of reliability. The seals are hydraulically balanced and therefore not prone to failure during system upsets. Clogging problems associated with small coil springs are eliminated. And since split seals have very low leakage levels, they also prevent the type of bearing failure and downtime that is associated with packing. All of these factors add up to a seal technology that can operate for extended periods of time, without the maintenance time and costs associated with other sealing technologies. See the accompanying Cost Comparison table.

For example, packing requires frequent adjustments and repacks, occasional sleeve/shaft replacements due to scoring damage, and high power draw. These costs can easily exceed $2000 a year per pump. With the split seals, no adjustments are necessary, so manpower is used more efficiently. Seals do not damage the sleeve or shaft, so costly replacements are not a factor. Split seals reduce frictional horsepower to one fifth of a typically packed piece of equipment, saving significant energy costs.

Since split seals have a longer operating life than packing, typically four times as long, equipment can run longer without interruptions. This translates into maximum production capacity.

Finding the perfect combination
The cost benefits of split seals should be considered when selecting a sealing method. Once a decision is made to use a split seal, ease of installation should be an important part of the selection criteria. A number of good seal designs are available that combine reliability with easy installation. By using them, a plant can experience significant savings in maintenance costs and reduced downtime associated with split seal technology. MT

Steve Jambor is product manager of split seals, John Crane, 6400 W. Oakton, Morton Grove, IL 60053;telephone ((847) 967-2400; Internet www.johncrane.com.

According to Hector Pedregon, an instrument technician at the refinery for more than 15 years, Until 1997, we never had any formal training on valves. We learned from the "old-timers"; they taught us their bad habits. When a technician transferred here from another refinery and started questioning some of our procedures, our only answer was, "that's the way they told us to do it." Come to find out, we were doing a lot of things wrong, which resulted in inefficient process control and extra valve wear. Thats a hard way to learn.

Another person who recognized that the maintenance technicians needed more knowledge was Pat Carroll, account manager for Vinson Process Controls, the Fisher-Rosemount representative covering west Texas. Carroll began holding informal classes with technicians in a section of the refinery where some of the valves were so old the instruction manuals were long gone.

Those guys were starving for information, Carroll said, but I couldn't convince management to bring professional instruction to El Paso. That attitude changed after the true condition of some valves was revealed.

Valve evaluation
In preparation for a shutdown period early in 1996, Carroll arranged to have an outside technician bring equipment to the refinery to evaluate several control valves identified as problems by various operators.

Most of the valves were located in the crude oil unit, where severe service conditions can be very hard on valve components. The test results showed that more than half the valves tested were suffering from calibration problems that could be corrected by knowledgeable technicians without costly, time-consuming valve repairs.

That was a big win for valve testing, Carroll said. Refinery officials now intend to have all, troublesome, valves scanned prior to major shutdowns. Also, some process engineers began to realize that many of their control problems stemmed from inadequate valve maintenance. As a result, we were able to schedule a valve instrumentation course in El Paso for the first time.

On-site training
Because little money had been budgeted for training, the on-site school for all instrument technicians and some of the process engineers was pared down to just 2 days. The normal 4 1/2 day Fisher-Rosemount Educational Services valve instrument technician course was tailored to address the company's most urgent needs, as determined by the number of complaints received on various pieces of equipment. Valve actuators and the calibration of positioners were to be emphasized.

A good deal of information was presented in lecture format, and the technicians then had an opportunity to practice correct procedures for calibrating different types of valve positioners in the hands-on laboratory sessions.

Rick Spano, the technician from the other refinery who pointed out faults in local instrument calibration procedures, felt the training was good, but a little quick. I'd like to have more time to play with the stuff. It was good that they brought in a lot of equipment, because the best way to learn is to practice doing things the right way on the same equipment we have in the refinery.

Steve Lemmon, another technician who spends most of his time working on control valves, said, The course was tailored nicely to our needs. It was very informative; we need more of this type of training.

It looks as if Lemmon and some of the others will have their wishes answered. Carroll now meets regularly with refinery officials to discuss valve-related issues, and he said that training, not just for technicians but for process and project engineers, as well, is near the top of the list.

We're trying to devise a formal training program, Carroll said. We're slowly proving that training is necessary to overcome some of the old ways and lay the groundwork for more efficient valve operation in the future. MT

Ed Boehm is an instructor with Fisher-Rosemount Educational Services, P.O. Box 190, Marshalltown, IA 50158-0190; (800) 338-8158; e-mail ed.boehm@frco.com.