32 ORBIT 1Q04

CASE HISTORY
OPPORTUNI TY/ RI SK ASSESSMENT SERVI CES
Our services organization helps cus-
tomers around the world in a vari-
ety of ways. One of the most
important is in assessing the risk
posed by a particular asset, and then
providing recommendations to
enhance reliability through appro-
priate condition monitoring, main-
tenance, lubrication, and other
asset management activities. We
call this our Opportunity/Risk
Assessment (ORA) service. ORA
services are available for many of
the assets in your plant, including
reciprocating compressors. Thus,
while the following focuses on an
ORA conducted for a pair of recip-
rocating compressors, the process is
equally applicable to the many
other rotating and fixed assets used
by our customers in various indus-
tries, and Bently Nevada can confi-
dently be consulted to conduct an
ORA regardless of the asset types
employed in your plants processes.
A number of the ORAs weve con-
ducted in petrochemical plants
employing recips in their processes
have found that these machines are
often a weak link. Frequently, as
in the case history on pages 48-54,
loss of a reciprocating compressor
has significant impact on overall
plant throughput. And,
recips often suffer from
more downtime than
other assets in the plant;
however, just knowing
that your recips repre-
sent less reliability and
availability than desired
isnt sufficient. A more
thorough analysis is
necessary to determine
which specific failures
are most problematic
and frequent, and how
they can be avoided. A
recently conducted
ORA serves as an excel-
lent example.
Our ORA employed the Six Sigma
process known as DMAIC (Define,
Measure, Analyze, Improve,
Control). In an ORA, it is actually
only the first four steps that are
used. The final step (Control)
occurs when the customer elects to
implement the recommendations
made in the ORA. At that juncture,
the control phase of the DMAIC
process is used to ensure that the
implemented improvements con-
tinue to meet or exceed the original
objectives and can be sustained over
a long period of time.
Next, we look at each of these steps
in more detail as it pertained to a
recip-specific ORA.
C A S E H I S T O R Y
Improving Reliability For Recips
Albert Sijm
Machinery Diagnostics Manager, Latin America
Bently Nevada
email: albert.sijm@bently.com
Gaston Desimone
Machinery Diagnostics Engineer, Latin America
Bently Nevada
email: gaston.desimone@bently.com
OUR ORA EMPLOYED THE
SIX SIGMA PROCESS
KNOWN AS DMAIC
(DEFINE, MEASURE, ANALYZE,
IMPROVE, CONTROL)
1Q04 ORBIT 33
CASE HISTORY
DE F I NE
The plant had already determined that they wanted
us to focus on their two reciprocating compressors,
since maintenance records for the last 4-5 years
indicated these machines were particularly
problematic. The Define step thus became a
matter of defining the outcome desired by the plant
for these specific assets their Critical-To-Quality
(CTQ) objectives. They were simple: a reduction in
both downtime and Mean Time To Repair (MTTR).
r
Reduced downtime
r
Reduced MTTR
M
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CTQs
1
ME AS URE
Measurements were available via extensive
maintenance data going back nearly five years
as captured by the plants Computerized
Maintenance Management System (CMMS).
Where the CMMS contained insufficient detail,
operators log books were reviewed and the
database was supplemented as appropriate.
During this step of the process, Bently Nevada
identified a number of areas in which better
record keeping and supplementary data would
make it easier for the plant to improve their
decision making and analysis capabilities in the
future. These recommendations were summarized
for the customer as part of the project report.
A
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2
M
A NUMBER OF THE ORAS WEVE CONDUCTED IN PETROCHEMICAL PLANTS EMPLOYING RECIPS IN THEIR PROCESSES
HAVE FOUND THAT THESE MACHINESARE OFTEN A WEAK LINK
ANALYZ E
Pareto charts were produced for both machines, showing the
amount of downtime attributed to each failure category. As
is often the case with recips, valve problems were by far the
most significant failure type with respect to downtime over the
52-month period for which maintenance data was available.
While not shown here, Weibull and Crow-AMSAA charts were
also produced during this phase, allowing better analytical
insight into the causes of the identified failures, prediction of
when the next failures would occur, and visualization of how
reliability improves or degrades over time.
M
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3
Recip B Down Time 12/1/1998 4/20/2003
FAILURE MODE
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Recip A Down Time 12/1/1998 4/20/2003
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Down Time
A
TIME PERIOD DOMINANT DOWNTIME NUMBER
FAILURE MODE (DAYS) OF TRIPS
RECIP A 12/1/98 4/20/03 VALVES 19 11
RECIP B 12/1/98 4/20/03 VALVES 24 9
34 ORBIT 1Q04
CASE HISTORY
I MP ROVE
The last step in an ORA (although not the last step in DMAIC)
is to provide a report summarizing our recommendations for
improvement, their impact on the CTQs, and the estimated
economic return on investment if the recommendations are
implemented. In this specific example, Bently Nevada
recommended installation of an online monitoring system
able to address valve failures, as well as several of the other
failures identified in the Pareto charts. A very important
finding in the ANALYZE phase was that each time valve
failure(s) occurred, the customer replaced all 14 valves in the
machine, rather than just the offending valve(s). A well-
understood phenomena in maintenance and reliability
disciplines is that replacement of parts with useful life
remaining not only represents additional costs by replacing
perfectly good parts when unnecessary, it often introduces
new problems because each time a part is replaced, the
probability of incorrect installation and infant mortality
(premature failure) increases. Thus, the plant was
inadvertently introducing lower reliability by replacing every
valve rather than just the offending valve(s). A significant
capability of the proposed monitoring system was its ability
to isolate and identify the specific offending valve(s),
allowing the plant to know in advance how many valves
needed replacement, where they were located, and how
severe the problems were. The old adage If it aint broke,
dont fix it was never more true, and the proposed
monitoring system was able to deliver this vital information.
Knowing when something isnt broken can be just as
valuable as knowing when it is.
A tool called PRO-FACT was used to conduct the financial
analysis, yielding the results shown in the table below.
The recommended solution had a dramatic effect on the
number of failures per machine per year it represented an
improvement factor of 3X. Annual savings expected from
the installation of an appropriate condition monitoring
system exceeded $128,000 for each machine. Conservative
assumptions were made throughout by considering only the
valves not other parts of the machine that would also
benefit from the online system, such as the piston rods.
Also, only lost production costs were considered, even
though the cost to repair each failure was expected to
decrease as well (e.g., only the offending valve(s) would be
replaced instead of all 14). The PRO-FACT financial analysis
also showed the savings realized in the first four years of
operation would have a Net Present Value of nearly
$420,000, and that the systems would pay for themselves
in approximately 16 months.
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4
A
SUMMARY OF FINANCIAL BENEFITS FOR PROPOSED IMPROVEMENT PROJECT
WEIGHTED COST PER FAILURES / WEIGHTED ANNUAL FAILURE
FAILURE EVENT MACHINE / YEAR COST PER MACHINE
CURRENT SITUATION $40,421 4.78 $193,122
PROPOSED SITUATION $40,421 1.59 $64,374
ANNUAL SAVINGS $128,748
PER MACHINE
NET PRESENT VALUE OF $420,000
4-YEAR CUMULATIVE
SAVINGS
DISCOUNTED PAYBACK 1.37 YEARS
PERIOD
ANNUAL SAVINGS EXPECTED FROM THE INSTALLATION OF AN APPROPRIATE CONDITION MONITORING SYSTEM
EXCEEDED $128,000 FOR EACH MACHINE
* ALL FINANCIAL DATA IS IN US DOLLARS.
1Q04 ORBIT 35
CASE HISTORY
Summary
The financial benefits of an online
monitoring system for the particular
plant in this case history, while evi-
dent, are only modestly compelling;
ORAs as well as after-monitoring-
system-installation studies con-
ducted on recips at other plants in
both North and South America have
yielded even more compelling eco-
nomics, with payback periods well
under 12 months. Thus, the focus of
this story was not intended to be the
specific economics of this particular
plant each facility and asset is
unique. Instead, the goal has been to
convey the methodic approach as
well as technical and financial rigor
used when Bently Nevada conducts
an ORA for our customers. ORAs
can encompass your entire facility or
enterprise to cover rotating, recipro-
cating, and fixed assets, or they can
focus only on specific process units
(such as the hydrogen unit in a refin-
ery) or asset types (such as process
pumps or heat exchangers). Also, it
is important to note that while the
ORA detailed here resulted in a rec-
ommendation that the customer
install a continuous condition
monitoring system, this is not always
the case. Not all assets will merit a
continuous monitoring system;
sometimes other condition monitor-
ing approaches are more appropriate
for the economics of the machine, or
sometimes the specific failures creat-
ing the largest opportunities for
improvement will entail remedies
other than condition monitoring
such as better record keeping,
improved lubrication practices, or
modified operating and mainte-
nance practices. Our ORA services
are designed to look holistically at
the equipment under study, consider
all aspects of asset management (not
just condition monitoring), and pro-
vide recommendations accordingly.
The emphasis is on improving asset
reliability, maximizing useful service
life, and minimizing total life cycle
costs by whatever methods will
accomplish those objectives.
For more information on our ORA
capabilities for any of the equipment
assets in your plant, contact your
nearest Bently Nevada sales profes-
sional, or visit the Services section
of our website at www.bently.com.
CONT ROL
When customers elect to implement some or
all of the recommendations in an ORA, the
final step of the DMAIC process is conducted
CONTROL. Here, the solutions of the
IMPROVE phase are actually installed/
implemented and then appropriate controls
are implemented as well. These controls are
designed to continually measure the
effectiveness of the installed systems and
processes relative to the original CTQs, to
provide methods for correcting undesirable
deviations, and to indefinitely sustain
performance that meets or exceeds the CTQs.
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FINANCIAL
ANALYSIS
ALSO SHOWED THE
SAVINGS REALIZED
IN THE FIRST FOUR YEARS
OF OPERATION WOULD HAVE
A NET PRESENT VALUE OF
NEARLY $420,000
KNOWING WHEN SOMETHING
ISNT BROKENCAN
BE JUST AS VALUABLE
AS KNOWING WHEN IT IS