Throughout industry, operators are given the task of inspecting the equipment they operate. Typically, they have not received any training and/or have not been provided the tools needed to accomplish these tasks effectively. So, are your operator rounds adding value to your organization?
In many cases, operators do not understand the operating context of their equipment. They do not fully understand how the equipment works and exactly what the equipment is supposed to do. For example, if a pump is running at an output of 400 gallons per minute (gpm) at 60 psi, do your operators understand how to determine if the performance of that pump is correct and, if not, how to determine if there is a problem? How often do operators report that the "pump is not making enough pressure" when they really mean "I do not have enough flow"? The former statement leads us to suspect and possibly change the pump, while the latter would indicate the more likely system problem. Here is another real-life example: A group of operators were inspecting four similar conveyor drives. All the conveyors were loaded about the same, and of the four motors inspected, one of the motors' stator was 50 F (10 C) higher than the other three. It was discovered that the cooling vents or fan shroud was severely plugged and was reducing the ability of the fan to cool the motor. Understand that, for this motor in particular, every 18 F (10 C) above 140 F (60 C) reduces the motor winding life by 50 percent. Finding this issue and making corrections increased the life of this motor and increased the company's bottom line. These same operators had passed this motor every day for weeks prior to this inspection, and because they didn't know what to look for or have the tools to inspect it, this was another operator inspection that was a check-the-box exercise.
For operator rounds to be effective, operators must understand the equipment operating context, the difference between a functional failure and a breakdown, how the equipment fails, and the difference between a random and time-based failure, as well as possess the tools and knowledge to inspect their equipment correctly.
Another weak area that has a significant effect on the planning and scheduling efforts is the quality of the work request written when a problem is found. You may see things like "the motor is hot," "pump is vibrating," or "pump or gearbox is making a noise." Another favorite is "repair or replace." With this type of information, the planner now needs to try to determine what the problem is before the planning process can start and, in most cases, will need to find the person who wrote the work request to determine exactly what he or she meant. This wastes a huge amount of valuable time in the planning process. Does this sound familiar?
How much would it be worth to your organization if an operator could find a problem early in the failure development period, so you have time to plan and schedule, and the operator can generate a work request similar to the following? "Pump XYZ was vibrating at 0.42 inches/ sec in the horizontal plane of the No. 3 bearing. The temp is 198 F (36 C) and has increased 15 F (8 C) in the past three weeks." With this information, you can now determine exactly where the problem is and, due to the increased temperature rise, understand that a sense of urgency is required. This adds tremendous value when you are trying to prioritize your work.
With the ratio of operators to maintenance personnel typically in the range of 5-15 to 1, and with maintenance personnel busy working on tasks that require their particular skill set, it is essential operators make effective and efficient inspections of their machines. If your operators have the knowledge and tools to perform good inspections on your equipment, you are ahead of most in the journey to reliable manufacturing.
For more information, visit www.reliabilitysolutions.net or call (251) 706-7874.