Companies depend on the reliability of process equipment in their plants to sustain production.
The service life of reinforced concrete infrastructure that supports this equipment can and will be impacted by deterioration and damage. The impact of infrastructure failure can be as significant as equipment downtime, or more in some cases, and will often cost lost production time.
How does concrete relate to production? In simple terms, increased reliability of civil infrastructure means more uptime and more profit. Imagine the support structure for a critical piece of equipment that unexpectedly needs repair. Not only will it cost money to repair the structure, but while the equipment is offline, a company would need to spend even more on lost production time. So how can this be prevented and productivity optimized in a facility? Here are three tips.
Only trust a specialist
Would anyone let an eye doctor fix a broken leg? Not likely. The same principle applies for facilities; trust concrete infrastructure to the experts. Structural Technologies delivers solutions for concrete challenges safely and successfully, and has a long history of client satisfaction. Choosing the right partner for concrete infrastructure needs is critical. A specialty contractor focused on the repair and upgrade of existing structures is the right choice - not a company that builds new concrete structures or one that does maintenance on equipment. Structural Technologies will help avoid repair cycles that could cost even more production time and money.
Be proactive, not reactive
There are two approaches to repairing critical infrastructure: reactive and proactive. Reactive means waiting until the problem happens. Once this happens, it has already, most likely, had an impact on safety and productivity. One is then forced to fix the problem immediately. This is a problem that could have been prevented entirely or one that could have been stopped from causing an unexpected shutdown or major disruption.
The second approach, being proactive, means getting out in front of the challenges and addressing them before valuable production time is impacted. Structural Technologies works with many petrochemical facilities to develop an ongoing asset management program for civil infrastructure that includes periodic inspections and addressing concrete challenges before they lead to loss of productivity. Critical equipment needs regular maintenance to perform at its best, and so does infrastructure. Inspecting one's assets prevents unwanted repairs and costly downtime.
Structural Technologies' experts will walk a facility or unit and visually observe the condition of the critical structures. After a list of problems is identified, further investigation will take place as necessary and repair needs will be prioritized. This helps with long-term planning and budgeting. In the end, costs associated with downtime from scheduled maintenance are less than downtime from unexpected shutdowns. A company can schedule maintenance when it is most convenient for the facility and affects the workflow process the least.
Investigate-Design-Build approach
Forming a partnership from the onset to help manage concrete infrastructure from start to finish saves time and money. Many of Structural Technologies' clients enjoy the benefits of its Investigate-Design-Build (IDB) approach. IDB combines evaluation of concrete infrastructure, along with design and construction of the repairs, into a seamless process. Structural Technologies works to develop and/or participate in an asset management program focused on civil infrastructure throughout its clients' facilities, providing more time to focus on the process equipment that drives production. Clients agree that the IDB process helps address concrete more quickly and at a total lower cost than old-school fragmented approaches where inspections go nowhere.
Partnering with Structural Technologies is a win-win - or better yet, a win-win-win, because as the industry's leading concrete experts, its mission is to help clients proactively address concrete infrastructure and, using its IDB process guarantees an increase in productivity.
For more information, visit structural.net or call (877) 413-0615.
