Plant Management
Peak performance in process engineering
Roald Rodseth reveals a new approach to performance assessment that is designed to minimise downtime while maximising efficiency.
C
ost-effective functionality is the goal of any enterprise that uses equipment and machinery to produce a product. Machines must consistently and sustainably perform their designed
function and the cost to achieve this must be at a minimum over their lifecycle. This boils down to performing at peak levels for the lifespan of the machines. DesSoft and Radiant Operations International
(Radiant) are two companies that are devoted to the challenge of assisting enterprises in achieving the ideals mentioned above. From the cauldron of innovation and development, the following topics stand out as beacons, lighting the way to peak.
Prioritisation An outstanding characteristic of modern plants and machinery is the perplexing range and number of items in the plant. It is easy to become distracted by the large number of these items, each clamouring for attention. The question of where to focus attention to ensure the highest impact is a critical one.
Various approaches to determine priorities have been developed. A number of these do not provide convincing results. In some cases the evaluation criteria are too complex and have a very subjective component to them, leaving one unconvinced that the outcome is reliable. Radiant and DesSoft have developed an effective
and powerful method to determine which machines to focus on. The essence of the approach is to evaluate each machine at the plant in terms of the impact a failure of it will have on the production loss as well as on the cost of repairing it. An important aspect of the evaluation is that the worst possible failure case is considered. In addition to this, it is assumed that absolutely no prior preparation had been done to minimise the impact of the failure. The impact of this failure is reflected in the time the plant will not be able to produce while the failure is being resolved. This can also be reflected in a monetary value loss. It is important to emphasise the use of the worst- case impact value. This sets the benchmark for the unmitigated risk situation and provides an indication in absolute term of the consequences of not putting risk control measures in place.
Fig. 1. Machine impact hierarchy.
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