May 2012Maintenance, Test & Measurement, Calibration
Every maintenance engineer is looking for a balanced maintenance plan that improves plant reliability while reducing costs, but finding that optimum balance is not always as straightforward as it seems, especially on sites with multiple measuring points and instrumentation from several suppliers.
Endress+Hauser’s Installed Base Audit is a three-phase analysis of all the instruments on site to give a clear understanding of any installed base. By compiling a complete inventory users can start to make informed decisions with regard to maintenance. This allows maintenance efforts to be focused according to available resources, budget and production requirements; decreases the complexity of equipment inventory; manages migration of phased out devices; defines actions to optimise the processes and, most importantly, achieves the highest possible plant reliability and availability.
The phased approach
Phase 1: Inspection of the production process and collection of plant data
In phase 1 of the audit, the production processes are appraised and all instrumentation and control technology components are recorded in an inventory. All important details about the components, the process criticality, process conditions experienced and how they affect quality, safety and availability are noted. This exercise includes spare parts inventory.
Phase 2: Data analysis and evaluation
An Installed Base Audit report is then developed based upon the initial findings and contains recommendations for optimisation of maintenance activities. The data is also collected in a maintenance database and augmented with additional information (W@M Portal). The Installed Base Audit report focuses on the following strategy developments: reactive maintenance (including spare parts inventory optimisation & technical training requirements); preventative maintenance (including calibration procedures and optimised calibration intervals); standardisation and installed base overview; and migration strategy (developed in line with standardisation planning).
Phase 3: Action plan
Maintenance is focused on high process critical devices rather than a generic approach using measurement type as a deciding factor. Out-of-date instrumentation technology is replaced at critical measuring points in order to avoid unplanned downtime. In terms of spare parts inventory, only spares that are needed for process critical devices have to be kept in stock, thereby reducing associated costs. The decision can be taken to use fewer suppliers and fewer component types (standardisation strategy). This has the immediate benefit of limiting the technical training and competencies that a maintenance team requires and also minimises the amount of spares that need to be available. This saves time and money, another benefit accrues during internal and external audits when documentation is always up to date.
An Installed Base Audit gives users the opportunity to find the optimum point where overall maintenance costs are minimised in conjunction with an asset management strategy that reduces unplanned equipment related incidents and downtime.
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