Environmental Health and Safety is a major topic and concern at all manufacturing and process operations. It can destroy a company and move them from a profitable business to a bankrupt organization. This not only leaves the owners out of a comfortable life but destroys the lives of all the workers. How are all the issues with E, H, &S really addressed? Can your plant be the next to explode, endanger the lives of your neighbors, or create fatalities for your employees?

All equipment and process should be ran through the E, H, &S database to determine what are the effects on every situation  The normal result of failures in the area of E, H, & S are usually very costly to a company. The database looks at the following areas.

Environmental:

• Air issues looks at 8 areas
• Waste water looks at 7 areas
• Process chemicals looks at 10 areas

Safety:

• Employee looks at 6 areas
• Equipment looks at 8 areas
• Process looks at 6 areas

Health:

• Employee area looks at 8 areas
• Process looks at 6 areas

Food Safety:

• Looks at 8 areas

The rating form the E, H, & S database gives a company direction in where to apply resources by understanding where the failures and weaknesses can occur. The process adds to the credibility of the score by involving a team to make decisions on the rating. This team effort increases the knowledge base and helps as a training tool for all involved.

Benefits:

• The only E, H, & S ranking database offered to industry
• The best tool to determine where to assign plant resources
• Low cost compared to other available programs
• One day training offered with each software program
• Low cost custom options for each plant
• Low cost custom reports developed for individual plants

Training:

Morning Session

• Learn the importance of ranking
• Perform a simple ranking exercise
• What are environmental issues?
• Learn about how to rank equipment and process for environmental
• The cost of environmental incidents
• Learn how to properly rank equipment by environmental issues
• Learn the importance of safety
• What’s involved in safety improvement?

Afternoon Session

• Learn about food safety ranking issues
• Learn about plant health issues
• Learn about how operations can affect health issues
• The cost of health issues
• Training is the plants role in doing the right things for the community, the employees, and the future of the company.

Put it all together with total ranking and allocation

The training day includes a copy of the Reliable Process Solutions E, H, & S database for use in your individual plant.

Don’t be caught not knowing what could happen!

Costs:
Database with use manual – $695.00 (Standalone Product)

Database one day training with software included – $1500.00 (Product + Training)

By Terry Harris, CMRP

As I roam the US and the world in teaching people and companies, how to make their equipment last longer. I find that every plant I encounter has some form of preventive maintenance program. I am often confused by the process that is used to develop the program and how so many things we do have no value. Is there a strategy for a PM program and how can it be used in every type of operation?

There are many types of preventive maintenance programs:

• Time based, (two shots per week)
• Condition based, (if its squeaking then tighten)
• Failure Finding, (verify function of a high level probe)
• OEM Directed (Recommended in equipment manual)
• Hand me down (Experience, we have always done it that way)
• Regulatory, (EPA, OSHA, Etc)
• Risk, (expensive equipment, lets do this task more often)

It is normally one of these methods that determine if a PM task will be assigned and completed. We grease a bearing based on time, two shots per week. We have always completed this task every week for the last 15 years so it must be good. Is there something else we can do to justify what we are doing daily, weekly, and monthly? Are OEM recommended task always the right thing to do.

Preventive Maintenance is used in all industrial process plants and this seminar will help you determine which tasks add value to your program and extend equipment life. This program covers a variety of PM process such as RCM, PM optimization, MTBF, and Asset Criticality. Attendees will also learn how to use equipment-saving and money-saving tools to help your team make the right decisions. What are you waiting for? Attend this program and learn how to improve uptime and schedule PM tasks wisely.

Stop wasting valuable man hours on tasks that do not add value, increase equipment life cycles and add dollars to the bottom line.

If we look at a very common practice in preventive maintenance procedures; “grease the bearing with two shots of grease every week” A common question is does the speed of the bearing require grease every week? What is the speed, load, and temperature condition? Are we using the correct grease? On many occasions I have performed maintenance audits and found companies using cheap grease from automotive stores. The grease has the incorrect viscosity or additives for the industrial application. The act of performing the PM task is shorting the life of the bearing.

Preventive Maintenance programs are designed to do the following:
Reduce equipment failures
Reduce the magnitude of equipment failure or repair costs
Reduce the product loss or production downtime due to equipment failure or repair
Reduce the deterioration in the productive capacity of equipment
If we look at each PM task and ask if we are accomplishing the above items can we justify the task? These are pretty broad based items and it would make it difficult for many of our PM work tasks.

There are some processes that are used in many companies to justify PM work. The first and most effective is the RCM process. Reliability Centered Maintenance was developed by Nolan and Heap and United Airlines in the late 60’s and early 70’s. The process looks at every component in our process and ask, how can or has this component failed? Once we determine all the ways it can fail we ask the questions, how can we predict, prevent, or eliminate the failure? This process takes some training and understanding of predictive technologies and the RCM process. But through the process a strategic PM program is developed with all PM tasks adding life and value to the equipment.

Another process which is less cost but effective is called PM Optimization. PM Optimization looks at every existing PM tasks and asks a series of questions about the task to determine if the task adds value or life to the component. If it does not the task is eliminated or modified to add value. Again a little training on PM Optimization and this process can be very effective.

A third process used by many reliable processes is called equipment criticality or sometimes asset criticality. This process actually rates each piece of equipment on its criticality or value to the process. It not only looks at the maintenance view point but looks at how critical is the equipment to areas such as safety, product quality, customer issues, environmental issues, and production. Each piece of equipment has a criticality rating, example a numeric value of 0-1000. The higher value number indicates equipment with high criticality or high cost if it fails. Maintenance resources and time, (PM tasks) are them assigned based on the equipment criticality value.

A process used by many plants is “Mean Time Between Failure”, (MTBF). This is used in companies that have well maintained CMMS systems and failure data is very accurate. Example: If we have MTBF data that says a belt has failed numerous times at approx. 6 months we change the belt before 6 months, on a scheduled base, and eliminate the unexpected (emergency) downtime. This is very effective for some equipment and reduces emergency downtime. The biggest mistake made in most plants that used the MTBF method is not determining how to make the equipment last longer on the next cycle. You should always determine why it failed and develop or make changes to extend the life of the component. PM’s can be developed or adjusted to improve life cycles.

Predictive Maintenance (PdM) adds value. My training shows that 90% of all rotating equipment failures can be predicted months before the failure. Use of predictive technologies can improve our PM programs and add life to the equipment. An example of an OEM directed PM task. A centrifuge OEM states in the manual; “Change the oil in the gearbox every 30 days” or “rebuild the gearbox every year or a specified number of hours of operation”. If we are trained on predictive maintenance techniques we would change the oil after oil analysis indicates a problem. This keeps the machine operating and producing until the oil needs to be changed. We would also ask why the oil needs changed; can we filter it while it’s operating? On the yearly gearbox rebuild we would use Vibration Analysis, Mechanical Ultrasound, or Wear Particle Analysis to tell us we need the gearbox rebuilt. This is a great strategy for critical equipment and improving operating time.

The two areas of training that are lacking in all operations that I have visited are Lubrication Excellence and Predictive maintenance. Understanding how to purchase, store, and transport lubes and keep them clean is a key element in lube training. The simple act of lubricating a bearing can cause failures if particles are pumped in with the grease. Understanding how Predictive technologies can predict rotating equipment failure months before they fail is the key to reducing unplanned downtime.

As you can see in this article there are strategies to make Preventive Maintenance more effective. We must change our way of thinking about PM programs to PM processes. What is the difference? A program is something that is defined and we do it the same way every time. A process is continually evolving to meet the needs of the process and equipment.

The key is to invest in training to improve knowledge at all levels of the company. It has been proven for every dollar saved in maintenance on improvements in equipment reliability, there is a 5-10 dollar return to the bottom line. We are living in a time when only the most efficient operations will survive. Competition is fierce in every industry so we must be the best. Companies moving resources to third world countries to compete are just fooling themselves and taking what they see as the easy way out. They usually loose on other issues such as product quality.

Improving processes, uptime, quality, and reducing E,H,&S issues is where the true savings are. This can only be accomplished by understanding and moving away from the traditional thought processes of equipment PM’s that we have been with since the 50’s.

Sign up for this 8 hour course and learn how to justify your PM tasks and reduce the number of PM’s by 30%.

Consulting and Training Services:

Preventive Maintenance Strategies
The function of performing Preventive Maintenance is used in all industrial process plants. The important function of this training course is teaching how to determine which tasks add value and extend equipment life. Many processes are covered to help plants develop PM tasks that add life cycles to the equipment. Process such as RCM, PM optimization, MTBF, and Asset Criticality are covered along with charts, and software to help make the right decisions. In many cases a 30% reduction is seen in PM tasks and other tasks become more effective.

Benefit: Stop wasting valuable man hours on tasks that do not add value. Increase equipment life cycles and add dollars to the bottom line.
Time: This is an 8 hours course, can be completed in a 4 hour short course

Lubrication Excellence Training
This training is performed to teach methods to improve the lubrication program at a facility. Most companies think that by having a written PM program for lubrication that they are in good shape. A Lubrication Excellence defines cleanliness methods for new and existing lubricants and processes. The training covers the 100 major failure modes of the lubricants and lube programs. Learn how small amounts of moisture can shorten component life by 50%. Learn how the temperature of the lube determines its effective life. This program knowledge can add 3-8 times to the life of the equipment components.

Benefit: The training process will help your people fully understand lubricants how with proper handling and techniques equipment will last 3-8 times longer.
Time: 8 hour course, can be 4 hours based on plant needs

Lubrication Audits
The 20 step lubrication audit is design to locate deficiencies in your lubrication programs that may be shortening your equipment life. 50% of all bearing and rotating equipment failures result from lubrication related issues. The audit will identify deficiencies in your current program and provide a report to guide the improvement process. The Lubrication audit alone can help identify problems and get you on the path to longer equipment life.
All audits come with a written audit report that will identify deficiencies and design a path to improvement. Lubrication Excellence training after the audit is the next logical step for the improvement process.

Benefit: By understanding your lubrication program weaknesses a plan can be develop to correct them. From this audit training programs from the lubrication excellence training can be customized for your plant.
Time: 4 hours to 8 hours based on plant size for audit. Full written report within 24 hours.

Equipment Failure Modes Training
This is an excellent training program designed to look at individual equipment components and how to make them last forever. Motors, Bearings, Belts, Chains, Pump seals, are just a few components covered in the Failure Modes Training. If it is important to your business to have your equipment run longer cycles with less breakdowns than this is a great addition to your training program. Learn the 50+ failure modes of electric motors, the 15 failure modes of pump seals, and many more for bearings and other components.

Benefit: This training program teaches RCM fundamentals and how to look at all equipment at the component level and determine how these components can fail. By understanding this process the PM program changes to do PM’s that are effective and not just a routine.
Time: 8 hour course depending on plant needs, can be 4 hours

RCM Process Training
RCM (Reliability Centered Maintenance) is a process that defines the most complete and efficient maintenance strategy to perform on each component in our equipment based on Failure Modes of the component. The RCM process training is a process that teaches the most efficient method of RCM analysis. This training includes the RCM access database which belongs to your company after the training. The process was developed by the airline industry and is now used by Nuclear power plants, the military, and many petrol-chemical plants. This process gets maintenance, operations, and engineering working as a team to improve your process. RCM not only addresses uptime but rate, quality, and HSE issues.

Benefit:  Understanding how RCM can reduce failures and improve preventive maintenance. To actually perform your own RCM analysis on your equipment or common industry equipment..
Time: This is a 2-3 day session actually using RCM software

Predictive Technologies Training
This training program is designed to teach companies about all the predictive technologies that are available to predict equipment failures months before they occur.
Technologies are available today to predict 90% of all bearing failures, 90% of all motor failures, and many others. Why wait for equipment to fail and catch you in crucial operation times when you can know months before and plan the repair. Learn how to know what technology to use on specific equipment. Learn how to determine which vendors to use and how to understand the readings.
Learn the fundamentals of the 7 major predictive technologies.

Benefit: Learn how and where to apply each technology to find the component that can fail. No individual predictive technology can detect all failure modes effectively.
Time: 8 hour course can be combined with Proactive course or reduced to 4 hours

Proactive Maintenance Techniques Training
The most efficient time to perform maintenance is when the equipment is new or when it is running well. This program teaches the top 13 proactive methods that will keep your equipment running for many more years. Using these practices will reduce reactive maintenance to less than 10%. Learn how to move from reactive to proactive maintenance and eliminate unexpected failures. Using these methods correctly can move your maintenance efficiency to 70-100%. Typical reactive maintenance methods only can get to 20% efficiency. Training on precision alignment, precision balance, RCM, Planning, and proper use of CMMS are just a few of the topics covered.

Benefit: Learn how to set a 3 year goal to reduce reactive maintenance to less than 10% and reduce maintenance costs by 30-50%
Time: 8 hour course, can be combined with Predictive course for 8 hours

Maintenance Excellence Audit
The maintenance excellence audit looks at 25 areas of maintenance and rates your plant or process in each of the areas. The audit looks at every component of a best of class maintenance process including leadership, CMMS, predictive, proactive, and 20 more items. You will receive a report on each area of weakness and suggested steps for improvement. Every operation should receive a yearly audit to know where to concentrate there efforts in the coming year.
The audit reviews every aspect from management and leadership, predictive, proactive, preventive, and even CMMS functionality.

Benefit: Understand the weaknesses of your maintenance program and where to concentrate the training and financial resources.
Time: 4 hours to 8 hours based on plant size. Full written report in 24 hours.

Asset Criticality Software and Training
Use software to determine the criticality of each piece of equipment in your operation. This is the only way to know where and how to apply your maintenance resources. The training comes with a Reliable Process Solutions Equipment Criticality database that you can use at your plant. The software looks at not only maintenance issues, but safety, food safety, environmental, quality, and customer’s issues.

Benefit: Understanding which equipment is important and critical to the process is more than just what maintenance thinks is critical. It’s not making a decision based on the fact that it breaks down more often, or has expensive parts. Helps the entire plant understand and rate critical assets. The software package comes free with the one day training. Great team building exercise!
Time: 4-8 hours depending on training or actual start of criticality assessment

Environmental, Health & Safety Software and Training
Use the software and training to determine the ranking of all the equipment and processes in a plant. This software determines a ranking that will allow the proper resources to be allocated to reduce the risk of exposure of in these areas. Much faster and more efficient than PSM, Hazop, HSA, or other time consuming processes. The software package comes free with the one day training program.

Benefit: Helps everyone understand that failures in equipment or processes can cause E,H,&S incidents. Great team building exercise.
Time: 4-8 hours depending on training or actual start of analysis

Terry Harris – Mr. Harris is a Certified Maintenance & Reliability Professional, certified through The Society of Maintenance & Reliability Professionals. Mr. Harris worked in the manufacturing/processing industry for 26 years. Mr. Harris is a certified RCM facilitator. Mr. Harris has performed training in the US, and 11 other countries.

Mr. Harris owns Reliable Process Solutions in which he performs training in the areas of Predictive technologies and Proactive Maintenance techniques. Mr. Harris has developed many Proactive maintenance programs to bring maintenance operations to a more efficient and profitable stage. The training programs teach people how to make equipment last longer and move from reactive maintenance to doing 90% proactive tasks. All the programs are customized for each individual plant or process.

All training programs can be combined and customized for your plant size and operation. Mix and match the programs to fit the needs of the organization and budget. The training can be spread over months and years to develop a continuous improvement process and greater retention of the learning tools.

Performing plant audits of current practices and issues is the best method to set up training and train on issues to improve work practices.

Don’t wait any longer to start saving money and extending the life of your equipment!

What is the most critical equipment in your process?
Is it the one that breaks down most often?
Is it the one that maintenance decides is most critical?

If you were asked today to decide which component on your automobile was the most critical, some would say it was the tires because you need them to move from one place to the next. Others would decide it was the brakes so you could stop. But without knowing factors such as how fast you want to get to your next location, will it be night driving, or will be raining, how would you decide?

Without a formal decision making process you may miss important factors in deciding the criticality of the equipment.

The benefit of the Reliable Process Solutions ranking software is that it looks at all the factors of the process to determine the equipments importance and criticality.

What are all the factors considered with the software?

• Safety
• Environmental
• Quality
• Food Safety
• Operations
• Maintenance

Each of the above areas is broken down into rating categories.

Why use the criticality software?

The software is used to determine where and how to assign maintenance resources. Understanding how each piece of equipment affects the overall plant profits when looking at the overall risk will help you better understand what is important. When performing this process you will find you may be maintaining equipment and allocating resources that do not have any benefit for the plant performance.

Set alarms with the rating numbers and use these alarms points in your CMMS to understand priority of work tasks and resources.

Benefits:
The best tool to determine where to assign maintenance resources
Low cost compared to other available programs
One day training offered with each software program
Low cost custom options for each plant
Low cost custom reports developed for individual plants

Get your copy today for – $695.00!

Cost Breakdown

Criticality Software Package – $695.00 (Standalone product)

One day training with software package – $1500.00 (Product + Training)

Options:
For additional fields, custom reports, or additional ranking areas, call or email for a price quote.

Many plant operations do not understand the importance of where and how their lubricants are stored. All lubricants need to be stored in ambient controlled conditions. Keeping the lube at a controlled temperature and not suffering the temperature swings of the ambient conditions can allow most petroleum based lubes to last for 30 years. But in plants where the lubes are stored in the plant or in outside storage areas the ambient extremes can allow moisture, foreign material and other contaminants to enter the storage containers and lube equipment. This greatly shortens the lube life and effectiveness and leads to shortened equipment life.

After lubrication audits many plants struggle to find an adequate area to store their lubes. Locating an area that is isolated and can be air conditioned, heated, and sealed from contamination can be extremely difficult in the tight constraints of existing facilities.

Reliable Process Solutions offers a mobile lube storage room delivered to your plant and all you need to do is supply the power. Have your lube storage room set any where you have space. The rooms are climate controlled, heated, air conditioned, de-humidified in some geographic areas.

Two size rooms can be designed, 8′ X 20′ with 6-8 125 gallon containers. Pumps, oil filtration systems, drip pans, desiccant filters, OIL SAFE containers, and much more. Other options such as storage cabinets for grease and lube equipment, and external barrel transfer can be designed into the unit. The other design is 8′ X 40 with more storage containers and lube storage capacity.

Don’t wait another day to get your lube room designed and put you on the first step of a Lubrication Excellence program.

Mobile Lube Room Options

Room size options:

20′ X 8′ Room

*Walk through man door
Window or multiple windows (Optional)
*Insulation
*Lighting (options spec lighting)
*Power (options based on customer needs, 120 volt panel standard)
External paint options
*Air Conditioned, (Heat De-humidified Optional)
Filtered air intakes or pressurized
*(6) 70 or 120 gallon storage containers

Individual or connected for multiple products

*Storage cabinet for lube equipment
*(6) Oil Safe or Ican containers
Pump options
Electric/Pneumatic
Filter options

Multiple micron ranges

Equipment to filter all new oils into containers

Equipment to filter lubes leaving the room

Re circulating filter system on containers

*Moisture control on containers (desiccant breathers)
*Drip pans
Spill control pan
*Work bench area for sampling and filling lube equipment
File storage for record keeping
Internet/phone hookups
Fire sprinklers installed
*Fire extinguisher
Air compressor

40′ X 8′ Room

Same options as above except:

More available storage containers
More storage options
More work area
Potential for oil analysis lab equipment area

Advantages:

Save costs of existing structure modifications
Set the units where you want it not where you have to install it
Ready to use immediately
No plant modification costs
No permitting required
Easy power hook ups

* supplied in base unit

Well equipped storage rooms starting at $17,000 plus delivery cost.

Failure Modes from not having adequate Lubricant storage

Foreign Material

• Dust and contaminants from process on storage drums openings
• Dust and contaminants from environment on storage drums openings
• Dust or contaminants on lube equipment
• Containers, buckets, funnels, grease guns, etc.
• Dust and contaminants on lube storage containers

Moisture

• Ambient moisture in lube storage area
• Moisture over time gets into lube storage equipment and containers reducing component life
• Moisture from ambient environment
• Areas where humidity is high allows moisture to be present and penetrate lube storage equipment
• Desiccant breathers are a must on every drum and storage container

Uncontrolled environment for storage

• FM and moisture should not be present in storage areas
• Lubrication rooms must be ambient controlled for longer lube life
• Lubes and greases must not exceed 70 deg F if you expect long life cycles of the lubricants

Improper storage of lube application equipment

• Lube equipment must be kept clean and particle free
• Particles over 10 microns will cause component wear and reduced component life.
• Most lube areas have 40-100 micron particles on all lube application equipment

Lack of training on Lubrication Excellence practices
This is the most common failure mode. Lack of knowledge on the reduced life of components due to as little as 1% moisture and particles over 10 micron causes reduced life of rotating components. As much as 70% reduced life!

Storage of other chemicals or contaminants in lube storage area

• Lube rooms are designed for only lube products
• Contamination must be kept to zero

Sample Photos of Previous Built Storage Rooms:

20 Foot Rooms Click Here

40 Foot Rooms Click Here

Most plants and manufacturing operations have a lubrication program. But very few understand what lubrication excellence programs really are. Understanding all the fundamentals of the excellence program will move any operation to longer equipment life cycles. Did you know that new lubricants are dirty and that there are no petroleum grease manufacturers in the US filtering the oil to low micron levels before making the greases? The excellence program starts with the ordering of the lubes and takes the plant all the way through receiving, storing, handling, and caring for the lubes in the equipment operation.

The lubrication excellence audit is used to help a plant understand where they stand on there lubrication practices. The audit has 20 areas the plant will be rated, each area is rated on a 0-10 scale. Each area of the audit has 5-8 questions to gain an understanding of the plants knowledge and practices. Many operations rate very low and this correlates to short bearing and gear life along with undesirable downtime.

The score in each area of the lubrication audit will help guide your plant in the training and procedures that are needed to start extending equipment life immediately. The audit alone without even the lubrication excellence training is a learning experience in itself. Reliable Process Solutions goal in every training program or audit is to provide an unmatched learning experience. RPS is always making sure that you can take the process and start executing positive tasks immediately.

Benefit:
Understanding where your plant is in its knowledge of Lubrication Excellence and practices that are shorting equipment life and costing your company huge dollars in downtime and quality.

Email Terry Harris and set up your lubrication audit today!

What is Maintenance Excellence? Many companies have good preventive maintenance programs and some are doing some predictive technologies. But very few, if any, understand what it really takes to achieve maintenance excellence. Maintenance excellence is understanding and practicing many different programs and processes to get to this high level of success. This process really helps maintenance become a profit center for the company and not the fix it when it breaks team.

The maintenance excellence audit is used to help a plant understand where they stand on there practices. The audit has 25 areas the plant will be rated on. Each area is rated on a 0-10 scale. Each area has 5-8 questions to gain an understanding of the plants knowledge and practices. Many plants and processes are practicing parts of some of these programs, but lack of training and understanding of this process keeps them from moving to the highest level of excellence.

The score in each area of the audit will help guide your plant in the training and procedures that are needed to start your own process. The audit covers everything from management and leadership all the way down to how they handle reactive maintenance. Which by the way should be below 10% of your maintenance tasks?

Reliable Process Solutions goal in every training program or audit is to provide an unmatched learning experience. RPS is always making sure that you can take the process and start executing positive tasks immediately.

Benefit:
This audit is a learning experience to help a plant understand what it takes to move from 80% reactive maintenance tasks to 90% proactive maintenance tasks. Using and implementing these 25 steps will do some of the following:

• Learn preventive maintenance strategies
• Learn predictive technologies
• Understand proactive methods to extend equipment life
• Reduce spare parts by 30-50%
• Reduce downtime by 30-50%
• Improve quality by reducing quality issues by 20-30%

Email Terry Harris and set up your maintenance excellence audit today!

By Terry Harris, CMRP

The process of RCM analysis has revolutionized some industries to the level of making them the most reliable and in turn the most profitable in the fields. Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) is a reliability tool that has revolutionized maintenance and equipment reliability for many companies across several industries over the last two decades. Companies who have invested in training and performing RCM continue to reap the benefits of safety, reliability, performance, and quality. If we look at the origination of the process we go back the airline industry and the development of the 747 aircraft. This is where its beginning came about with the formation of the Maintenance Steering Groups for determining the best methods of maintenance for each component of the 747 aircraft. Using this process, every possible failure mode was reviewed and a determination of the proper maintenance to address the failures was determined. The result was a huge success, of the 1100 aircraft sold 30 years ago, nearly all are still in service and providing safe, dependable, and reliable service today. The original four 747 aircraft are still flying.

Can our equipment and processes achieve these kinds of success stories and profitability for our industries? We can’t without proper lubrication and we can’t without a way of knowing our lubricants have failed and how they may fail. So why not use the methods of a successful process and look at all the ways our lubricants can fail? When we know the failure modes we can then develop our maintenance plans to prevent, predict, eliminate, or reduce the consequences of the failure. These are common terms in the RCM process.

While most people recognize the success RCM had in the development of a complete maintenance strategy for aircraft, few take time to understand how the process would apply to assets they are charged with managing. To help and improve this understanding let’s apply the RCM process to one aspect of maintenance; lubrication. Equipment lubrication is often taken for granted, viewed as a simple maintenance task and is often delegated to our least skilled trade’s people. If we use the RCM process and look to identify and understand the failures modes of lubrication the product of our analysis will be reduced lubrication related failures which intern will provide improved equipment performance/reliability. When we know the failure modes we can then develop our maintenance plans to prevent, predict, eliminate, or reduce the consequence of the failure.

In performing RCM analysis on many processes I noticed that very few lubrication failure modes were identified in the analysis. They were combined into one or two failure modes on different pieces of equipment. Most times when a lube failure was identified on an unlike piece of equipment the RCM would just pass over it stating it was the same as a similar failure.

The RCM lubrication training program was developed to address all the failure modes of lubrication at specific site process operations. There are easily 100 different failure modes that can be addresses in this analysis. The payback and selling point of this program is that each student gains the fundamentals of RCM and learns about lubrication failure modes and how to correct them.

Let’s discuss the RCM process and the terminology used before we look at the process of defining lubrication failure modes and action plans. These terms will help us understand the process and our path to solving problems and issues. These terms are common in any method of RCM analysis and will be used in this article and associated training that’s goes with this presentation.

Failure Mode:
Failure Mode describes the specific cause of failure associated with a component or functionality of a process. Failure modes should be written at the root cause level and should not be broad generalities. For example, the failure mode of a bearing may be as follows: The bearing failed due to lack of lubrication. The failure mode would not be: The bearing failed, or the bearing failed due to lubrication issues. Remember; always describe the failure mode in the specific cause or in the root cause form. This makes it easier to find the correct method of eliminating the failure. Descriptive words such as lack of, too much, wrong viscosity are root causes.

Failure Effect:
Failure Effect describes the first sign of evidence of a failure. It is the first noticeable indication that something has changed in the functionality of a process or component of a piece of equipment. Failure effects can be wear related or event related. In the example we used above for the bearing failure due to lack of lubrication, this is an event based failure. While some might say the bearing wore out, the root cause of the failure was an event that happened to cause the failure. We did not
lubricate the bearing enough or at the correct frequency and it created the failure. Failure effect statements also state what will happen to the process and what step the operator or maintenance may take after the failure has occurred.

RCM Tasks:
The tasks in RCM are your knowledgeable group decisions on how to get to an end conclusion in the RCM analysis. For every failure mode we want to do one of the following tasks. We want to prevent, predict, eliminate, or reduce the consequence of the failure. We must get to the end conclusion with one of these tasks efforts. The RCM decision process is a logic based structured process that gets us to the best possible task to accomplish our goal of prediction, prevention, or elimination. That’s why our efforts pay off in picking the correct members of the RCM team so that the best and most economically correct tasks are selected.

Lubrication Failure Modes:
So what are the Failure modes that we want to use the RCM process on? We can look by example at numerous failure modes and work them though the RCM process. An example may be as follows:

Failure Mode: Lubrication fails due to High moisture in oil.

Failure Effect: High moisture levels in the oil results in premature bearing failure, part wear, excessive foaming and increased oil temperature.

Tasks: What are the tasks to detect this failure?

-Visual checks

-Oil analysis

What are the tasks to eliminate or prevent the failure?

-Install Desiccant breathers

-Investigate better seals

-Write new wash down procedures.

Failure Mode: Lubrication fails due to high temperature.

Failure Effect: High temperature operation of the oil results in premature bearing failures, excessive parts wear, and degradation of the oil.

Tasks: What are the tasks to predict this failure?

-Physical inspections

-Oil analysis

What are the tasks to eliminate or prevent the failure?

-Install a method to cool the oil.

-Determine the cause of high temperature.

-Research other lubricants to handle the high temperature.

An RCM analysis that defines these lubrication failures on each and every component is a great way to determine and document each possible failure mode. The structure and discipline RCM brings to your business will intern provide the benefits experienced by the airline industry. There is an excellent training program available that uses the RCM method to determine lubrication failure modes and document the results of the process.

The 100 failure modes of Lubrication Failure Modes and Lubrication Programs can be purchased at the website.

By reading this article you must adhere to the copyright policy.  This is the sole property of Terry Harris & Reliable Process Solutions.  No redistribution of this article is permitted without permission prior.

In the manufacturing world many failures happen to our process equipment. Most we have control over and very few just happen. We often say, “Well that piece of equipment just wore out”. Is this a true statement?

Most equipment just wears out alright, but it’s mostly because we let it wear out. The mission of Reliable Process Solutions is to show you methods and processes to help you keep your equipment operating much longer.

Lack of knowledge on lubrication causes around 50% of all equipment failures and shortens the life of our equipment by another 50%. Depending on the type of process conditions your plant operates under equipment life can be extended 3 to 8 times.

Reliable Process Solutions, Lubrication Excellence training program will guide your organization in the right direction to educate and improve your methods to make the right decisions. We offer many options on training programs to fit the busy schedules of your business. The following pages outline the different programs available.

Lubrication Training Programs

Facility Lubrication Audit

Reliable Process Solutions will perform a one day audit at your facility to determine where your weaknesses may be. This audit will look at these areas and submit a report outlining the areas to bring your operation to a level of excellence. In my experience very few plants have lubrication procedures in place that are actually extending the life of the equipment to many times its expected life. The act of lubricating and adding/changing oil is just the tip of the iceberg in adding 2-5 times the life to your equipment.

After the audit the following training can be completed to bring your personnel the knowledge to start extending equipment life. Don’t wait too long to gain this valuable service and training to make you more competitive.

4-hour Lubrication Training Program:

1. The basics of Lubrication
2. Lubrication Failure Modes
a. Moisture
b. Foreign Material
c. Temperature
3. Understanding lubricating oil terminology
4. Understanding greases
5. Housekeeping standards
6. Understanding Lubricating oil terminology
7. Basic’s of greases
a. Types
b. Applications
c. Motor greasing
d. Handling
8. Lubrication Storage
9. Lubrication Filtration
10. Housekeeping Standards

Full Day Lubrication Training Program:

Training on how long a bearing should last includes:

1. What is Lubrication Excellence

2. Functions of Lubricating Oil

3. Failure Modes Lubricants

a. Temperature

b. Moisture

c. Foreign Material

d. Handling

4. Lubrication Additives

a. Oil Additives

b. Grease Additives

5. Oil Analysis Fundamentals

a. Why do Oil analysis?

b. What to test for

c. A study with information on each test

d. How to choose a lab

e. How to set alarm limits

6. ISO cleanliness codes

7. Filtration training

8. Fundamentals of grease

a. Petroleum based

b. Synthetic

c. Grease gun usage

d. Automatic lubricators

9. Proper lubrication handling and storage

a. Portable Lubrication Storage Rooms

10. Lubricant consolidation

11. Written lubrication programs

12. Certification Programs

Participant will receive:

• Course Handbook including all slides
• Reliable Process Solutions Lubrication Handbook
• Oil Analysis Handbook
• Guide on starting your Lubrication Excellence Program
• 100 Failure Modes of Lubrication and Lubrication Programs Handbook

A Learning Experience with a Payback

This seminar teaches you how to keep your equipment running forever. Learn how to make motors, bearings, couplings, belts, chains, etc. last 2-5 times longer.
This seminar pays back in operational up time 100 times over.

Equipment Life Extension Seminar

As the company motto implies “It can operate forever”. Is this just a catch phrase to make you think? It’s the truth. My many years of experience in manufacturing have guided me to use methods that can extend the life of equipment components to 3 – 8 times their expected life.

At this seminar we will discuss the various Failure Modes that lead different components down the path to early wear out. By using methods from RCM analysis we will study the failure modes and then develop as a team ways to prevent and eliminate them from occurring. In every example a proactive or precision technique will be discussed that will extend the component life.

• Can a motor last for 10-15 years without failures?
• Can a bearing last 30 years without failing?
• Can belts and chains last 5-6 years without failing?

We will study these and many other components of plant operating equipment. We will also take time to look at equipment problems that are causing problems at your specific manufacturing plant.
For every dollar you save in maintenance due to improve equipment reliability there is another 5-10 dollars added to the bottom line.

What can this seminar do for your company?

Learn how some of the largest companies in the world are reducing their maintenance spending by millions of dollars.

• It will teach participants a different way of looking at equipment and equipment components.
• Participants will learn about Nolan and Heaps 6 equipment failure curves.
• Participants will learn about RCM (Reliability Centered Maintenance) terminology.
• Participants will learn about Failure Modes and how to identify them in the operation.
• Participants will learn to be proactive in their approach to maintenance.
• Participants will learn preventive, predictive, and proactive methods for component life.
• Participants will learn how to judge where they are in plant reliability.
• Participants will learn how to improve their equipment reliability.
• Participants will learn details of equipment components that will make them more effective.

This seminar will start paying dividends as soon as they return to the plant. How much money will it save if your equipment operates effectively for 3 – 8 times longer.

Learn about the over 50 failure modes of electric motors, and learn how many bearings have failures before you receive them at the plant.

Participants receive the following:

• A manual with the Power Point presentations
• Manuals on individual component failures
• Motors, Bearings, Pump Seals, and More
• Belt Life Extention CD

Don’t wait any longer to start improving your equipment life and plant uptime!