Reliability

HEINZ P. BLOCH, RELIABILITY/EQUIPMENT EDITOR

Heinz.Bloch@HydrocarbonProcessing.com

No fast path to maintenance brilliance

Many years ago, the vice president of a major steam turbine
manufacturing company was called to give a legal deposition
in Canada. It had been alleged that oversights or engineering
malpractice by his firm had caused issues with the companys
mechanical-drive steam turbines. During the unavoidable
back-and-forth arguments, the VP made the statement that
the same problems tend to reappear in 30-year cycles. In essence, he believed that corporations have memories that go
blank every 30 years.
A recent email from a reader reminded the author of the
VPs 30-year cycle comment. The reader wrote:
I work for a well-known petroleum company, and have a
role in a project that focuses on designing our maintenance
strategy for 2020 and beyond. It had me wondering whether
you could point us in a few right directions. Here are my
three questions:
1. Which companies are standing out as the worlds
leading practitioners of maintenance excellence?
2. After viewing our present-day involvement
and realistic oil and gas industry environment
(increasing complexity, safety challenges,
catastrophic risks, etc.), are there any specific
thought leaders you might point out?
3. Where in US academia is the best research and
thinking going on in the maintenance area?
I knew that the readers employer was counted among the
very best-run companies roughly 30 years ago. Then, somebody discovered the catchy term lean and mean, and claimed
that reducing the number of subject matter experts (SMEs) on
the employers payroll was a smart move.
The heads of the company had been misled, to say the least.
However, I decided to reply to the reader and share my experience-based comments with interested managers and reliability
engineers who read this publication. My answers to the readers
questions, and some additional points, are outlined here:
1. Best and/or leading companies are those that groom
their own talent, pay them well, give them a written
role statement, and then hold these maintenance and
reliability personnel accountable.
2. There has never been, nor will there ever be, a good
substitute for guided learning. The expense and
responsibility for learning must be shared equally
between employer and employee.
3. Truly exceptional companies are those that realize
that learning begins after graduating from college or
university. Therefore, these companies institutionalize
a rigorous training program. This training is mapped

out in extensive detail and consists of four phases.

Within each phase, there are activities such as
(Phase 1) shared reviewing of trade journals, and
(Phase 2) conducting shirt-sleeve seminars for
maintenance/technical employees and participation
in structured weekly meetings with operator/
maintenance/technical representatives. Training also
includes (Phase 3) giving presentations to a plant
steering committee, attending local evening events for
ASME/STLE/Vibration Institute meetings, and being
involved in organizing lunch-and-learn sessions
with the emphasis on learn, not lunch. Most of these
training activities cost next to nothing and precede
Phase 4attending out-of-state technical conferences.
4. There is no Internet only approach; also, no magic
bullet will ever lead to best-of-class performance. Only
a consistently pursued training approach will yield
excellence in the highly interdependent areas of safety,
reliability and maintenance cost effectiveness.
5. Reliability and maintenance cost effectiveness always
start with a cost-estimating manual with prices for
reliable equipmentnot just the bare-bones, cheapestavailable equipment. Projects use lists of competent
vendors, sound specifications and a budget that includes
the outlays needed for machinery quality assessment.
6. While at least three US universities offer a maintenance
curriculum or degree, there are good reasons why the
remaining hundreds of universities are not offering such
curricula. When all is said and done, an employee must
have the desire and motivation to be a top performer.
So, hire, reward and further train those who wish to
excel. They are the doers, not the talkers.
What ultimately causes a few individuals and a few companies to become leaders in the maintenance and reliability fields
is worth acknowledging. But, unless acted upon by responsible,
fair-minded managers (who will then fight for drastic changes
in the prevailing mindsets), lessons will have to be relearned
every 30 years. The VP gave us this admonition after all the
lawyers had left the room.
HEINZ P. BLOCH resides in Westminster, Colorado. His
professional career commenced in 1962 and included
long-term assignments as Exxon Chemicals regional
machinery specialist for the US. He has authored over
620 publications, among them 19 comprehensive
books on practical machinery management, failure
analysis, failure avoidance, compressors, steam
turbines, pumps, oil-mist lubrication and practical
lubrication for industry. Mr. Bloch holds BS and MS
degrees in mechanical engineering. He is an ASME
life fellow, and maintains registration as a professional
engineer in New Jersey and Texas.
Hydrocarbon Processing|DECEMBER 201523