Need to Improve Equipment Reliability? ANeed to Improve Equipment ‘To begin writing a set-up SOP, gather all the necessary source ‘documents, Some ofthese are obvious and should be readily accesatble, while other important documents ean be found in the ‘bowels ofthe boller root or in the back ofthe matntenauice shop patriarch’ toolbox imore an that late) Begin with the Operation and Maintenance Manual Not every pecs of equipment will havea manual readily avllale they do exit but the whereabouts are unknown, they ave been located inthe maintenance ahop, engineering tech brary oa Pojet enlaces des, at corporate, and even at a technician's home Regardless oftheir eurtentleation, a good manenance Lary that is ealy accessible i real to consistency. Most CMs have detailed chapters covering setup of their machine and wl bull the foundation fr the SOP. "Yeah, but they dont Know how thee machine installed in ny line” Fair enough. The (08M only gets you so far manual accessibility hhas been an obstacle, one say consider a recent example where a very dadigent technical training coordinator championed converting all the hard copy manuals into 2 virtual, electronte Mbrary. ‘This appears tobe a grow- sng tend as the “green” ovement eg, moving away from paper manu als) gains momentum and HTML-compatible MIs become more prevalent on the production flor ‘The next important document to building a \wotld class set-up SOP isthe existing SOP. Someone sn the past spent some time on that original or Rev XX) SOP. Its worth look- sng at sf only to assess its value. Ifthe majority of the technicians recognize it, you may only need to modify a tle to experience ‘huge gains in consistency. Older SOPs were very wordy and usually straight from the O&M or the inetallation documents [Improvements in follow-on revisions often included setup tables, ‘where more recent additions work prose around the spectrum ‘of photoa; Grainy cell phone images to high-resolution RAW format movie posters, charts callouts, Visio drawings, and even ‘engineering CAD depictions of changeover part exploded dia- ‘grams. And just because the SOP ss accurate and detailed doesn't ‘mean that st wil be used. It as tobe useful to the technicians, ‘An important note: Fancy SOPs dont lead to better running Reliability? Improve People Reliability through equipment. And, there has yet tobe a Pulitzer category for them. So dont go overboard! ‘Athitd important document for establishing an effective SOP 1s the project engineer/managers notes. These documents should detail exactly how the piece of equipment is installed on the line. has alveady been established thst the OEM may not have any Ides how their machine was installed. The use of an integrator is ‘becoming commonplace, however, where ines are put together of modified by a contractor; sometimes the OEM. So, this step may, ‘be included ina “Line O&M." The value of these project dacuments come fom the integration: 1) How containers are introduced into ‘the machine proper; 2) how they are discharged; 8) the sntegra- ‘ton of eaps, inserts, labels, cartons ete: 4) support and ausuliary equipment such as plant/instrument as. gas, electric, water, steam, ge, ptoprietary HMI set-ups, ee. and 5) any safety or compliance required additions. Other relevant documents for generating successful SOPs are ‘the most elusive. This category of source documents are often found in “cheat sheets," “pocket brains, lore. Ii highly likely thatthe seasoned maintenance and zel- ability professional authored a numberof these documents early tn his/her career: f any of them could be classified as world-class, it would be next to the heart (r hip of the shop's most suece ful teehnetans. They can contain snfinite detal on how apiece of equipient performs under all conditions, part numbers, phone rhunbers of SMe, diagrams, margin notes on material ste, and even tables to decode timing masks. The difieulty tn obtatn- tng these documents is thatthe technician often considers them Job security documents. Getting these valuable documents into ‘the mainstream is an important topic beyond the focus of this article, but u'you can get the right parts of them incorporated Into the SOP, the chances of consistently quicker changeovers and smooth start ups are much greater: Now that all of the source documents are sn one place, s is ‘ume to start writing your world-class setup SOP. All SOPs should hhave the following common elements: + Short Title - Uniquely distinguishes from all the other machines. Especially ithe facity is a multe-line plant and ‘there are more thant one model af the same equipment. Use of location often helps: Line 1 Filer, West Labeler, or Palletzer © for example + Serlal Number — This would be an automatic part of any document control program, but sfnone exists, sis stil a good for revision control a well aa ease ‘rib notes and tribal es to use serial number of reference when coupled with PMs and work orders. + Revision Number - The popular policy on production docs ments isto maintain an electronic database and only print ‘them thard copy) on demand when immediately needed Particularly in compltance-governed industries, document control is mandated under sometimes severe penalty and ‘non-compliance ean result in huge produet holds, destruc~ ‘tons, and recall. The reality ie that even ifthey are printed fon demand, they arent always destroyed when no longer tn demand; they get sted into the toolbox or stapled to the paper brain. At the very lest, ifthe discipline can be inst: ‘uted, helping the technicians understand that using theNeed to Improve lstest revision ofthe SOP will make thetr work life much easter, ‘compliance becomes a nou-desue and consistency is mote of a ‘ven than a wish, Effective Date When an SOP becomes law” is often a debate ‘with operations, maintenance, engineering, and certainly ‘quality agsurance. Any change in an SOP should come with an ‘equal amount of detailed training. Most often, the organization ‘cannot train everyone at once before implementing an SOP. A ‘tatning program Is created and a schedule communicate. Unless the training can be accomplished for all key players within afew hours, an effective date needs to be determined and communicated before the fist training session begins, usually two to thiee weeks after the last training session. Why such along lead time? There are two reasons: 1) Typically, after the training, the operators and technicians discuss the ‘changes. They think through the repercussions the changes vill have and come up with more questions. I'the SOP doesn't support the acenastos proposed, it would be best to delay ‘plementation and potentially rewrite the SOP: and 2) there 4s alwaye a key player on vacation or on another assignment and the programmed delay in mmplementation will alleviate most of those associates being left out Purpose/Scope ~ This isa basic overview (20 words or less) that describes whst the SOP is, ‘Responsibility ~ This section answers the questions: 1) Who ‘owns the SOP? and 2) Which group will actually use the SOP? ‘References — Not only are the source documents such as the (04 on this Uist, but also include lock-out/tag-out procedures, applicable MSDS Sheets, production/atch control documents, and any relative support equipment manuals. ‘Table of Contents Many times, ite not necessary to com plete every ine ofan SOP for every event. Atable of contents (TOC) preferably on the front page, wil allow the technicians to quickly access the relevant steps. A well laid out TOC is particulasly valuable ifthe SOP is m an electronte form and accessed through a PC workstation or HM The page number becomes hyperlinks and one ‘lick’ takes the technician to the steps they ied to get to. Layout - Its very important to know the audience. IFyour shop is fortunate enough to be ful of seasoned technicians the steps can be very simple. Most of us, though, havea fall, ‘ange of experiences within our reals. The SOP has to be detailed enough forthe first time rookle, but yet till be concise ‘enough to be of some value tothe experienced assets. A pos- sible solution to satisfy hoth ends ofthe epectrum isto break up the SOP into two columns, The main column (generally, the ‘right column) contasns all the detail necessary to complete the setup consistency and repeatedly, regardless of the experience level of the technician, The second column contains notes, headers, settings, ete. that will emphasize to the rookle what 4s most important and at the same time remind the experi- ‘enced technician what ss specie about the subject machine setup. What makes this type of format relevant and useful ‘that allows the experienced technicians to have put into the second column; this is where their “pocket brain material ‘ends up and where pertinent phrases and details they might pment Reliability? impr: ve People Reliability through Visual SOPs Inighlight sna traditional SOP. When the seasoned techn ‘lan is involved in crafting the SOP, they have the necessary ‘ownership to make sure everyone inthe shop uses the SOP as sutended, ‘+ Pletures and Diagrams This i an area that can consume numerous hours, resources, and document “real estate" not kept in check. ifthe shop has access toa shutter bug or CAD afleionado, the SOP can be quite fancy. Again fancy doesnt ‘mean successful, There should only be enough pictures, ‘lagrams, and drawings to ald the technician in locating ligament pine. dentiying changeover pasts, comparing small container to large container guide rail settings, and the like In ther electronic form, a well placed but short video can add sneredible clarity to a set-up SOP. + Convention - The fective use of high- Lighting, bold and stale fonts, paren~ theses, brackets, and capitalization com- bined with bullets and nested outlining ‘can miake details le temperature settings ‘and height adjust- meta standout in an ‘especially comprehen ive SOP. Whatever the convention used, be aure iis conse tent through all the ‘operational SOPs. A separate “convention” ‘SOP might be be ficial before adopting the concept in SOPs. Whether the SOP ends up beinga single page checklist or 20 page iasterpiece t should only bbe long enough to ensure consistency tn execution ‘but short enough to be used by all the key players you depend on to.achteve successful startups and changeovers. BL Dan Miller has more than 30 years experience in a wide variety of maintenance and relabiity assignments inclucl ngnuiclear power, food and beverage, and brewing. Dan ' currently working with a pharmacutical clent as a prin= cipal relabilty engineer for Genesis Solutions. In adition tohis CMRP certifcation, Dan also holds certiications a8 2 Six Sigma Black Belt as wollas in Lean and Project Management, and has a 8. S. in hurnan resources and a master of science degree in management