Employing predictive maintenance as a service to improve operations
In this first of a three-article series on lifecycle services, we will discuss maintenance, with the second article focused on reliability, and the third on performance.
Process manufacturers routinely analyze make-or-buy decisions so they can concentrate on producing their core products. Buy items are generally too expensive or complex to make internally, while make items are normally those where the company must use its specialized expertise and equipment.
The same concepts apply to maintenance. A facility will likely buy services for commoditized tasks such as electric motor repair, or it will have highly sophisticated equipment, such as an analyzer, serviced externally. Internal maintenance efforts are usually reserved for specialized process equipment where both critical skills and timing are paramount. For most companies, the list of maintenance tasks kept in house has declined.
This concept applies more than ever as process manufacturers struggle to recruit and retain full-time employees across a wide range of disciplines in today’s tight labor markets. Naturally, chemists and process engineers capable of optimizing production must be on staff, but such is not the case, nor is it even practical, for a vast staff of maintenance technicians. In many areas, qualified workers simply are not available to address the erratic requirements of day-to-day operations, particularly in a 24/7 environment.
The more practical answer is to have a reliable partner capable of providing the technology, data and insights to address reliability and maintenance issues as they occur. This type of partner should provide flexibility for minimal participation when things are stable, along with the ability to scale-up services on short notice when problems threaten production. Moreover, these resources must have the troubleshooting and deep technical skills to step in and know what to do in any situation.
Outsourcing various non-core-but-critical services has been evaluated and practiced for many years. Generic tasks, such as repairs and maintenance of common commodity equipment, have often been assigned to outside contractors as a matter of course, with new areas being considered for outsourcing, such as plant-wide managed services.
Different levels of maintenance
As just mentioned, the personnel to perform basic maintenance functions are universally available, and the skills necessary are largely the same at any process plant or facility. However, in today’s plants, there is required maintenance at a higher level to keep sophisticated instrumentation (Figure 1), device-level networks and automation host systems operating flawlessly to maintain optimized processes. This convergence of operational technology (OT) and informational technology (IT) also presents unique challenges in process plants.
Should the same technician capable of maintaining a pressure transmitter be expected to evaluate the diagnostics of a wireless pressure transmitter in a network environment and determine if it is functioning perfectly or may need to be replaced? Some facilities may have multiple people with a wide range of skills capable of doing all sorts of tasks, but this level of staffing with the required OT/IT skills and capabilities is increasingly rare, and the requirement for greater expertise is growing all the time. A company must ask, “Do we have such people in our facilities?” For many process manufacturers, the answer may be no, or at least not enough of them.
So, what maintenance functions should a company expect to outsource? The pressure transmitter example should be easy as any maintenance shop can handle it. But what about more complex functions, such as advanced instrumentation and network components with all the diagnostic data that is produced?
Here questions hinge on skill as much as personnel head counts. Just as working on today’s automobiles requires a different skill set than adjusting a carburetor, an advanced pressure transmitter operating in a sophisticated automation environment is vastly different than a mechanical pressure gauge. These questions must also be considered in the context of companies wanting to keep their teams safer, smarter and more concentrated on specialized tasks. How much of day-to-day maintenance and troubleshooting of instrumentation assets, plus their supporting networks, does it make sense to do in-house?
Traditional maintenance as a service
Within many process industries, the thought of outsourcing maintenance services is not new. For many years, various original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and large-scale equipment shops have offered a range of services based on their skill sets. Client companies then have some flexibility with respect to personnel needs, without the requirement for finding, hiring and retaining large numbers of employees. A common characteristic of such relationships, at whatever level, is that the partner firms are there to carry out specific tasks under the direction of plant and maintenance managers, just as if they were employees. Newer approaches to maintenance-for-hire relationships extend well beyond such limited concepts, evolving into lifecycle services with a much broader range of possibilities.
Lifecycle services
Every process manufacturing facility needs basic maintenance since every type of equipment is subject to wear and eventual failure. How a facility approaches these tasks is what makes the difference. Maintenance-for-hire will fix things that are broken. Some sophisticated providers may even use predictive techniques in strategic situations, but a true lifecycle services provider will help its client’s teams work safer, smarter and faster by enabling them to make better decisions. Plant personnel gain efficiency, productivity and clear insight thanks to the services and solutions provided by partner firms.
Emerson Measurement Lifecycle Service’s approach for instrumentation assets provides end users with an outcome-focused, service-based solution. Relationships are built by transforming the way maintenance, calibration and repair tasks are handled — with a goal of delivering sustainability, reliability and uptime. These services help process manufacturers safely optimize facility performance, monitor overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) for those assets and develop strategies to fulfill their business goals. How does this work in practice?
Lifecycle services cover three main areas:
- Maintenance services
- Reliability services
- Performance services
For now, we will concentrate on maintenance, with the other two topics to follow in subsequent articles. Maintenance fulfills three key objectives:
- Services to keep the plants operating safely and reliably. The right service provider will work with plant personnel, guiding their efforts to indicate what areas require attention, and what strategy should be used for repair or replacement. These evaluations are in the larger context of maintaining and improving production.
- Services-on-demand as required. When a process plant needs additional boots on the ground, either for specialized technical expertise or sheer numbers, service providers can quickly mobilize highly qualified engineers and technicians.
- Parts and local service for repair and replacement. A service provider with worldwide expertise in process automation, instrumentation, analyzers and more is needed in most process manufacturing environments. When replacements or parts are necessary, the service provider must be able to expedite sourcing.
What should process manufacturers expect?
How is it possible to fulfill end-user needs in those three areas? Are the service provider’s people onsite all the time? The answer, like so many things in process manufacturing, depends on the requirements, but the right provider can deliver many types of services in a variety of ways. In many cases, a remote digital presence is just as effective as having a single technician onsite, if not more.
From a support center, service providers can be in regular, often multi-times daily, contact with end users, conferring about what they see from diagnostic information and operational monitoring. The provider can point out anomalies, or trends that suggest a failure developing, so local technicians can check these types of issues onsite.
If the end user’s technician is unfamiliar with a specific piece of equipment, the service provider can use interactive video to help their remote expert show the local technician exactly how to perform a given task, all in real-time (Figure 3). For something that requires a highly specialized procedure, the right service provider can find the ideal remote expert anywhere in the world to participate in the process. There is no need to wait for a specialist to get on a plane and come to the site, and maintenance activities can commence within minutes, instead of waiting for help to arrive.
The service provider’s technicians can also be onsite to deal with issues, or to coincide with a scheduled outage. In either case, they work with local plant technicians, but also with tradespeople the facility might use for basic construction and maintenance functions, such as welding, pipe fitting and motor repair. When there is an emergency, the service provider should be able to get people to the site quickly by dispatching them from multiple service facilities worldwide. The right service provider will be able to work with products from many suppliers, with added value when working with their own company’s products.
Field technicians can now be digital workers (Figure 4), using cutting edge technologies to maximize performance and minimize operating expenditures. The right partner firm will have dedicated services to improve a facility’s safety, performance and availability using both remote and onsite services.
Use case illustrates benefits
Few process facility types are more challenging than an offshore oil or natural gas platform. The remoteness, combined with the potential for extreme hazards, forces companies to reserve their most trained and experienced people for work in these environments. Therefore, a prime objective is minimizing the head count of full-time onsite staff. This helps with safety goals, and it also cuts costs as maintaining people 24/7 on a platform is enormously expensive, and taxing on personnel. Consequently, operating companies are always looking for ways to automate processes with control from the shore.
The maintenance challenges discussed so far are starkly realized in such an environment. Consider that the most basic metrology function of an offshore platform is custody transfer of the products. Whether oil or gas, it is necessary to have very precise measurements of products delivered as this is the basis for charges and income for the platform. This provides a major challenge since instrumentation for custody transfer, following traditional practices, must be audited frequently with regular calibrations, calling for human technicians on the platform.
The new technologies and maintenance service practices discussed so far come to bear in this situation. Using remote monitoring capabilities, it is now possible for shore-based technicians, both from the operating company and Emerson, to provide 24/7 monitoring of custody transfer using the internal diagnostic capabilities of their flow meters, with the resulting data historized and analyzed onshore.
With this approach, it is possible to verify correct operation, reducing the need for audits and extending periods between calibrations. This methodology also provides early warnings in situations where a flow meter is showing signs of a developing malfunction, providing the information needed to schedule repairs at a convenient time. The most important benefit ultimately is the ability to reduce headcount on the platform, allowing workers to perform their duties onshore without the difficulties of long remote deployments. When necessary, Emerson provides technicians, trained for platform operations, on a temporary basis to handle larger maintenance projects. Over five years, the company has saved about $1 million per year, with improved worker morale.
Looking ahead
These advances are happening as industry goals of sustainability and profitability increase — while available technical expertise in many areas becomes less available — driving the need for proactive strategies. Utilizing efficiency tools such as automation, continuous monitoring, optimization and performance services provide for timely, data-driven decision making when it comes to maintenance and repair, while ensuring safety and reliability remain intact.
Emerson has the expertise, technology and processes that enable client companies to operate safely, improve asset reliability, and optimize their core processes. Our services keep facilities operating safely, consistently, and economically, improving asset reliability and return on investment.
