LEVEL 2 CURRICULUM

DAY 1 PROGRAM

ASSET RELIABILITY – STRATEGIES FOR LIFTING THE OVERALL PERFORMANCE AND UPTIME

• The reliability management process – the 8 key elements of a reliability service, roles and responsibilities of the stake-holders involved in the reliability process
• Planners and Reliability Engineers – how Reliability Engineers provide a valuable service to Planners and what they need back from maintenance to allow them to deliver this service
• Issues management – the process to eradicate failures and limitations to production capability, holding people accountable to resolve problems
• Investigations – establishing investigations with multiple skills and stake-holders, driving investigations to desired outcomes
• Tests and Trials – managing modifi cations to the plant and proving the claims of equipment suppliers and avoiding failure of an item under test
• PM improvement – a logical process which maintenance can understand and act on, using the available information from the maintenance history and RCM techniques in a time effi cient manner
• Operator care – involving operators in the reliability process by assisting them to understand what they observe in the plant and how to communicate issues they need to raise

DAMAGE MODES AND DETECTION STRATEGIES – HOW PLANT FAILS AND THE TELL-TALE SIGNS WHICH INDICATE THE RATE OF PROGRESS OF VARIOUS DAMAGE MECHANISMS

• Overview of the failure modes – the many ways a piece of metal can fail and a way to classify failure modes which will govern the detection activities
• Physical mechanisms – fatigue, corrosion, wear, high temperature, welds, overload and structural, non-metal - metallurgical and material science aspects of damage
• Damage summation – tying back the rate of failure to how the plant operates and developing simple forecasting models based on process inputs and capacity levels
• Developing an inspection strategy – simple observations and advanced checks, using specialists, avoiding obvious errors in measurement and managing the inspection data
• Reporting from the inspection – how to report meaningful trends which maintenance can act on, distinguishing between diagnostics and prognostics which means coping with today’s problems and anticipating those of tomorrow
• Case Study

CONDITION MONITORING – THE AVAILABLE TECHNOLOGIES AND HOW BEST TO DEPLOY THEM

• The condition monitoring framework – setting the essential baseline for what technologies are to be deployed, why and on what equipment; using risk assessments to specify where condition monitoring is a worthwhile investment
• Overview of the technologies – what is available, where techniques have delivered consistent value and what the pitfalls are where damage has been missed or the work has not been necessary
• Using condition monitoring data – vendor databases and web sites, CMMS measurement points, determining exception data which needs to be stored and acted and developing a strategy for integrating systems and managing the data
• Specifying the skills – what is the requisite knowledge and experience which should be expected of the condition monitoring technician
• Condition monitoring set up in the maintenance system – when to use measurement points and when this will overload the system with low value data, requirements for master data, reporting from the CMMS and triggering work based on alarm levels
• Achieving value from condition monitoring – monitoring crippled plant and nursing it to a maintenance period, publicising alerts and ensuring maintenance acts on them, interfacing the condition monitoring expert with the maintenance work request and driving work

FOLLOWING UP ON FAILURES – THE NECESSARY RESPONSE TO UNDERSTAND WHAT HAPPENED AND THEN ENSURE THIS FAILURE IS NOT REPEATED AGAIN

• Root cause analysis – a straightforward recipe for a consistent approach, setting up the team and forming the project and fundamental aspects of truth in reporting which are essential but often hard to achieve
• Understanding work history – working with individuals to understand the previous actions of operations and maintenance, managing the data to provide objective evidence and then working in meetings to engage people in a truthful account of what happened
• Strategies to reduce failures – classifying potential solutions and determining what the evidence is pointing to, working out the likelihood of which strategy will be most promising but preparing to remain flexible until all the facts are compiled
• Handling evidence – the forensic treatment of evidence in an investigation, cross checking opinions and compiling objective evidence
• Using specialist resources – how to manage specialists who are equally subject to bias or may be protecting their own interests (eg vendors), integrating different skills sets into the investigation
• Design vs. maintenance as a solution – presenting the options for the solution, putting the business case for the permanent fi x which may require investment and developing a staged solution strategy which has a number of steps
• Case Study

DAY 2 PROGRAM

REMAINING USEFUL LIFE – DETERMINING RUL USING STATISTICAL METHODS AND THE AVAILABLE DATA AND WHAT TO DO WITH THESE RESULTS

• Understanding the concept – building on the material of damage progression, working out how many failures will occur in the future and determining the tolerable level after which replacement is essential
• Basic maths to forecast RUL – statistical techniques and integrating multiple sources of data into models, developing simple spreadsheet tools to handle the current data sets
• Using maintenance system data in RUL calculations – what maintenance data is available and how it can be used, which then set goals for the maintenance department in terms of accuracy of feedback
• Using RUL in planning strategies and budgeting – developing asset management plans integrating risk assessments to prioritise work and building up a forward investment plan
• Provisions for replacement – assessing past history of replacement of major plant, communicating this information and integrating provisions into a plant rate
• Advanced statistics and the possible future options for improving accuracy in the RUL – introduction to Bayesian statistics and multiple data streams, working with data and understanding the maths of complex modelling techniques

RELIABILITY MATHEMATICS – OVERVIEW OF PROBABILITY DENSITY FUNCTIONS, THE FAILURE PROBABILITY AND USING RELIABILITY BLOCK DIAGRAMS TO CALCULATE IMPACT OF FAILURE ON OVERALL SYSTEMS

• Probability density function – simple models and Weibull modeling, developing the data and using these functions to calculate a probability of failure and then understanding what this means for forecasting RUL
• Reliability block diagrams – introducing the method and how a system is built up from its components, estimating the probabilities of failure of the components and then determining the overall system probability of failure
• Risk management and RBDs – using the RBD to test alternative maintenance strategies and what-if scenarios for adjusting the probability of failure
• Cost optimisation modeling – adjusting the frequency of PM strategies and their implication on overall system reliability
• Case Study

PM IMPROVEMENT METHODOLOGIES – ALTERNATIVE APPROACHES AND IMPROVING THE JOB PLANS AS WELL AS THE OVERALL SCHEDULE

• Elements of the PM strategy – equipment type classifi cation, job plans and header data requirements, the PM schedule and ensuring the master data is maintainable and sustainable
• Failure Modes Effects and Criticality Analysis – working through the process to achieve an outcome for PM improvement, the 7 principles of RCM and why they need to be introduced as early as possible
• Conducting an FMEA workshop and managing the results – stake holders involved, and keeping the workshop to an effi cient simple process that delivers an outcome
• Introducing work order history and vendor information in the optimiSation process – what data can be used and why, how the data needs to be presented to the optimisation method
• Looking at the methods – RCM, TPM, PMO etc – the fundamental truths on which they are based, the need to avoid guessing and find the facts, the value of modern software
• PM schedule balancing – ensuring the resources can deliver the fi nal schedule using the optimised job plans developed from the process
• Case Study

OPERATOR CARE OPTIONS – INVOLVING OPERATORS IN THE RELIABILITY IMPROVEMENT PROCESS

• Principles of Operator Driven Reliability – understanding issues in the plant, responding where appropriate and communicating the problems
• Helping operators become the front line eyes – improving operator rounds and inspections, assisting operators to interpret machinery performance as underlying reliability problems, raising their awareness of the implications of what they see every day
• Improving operator communications – ensuring consistency and accuracy in work requests, assisting operators to understand the planning process and hence what represents crucial information
• Using log sheets – quantifying the output from operator rounds, managing the data to allow trend analysis and actions on exceptions
• Autonomous maintenance – empowering people to do work to the limit of their competency and no more, integrating operator work with maintenance strategies and aligning the maintenance team with assessing competencies and supporting operators in autonomous maintenance