The refinery had several aims. The first was to make the maintenance process more effective than it was. The second, and perhaps more important goal, was to reduce overall maintenance costs. Refinery management was looking to have "a work management process" that could control the work and provide some predictability to the maintenance process and to improve the output of the refinery, which was under increasingly heavy demand for its refined hydrocarbon products.

In short, the goal was to reduce current costs while implementing a pro-active work management process which would extend the life cycle of the plant's equipment. Management knew it must improve the performance of its assets to meet demand and remain competitive but there was doubt and conflicting viewpoints regarding how to go about it.

Refinery management retained our firm to perform an assessment of the entire maintenance process and organization. Our focus included, but was not limited to, operating budgets, materials management, contractor usage, information technology (CMMS & projects software), organizational structure, training processes and supervision.

A pre-assessment Maintenance & Reliability diagnostic that we conducted, provided us with a preliminary road map to high return opportunities within the refinery.

As we suspected, we found:

• High levels of reactive maintenance in key production units.
• Growing backlogs of maintenance work not yet planned or scheduled.
• Flagging morale among maintenance and operations employees.
• Over 40% of new work requests were of an urgent or emergency nature.
• Many operations personnel considered that anything less than an urgent request for maintenance might be overlooked or re -prioritized due to growing backlogs.
• Competing work demand from various other production units.

Overtime among the maintenance crafts appeared lower than industry peers which on the surface seemed to be a positive sign. However, upon further analysis, a large and increasing amount of call out work was performed by outside contractors whose response time to emergencies was faster than that of the refinery’s maintenance force. Although response time improved, this practice led to higher levels of rework due to the contractor’s lack of familiarity with the equipment. It also led to added cost to the overall business as well as dissatisfaction within the maintenance crafts due to job loss and outsourcing fears.

In addition, the refinery was built in the mid 1960’s, the equipment was old, production requirements had increased and turnaround cycles had been extended.

Of an encouraging nature, however, we found a viable work order system (CMMS), a reasonable level of work order detail and equipment history and a previously robust but still well documented PM program.

After securing an agreement with refinery management to proceed with a multi phased improvement process, we joined with our client’s key personnel to begin the design, development and implementation of several key initiatives:

First a framework for a work management process (WMP) that was designed to support:

• Improved Estimating, Planning & Scheduling.
• Work Order tracking & Reporting.
• Improved Procurement practices.
• Outside Contractor management & evaluation.
• Improved Metrics & Benchmarking.

Second an internal Steering Team devoted to:

• Equipment Reliability Improvement.
• Asset Healthcare Modeling and Implementation.

Tech Shelter Group consultants worked with client personnel to implement the appropriate WMP structures and systems. A WMP team was established and team member responsibilities were assigned. Process and communication flows were mapped detailing requirements from work identification through coordination with Production Planning, Maintenance Scheduling, Tag-out/Lock-out all the way to execution and completion. A matrix detailing job roles & interaction for job leaders and the WMP team was implemented to improve understanding and coordination. A review of systems infrastructure was completed and a set of recommendations presented, supporting the transition to an expansion in use of the CMMS in terms of planning and work history.

• A improved process for processing maintenance requests.
• An improved practice for estimated hours on Work Orders.
• Maintenance Shops scheduling available resources one week in advance.
• An enhanced daily Operations/Maintenance Coordination Meeting providing direct interaction between Operations and the Maintenance Shop Supervisors for work requests.
• A Weekly Scheduling Meeting where Operations, Maintenance, Safety, Projects, and Environmental discuss, review, and coordinate activities for the next week.
• Backlog management control based on estimated hours by craft and shop.

Following that implementation, it was time to move to the next level with the design and development of the Asset Healthcare Process. It was critical for our team to introduce and reinforce new ideas and a new set of structured activities designed to “Preserve system/equipment function”; not simply to prevent failure or “fix it before it breaks” This education process is still underway at the refinery.

The steps outlined in the following were used to develop a process for proactive asset healthcare. They are currently under implementation in three key process units.

We trained selected engineering, maintenance and operations personnel in Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) and Asset Healthcare strategies and methodologies; then formed asset teams focused upon the following initiatives.

• Development of the equipment hierarchy.
• Establish equipment/component criticality.
• Develop strategies for component care.
• Develop equipment failure modes and effects (FMEA).
• Develop asset healthcare strategies and plans.

The results of our combined efforts continue to accrue. Many of the initiatives and work activities described above are ongoing. However, as of this date we can describe the following benefits.

• A significant increase in planned and scheduled activities.
• A 30% reduction of outside contractor use from the same period the previous year.
• A 45% reduction in emergency work orders.
• Wrench time increase of 20% for all crafts.
• Improved alignment of key performance metrics with key production processes.
• Craftsmen know what they will be working on a week in advance.
• Maintenance cost reduced approximately 17% from previous year.
• All personnel involved in the work management process have a better understanding of their CMMS and its functionality and purpose.
• Standard material lead times have been reduced.
• Long lead items have been planned.
• Increasing levels of asset ownership by operations, engineering and other refinery personnel who traditionally considered plant equipment condition solely a maintenance concern.