Case Studies in Maintenance and Reliability: A Wealth of Best Practices. V. Narayan

from oil extracted from the menthol plant.

      The facilities included ointment blending vessels, tablet forming, coating and packaging machines, bottling machines, packaging lines, and a refrigeration plant. The research and development facilities were located at the factory site; this group was also responsible for product quality management.

      2.1.2 Facility: Automobile Parts Manufacturer

      This large company made fuel injection pumps for diesel engines and spark plugs for petrol engines. The factory had about 3000 machine tools, many of which were of high precision and cost. They had a European principal who provided technical expertise and governance. The principal operated similar factories in five other countries. In this site, they had about 8000 employees, working six days a week. About 2500 production staff, mainly machinists, worked in each of the first and second shifts. About 1500 production staff worked in the third shift. There were about 1500 employees in the ‘day’ shift. Company employees had a strong work ethic; people were disciplined, kept to schedules, and worked to high quality standards.

      2.1.3 Facility: Petroleum Refinery

      This facility was a semi-complex petroleum refinery, with process plants, utilities, product packaging, and storage facilities. The process plants were grouped into two main sections. The primary processing units included crude distillation, high-vacuum distillation, and bitumen blowing units. The secondary processing plants consisted of a fluid catalytic cracker and a reformer (or platformer) unit, grouped with the utilities.

      There were two other operational sections, responsible for the storage and handling of crude oil and products. One of them managed bitumen and liquefied petroleum gas storage, packaging, handling, and dispatch. Another managed the storage and handling of crude oil and products. The maintenance areas were aligned to these sections, with a supervisor in charge of each area.

      Breakdowns and trips of equipment were common, resulting in excessive downtime and costs. Maintenance in the refinery had become a firefighting activity. Craftsmen were constantly being moved from job to job, resulting in low productivity and quality. As a result, morale was low, both in Maintenance and in Operations.

      2.1.4 Facility: A Large Petroleum Refinery

      At the time of the events described in this book, this refinery was fairly new. Two large distillation units and a high vacuum unit provided primary distillation capacity. Secondary processing included thermal and hydro-cracking units. There was a large benzene unit and hydro-treaters for kerosene, naphtha, and gas-oil. Electricity, potable water, and sea cooling water were provided by public utility companies. Product-to-feed heat exchangers and air-cooled heat exchangers were used for cooling, with some limited final cooling with sea water exchangers.

      Most of the maintenance work was reactive, but the condition monitoring program and minor preventive maintenance work (lubrication, alignment checks, etc.) were planned and executed satisfactorily. Local craftsmen were being trained, and the bulk of the maintenance work was done by expatriate contract workers. Skill levels were reasonable, but the company’s approach was that it was employing ‘hands’ not people who could use their brains as well. Some of the (expatriate) supervisors were very good, but most were of average caliber.

      2.2 Locations in East Asia

      2.2.1 Facility: Liquefied Natural Gas Plant

      This Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Plant was located on the coast. There were three production modules, where the natural gas was compressed and cooled, thereby liquefying it at -260°F. Steam turbines, each 9 MW in size, powered the nine refrigeration compressors. The plant generated its own electricity, using gas turbine and steam turbine driven alternators. Steam, at 60 bar gauge (barg.), was raised in 9 boilers. There were two liquid nitrogen generators to produce the nitrogen required for blanketing and as purging medium. The LNG was stored in double-walled cryogenic (extra low temperature) tanks. Dedicated LNG Tankers carried the cargo to the customers, from a company-owned deep-water jetty. The natural gas vapors, formed by evaporation from the storage tanks and by displacement from the tankers, were collected and compressed for use in the boilers and gas turbines.

      Cryogenic plants require special materials of construction because low-carbon or low-alloy steels are prone to brittle fracture at low temperatures. The main materials used include aluminum and austenitic stainless steels. Aluminum is a difficult metal to weld and needs specially qualified welders and welding processes.

      Most of the local people employed in the plant were middle-school or high-school graduates. They were young and enthusiastic, but with little exposure to heavy industrial or high hazard plants. Although expatriates held most of the senior technical positions, local engineering graduates were placed in supporting roles so that they could take over senior positions quickly.

      2.2.2 Facility: Large Complex Oil Refinery

      The refinery intake was about 14 million tons per year, received mainly by ships tethered to a single buoy mooring. The main units of this large refinery were: three crude distillation units, two reformers, a lubricating-oil (lube-oil) complex, a thermal gas-oil unit, a hydro-cracker, a long residue catalytic cracker, an isopropyl alcohol plant, and a large generation and utilities complex. There were a number of other smaller processing units and a large oil-movements area consisting of tanks, blending, and a pipeline operation. Operations were controlled from a number of control rooms. Waterfront operations moved thirty million tons per year of product over 11 wharves with 3,500 shipping movements. The facilities described above varied in age from the geriatric to brand new and had a replacement value of about US $4 billion.

      About 600 people lived on the refinery site and another 2,000 came to the refinery each day.

      The organization was as traditional as you could get with Operations, Technology, Finance, Personnel, and Engineering Managers. Under the Engineering Manager were discipline heads for Mechanical, Electrical, Projects, etc. Expatriates held a number of key positions, but most positions were filled by very competent local staff.

      The refinery was well run and profitable but significantly overstaffed. Benchmarking studies showed there were areas of superior performance with excellent practices that others could copy to their benefit. However, they also showed that this refinery was, at best, an average performer and hadn’t moved with the times. Reliability, manning levels, and operating costs needed attention.

      2.2.3 Facility: New Medium-Sized Complex Oil Refinery

      This was a brand new joint venture; an 8-million-tons-per-year refinery situated on the coast and designed to process a mix of Middle East crude oils (by ship, over a single buoy mooring loading facility) as well as indigenous crude oils over jetties. The main plants included atmospheric and vacuum distillation units, hydro-cracker, visbreaker, hydro-desulfurizing unit, hydro-treater, and a reformer (platformer). The electrical power generation capacity met internal requirements fully. Similarly, there was capacity to produce other utilities. Thus, the refinery could operate effectively on a stand-alone basis, although it was connected to the local electrical grid.

      The refinery was designed to perform at world class standards in e.g., process efficiency, plant availability, utilization, organization style, manning levels, safety, environmental impact, and overall costs.

      The management structure was traditional with Operations, Engineering, Finance, and Personnel functions. Maintenance engineers and technicians provided the core expertise at the working level. The philosophy adopted in recruiting staff was, however, definitely non-traditional. Plant operators were recruited from a craft background and then further trained in a specific craft skill, e.g., mechanical, instruments, or electrical. These operators then spent two thirds of their time in operations and one third in maintenance. During the latter period, they did the bulk of the maintenance work while specialized technicians provided the high-level competencies. A competence framework helped manage the concept, rewarding acquisition of needed skills.

      2.2.4 Facility: A Medium-Sized Simple Petroleum Refinery

      Commissioned in the late 1960s, this was a medium-sized, simple (hydro-skimming) refinery. Together with primary distillation capability, it had a platinum reforming unit to obtain high octane naphtha and hydrogen for its hydro-treating processes.