|
Braskem believes in continuous improvement. It is a central tenant to the Braskem goal of becoming a top-10-world-class leader within the petrochemical industry. The company's reliability strategy, like all other company business strategies, is aligned to support this corporate vision. The intent of the Braskem Reliability Strategy is to eliminate, or at least minimize, the economic, safety, security, and environmental effects of unreliability. This is accomplished through efforts in three distinct areas: - Minimize the overall effects of unreliability in existing equipment (production losses)
- Modify or replace equipment with chronic reliability problems (configuration)
- Eliminate the growth of unreliability in new equipment
Strategy in action Using Meridium, the company consolidates data from multiple data sources, including SAP, to develop a streamlined, data-driven, highly efficient reliability process for the identification and prioritization of reliability studies and projects based on maintenance costs, production yield losses, and adverse utility costs. For example, a critical fuel oil pump system unexpectedly failed at a Braskem facility, resulting in 6,000 tons of lost petrochemical products and representing millions of dollars in production losses. The system is made up of three pumps: two turbine-pumps and one motor-pump. The system's function is to pump fuel oil for several boilers. In the event of a system failure, the boilers, and consequently all of the plant, are shut down. Based on the severity of production losses, Braskem reliability protocol required that an engineering study be initiated to determine the cause of the failure, as well as steps developed to prevent its reoccurrence. With the help of Meridium's reliability analytics and other modules, the company performed: - Root cause analysis to understand the root cause of the failure.
- Monte Carlo simulation to identify any potential system configuration problems.
- Reliability-centered maintenance (RCM) to establish optimal maintenance intervals for individual system assets.
Following the completion of a root cause analysis, the root cause of failure was determined to be a broken cable on the motor pump. A subsequent engineering study using Monte Carlo simulation confirmed that the current system configuration was in fact reliable and the most cost-effective, requiring no modifications. A reliability-centered maintenance (RCM) study established an optimal test interval of two months for the motor pump to prevent future failures. While failures resulting in shutdowns require immediate attention, Braskem pursues an equally aggressive strategy for the identification of chronic "bad actors", with an emphasis on the comparison of overall performance against maximum sustainable production. Braskem engineering studies have demonstrated that: - Several incidents with minor losses can cause more damage than one unique loss of higher value. Loss data needs to analyzed in terms of total downtime duration and total events by equipment.
- Slowdowns can be considered production losses, especially when related to a problem with specific equipment. These slowdown losses can, in some cases, be higher than the total downtime losses.
- Improvements should generally be done at the component level (maintainable item). The existing systems allow for analysis at this level.
Understanding historical costs, failure frequencies, and production trends is a critical part of operating reliably the Braskem way. Using asset performance management (APM), Braskem operates with a clear understanding of poorly performing equipment, where improvement opportunities exist, and the impact of design changes. Braskem implements the most effective strategies and designs to optimize production availability while minimizing costs, supporting the corporate vision of becoming a top-10-world-class leader. Click here to download Optimizing Production for Critical Equipment Systems Using Monte Carlo Simulation and RCM Techniques, by Pedro Paulo Mendonca Vasconcellos, Reliability Engineer, Braskem, for the six-page case study outlining the fuel oil pump system failure referenced above. Click here for a video presentation by Braskem's Sergio Barreiro, Reliability and Systems Coordinator for Braskem's Camacari site, to learn more about Braskem asset performance strategies including: - Establishing maximum sustainable production rates
- Identifying "bad actors"
- Eliminating "unreliability" during new equipment design and construction
|
