Chemical Engineering May 2016 - 60

behaviors and work processes that
define the segment. these varying
behaviors and work processes
have a dramatic impact on the overall
performance and reliability of the
organization and impact bottom-line
performance in a significant way.
observations from the study show
that unless the culture is developing
behaviors and work practices commonly
found in the mature proactive
or early resilient culture (see Figure
1), top performance is unachievable.
Cultural practices at the top
What are some of the behaviors and
practices top performers display on a
daily basis to drive top performance?
Proactive. the organizations are,
first, intentionally proactive in much
of what they do. they are focused on
leading indicators, they use foresight
to analyze data, and they use their
analyses to predict outcomes. once
they have predicted an outcome, they
focus on anything that would appear
to be abnormal - in other words,
anything that could change the expected
or predicted outcome. When
abnormalities are detected, action is
taken to understand why these abnormalities
have occurred. this new
information is then used to remedy the
situation and drive it back to normal
or to adjust the predicted outcome.
the culture is always encouraging
employees to learn from experience
and then use the knowledge gained
to improve performance.
Maintenance abnormalities. top
performers use key process variables
to monitor, with foresight, any abnormalities
that occur in the process, and
they use key process indicators to ensure
they are staying on track over the
long term. both short- and long-term
performance are important to the delivered
results. top performers are not
short-sighted and do not make decisions
that could negatively impact the
future performance of their assets.
When particular abnormalities
can't be remedied, proactive plans
are made to address the abnormal
state as a whole in order to bring it
back to normal. abnormalities are
not ignored and then allowed to become
normal, which is a trait of nontop-performing
organizations.
Planning. the vast majority of work
is planned, scheduled and completed
to plan, at a very high frequency.
many of the jobs that are
planned and scheduled, if they've
been done before or are part of an
equipment strategy, can be found in
a pre-planned job library. preparation
for work is detailed. often, the
materials needed to complete a job
are delivered to the jobsite before
the craftsperson arrives and work
begins. these planned and scheduled
jobs are typically completed as
planned. any deviations from the plan
or schedule are treated as an unplanned
event and are investigated,
with the results of the investigation
being used to prevent recurrence.
Reliability. the most significant thing
top-performing organizations have
this softer side of culture and leadership
is hard for non-top-performing
organizations to grasp. these nontop-performing
organizations want
the same high mechanical availability
top performers enjoy, but are
often looking for the " silver bullet "
that allows delivery of that performance.
their understanding of what
it takes to generate this outcome is
centered on cost, and they assume
that the right cost structure will result
in high mechanical availability.
top-performing organizations realize
that high mechanical availability and
low cost are lagging indicators that
result from their efforts to establish a
reliability culture.
the following discussion will examine
industry trends resulting from
Reliability is not an asset issue, but instead is the result
of people's behaviors. Individuals create reliability or the
lack of it.
discovered is that asset and equipment
reliability are an outcome of the
true driver of reliability. they understand
that total reliability is driven by
the way people in the organization
perform their work, and that this performance
has an impact on all other
things. Reliability is not an asset
issue, but instead is the result of
people's behaviors. individuals create
reliability or the lack of it. the focus
of top-performing organizations is on
training and educating each member
of the organization and ensuring that
everyone understands the need to
constantly and consistently meet
their commitments. When this is accomplished,
reliability is achieved.
The results. When this type of culture
is put into place, the final result
in a top-performing organization is
the following:
* high customer loyalty
* engaged employees
* an improved level of profitability
the entire focus is on minimizing
the impact of unplanned events by
detecting abnormal situations proactively
and addressing them before
disruption can occur.
While the existence of these behaviors
and work processes is the
leading indicator of top performance,
ChemiCal engineering www.Chemengonline.Com may 2016
organizations focusing first on creating
top-performing cultures.
Mechanical availability
loss of mechanical availability (that
is, downtime) in production facilities
can generally be categorized into six
distinct groups. some downtimes
are proactive in nature, while others
are reactive. the six common causes
of downtime are as follows:
* Routine maintenance (both
planned and unplanned)
* turnarounds (extended downtimes
that are scheduled at least a
year in advance)
* short overhauls (a short production
outage, typically less than a
week in length, that occurs with
some level of planning done less
than a year in advance)
* Rate-reduced operation (running
an asset at less than its 30-day
maximum rate due to a mechanical,
instrument or electrical issue)
* Regulatory (running at reduced
rates or total outage due to regulatory
issues)
* operations (running at reduced
rates or loss of production due to
an operations or process issue)
all of these categories prevent
the asset from running at optimum
59
http://www.Chemengonline.Com
Chemical Engineering May 2016

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Chemical Engineering May 2016
