What my first job taught me....

Its almost 15 years when I first entered Reliance Petrochemicals plant in Vadodara for my first job. I did my B Tech in Mechanical Engineering and somehow machinery have always caught my attention. What I didnt knew was what my first job had in its store for me.

I was posted as FOPE in Ethylene Glycol plant, a small clean plant with a small operating and maintenance crew. The first 6 months I was supposed to learn the Operations. My plant was pneumatic controlled, but there was no hiccup. Everyday evening, my friends from other plants used to tell me stories what asset they saw open, the fire fighting in control room. They used to talk about breakdowns, performance loss, Loss time incidents, etc. I used to envy them that i am not getting the opportunity to learn as much as they did. Anyways I did learnt running a plant from control room that I was supposed to. Six months later, I got my plant changed to a troublesome plant THE UTILITIES and was happy as I too have Dinner stories to share..

Those 6 months didnt taught me just operating a plant. My mentor was a simple Control panel incharge Suman bhai who enters the control room, and before saying Hello to his boss or keeping his lunch box down, he walks around the panel to see all critical parameters. He never needed a shift handover because in his words..."These panel readings tell me how they were since I left them". He then walks in the field, in less than 5 minutes he starts his job. His 8 hours shift means every single second devoted to a better plant, not just doing his shift.

Plant operation is all about the operating, Alarm and Trip limits, he told us what real Alarm means something I know as Reliability limits today.

He has optimized every single instrument reading based on the age of Silver catalyst and final product quantity and specifications ,The OMS (Oxygen mixing station) with more than 50 valves whose O2 limits by % as defined by OEM was 5-7 was optimized to 6.2 to6.9%,, I am sure today it is a deliverable of Operational execellence or six sigma projects

There was a set of single stage centrifugal pump that always used to make Cavitation noise. I once asked him, when you have optimized everything, why these pumps are cavitating. He replied " Their purpose is to deliver glycol at x kg/cm2 and yy m3/hr. Since the pump is delivering what is supposed to do without compromizing performance, and without posing a risk. I wont ask maintenance to touch it". I desperatly hoped cavitation would damage the seal, due to erosion, the performance will be down, bearing failure will happen.. but to my disappointment nothing happened. I got the oppotunity to see that pump open in its major overhaul 3 years later. The impeller was coated with something black,,and even tough the pump had been creating a cavitation noise, the impeller , diffuser and casing were flawless. The reason behind was chemistry, physics and knowledge of the process and the asset. Today when I do RCM consulting, I emphasize ,, all failure modes are not bad, the most important thing is the knowledge of the system.. I learnt the basics of maintenance strategy that  no book or training ever covered. My first RCM was when I didnt even heard about RCM.

It took me years to realize what those six months really taught me.. When a client asks me today if this is really possible, I say YES , not because I have to,, but because I BELIEVE it...

" Zero defect maintenance"
"100 % maintenance history"
" Zero breakdown maintenance"
" Optimized plant- Every single monitored parameter"
" Zero unplanned/ reactive maintenance"
" 100 % PM complaince, 100% change over schedule complaince"
" Six sigma complaint operation"
" Zero Surprises"

These are not impossible to achieve,, just start Doing Your Basics Right!!!