Everything You Need to Know About Preventive Maintenance in Acetylene Plants – Part III

In the earlier posts, we discussed the major benefits of preventive maintenance in an acetylene plant including lowering of costs. In this post, the plan for preventive maintenance in acetylene plants is outlined.

How to Plan for Preventive Maintenance

In order to schedule and successfully implement a preventive maintenance program, it is important to plan beforehand. For this, you need to get the following things in place:

1. Equipment
Document maintenance cost and due date against each piece of equipment in your plant. This will allow you to determine which parts need to be repaired or replaced. You can procure parts in advance helping save costs and time taken for the repair procedure. If you utilize a software for this purpose, it will allow you to keep track of the equipment that needs to be replaced. The software can send alarms and notifications when the due date is close. A wall-to-wall inventory list with details of previous maintenance records is extremely helpful for inventory management.

2. Inspection Spaces
Preventive maintenance encompasses plant equipment as well as the entire space. This includes the actual plant/ factory floor, offices and cabins, storage spaces, outdoor spaces, building structure, etc. You must inspect the plant and other spaces for non-equipment issues. Look for electrical, plumbing, housekeeping, and organizational issues. These problems might go unnoticed and could be detrimental to the overall efficiency of the plant. Being proactive in all sectors of maintenance and plant operations is helpful in keeping the employees productive at all times.

3. Tasks and Frequencies
Creating a preventive maintenance program that consists of tasks and frequencies of these tasks is imperative to the smooth functioning of the maintenance process. You can use the guidelines laid down by the NFPA for task frequency in terms of fire prevention. For example, to comply with the NPFA policy on use of fire extinguishers, one must get all fire extinguishers recertified every year. Additionally, all fire extinguishers should be inspected every month. You can look to such bodies to define the frequency of preventive maintenance tasks. You can be flexible in terms of increasing the frequency of such tasks. You can even add other tasks that may be necessary in your industry or plant.

4. Load Leveling Matrix
You can list down all the tasks and decide on the number of times each task needs to be performed in a year. This will allow the technicians to decide on which tasks should be completed in a week. According to the importance and level of urgency, they can make a decision without being overburdened. This allows the senior management to keep a track of all the tasks being performed. It also makes adding and removing tasks much easier.

5. Use of Resources
Resources will need to be allocated for preventive maintenance tasks along with their normal daily tasks. The manager will need to calculate the total time each technician spends on a daily basis and then calculate how much time he/ she will be able to devote for preventive maintenance. A realistic plan will allow employees to perform a thorough job.

6. Scheduling Preventive Maintenance Cycles
When scheduling preventive maintenance, it is important to make a note of the external conditions. For example, a chiller preventive maintenance program should be scheduled before summer. Insightful scheduling of tasks will allow you to make the most of this program.

A proactive approach to repairing equipment is becoming increasingly important. This process helps an organization plan in advance to reduce costs and downtime. This process is also helpful in compliance with codes and practices laid down by regulatory bodies. Since most federal and local safety organizations follow methodologies ingrained with preventive maintenance measures, preventive maintenance can be deemed as one of the best practices when running a plant. This process helps an organization remain efficient and productive.