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SMART SOLUTIONS FOR MAINTENANCE & RELIABILITY

Prescriptive maintenance's early adopters are exploring how an outcomes-focused maintenance strategy can enhance asset management

Get out of the management Twilight Zone / P.9

M AY 2 0 1 7

The IoT comes to climate control / P.19 Mr. SMRP goes to Washington / P.39 4 lubrication monitoring must-dos / P.43

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TABLE OF CONTENTS MAY 2017 / VOL. 37, NO. 5

FEATURES

SPECIALISTS

32 / COVER STORY

07 / FROM THE EDITOR

15 / ENERGY EXPERT

The Cloud Will See You Now

Decouple Growth from Energy Use

What is Prescriptive Maintenance?

Early adopters are already exploring how outcomefocused approaches to maintenance can help enhance asset management

Prescriptive maintenance opens up a brand new conversation

37 / INSPECTIONS

The ‘Twilight Zone’ Scenario

How the IIoT Takes Equipment Inspection into the Cloud

Avoid gray areas by keeping team objectives consistent and linked to the big picture

The combination of human experts and their machine “apprentices” can deliver powerful outcomes

09 / HUMAN CAPITAL

11 / TECHNOLOGY TOOLBOX

39 / WORKFORCE

Safety is Getting Smarter

SMRP Goes to Washington

High-tech wearables, monitoring tools, and more keep people and plants secure

Larry Hoing and Howard Penrose share their impressions and goals from this year’s visit by SMRP to Capitol Hill to meet with elected officials and their staff 43 / LUBRICATION

What if you could rethink energy consumption targets without risk to the business?

17 / PLANNING CORNER

The Value of ComponentLevel Files Planners should err on the side of having specific files for specific devices

Used-Oil Analysis: 4 Must-Dos

DEPARTMENTS

Take these steps to optimize your lubrication condition monitoring program

19 / AUTOMATION ZONE

27 / TACTICS & PRACTICES

Achieve Thermal Control via the IoT

It’s Not The Gasket’s Fault!

50 / BIG PICTURE INTERVIEW

Justin Wenning, welding engineer, Fabrisonic “I hadn’t had personal experience with 3D printing, hands-on-wise, but I was extremely fascinated with it from a technological standpoint. You’re at the forefront of innovation, really.”

PLANT SERVICES (ISSN 0199-8013) is published monthly by Putman Media, Inc., 1501 E. Woodfield Road, Suite 400N, Schaumburg, IL 60173.

Phone (630) 467-1300, Fax (630) 467-0197. Periodicals Postage Paid at Schaumburg, IL and additional mailing Offices. Canada Post International Publications Mail Product Sales Agreement No. 40028661. Canadian Mail Distributor Information: Frontier/BWI,PO Box 1051, Fort Erie, Ontario, Canada, L2A 5N8. Printed in U.S.A. POSTMASTER: Postmaster: Please send change of address to Putman Media, PO Box 1888, Cedar Rapids IA 524061888; 1-800-553-8878 ext 5020. SUBSCRIPTIONS: Qualified reader subscriptions are accepted from PLANT SERVICES managers, supervisors and engineers in manufacturing plants in the U.S. and Canada. To apply for qualified-reader subscriptions, please go to www.plantservices.com. To non-qualified subscribers in the U.S., subscriptions are $96 per year. Single copies are $15. Subscription to Canada and other international are accepted at $200 (Airmail only) © 2017 by Putman Media, Inc. All rights reserved.

The contents of this publication may not be reproduced in whole or in part without consent of the copyright owner. In an effort to more closely align with our business partners in a manner that provides the most value to our readers, content published in PLANT SERVICES magazine appears on the public domain of PLANT SERVICES’ Website, and May also appear on Websites that apply to our growing marketplace. Putman Media, Inc. also publishes CHEMICAL PROCESSING, CONTROL, CONTROL DESIGN, FOOD PROCESSING, THE JOURNAL, PHARMACEUTICAL MANUFACTURING and SMART INDUSTRY. PLANT SERVICES assumes no responsibility for validity of claims in items published.

Monitor and maintain facility temperatures while centralizing climate controls 21 /YOUR SPACE

APM 4.0 Will Sustain Industry 4.0 On the road to smarter manufacturing, do not confuse sophistication with maturity 25 / WHAT WORKS

Follow these three real-world best practices to improve your gasket performance 29 / TACTICS & PRACTICES

Parts Plans Keep Your Lines Moving Keep parts service and maintenance training in mind along with the conveyor itself 46 / PRODUCT ROUNDUP

Electrical Systems

Taking Off the PdM Training Wheels

Maintain the backbone of your plant and protect your people

An Arizona utility finds success shifting predictive analytics control back in-house

48 / CLASSIFIEDS / AD INDEX

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FROM THE EDITOR

IN MEMORY OF JULIE CAPPELLETTI-LANGE, Vice President 1984-2012 PUTMAN MEDIA, INC. 1501 E. Woodfield Road, Suite 400N, Schaumburg, IL 60173 (630) 467-1300 Fax: (630) 467-1120 MIKE BRENNER Group Publisher mbrenner@putman.net

EDITORIAL STAFF THOMAS WILK Editor in Chief twilk@putman.net

CHRISTINE LaFAVE GRACE Managing Editor clafavegrace@putman.net

ALEXIS GAJEWSKI Associate Editor, Digital Media agajewski@putman.net

STEPHEN C. HERNER V.P., Creative & Production sherner@putman.net

DEREK CHAMBERLAIN Senior Art Director dchamberlain@putman.net

DAVID BERGER, P.ENG. Contributing Editor

PETER GARFORTH Contributing Editor

SHEILA KENNEDY, CMRP Contributing Editor

TOM MORIARTY, P.E., CMRP Contributing Editor

DOC PALMER, P.E., MBA, CMRP Contributing Editor

PUBLICATION SERVICES CARMELA KAPPEL Assistant to the Publisher ckappel@putman.net

JERRY CLARK V.P., Circulation jclark@putman.net

JACK JONES Circulation Director jjones@putman.net

RITA FITZGERALD Production Manager rfitzgerald@putman.net

RHONDA BROWN Reprint Marketing Manager Foster Reprints (866) 879-9144 ext.194 rhondab@fosterprinting.com

EXECUTIVE STAFF JOHN M. CAPPELLETTI President/CEO

THOMAS WILK, EDITOR IN CHIEF

THE CLOUD WILL SEE YOU NOW Prescriptive maintenance opens up a brand-new conversation What if you could purchase a ther-

mometer at the local drugstore that, after taking your temperature, would present you with several personalized wellness options after comparing the reading against your historical health data?

Or what if, during physical therapy after knee-replacement surgery, the leg machine provided three or more likely outcomes of your therapy session based on number of reps, prior PT sessions, and even a worst-case scenario if you simply decided to cease further therapy?

These are health-based examples of a technological wave that is starting to affect the way we think and talk about asset management: prescriptive maintenance, a form of asset health monitoring that is moving beyond predictive approaches and is focused on delivering outcome-based diagnostics.

As promised in this space last month, this issue kicks off our coverage of this topic. In this month’s cover story, Sheila Kennedy explains how the heart of the prescriptive maintenance is the ability to place real-time condition monitoring data in a much wider context than was previously possible, thanks primarily to the internet, wireless networks, and cloud-based storage and processing capabilities. She follows this with a look at how three organizations are already deploying prescriptive asset management approaches at their facilities.

We’re also pleased to share perspective from LNS Research’s Dan Miklovic on why the next wave of asset management innovation (what he terms “APM 4.0”) consists more of evolving aspirational objectives than a specific set of products, adding that the path toward a more prescriptive mindset will be unique to each organization.

How soon is prescriptive maintenance coming to your plant? The short answer is, as soon as your organization starts exploring the potential these technologies have to reduce unplanned downtime and positively affect the bottom line. In this regard, prescriptive maintenance could position you and your teams even further as a profit center rather than a cost center, layering ERP, CRM, and MES data alongside asset health information

PRESCRIPTIVE MAINTENANCE COULD HELP POSITION YOUR TEAM AS A PROFIT CENTER. to underscore the power of the maintenance and reliability function to support the company’s business goals.

As it happens, the PT example above is more than just hypothetical – a family member of mine made the unfortunate choice to stop therapy ahead of schedule, and five years on is experiencing just as much knee pain now as she did before the surgery. Although the risks of stopping early were fairly well-known, I still wonder whether it would have made a difference if the machine itself had been able to deliver personalized health assessments to her, in real time, during the legwork sessions.

When it comes to asset health, whether personal or industrial, humans still get to make the final call. At least our physical assets will be driving a more informed conversation than ever on options and outcomes.

Thomas Wilk, Editor in Chief twilk@putman.net, (630) 467-1300 x412

KEITH LARSON VP, Content and Group Publisher

WWW.PLANTSERVICES.COM MAY 2017 7

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HUMAN CAPITAL TOM MORIARTY, P.E., CMRP

THE ‘TWILIGHT ZONE’ SCENARIO Avoid gray areas by keeping team objectives consistent and linked to the big picture “Last week he told us to do daily scheduling; the week

before that he told us to focus on closing out work orders as fast as we can. We have a work order priority system that says we have 10 days to close out priority-three work orders.

We never know what the heck we’re supposed to focus on and what rules we’re supposed to play by! If he wants us to get things done, he shouldn’t keep changing what he wants!”

This was the irritated response I got from a crew supervisor during a recent plant assessment when I asked, “What are your priorities?” As our conversation went on, the sarcasm and discontent grew. We had entered a sort of “Twilight Zone,” the surreal world created when managers think they are doing something that should be easy to implement when trying to correct some issue.

Why does this Twilight Zone occur? The manager becomes aware of some performance area that needs to be improved. He or she acts by issuing an edict to fix the deficiency. The manager often does this without sufficient data or a clear understanding of the true causes. Maybe effective systems aren’t available to obtain information. Because of that, the fix is often inexact or misguided. The manager gets frustrated when lower levels of the organization grumble or have trouble adjusting to changes.

Conversely, the workforce can’t comprehend why the manager can’t just ask them what will work before changes get made. People in the workforce probably know the true cause of the problem, and they believe they have a better way to solve the issue. But the manager didn’t ask.

Before we beat up the manager too much, keep in mind that supervisors and the workforce often know about problems. The supervisors and team members may not offer solutions at all, or they may offer solutions that are not reasonable or attainable given the manager’s constraints. They often aren’t aware of all the constraints the manager is dealing with.

The manager, believing that the orders have been issued and that supervisor will be responsible to make sure the orders are followed, moves on to the next problem. Days or weeks later, another burr gets under the manager’s saddle, and he or she repeats the pattern.

People want consistency. Frequent changes make them cranky.

All organizations must have a strong link between organizational objectives and the work group’s objectives.

When the link is unclear or weak, it’s difficult to develop and maintain the operating mechanisms (work management processes) that help the organization stay focused.

When operating mechanisms are lacking, there will be too much variability. Variability means the system is not under control or stable.

If you’re in the Twilight Zone, how do you get out? Just like with any intervention program, the first step is to

WHEN OPERATING MECHANISMS ARE LACKING, THERE WILL BE TOO MUCH VARIABILITY, AND FREQUENT CHANGES MAKE PEOPLE CRANKY. realize that you have a problem. The next step is to take a hard look at your organization’s objectives and your work team’s objectives. Are they linked? Can anyone see and understand how the work team contributes to high-level organizational objectives? If not, start there and make the link clear and measurable.

Next, reduce variability and uncertainty by designing operating systems and measures that are detailed enough that people know what is expected of them. Managers must focus on providing the training, resources, and tools needed to enable the team to perform. As consistent data is collected and analyzed, the manager can initiate informed and focused adjustments that don’t overwhelm or frustrate the work teams.

As you work on these strategic improvements, I strongly encourage managers to establish the best relationship possible with their supervisors and work teams. Spend more time with them. Ask them about the problems they see and what they think can be done about them.

Give them some insight into the constraints that you have. Have a conversation and listen to their ideas. Take responsibility for building trust.

Know your current position. Then set out on the best course of action. Go forth and do great things.

Tom Moriarty, P.E., CMRP, is president of Alidade MER. Contact him at tjmpe@alidade-mer.com and (321) 773-3356.

WWW.PLANTSERVICES.COM MAY 2017 9

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TECHNOLOGY TOOLBOX SHEILA KENNEDY, CMRP

SAFETY IS GETTING SMARTER High-tech wearables, monitoring tools, and more keep people and plants secure Safety concerns abound in industrial organizations and utilities, and employers are under intense pressure to minimize the risks. Fortunately, new technologies and systems are available to enhance the intelligence of traditional safety approaches. New smart safety solutions help mitigate electrical and environmental hazards, make process safety systems more intuitive, and make it easier to protect your people and property from intruders. The internet of things (IoT) will only enable further innovations in this area.

LITTELFUSE

ELECTRICAL SAFETY

“Smart safety” is defined by John Campbell, engineering manager at Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories (SEL), as “taking full advantage of available technologies and combining them in ways that measurably improve personnel safety while reducing risk to equipment.” SEL is incorporating this approach in its power industry solutions.

SCHWEITZER ENGINEERING LABORATORIES

http://plnt.sv/1705TT-02

“When workers interact with a motor or pump protection relay to read a fault code or to troubleshoot, traditionally they must open the door to the control panel, exposing themselves to arc-flash and shock hazards. A Bluetooth-enabled relay mitigates this risk, as workers can interact with the relay up to 30 feet away using an app on their smartphone,” says Charles Newcomb, senior product manager at Littelfuse.

ENVIRONMENTAL SAFETY

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The SEL-751 Feeder Protection Relays and SEL-849 Motor Management Relays are examples of this strategy. “Combining arc-flash detection and fast overcurrent protection into a protective relay provides fast, secure arc-flash protection and incident energy reduction in one integrated system,” Campbell says, calling it an economical way to improve plant safety.

Another example is the MP8000 Bluetooth Overload Relay for motors and pumps from Littelfuse. It makes fault codes available from a safe distance in a smartphone app, protecting workers from electrical risks that are normally mitigated with personal protective equipment.

Intelligent wearable safety devices protect employees who work in hazardous or remote environments. With the Accenture Life Safety Solution, individuals wear a monitor that includes a multigas detector, a panic button, and a mechanism to find a missing/unaccounted-for person. Lack of motion (“man-down”) conditions will also generate an alarm.

Safety incidents are automatically reported.

“The solution consists of providing workers with wearable personal multisensor devices fitted with an RFID tag visible to the WiFi infrastructure,” says Felipe Olivares, senior manager of process and innovation performance at Accenture. “The location of these devices, and other safety events, is then monitored from a control room, a networked computer, or an iOS app.”

Forklift truck accidents are unfortunately commonplace, but new technologies may change that. The integration and implementation of smart forklifts equipped with advanced safeguarding technologies is a trend noticed at the National Forklift Exchange.

WWW.PLANTSERVICES.COM MAY 2017 11

TECHNOLOGY TOOLBOX

“Many of today’s cutting-edge forklift applications feature real-time inventory and driver tracking interfaces that are extraordinarily accurate,” says Tom Reddon, forklift specialist at the National Forklift Exchange. “These intelligence mechanisms have been proven to drive OSHA compliance, productivity maximization, and fleet optimization.”

FUNCTIONAL SAFETY

Safety systems can shut down a plant, but a smart safety system that uses Big Data can also prevent plant shutdowns. Safety systems are intended to take the plant to a safe state in case of a process event; however, while large amounts of beneficial data are resident in HIMA safety systems, it has traditionally gone unused, says Paul Smith, director of engineering and services at HIMA Americas.

“We developed a solution to transform process, diagnostic, and instrument data into beneficial information – to make plants safer, more secure, and more efficient,” says Smith. “The solution includes critical alarms, sequence of events, diagnostics, and the use of HART data in a safety system.”

SAFETY THROUGH SURVEILLANCE

Cameras help protect facilities by adding additional “eyes” to watch for intrusions, but sometimes other senses are needed, says Andres Vigren, product manager at Axis Communications. “Thermal cameras provide images based on the heat that always radiates from any object, AXIS COMMUNICATIONS person or vehicle, giving them the power to see through complete darkness and in any type of weather,” he explains.

Combining Axis thermal cameras and pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) cameras with video analythttp://plnt.sv/1705TT-03 ics improves perimeter protection and provides visual verification for alarms. Modern applications include open IP systems with network cameras that feed video wirelessly for real-time monitoring.

Alarms are sent to the control room and smart devices, and the video is stored redundantly in the cloud.

Email Contributing Editor Sheila Kennedy, CMRP, managing director of Additive Communications, at sheila@addcomm.com.

REFERENCE WEBSITES: www.selinc.com www.littelfuse.com

www.accenture.com www.nfe-lifts.com

www.hima-americas.com www.axis.com

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ENERGY EXPERT PETER GARFORTH

DECOUPLE GROWTH FROM ENERGY USE What if you could rethink energy consumption targets without risk to the business?

The assumption that economic growth goes hand in hand with growing demand for primary energy is deeply ingrained. A closer look suggests that challenging this assumption is long overdue.

Since 2000, the U.S. economy has grown by about 75%, while its total energy consumption has remained essentially flat. The use of conventional thermal fuels – oil, nuclear, coal, and gas – actually declined through 2016 by about 6%; this was accompanied by a comparable increase in renewable supply. Obviously, there are many moving parts on national statistics like these. However, at a minimum, they should trigger a company to ask some deeper questions to help it understand how its energy use has evolved relative to how the business as a whole has evolved.

The Copenhagen region is often cited as an example of energy management innovation. Since 1990, the region’s population has stayed essentially flat and its economic growth has nearly doubled, while greenhouse gas emissions have dropped by a half. This has been accompanied by low unemployment levels relative to surrounding areas and countries and an enviable reputation for innovation and livability.

A recent assessment of a major global manufacturer with headquarters in the United States showed a similar picture. While its revenues had doubled in the past decade, its energy use for each product manufactured dropped by more than 30%, which contributed to its competitiveness during the upheaval of the recession and sustained global price pressures.

Faced with overwhelming evidence that we are seeing a decoupling of economic growth from energy growth, the energy manager needs to rethink the targets for the company’s energy management plan.

This rethinking should start with evaluating at least the past 10 years of the company’s energy performance. At a minimum, this should include an assessment of the energy use and cost as a percentage of sales and profit. If the product mix has remained reasonably similar, energy use as a percentage of output will also be relevant.

If these initial indicators show gains of anything less than 25%, this could signal substantial missed opportunity.

Looked at in another way, this is an indicator of readily accessible competitive advantage.

The next obvious part of the rethinking is putting the company’s energy performance in context. How did it

compare with national and regional averages as whole?

Most countries also have reasonable information available for industry overall; this can provide another basis for comparison. A little more digging may yield comparative data for the specific sector in which the company competes. It’s also not that uncommon to find individual case studies that may allow general or specific comparisons.

Armed with these comparisons, the energy manager can

THE DATA FROM THE WIDER WORLD IS INCREASINGLY SHOWING US THAT THE HARD LINE BETWEEN ECONOMIC GROWTH AND ENERGY USE IS BEING BROKEN. use this background to support the next step – the reassessment of future targets. This entails addressing a number of “what if” questions. The most obvious of these would involve discerning the effect on profit and competitiveness if the company’s energy performance were closer to the national, regional, or industry average.

Even more telling would be to quantify the benefit if the company’s energy performance were at the higher end of the comparisons. The next most obvious questioning would be around the risk to the business if the leading competitor were to raise their energy performance dramatically.

As these questions are posed and answered, it’s tempting to precondition the answers by what seems feasible, but this tends to be self-limiting. While difficult to do, the “what if ” questions should be answered without undue focus on the apparent feasibility of any particular action plan.

The energy manager now has the ammunition to propose medium- to long-term energy management goals, which will start the journey toward developing energy action plans and obtaining the resources needed to achieve them.

The data from the wider world is increasingly showing us that the hard line between economic growth and energy use is being broken. Does the energy plan for your company reflect that new reality?

Peter Garforth is principal of Garforth International, Toledo, Ohio.

He can be reached at peter@garforthint.com.

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THE VALUE OF COMPONENT-LEVEL FILES Planners should err on the side of having specific files for specific devices Planners should be running a Deming Cycle in main-

tenance by slowly improving jobs as they have more time and as they receive actual job feedback over the years. This third principle tells us how to save this information as we grow “living” job plans. Planners should save job information in files (paper or computer) that are associated with the individual component being maintained.

Consider a work order written to do some work within a manufacturing plant. This plant has an extensive amount of equipment in a hierarchy. Under the plant level, the hierarchy has several product lines as well as facility systems, such as for utilities. For each product line, there are a number of subsystems, such as conveyors, chemical reactors, heat exchangers, and holding tanks. Within each subsystem, there are individual pieces of equipment, such as valves, pumps, piping, agitators, level indicators, and other control devices.

The work order is for a specific valve, say, “anion regeneration valve #2 on the anion tank.” The plant needs to keep maintenance information in a separate file for this specific valve. If the plant keeps information at a higher level – say, the entire anion tank that has several valves, pumps, and other associated components – it simply takes too much time for planners to find the information and plan all the work for the specific pump in question.

Think of a dentist’s office. The dentist does not keep all the information massed together in a single file for all the patients on your entire street or for your entire neighborhood, and certainly not for your entire city. Instead, the dentist can quickly go to the file for a specific patient and treat the current reason for the patient being there, knowing all the past results from previous visits for that same patient.

Similarly, plants should generally not keep one single file for the same model of a device. The strategy of having a single job plan for all 2-inch valves of the same model is tempting, but each valve might have different histories and unique failure modes. One valve might have a recurring problem with insulation; another might have a recurring problem because of the chemical it handles; another might be accessible only by scaffolding; and yet another might have a unique operating context where the operator has to make certain provisions to allow for maintenance.

Recurring problems do happen, and they are often unique to specific devices, not to the model. Other circumstances make for unique situations even for the same model. Plan-

ners should err on the side of having specific files for specific devices. The equipment number is critically important for keeping information for component level files.

Names generally are not good enough for proper filing for two reasons. For one thing, many people call the same equipment by different names. For another, there are usually so many different pieces of equipment in the plant that even proper names become lengthy.

PLANTS SHOULD GENERALLY NOT KEEP ONE SINGLE FILE FOR THE SAME MODEL OF A DEVICE, AS RECURRING PROBLEMS ARE OFTEN UNIQUE TO SPECIFIC DEVICES. Numbers, whether they have intelligence or not, are usually better for filing. (For our earlier example, a full component number might be N01-CP-AR5.) For paper files, this number must be on the work orders and the paper files. For paper files, I generally like using open shelves with side labels on file folders rather than closed filing cabinets. The little bit of time it takes planners and craftspersons to open and pull open cabinet drawers seems to discourage them from using them. For computers, we must associate electronic work orders and data with the component number. A CMMS should allow utilization of equipment information just as easily, if not better.

Finally, take the time to tag the equipment in the field with the component number. This helps operators use the right number and not pick the wrong number by drilling down in a computer hierarchy. It also helps the planner and craftspersons find the right equipment in the field.

Keeping equipment information in component-level files helps planners run the Deming Cycle of learning in maintenance by allowing planners to quickly save and later access helpful data to improve the next job.

Doc Palmer is the author of McGraw-Hill’s Maintenance Planning and Scheduling Handbook and, as managing partner of Richard Palmer and Associates, he helps companies worldwide with planning and scheduling success. Visit www.palmerplanning.com or email docpalmer@palmerplanning.com.

WWW.PLANTSERVICES.COM MAY 2017 17

AUTOMATION ZONE

ERIC CORZINE, RITTAL CORPORATION

ACHIEVE THERMAL CONTROL VIA THE IoT Monitor and maintain facility temperatures while centralizing climate controls Drastic fluctuations in local temperatures, such as from a summer heat wave or a winter blizzard, may temporarily inconvenience the average consumer, but any deviation from the acceptable operating temperature range in an industrial setting can have significantly more perilous consequences.

These fluctuations can increase the workload of climate control systems, raise energy costs, and lead to equipment malfunction, operational downtime, and lost revenue.

As more designers and operations managers turn to the internet of things (IoT) to increase efficiency and performance, they’re seeing opportunity in building energy management systems (BEMS). Implications of the IoT for climate control include the power to monitor and maintain plant and equipment heating, air conditioning, ventilation, and moisture levels in real time. Automated monitoring of systems improves tracking, identifies failures quickly, and will extend the life of equipment and controls.

Warehouses, distribution centers, and manufacturing environments often feature large open spaces in which running equipment can see temperatures spike quickly. Add enclosures, computer rooms, and human machine interfaces to those environments, and centralized climate control becomes more than a convenience.

From design to operations, IoT for climate control allows you to do several things: • Profile and assess your equipment. Manage data about machine or temperature collected from remote sensors.

• Preprogram heating and cooling. Schedule and control systems that run HVAC, large industrial-grade exhaust fans, etc. based on energy models, occupancy, and production loads.

• Bolster predictive and preventive maintenance. Address emerging thermal management issues before a failure or other costly slowdown in the plant.

• Reduce energy use and costs. Control heating and cooling of equipment and machinery and potentially reduce plant energy consumption by 15% to 20%, according to a GE study on the benefits of the industrial internet.

• Increase the ROI of enclosures. On-demand climate management of an enclosure, as prescribed by real-time temperature date enabled by the IIoT, can deliver an ROI in just a few months.

ASHRAE (the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers) provides climate design tables and information for 6,443 locations in the United

States, Canada, and around the world. This information can help you create a blueprint for what your energy consumption needs will be in aggregate and will help you determine the type of IoT solutions you may need.

Immediate plantwide IIoT conversion may not be realistic for most industrial operations that don’t have the budget of, say, an industrial behemoth like GE. However, an investment in relatively low-cost sensors to monitor temperatures on fixed

THE IoT FOR CLIMATE CONTROL INCLUDES THE POWER TO MONITOR AND MAINTAIN HEATING, AC, VENTILATION, AND MOISTURE LEVELS IN REAL TIME. strategic equipment or assets in the facility is a good start.

IIoT-connected temperature control systems can measure and control critical factors such as temperature, humidity, and air flow throughout an entire building and account for external factors like the weather forecast and plant utility rates. What the industrial operation gets is a smarter, moreefficient and self-regulating facility that optimizes energy consumption. Specifically, when it comes to climate control, having access to real-time data collected from internetconnected sensors can: • A llow the machine (through automation) or the machine operator to adjust equipment climate controls to reduce energy use and costs.

• A llow plant managers or equipment operators to make onthe-spot repairs or schedule proactive maintenance.

• A llow plant managers or equipment operators to make temperature corrections before an equipment failure.

Those who do take the first steps to plug into the IoT for plantwide climate control will be in good company and perhaps will encourage others to plug in as well. Having the ability to continuously monitor in real time and to control facility and equipment temperature with the help of smart sensors installed throughout the plant, in data centers, in enclosures, and on critical equipment will be well worth the investment.

Eric Corzine is climate control product manager at Rittal Corp. (www.rittalenclosures.com).

WWW.PLANTSERVICES.COM MAY 2017 19

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YOUR SPACE

DAN MIKLOVIC, LNS RESEARCH

APM 4.0 WILL SUSTAIN INDUSTRY 4.0 On the road to smarter manufacturing, do not confuse sophistication with maturity No terms have captured the hype in manufacturing more than Industry 4.0 (or Industrie 4.0) and smart manufacturing. The supporting technology of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) has promoted the concept of digital transformation, promising to shift manufacturing to the same degree that Uber has altered the for-hire ride business or Airbnb has altered the travel lodging industry.

Business leaders are piling on the Industry 4.0 wagon for fear that failure to employ new technology will render them uncompetitive (at best) or irrelevant (at worst). Market forecasts portend technology investment over the next five to 10 years that means every business will have some degree of new smart manufacturing capability. Even those organizations that invest only minimally will still see a significant change in their value chain, whether they are at the beginning, the middle, or the end of it.

Getting return on investment will prove to be a challenge to some, while others will see immediate benefits by adopting advances such as additive manufacturing (3D printing); having the ability to sell value-added services such as machine performance insight; or even selling capacity instead of products, much like GE sells engine thrust rather than jet engines.

All companies, however, will face a distinct challenge that remains as an issue in any process change initiative: sustaining improvements. For organizations embracing Industry 4.0, that challenge will prove especially vexing if they continue with their current maintenance practices. The reality is that the vast majority of manufactur-

Business Processcentric

Machinecentric

Reporting-centric

ers and asset-intensive industries still are both immature and unsophisticated in their maintenance practices.

There is a lot of confusion as to what maintenance practice maturity is; many confuse sophistication with maturity. The original capability maturity model (CMM) from Carnegie Mellon University views maturity as more of a cultural rating than a technological approach. Too many maintenance practitioners equate things like reliability-centered maintenance (RCM) or predictive maintenance (PdM) with maturity. A mature maintenance culture certainly employs these tools, but it does so only as appropriate for critical assets, and it employs them across the enterprise in a systematic way.

Understanding this is the first step to adequately support the next generation of smart connected assets that are beginning to populate the plant floor.

Predictive-centric

To gain the most from these smart assets, businesses will need to do more than just catch up to best practices today. They will need to make as big a leap in their maintenance approach as they are in their manufacturing capabilities. Understanding the makeup of an asset performance management (APM) 4.0 solution is critical. LNS Research categorizes providers of APM 4.0 capabilities as either platform providers or ecosystem partners.

APM 4.0 platform providers are coming from the automation community as well as the enterprise software supplier community; these are companies that provide both a significant footprint of functionality from the APM landscape and the infrastructure that enables: • Rapid IIoT integration • The ability to leverage big data and WWW.PLANTSERVICES.COM MAY 2017 21

YOUR SPACE

analytics for prescriptive maintenance (RxM) • Support for AR/VR technology to fully enable the digital twin • Support for mashup solutions • Embedded best practices and enforcement of these APM 4.0 ecosystem partners fall into one of two subgroups. The first constitutes the traditional maintenance and reliability-centered/condition-based maintenance (RCM/CBM) tools, other predictive analytics elements, and financial modeling tools.

The second consists of those companies that provide critical infrastructure elements or the beginnings of a platform but that currently fall short to such a degree that substantial other capabilities must be grafted onto the

solution to meet APM 4.0 functionality requirements.

The digital twin is the ultimate mashup of capabilities that sets APM 4.0 apart from today’s best-in-class APM solutions. In the context of APM 4.0, the digital twin is more than just the static virtual/digital engineering representation of an asset or plant. It

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is the ability to have a dynamic model that is constantly in sync with the real physical asset and is capable of parallel what-if scenario analysis to evaluate the impact of potential operational and maintenance cases, all with the goal of providing prescriptive advice that notes the financial implications of the options produced. This starts with a rich engineering model of the asset, but it also requires enough information from the asset to fully model its behavior while it is in use.

APM 4.0 is not as much a specific product functional set as it is an evolving aspirational objective that companies should work toward if they want to be able to sustain the benefits they hope to gain from embracing Industry 4.0. No vendor today can deliver a full APM 4.0 solution any more than a single vendor today can deliver a fully capable smart manufacturing plant. APM 4.0, like Industry 4.0, is something businesses need to strive for if they are to thrive in today’s uncertain but dynamic economic environment.

Dan Miklovic is a research fellow with LNS Research; he focuses primarily on asset performance management and energy management, with collaborative coverage across manufacturing operations management, the internet of things (IoT), chemical, paper and packaging, metals, and mining.

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SOLUTION:

A comprehensive Air Demand Analysis (ADA) established a demand profile for the plant and showed how they were using compressed air throughout the week.

It also identified areas of waste and inefficiency. By installing a 100 hp variable frequency drive compressor and two 75 hp fixed speed compressors, they would have all the air needed—with one of the fixed speeds acting as a back-up. This split system solution would bring energy—and noise levels—well under control. A Sigma Air Manager 4.0 master controller could provide on demand energy reports so they would always know how their system was performing and what it was costing.

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WHAT WORKS

TAKING OFF THE PdM TRAINING WHEELS An Arizona utility finds success shifting predictive analytics control back in-house It’s maybe not the most conventional trajectory for asset performance management: Salt River Project (SRP, www.srpnet.com), a Tempe, AZ-based public power utility (also the oldest federal reclamation project in the United States), for years relied on an outside partner to handle the heavy lifting when it came to its predictive data analytics. And then, in 2012, with the support of said outside partner, it brought that technically demanding work back in-house.

The backstory: SRP began working with GE Digital’s Managed Services (www.ge.com/digital/services/ managed-services) team (formerly SmartSignal) way back in 2005 after recognizing that with better use of asset performance data, it could begin to shift out of reactive maintenance mode.

“We had a lot of data coming in from our coal and gas plants, and we were doing mostly kind of post-mortem (analysis),” says Andy Johnson, engineering supervisor for power generation services at SRP. “After something occurred with a specific piece of equipment, we would go back into that data and try to identify what were the causes of those issues.” In learning more about the emerging field of predictive analytics, Johnson says, SRP saw “that having this data was a very valuable resource, but...we weren’t doing enough with it.”

SRP worked with GE to deploy a predictive analytics software program, GE’s SmartSignal, at a single pilot site.

The utility already had several years’ worth of asset data from the site; this data was built into predictive analytics models that SRP was eager to use as “an early warning system of potential

issues” with the equipment it was using, Johnson says. “As a side benefit,” he adds, “we were also able to begin moving from kind of calendar-based maintenance to more condition-based maintenance activity.”

GE Digital itself was building out and fine-tuning the software as early adopters such as SRP were using it – the relationship was collaborative from the beginning, say Johnson and GE Digital’s Chad Stoecker, who was involved with the implementation.

“We got this very early preview that gave us an early view of what we could do and how we could take it fleetwide,” Johnson says. Adds Stoecker: “With all of our customers, we’re always trading ideas back and forth…we’re all trying to go to the same thing, which is to create a safer work environment, a more environmentally efficient work environment, a more profitable industrial work environment.”

In 2012, SRP was ready to expand use of the predictive analytics models across its sites. But before making that move, SRP made a big decision: It decided to pull management of the models in-house, recruiting and training a team of its own performance analysts and engineers to oversee the asset per-

formance management tools and make specific maintenance recommendations to different SRP facilities.

Why? “We thought, you know, by having our own staff looking at these models, maintaining these models...it gives you the opportunity to have that built-in trust factor,” Johnson says.

And as any manager charged with overseeing deployment of new technology knows, earning the confidence of workers who will interact with the new technology – and with technical support teams – is no small task.

“Sometimes you worry, are the plants going to trust you? Are they going to see you as Big Brother looking over their shoulder, or are they going to see you as your co-worker, your friend watching your back for you?”

Johnson says. “One thing we’ve been very conscious about is building that trust, and by having our own people internally do the monitoring, modeling, and maintenance of the models, we’re able to build that trust and have that built into our center.”

It was a strategic and carefully planned move, and one that was made more easily via the technical and logistical support provided by GE Digital both before and after the responsibility WWW.PLANTSERVICES.COM MAY 2017 25

WHAT WORKS shift was completed, Johnson comments. “They didn’t just cut us loose when we began monitoring in-house; they’ve always been a partner to us and provided their expertise when we needed it,” he says.

Stoecker details the transition process: “We did some combined cycles and we monitored them for a while; we basically did the predictive maintenance functions for them so they could experience the benefits ... then, over time, they kept building up (with) more and more assets to the point where they built out their fleet, and at that point we transitioned services over to them completely.”

Building the right internal team to manage the maintenance models and be champions of this predictive maintenance approach was crucial. SRP’s maintenance modeling team consists of three performance monitoring analysts and two performance engineers. Each of the monitoring analysts has 15 to 30 years of plant-level experience, Johnson notes. “They know the equipment; they know the people; and they’re also pretty technologically savvy,” he says. “They were identified as the people who were already working with the data.”

He adds: “Sometimes at sites you have people who want to steer as far away from using software as they can, and some people embrace it and they really want to use it. So we identified those people who were really interested and had that drive to learn more and really dive deep into software.”

All team members have their own sites to monitor and all have their own roles; engineers focus more on thermal performance as well as server and network management, for example, says Johnson.

Getting the SRP team to the point of maintaining and sustaining a PdM modeling program on its own was about more than developing technical proficiency, Johnson and Stoecker agree. “It is really about the digital transformation journey,” Stoecker says. “It’s about a culture change that every company has to go through, to shift from reactive to proactive.”

And the SRP team learned quickly how much of a time commitment managing the maintenance models is. “The thing that surprised us I think is the amount of work that’s associated with maintaining those models and what a drain on resources that can be if not managed properly,” Johnson says. For the models to be as accurate as possible, they need to draw from the most up-to-date information possible, he notes – and that requires some periodic “retraining” by the experts.

“When temperatures change, you have to retrain your models to reflect current conditions,” he says, rather than performance over the entire past year. “Or when you have an outage, you have to retrain your models to have the most recent equipment operating conditions.”

26

MAY 2017 WWW.PLANTSERVICES.COM

Beyond the time demands of keeping the models as accurate as possible, the biggest challenge, Johnson says, has been prioritization of maintenance issues identified. “We can’t just throw everything out at the plant and let them deal with it,” he says. “We do a lot of investigation of the issues that are identified before we send anything on to the plant. And if we do send it on to the plant, we track it. We monitor any work orders associated with that issue.” That issue-tracking database contains information such as work site, the unit, the specific equipment used and serviced, and communication between the plant and the maintenance modeling team, along with screenshots from the applicable maintenance model and operating condition trends that were identified. This not only leaves a digital trail of recommendations made and actions taken, but also it aids in the maintenance team’s efforts to quantify the value of its work.

“We quantify it as a save if the plant had no prior knowledge of an issue and it was able to take some type of corrective action based on the information that we provided, we quantify that as a save,” Johnson says. “And anything that’s a save, we do an estimated monitoring value on. What was the value of that information that we provided; what did we help prevent?”

To answer the question, the maintenance modeling team uses an application it developed that attaches a probability to best-case, moderate, and worst-case scenarios if the issue hadn’t been identified and addressed. If the problem hadn’t been tackled, would downtime likely have occurred? How much? How could unit efficiency have been affected?

“That’s how we determined our overall estimated monitoring value for a specific save,” Johnson says. That kind of calculation isn’t required by SRP’s executive management team, he notes, but such proof of value is important nonetheless – “if not for our current operations, for our future operations,” he says.

Johnson and Stoecker emphasize that the work of shifting to a more-proactive maintenance approach is a process, and it remains for SRP a work in progress, more than 10 years after the utility first began exploring the potential of predictive analytics. “It’s not a one-week kind of thing where you just turn on the software and your whole world changes,” Stoecker says. “How are you going to transform your people, help train them and (adjust) processes to really take advantage of the predictive analytics?”

For SRP, the success of this effort to shift the maintenance culture has hinged on developing an internal team of experts and interested advocates for the technology. “This is such a quickly advancing field and such an interesting field to be in at the moment,” Johnson says.

TACTICS&PRACTICES

IT’S NOT THE GASKET’S FAULT! Follow these three real-world best practices to improve your gasket performance

by Jeff Arnold, Motion Industries

In my experience, rarely is the proper selection, instal-

lation, and maintenance of a gasket actually practiced in the real world. Many times, I hear, “The gasket failed.” The reality is that it’s not the gasket’s fault.

Full gasket engineering selection and technical installation training is available by engaging a trained gasket specialist, but knowledge of several key components can go a long way toward extending uptime. Here are three realworld gasketing problems corrected.

1. Problem: Wrong gasket selection.

A common mistake is pulling gaskets off the shelf, or gasket board, and putting them into service without knowing what the gasket really is. Many materials look alike; a gasket might look like the one being replaced, and it may be the wrong type.

Solution: Make proper gasket selection. Use the established gasket style specified for that application. A qualified gasket specialist can help you update to the latest materials and consolidate the many different styles usually found in inventory.

2. Problem: Not cleaning sealing surfaces or inspecting for damage. This practice can lead to immediate leak paths.

Solution: Ensure clean and nondamaged surfaces. This simple yet important action allows nonmetallic gaskets to form into the pores of the flange surface, achieving a holding pressure.

3. Problem: Not following proper installation processes and using inappropriate bolting components. The gasket will not reach the engineered seating stress for which it was designed to seal. Reusing old and damaged bolts causes more friction and will cost you the seating force needed to apply seating stress on the gasket.

Solution: Don’t cut corners. Follow the specified installation procedure and use correct and undamaged bolting hardware for the application. Over the long term, you’ll save time and costs because your risk of failure will greatly decrease. Use new industry standard grade A193 B7 or

stronger bolts, because weaker or well-used bolts get overstretched. Bolts are designed by grade to stretch and act as springs to hold the flanges together. If you plan to reuse the bolts, they must first be cleaned and inspected.

Also, use XH washers on both sides. The nuts need to slide and not dig into the flange bolt holes to achieve the gasket seating stress needed. Lubricate the bolts, nuts, and washer surfaces to overcome friction. This will achieve the seating stress needed on the gasket. Gaskets and bolts do relax. Only when safe and possible, retighten 12–24 hours after installation.

Finally, never lubricate the gasket or sealing surface!

For example, in the image at left, the 6” 150# flange in water service had been leaking since the first gasket was installed, and rust stains showed the leak area and leak path.

Because the leaking was isolated to one bolt area at the top, it appeared that one bolt was not tightened to the proper torque on installation, and the leak continued to get worse.

The solution was to shut down the system, lock all involved out of the system for safety, and remove the old gasket. The next step was to clean the sealing surfaces, use new bolts, nuts, and HX washers of grade B7 or above, and lubricate only the bolts, nuts and washers. (And follow the manufacturer’s suggested installation procedures.)

A gasket specialist can help with correct installment and bolting and even supply in-field printed and laminated installation instructions, tightening instructions, and bolting charts. Knowledge gained from proper training will reduce the risk of improper gasket selection and installation.

However, if you’re only able to accomplish these best practices listed above, you’re much closer to having no gasket failures.

Jeff Arnold is the director of business development for gasketing/ sealing and a hose specialist for Motion Industries (www.motionindustries.com). Having earned multiple certifications, Arnold has 44 years of field experience in gasketing; sealing; pump/valve packing; and hose, rubber, and conveyor belting, working with applications across the industry.

WWW.PLANTSERVICES.COM MAY 2017 27

TACTICS&PRACTICES

PARTS PLANS KEEP YOUR LINES MOVING Keep parts service and maintenance training in mind along with the conveyor itself

by Steve Stuff, Dorner Manufacturing Corp.

Conveyors are critical. They may not be the machinery that slices the product or packages the food, but when your conveying system goes down and takes your production line with it, the productivity and profits lost aren’t less costly than if a conveyor had been your star piece of equipment. Conveyors don’t require as much time and maintenance as your larger equipment and machines, but a little preventive maintenance – and keeping the right parts in stock – can go a long way.

The trend toward slimmer maintenance staffs has left many food manufacturers at a disadvantage when it comes to preventive maintenance and stocking parts. Making sure the bench stock is well-supplied is far down the list of priorities when there are moving parts that need attention.

Even if your conveyor supplier or distributor can expedite the part, most likely the business is fielding several expediting requests each day, meaning you’ve jumped the line for another (albeit shorter) line. Common critical parts can usually be shipped out the same day or the next day, but more-complex or custom parts can take four or five days to fabricate. Either way, you’re on the hook for overnight freight and production downtime.

Many companies have found a partial solution by using third-party vendors to source parts. At first glance, forgoing a bench stock for the cost savings of third-party vendors that can provide parts as-needed may be appealing. But they may not be able to provide you with OEM parts, and while your main concern is the functioning of your equipment, their main concern is finding the best deal.

The convenience may make non-OEM replacements belts, timing belts, or bearings tempting, but the costs may be more than you bargained for. A well-made conveyor is designed and manufactured with precision, each part working together for maximum performance. Swapping even one of them out for a generic component can have a detrimental effect on your conveyor’s performance, your warranty, and your bottom line.

Non-OEM replacement parts may not only void your original manufacturer’s warranty but also put your equipment at greater risk of damage. A conveyor is only as good as the belt on which it rides. Replacing a belt with one made from different materials (or even just lower-quality materials) will take a toll, making your conveyor less effective and difficult to maintain.

Most food manufacturers understand the importance of having a bench stock of OEM conveyor parts. Here are a few steps to get you started.

Check the list. Regardless of whether you have a custom conveyor, conveyor manufacturers often include a list of recommended spare parts with each model. You may be able to order specific kits or bundles for pulleys, belts, and other common replacement parts; having these on hand can re-

SLIMMER MAINTENANCE STAFFS HAVE LEFT MANY AT A DISADVANTAGE WHEN IT COMES TO PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE AND STOCKING PARTS. duce conveyor downtime. Otherwise, stocking one or two of each of the recommended parts is a safe bet. Often, conveyor suppliers will help you save replacement time by bundling parts for pulleys and other assemblies.

Get a parts audit. Any reputable conveyor supplier knows that there’s no one-size-fits-all maintenance solution and will be happy to help with a parts audit free of charge. Parts specialists may be able to visit your facility to evaluate your conveyor systems and then prepare a recommended parts list and a report of any pending maintenance concerns.

Essentially, a parts audit helps you develop a parts plan by streamlining the inspection, repair, and maintenance process for your conveyor system.

Create an inventory database. With or without an OEM parts audit, you should consider creating an inventory database for your conveyors. Your database can be as simple or extensive as you want it to be but should list key information, such as: • Conveyor make and model • Conveyor length and belt width dimensions • Type of motor • Type of belt • Serial numbers • Date of last maintenance check • Date of next inspection • Type of maintenance performed • Contact information of the conveyor manufacturer Educate your staff. How often regular maintenance WWW.PLANTSERVICES.COM MAY 2017 29

TACTICS&PRACTICES checkups are scheduled depends on your volume of production, but both preventive and predictive approaches to maintenance require making sure your maintenance staff and your production

line employees are paying regular attention to conveyor performance. Your conveyor supplier can most likely offer preventive or predictive maintenance training for your staff.

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Preventive maintenance is structured around the life expectancy of a conveyor’s belts, bearings, gear motors, etc. – a good method, but not always the most cost-effective one.

Predictive maintenance builds a maintenance schedule around the actual performance of a conveyor’s various components, replacing them only when they are ready to be replaced.

For either approach, it’s crucial that all employees be able to spot signs of wear, such as fraying, damage, buildup of debris, or extra slack in belts and chains as well as noise or excessive heat from failing gearboxes and bearings. An on-site training tailored to your specific equipment will give your staff the knowledge they need to keep your conveyors working at their highest productivity.

Establish a bench stock. Even the best-trained staff in the world won’t keep downtime from happening if a common replacement part isn’t there when you need it, so now it’s time to take that list of recommended parts and establish your bench stock.

Conveyors have a direct impact on your company’s bottom line, whether they’re simply moving product from one point to another or working in conjunction with processing or packaging lines. When you’re choosing a conveyor manufacturer, don’t just consider the conveyor alone – consider the parts service and maintenance training that come along with it. They want to help you! After all, keeping your conveyors going doesn’t just help you, it makes them look good, too.

Steve Stuff is director of parts and service for Dorner Manufacturing Corp. (www.dorner. com). Steve has also served as director of web applications, manager of marketing and international sales, and international sales manager at Dorner. Contact him at steve.stuff@dorner.com.

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MAINTENANCE / RxM

By Sheila Kennedy, Contributing Editor

Don’t just predict problems – prescribe a solution.

That’s the premise behind prescriptive maintenance, which as a concept goes hand-in-hand with prescriptive analytics. Odds are you’ll be hearing these new buzzwords a lot more often in the coming months and years.

But what is prescriptive maintenance, really? How does it work? And maybe of most importance, what can it achieve that other models can’t?

First, to better differentiate the words prescriptive and predictive, the word “prescriptive” here will be used interchangeably with “Rx.” Rx maintenance is unique in that instead of just predicting impending failure, as predictive maintenance (PdM) does, it strives to produce outcome-focused recommendations for operations and maintenance from the Rx analytics. Though RxM is still in its infancy, many thought leaders are considering its potential to become the next level of reliability and maintenance best practice.

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ANALYSTS DEFINE Rx STRATEGIES

One of the earlier voices on prescriptive maintenance was Dan Miklovic, principal analyst at LNS Research (www. lnsresearch.com). “No longer will you need an ensemble of experts to tell you how and when to maintain your assets, as the assets themselves will tell you what they need if they are unable to fix themselves,” wrote Miklovic in a May 2016 blog post, “What Comes After Predictive Maintenance?”

He suggested the acronym RxM at that time, and he continues to research the topic (see Figure 1). Better and more data, coupled with Big Data tools that can interpret things such as the content of repair manuals, is the key to unlocking the concept of RxM, Miklovic says today.

It starts with prescriptive analytics, which not only tells you that a problem is likely to emerge, but also it gives you multiple response scenarios from which to choose. “Let’s say a piece of equipment is showing increasing bearing temperature,” Miklovic explains. “Predictive analytics looks at the

temperature profile and tells you it is likely to fail in X amount of time. On the other hand, prescriptive analytics tells you that if you slow the equipment down by Y%, the time to failure can be doubled, putting you within the already scheduled maintenance window and revealing whether you can still meet planned production requirements.”

Another early follower of this trend is Ralph Rio, vice president of enterprise software at ARC Advisory Group (www.arcweb.com). “From my experience with clients from both the user and supplier side, the dominant application right now is PdM – prescriptive maintenance is beyond that; it’s new thought leadership,” he says.

“But the goals of PdM and prescriptive maintenance are similar: to reduce unplanned downtime, which causes lost revenues, materials, and labor.”

To help clients better differentiate the newer approaches from conventional maintenance strategies, Rio developed the Asset Performance Management Maturity Model (see Figure 2). The upper tiers of maintenance maturity – predictive and prescriptive maintenance – are both multivariate approaches. The current in a pump’s motor drive, the fluid going into

Higher

Source: LNS Research

Prescriptive maintenance's early adopters are exploring how an outcomes-focused maintenance strategy can enhance asset management

Figure 1. Better and more data, coupled with the use of Big Data tools, is the key to unlocking RxM.

the pump, its temperature, and the pressure going in and out can all be combined to better assess the health of the pump and motor, so you get longer advance warning of a failure and can make changes during a planned shutdown, he explains. The industrial internet of things (IIoT) provides the data, and analytics generate the alerts.

Prescriptive maintenance adds the ability to give advice to the technician on what to do and how to do the repair by taking advantage of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. The math algorithms are more detailed, and there’s some intelligence added to give the technician some direction.

Strategy

Car Analogy

Prescriptive

Dealership-level diagnostic equipment

Predictive

Battery Management System in electric cars

Condition Based

Oil pressure, coolant temp. indicators

Preventive

Replace engine oil every 5,000 miles

Reactive

Radio

Figure 2. Asset Performance Management Maturity Model with IIoT Source: ARC Advisory Group

The three lower tiers of Rio’s model include single-variable conditionbased maintenance, which provides less advance notice of failure; time- or cycle-based preventive maintenance, which is inefficient compared with higher-level models; and reactive maintenance, which occurs after failure. There is still a place for each of these approaches for certain assets that are not critical to operations or safety, Rio notes.

Peter Reynolds, contributing analyst at ARC Advisory Group, notes that organizations that shift critical assets to prescriptive approaches are seeing significant improvements in maintenance costs, service costs, plant availability, and worker efficiency.

The unique abilities of analytics platforms make them capable of ingesting multiple data sources and storing, processing, contextualizing, and visualizing the predictions, he says. Machine learning is integral to the way data is processed, allowing algorithms to find looming failures (see Figure 3).

WWW.PLANTSERVICES.COM MAY 2017 33

MAINTENANCE / RxM

Application of Condition Monitoring

Application of Predictive Analytics

M

M

Machine Learning Detection

P

A

Process Degradation

B Asset Failure

COMMON DRIVERS OF PRESCRIPTIVE APPROACHES

Several key business drivers are spurring interest in Rx strategies and driving solution development.

• Automation: As more automation is used in manufacturing, the speed of response required in dealing with maintenance issues is going to get faster, says LNS Research’s Miklovic.

• Economics: Decisions as to what’s the best option from an economic standpoint are getting more complex.

“It just isn’t enough to know what can fail or when it might fail,” Miklovic says. “It requires having enough information to understand the options for maintenance as well as the financial implications of each option.”

• Workforce changes: Older workers are retiring, and newer, younger workers expect smart, assistive tools to help them do their job. Miklovic observes that the value in Google Directions is it gives users options and predicts times based on current

Process Upset

C Time in Weeks and Months Figure 3. Machine learning is integral to the way data is processed that allows algorithms to find looming failures.

conditions. He believes maintenance activities should be the same: For instance, to service a piece of equipment with an overheating bearing, you could either (a) take 20 minutes and grease it, and the repair would probably last two days, or (b) replace the bearing, which would take three hours but last for two years.

• Operating conditions: Assets not only fail by their own means, but also by the manner in which they are operated, notes ARC Advisory Group’s Reynolds. For example, a pump manufacturer will recommend specific operating design conditions such as discharge pressure and temperature, but there is a lot of vari-

ability in process operating conditions and also in the composition of the fluids. Prescriptive analytics can consider these conditions and make recommendations accordingly.

• Asset performance: Reynolds believes a higher level of sophistication is required in the way asset and process data are organized.

“The traditional plant historian and analysis tools have not been adequate for ensuring asset performance,” he says. “IIoT and analytics platforms are unique in their ability to ingest years of operational data and massive quantities of unconventional data scattered through different systems of record.”

PRESCRIPTIVE RECOMMENDATIONS FROM INTEL’S BUNZEL a. B egin with the end in mind. Start your trials for IIoT, analytics, and machine learning on a small scale where the measureable impacts have the potential to make a difference for your company. b. E xpect failures along the way, and treat each failed experiment as a theory tested and ruled out.

These are indeed small successes. c. Begin by connecting unconnected equipment. Learn from your interactions with the hardware and software component suppliers. d. Harvest expertise in your own enterprise. Machine-based learning algorithms depend on human knowledge of key processes in manufacturing. These experts are nearing retirement so bring them on the development team early. e. Test results with end users early to prevent wasted cycles and improve the results. f. Show off! Build internal communications plans into your project. The IIoT is part of a Virtuous Cycle of Growth – you’ll want continued support.

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MAY 2017 WWW.PLANTSERVICES.COM

Source: ARC Advisory Group

Asset Degradation

Asset Performance

“Machine learning detection occurs by using automated collection of historical multivariate data and analysis with equipment-specific algorithms,” Reynolds explains. “Pattern identification points to an explicit diagnosis of root cause and indicates a precise action to change an outcome. Prescriptive advice would include altering the process operation to avoid a future failure of the asset.”

Source: thyssenkrupp Elevator

Figure 4. Machine learning allows algorithms to find looming failures in assets like this elevator motor.

EARLY ADOPTERS ARE ASSESSING THE VALUE

Elevator OEM and maintenance service provider thyssenkrupp Elevator (www.thyssenkruppelevator.com) favors cutting-edge maintenance strategies. Rory Smith, director of strategic development for the Americas at the company, says that at its core, prescriptive maintenance allows thyssenkrupp Elevator to focus on servicing elevators in the most efficient ways possible to increase uptime. Machine learning allows the use of data from the company’s vast network of elevators to better identify the service tasks most critical to maintaining a safe and reliable elevator. “thyssenkrupp Elevator has a team of data scientists and domain experts working in unison to develop predictive models,” says Smith. “These models inform our service program, and paired with our network of skilled service technicians, are ultimately responsible for maintaining elevator uptime for our customers.”

The company’s predictive model continues to evolve thanks to machine learning, but it can already predict five days in advance when an elevator will shut down because of a door problem (see Figure 4). This

early warning has proved to be highly accurate with no false positives, making it therefore invaluable to thyssenkrupp customers, Smith says.

“With MAX, our PdM IoT solution, our computing power takes this a step further,” he adds. “Even before a service technician arrives on site, the expert system we refer to as ‘The Coach’ advises the technician on the four most likely causes of the problem, based on the data, with 90% accuracy.

This means thyssenkrupp technicians can fix an issue on the first visit more than 90% of the time. The industry average for initial diagnosing is about half that,” he says.

Intel prides itself on being at the forefront of research, development, and deployment of advanced technology for manufacturing, including frameworks to support prescriptive analytics (see Figure 5). Often, proofs of concepts are deployed in Intel Fabs (fabrication plants) to help meet the demands of a manufacturing environment that requires precision manufacturing to atomiclevel specifications in a completely sanitary environment.

“Intel made the journey to PdM decades ago,” explains Mary Bunzel, general manager, manufacturing and

industrial solutions at Intel (www.intel.com). “There are many examples of solutions we’ve developed with our partners being deployed in both our facilities and in our partners’ customer sites.” She adds, “Evolving to prescriptive maintenance, where probable cause and automated maintenance are implemented, is a necessary next step in the Industry 4.0 journey in order to keep up with the demands of fast-paced change in our market.”

A specific example of one such case study is a project recently implemented in Intel’s Ireland Fab plant, which addressed conservation of energy used to cool water for the production facilities. “By integrating sensed data from the outside ambient temperatures for areas the pipelines travel through, with the water temperature, the amount of energy used to cool the water has been reduced by as much as 40%,” says Bunzel. Energy conservation is a key imperative for Intel, so the return on investment (ROI) is far greater than just monetary savings alone, she adds.

AI technology specialist SparkCognition is helping a wind turbine operator incorporate prescriptive analytics into its maintenance routine. “Because of the thin margins facing the wind industry today, turbines must be running at maximum capacity to get a full payback, and any amount of downtime cuts significantly into profits,” says Stuart Gillen, a senior director at SparkCognition (www.sparkcognition.com).

SparkCognition and its customers leverage data that is already available yet in many cases unused. Utilizing AI techniques, SparkCognition’s system is able to find patterns in large data sets that point to eventual failure. These identifying patterns can then be tracked and/or monitored and provide early warning evidence to subject matter experts, operators, management, etc., for work planning.

WWW.PLANTSERVICES.COM MAY 2017 35

Figure 5. Evolving to prescriptive maintenance is a necessary next step in the Industry 4.0 journey.

1000

RECOMMENDATIONS TO ASSET USERS AND SUPPLIERS

The market will determine whether Rx maintenance will become the ultimate best practice for reliability and maintenance, but those following the model closely are encouraging its adoption.

“Start now,” says Gillen. “What we are seeing across many industries is with very few sensors, which are typically already installed, information can be discovered leading to dramatic cost savings.”

RxM isn’t needed for every asset. It should be used where it makes sense, i.e. where the asset is critical to production (volume, quality, etc.) or to safety, suggests LNS Research’s Miklovic.

ARC Advisory Group’s Rio recommends using PdM on all of your critical assets because the predictive approach’s ROI has already been proved, and PdM has become less expensive and more sustainable with IIoT. He also encourages the supplier and user communities to do pilot programs to flesh out prescriptive technology.

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Impending catastrophic failure 500 Advanced degradation warning

35 Days 67 Days Warning

Source: SparkCognition

These systems are also able to incorporate unstructured data, such as work orders, parts databases, and operational and technical manuals, to provide a true prescriptive view. “Not only is the user now able to understand something is going to fail, but they are provided with evidence about how to address the problem. This provides dramatic savings to operators,” explains Gillen.

For example, for a single component on a single wind turbine, SparkCognition conservatively estimates the following annual cost savings from AI: • Downtime savings: $1,000 • O&M savings: $2,500 • Total savings: $3,500 The wind turbine operator’s savings are expected to rise significantly from continued machine learning and also from the identification of more components for monitoring over time (see Figure 6).

Source: Intel

MAINTENANCE / RxM

Figure 6. A wind turbine operator is incorporating prescriptive analytics into its maintenance routine.

Watch for examples of Rx analytics and maintenance enablers in the June Technology Toolbox column.

“There is not a barrier to prescriptive from the technology viewpoint,” says Rio. “The next step is really to understand how the technology would be melded into products and designed in a fashion that can be applied by end users and deliver ROI.” Rio advises that to facilitate this effort, organizations should engage with a global service provider that already has all of the necessary

IIoT technology skills available to it, in particular those pertaining to industrial automation, DCS and PLC systems, data historians, networking, the cloud, and security.

E-mail Contributing Editor Sheila Kennedy, CMRP, managing director of Additive Communications, at sheila@addcomm.com.

By Preston Johnson, Allied Reliability

HOW THE IIoT TAKES EQUIPMENT INSPECTION INTO THE CLOUD The combination of human experts and their machine “apprentices” can deliver powerful outcomes While connected machines share both production and process information, it is the equipment reliability inspection sensor technology that may prove to be the most interesting and challenging element of the IIoT. The amount of inspection data that can be generated by inline monitoring sensing technologies is impressive. So, the challenge is managing the volume and variety of data, while deriving value from it. Deriving value is where it gets interesting.

Practitioners in vibration, motor current, thermography, ultrasound, and oil analysis (the five core PdM technologies) build up their knowledge, best practices, and ability to recognize tell-tale signs of common failure modes within various classes of equipment. When all the technologies are used together, and across multiple instances of common classes of equipment, patterns emerge in the larger population of data.

Further, combining the data of all technologies along with years of PdM domain expertise promises to yield amazing predictive assistance to those of us charged with improving production capacity while lowering maintenance costs. Deriving this value with the emerging data analytics technologies of IIoT is what this author finds extremely interesting.

Let’s take our best practices of inspecting our equipment with PdM technologies at a frequency greater than twice the expected arrival rate of equipment defects causing failure.

In many cases, it is possible to use

route-based inspection technologies, connecting our instruments to the internet after completing a day’s route.

In other cases, due to accessibility, it is desirable to employ permanent sensing, including wireless or wired sensors. In even more complex cases, where operating conditions change frequently, it is desirable to employ intelligent data acquisition systems that are able to detect each operating condition, collect appropriate inspection data, and label the inspection with the operating condition.

Now that the inspection data is collected, the typical approach is to employ one or more trained analysts to review the data, using traditional analytical tools, to create an assessment report of the equipment’s health. Some analysts are so good at reviewing their domain’s data, the pattern matching analytics between their ears helps to speed the process. However, not all analysts have the experience and training to make rapid interpretation, and as such, analysis becomes the bottleneck to deriving value from our highly-instrumented equipment. What is needed is an analytical engine that recognizes the tell-tale patterns in inspection data, coupled with documented domain expertise, including possible and likely failure modes of the equipment.

When data is assembled in a large computing platform (a cloud computing platform), inspection data from common classes of equipment, operating in similar operating conditions, tends to cluster into patterns of normal or healthy patterns and pat-

terns of common failure modes. Our human analyst then is greatly assisted by cloud computing technology. The bottleneck separating big inspection data from value begins to diminish.

Adding to the data science analytics portfolio, we add our documented body of knowledge from our maintenance libraries. These libraries contain known failure modes, failure codes, and associated inspection technologies that detect the defects leading to equipment failure. Building on our inspection technology training (the training that produced the analytical power between our ears), we create expected pattern templates to help our data science analytics learn more quickly. This is known as “supervised machine learning.” The human analyst now has an apprentice, learning from real-world data as well as from our historical domain knowledge.

The combination is powerful. As owners/operators of equipment who are challenged to staff each facility with the appropriate manpower for PdM inspection and analysis activities, we are relieved of the associated stress knowing that proven data and analysis technologies are automating PdM on our behalf. Further, there is a human in the machine who we can talk to, who appears at our monthly meetings, and who is in charge of the work his apprentice is conducting.

Preston Johnson is principal – condition monitoring products for Allied Reliability (www. alliedreliability.com). Contact him at johnsonp@alliedreliability.com.

WWW.PLANTSERVICES.COM MAY 2017 37

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WORKFORCE / POLICY

SMRP Goes to Washington I

n March, members of the Society for Maintenance & Reliability Professionals (SMRP) convened on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, to meet with Congressional leaders on the barriers to and opportunities for strengthening the American manufacturing industry and workforce. During the visit, three groups of SMRP members met with 19 U.S. senators and representatives and their staff in the Career and Technical Education (CTE) Caucus, the House Committee on Homeland Security, and the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, among others.

SMRP Chair Larry Hoing, CMRP, CMRT, and senior manager of asset care at Wells Enterprises Inc. (www.wellsenterprisesinc.com), spoke with Plant Services about his impressions as a member of this year’s fly-in team and about SMRP’s goals for its next visit in 2018.

PS How did this trip get organized?

LH Th is is our third year (of doing a governmental trip). We started this back in 2015, and really it came from some different interests within the SMRP organization to be involved because we knew there were a lot of different moving parts that affected the maintenance and reliability community. Howard Penrose is one of the initial people that got involved, and then through the Kellen staff who helps out on SMRP, some interest was developed there.

In 2015 we had our initial fly-in, really just simply to introduce SMRP to people on the Hill. Quite honestly, you can’t get anything done unless you have a recognized name, so we went there just to introduce ourselves and say: “Hey, here we are. This is our organization. This is what we’re about.”

UPCOMING SMRP EVENTS

SMRP’s inaugural Symposium event takes place June 7-8 in Atlanta and will include 12 hands-on workshops as well as local facility tours and CMRP, CMRT, and CAMA exams.

Register: http://plnt.sv/SMRP-SYMP

SMRP’s 25th Annual Conference will take place October 16-19 in Kansas City, MO. More information: http://smrp.org/Conference

And the message that first year was, “How can we help?” Not “How can you help us?” – it’s how can we help you.

We were received with pretty well open arms in just about every office that we went into with bright shining faces, because we weren’t asking for something. We were actually offering something up, and that offering was the expertise of our members: “How can we help you make good legislation by having people with good expertise talk with you, and help you understand what’s going on in the ground floor of things?”

PS What are the four SMRP outreach focus groups that are being formed, in anticipation of outreach work?

LH The four SMRP outreach focus groups will follow the same policy areas that SMRP highlights in its government relations program. These groups will focus on workforce development, workplace safety, critical infrastructure, and cybersecurity. They will be made up of five to 10 SMRP members who will determine the strategy and specific initiatives that each group will pursue.

PS Given the different interests of the various groups that SMRP met with, did the team have different goals when meeting with each committee, or was it a consistent message of workforce development?

LH Yes, it was fairly consistent with what we’ve had in the past, but with a little bit more heavier interest. For instance, if we talk about workforce development, the Perkins Act went WWW.PLANTSERVICES.COM MAY 2017 39

WORKFORCE / POLICY

up and passed in the House but didn’t make it in the Senate, so there it sits. Last year, we wrote an op-ed (http://plnt. sv/1705-SMRP), got on the Hill, tried to persuade people.

We want to keep pressure on and let them know that this is a big deal to industry in the United States.

A lot of our members talk to us about this great wave that’s taking place with the baby boomers that has started to hit. And what happens is, we don’t have the pipeline built in America anymore for kids to learn in junior high school, you know, shop, bend metal, cut wood, you know, work with their hands and understand some of the physical sciences.

They don’t have that anymore.

When they come out of high school, everybody thinks they need to get a white-collar job and a four-year degree, so that pipeline is empty. With this great wave happening, all that knowledge leaving our manufacturing floor, there is nothing to replace it with. Companies are spending a great deal of money to train people when they get there, and if you think about that from an economics perspective, then the price of your car (in my case, your ice cream cone), the price of anything that you have manufactured in the United States goes up because the companies are footing that bill, because people are not coming in with the technical skills that we need to replace (due to) the great wave that’s leaving.

That’s one small aspect of workforce development: How can legislators help us create the right behaviors in school districts, in colleges, in community colleges so that we build

that workforce back up so that we don’t lose our tax base? Basically, you know, manufacturing is a big part of the tax base here in the States, and we can’t survive on a service economy.

We’ve also done quite a bit of work recently with the Occupational Health & Safety Administration (OSHA). I was able to last year sit in on one of their meetings to help write some of the new regulations, and then we also had them at one of our conferences. So big relationships are being built and formed.

(Editor’s note: SMRP members are working with OSHA on the administration’s first Safe and Sound Week.)

PS SMRP Government Relations Director John Ferraro has commented that there’s a link between energy and cybersecurity infrastructure and investments in workforce education.

Did you get a sense that that message was received well by the communities you spoke with?

LH Yes, I think so. If we’re going to increase our infrastructure, if we’re going to throw $1 trillion at infrastructure, if we’re going to do some work around cybersecurity, tell me where you’re going to get the people to do it. We can throw all the money in the world at it and try and create the concrete, the metal, and all that other stuff, but if we don’t have people to put it in right and know how to do this and have the technical skills to manufacture these things, then we’re kidding ourselves.

There’s a direct correlation between the skills that we have currently. Everybody wants (goods) to be built in America

Howard Penrose, Ph.D., CMRP, is president of MotorDoc LLC (www.motordoc.org) and is current SMRP vice chair.

In a separate interview, Penrose described his impressions of SMRP’s recent visit to Capitol Hill.

PS Which committees did you meet with during the fly-in; what was your message; and how was it received?

HP We met with three cyber and infrastructure groups and two representatives in relation to infrastructure and education, including trades and apprenticeships. Even in the two meetings where we hoped to discuss infrastructure and education, we were asked for our opinion on cybersecurity in relation to IoT/IIoT and commercial/ industrial communications. We met with the lead staff members of both the majority and minority committees 40

MAY 2017 WWW.PLANTSERVICES.COM

on Homeland Security in relation to cybersecurity of IoT/IIoT devices as well as cloud-based and web-based communications. These meetings tied directly in with our work on infrastructure, including grid and municipalities and related systems. Both organizations have approached SMRP to counsel in these areas.

One area that was brought up in conversation multiple times was the threat of black-hat hackers and criminals in IoT/IIoT devices, smart devices and web-based systems, in particular those utilized by mainte-

nance organizations. Presently, there are no systems or methods in place to verify the trustworthiness of IoT/IIoT and cloud-based systems. With SC Media (Arbor Study, 2017 Worldwide Infrastructure Security Report) citing increases in attacks up 7,900% since the report started in 2005, attacks up 68% since 2016, and 43% of data centers and cloud providers experiencing outages because of IoT-deviceexploited attacks, the issue has an impact on our industries. The criminals involved will often target and scan for IoT devices and systems with known firmware issues that can be exploited, and most of those systems are related to physical asset management.

We also met with Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX)’s office to discuss the SCOUTS Act that SMRP assisted in drafting. This legisla-

and we need to do that for the tax base. But if we don’t have people to pull from, that’s going to be much more difficult. There’s also a direct correlation between that and the technical skills that we have to help buffer ourselves from any cybersecurity attacks. All of those things are very well connected to workforce development and having the right workforce developed in the different regions of the country.

PS Looking toward the future, what’s next in the short term based on these meetings, and are you looking forward to another fly-in in 2018?

LH Yes, we’ve got some tentative plans that we’re looking at.

We just developed and are just starting on the four focus groups I mentioned earlier, are getting our members more involved with these groups, and then the plan is to take each focus group to the Hill and then have specific meetings. For example, first is workforce development, and in the workforce development group, whoever is going to make it to Washington, DC, would do a specific target on workforce development and on that only.

There’s more of a bond happening there in our relationship with these (government) groups, and there’s more trust.

They’re pulling on us more. You know, most of these representatives and senators love to speak to somebody from their constituency. When we’re able to bring somebody in the office, for instance me, if I go into the offices of Sen. Joni Ernst

(R-IA) or Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), they’re very interested in hearing not only about what we are as an organization but what (issues are surfacing in) Iowa, or Ohio, or whatever.

Those are really great connections to be able to make. We can then say, “Hey, you know, this company was centered in Ohio; they are in SMRP and they are big employer,” and there’s some leverage just to saying these companies are interested in workforce development. We’re making these partnerships and building the relationships so that SMRP, and not only SMRP but our members, have a voice and have the ability to say, “Hey, come talk to us, and we’ll at least give you what’s happening on the ground floor.”

PS Relationship-building, rather than going there asking for something and that’s it.

LH Right. And we’re going in nonpolitical. When we meet with some of these offices, we try to meet with both sides of the aisles, you know, both the majority and the minority group in several of these offices. We’re trying to make sure we spread out, so that we’re not just talking to one side or the other. So it’s a nonpartisan-type approach, apolitical, so to speak.

I think that’s a positive spin. I think it’s different than what you might consider lobbying, to say, “Hey, go do this.

We need you to do this.” We’re saying, “How can we help?” by just giving our expertise and then helping the lawmakers make good law from there.

tion addresses a specific weakness in utility cyber-resiliency in which utilities are not presently supposed to discuss cybersecurity issues and problems such as exploitable devices, and provides a clearinghouse to share information in order to strengthen our defenses. The Act will be on the table for discussion and vote this year.

noted by all cybersecurity professionals: “It’s not if you will be impacted by a successful attack, but when.”

PS What are some of your goals when working/meeting specifically with OSHA?

PS Does the topic of cybersecurity help get the attention of the committees, given the extra attention that topic and others (big data, digital transformation) are getting lately by industry press?

We will continue to have meetings to further SMRP’s desire to create a comprehensive study on the impact of IoT/IIoT, cloud, and communication systems cybersecurity in relation to commercial and industrial infrastructure throughout the current year. In addition, SMRP is looking for ways and means to educate the maintenance, reliability, and physical asset management community on the potential impact of a cyber-attack and how to avoid, or at least reduce it. As

HP Big data, digital transformation, and many of the systems we utilize to maintain our systems are of very great concern to the policymakers we have met. There are presently very few standards, limited knowledge or attention, and greater attacks against these systems by black-hat hackers. All it takes is one administrator using a weak password or an accidental or deliberate opening left by someone.

This is one of the areas (where) we’ve been asked to lend our expertise.

HP SMRP is developing a partnership with OSHA that includes the creation of industry-specific input and materials for SMRP members. A safe workplace is a reliable workplace, and we have noted a significant interest from members and officials when SMRP has any discussion in relation to OSHA. SMRP will continue in this direction and will provide supportive feedback to OSHA where such items impact our industry.

It is important to understand that SMRP did not address these committees and policymakers with a specific agenda that we want them to address. We have approached with the understanding that “we are SMRP and we are here to help.”

WWW.PLANTSERVICES.COM MAY 2017 41

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CONDITION MONITORING / LUBRICATION

Used-Oil Analysis:

4 Must-Dos Take these steps to optimize your lubrication condition monitoring program

By Alan Suan, ExxonMobil Fuels & Lubricants

It’s no secret that to maximize the reliability and

performance of their equipment, operators must be able to effectively understand performance in real time and use equipment insights to further fine-tune and optimize their equipment maintenance program.

One of the most important indicators of equipment performance is lubricant performance. Lubricants are the first line of defense, protecting equipment from an array of challenging operating conditions, such as varying temperatures, heavy loads, and changing speeds.

That’s why understanding lubricant performance is critical. Lubricant condition can change over time, and a highquality lubricant formulated with the right mix of advanced base oils and robust additives will help mitigate potential equipment challenges such as premature wear, oxidation, and corrosion.

Operators should conduct regular used-oil analysis (UOA) to monitor lubricant performance; this will enable them to identify and address potential performance challenges as they emerge and to further enhance equipment reliability, reduce maintenance costs, and lower the total lifetime cost of equipment ownership.

Effective UOA depends on following some essential best practices, including following sampling best practices and knowing what to look for when analyzing results. Let’s take a look at the four “musts” that will help operators get the most out of their UOA program.

1.

WHAT AND WHEN TO SAMPLE – CHOOSE CAREFULLY

Oil analysis is effective only when samples are taken from the appropriate equipment at properly scheduled intervals. This is why it’s important to determine what equipment to sample and how often to do so.

Conducting UOA for every piece of plant equipment would be time-consuming and costly, so it’s important to carefully select the equipment that will be regularly monitored, prioritizing equipment that is central to the plant’s overall performance. Generally, operators should consider five general factors: • Operating environment. What operating conditions are the equipment subject to, and due to these condi-

tions, how vulnerable is this equipment to potential equipment challenges?

• Fluid age factor. How has the lubricant performed in service to date?

• Equipment age factor. How has the equipment performed in service to date, and has it posed any operational challenges in the past?

• Target sample results. Are the results of any previous oil analysis tests within control limits or above those limits?

• Economic impact of failure. How vital is this equipment to the productivity and profitability of the broader operation?

Once operators have identified equipment that requires testing, the next step is to determine when samples should be taken. A regular pattern of sampling will establish a credible historical trend of equipment performance. In general, operators should refer to the OEM-recommended sample interval guidelines to ensure accuracy whenever those are available. If operators do not have OEM-recommended guidelines, they can use the general guidelines in Table 1 to help establish initial sample frequency.

Application

Frequency

Generator engine

500 hours

Natural gas engine

500 hours

Turbine

Monthly

Compressor

3 months

Gear drive

3 months

Compressor system

3 months

Table 1. General oil-sampling guidelines.

2.

TAKE A GOOD (CLEAN AND REPRESENTATIVE) SAMPLE

Identifying consistent sampling parameters helps ensure a sound testing methodology, but the accuracy of oil analysis results also depends on an operator’s ability to take a good sample – in other words, a clean and representative sample. Here are a few steps operators should keep in mind to help achieve this.

WWW.PLANTSERVICES.COM MAY 2017 43

CONDITION MONITORING / LUBRICATION

• Use a sample port. Sampling location is critical in ensuring you take a good sample. Whenever possible, operators should use sample ports to make it easy and convenient to pull consistent samples. If samples are difficult to pull or require a hand pump, then they might not get pulled frequently. Make sure samples are taken through a sampling valve, vacuum pump, or sampling tube when the equipment is operating at its normal temperature.

• Establish a regular sampling schedule. A regular sampling schedule will help operators identify trends in lubricant and equipment performance by ensuring that results can be properly compared over time. Integrating the sampling schedule with an operator’s planned maintenance minimizes the frequency of sample pulling and can help deliver this consistency.

metallurgy of the components being tested. For example, metal wear results for a bearing can indicate the relative level of wear for each of the key metal elements in the bearing metallurgy. If caught early enough, maintenance personnel can use these results to address the issue and prevent unscheduled downtime and equipment failure, also resulting in potential cost savings.

• Lubricant condition. High-quality lubricants must be able to maintain their physical properties to deliver continued protection and extend the equipment’s reliability. UOA results are a critical indicator of lubricant condition, as they may flag abnormalities (see Table 2). For example, if the viscosity of the oil drops significantly, it may indicate a potential equipment performance challenge. In the case of a main gear oil tank, it could indicate that a heater is malfunctioning and cracking the oil, causing viscosity loss, as well as potential oxidation and carbon deposits.

• Take the right precautions. Getting a clean sample requires taking some simple precautions, especially because spotting potential contaminants can be difficult. The laboratory analysis is observing particles in an oil sample less than 8 microns in size; typically these are not visible to the eye (visible particles or water in a sample reflect the possibility of abnormal equipment conditions). As a result, operators should use only new sample bottles and keep lids on until the sample is taken. Before collecting the final sample, rinse and clean the area around the sample port and avoid sampling from the drain plug, where it’s difficult to obtain a representative sample. Flush the new bottle with the oil to be sampled, and do not use degreasing agents to clean sampling equipment, as traces of these substances can affect analysis results. Finally, safety is always a top priority. When analyzing these particles, operators must make sure to wear proper safety equipment.

• Contamination. One of the most important insights offered by used oil analysis results is the presence of contaminants, as contamination is a primary cause of component wear and failure. Three general sources of contamination include: built-in contamination from component manufacturing or the installation process; self-generated contamination from system components worn or damaged by other particles; and external ingression, or contamination from external sources. If contaminants are present, the oil analysis results can help identify the source of the contamination and provide the maintenance team with a better understanding of how to address the challenge. For example, Table 3 lists several examples of contamination and how the presence of those elements can indicate the source of that contamination.

• Record equipment and sample details. Trend identification is important to understanding oil analysis results, but identifying trends requires documentation. When submitting a sample, operators should include critical equipment and maintenance information, including date sampled, hours that the oil has been in service, and other relevant information. Collecting this data allows operators to normalize the analysis trends and enhance their assessment of the sample results.

It’s important to note that assessing any analysis data – be it contamination-related or lubricant condition-related – without considering in-service time may lead to inaccurate conclusions about condition severity. Operators should always evaluate data trends relative to wear rate per hour to enhance their assessment. Working with a lubricant supplier can also help deliver the most effective insights, as suppliers can often leverage relationships with equipment builders to help deliver expert insights on specific equipment.

3.

4.

LOOK FOR THE RIGHT INSIGHTS FROM THE OIL ANALYSIS RESULTS

Operators can use UOA results to examine three key areas: equipment condition, lubricant condition, and contamination.

• Equipment condition. Oil analysis can provide a great deal of insight about equipment condition. Results can reveal metal wear and can help operators understand the

44

MAY 2017 WWW.PLANTSERVICES.COM

TAKE ADVANTAGE OF NEW DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES TO ENHANCE UOA EFFICIENCY

Digital technologies have transformed the plant floor for many industrial sectors by increasing efficiency and reducing costs, and the impact of these technologies can have a similar impact for condition monitoring.

Specifically, one of the recent advances in technology is the arrival of mobile-enabled scan-and-go oil analysis

Condition

Description

Condition

Effect

Acid number (AN) high

Acid number is a measurement of the buildup of harmful acidic oxidation compounds produced by oil degradation

High sulfur fuel, overheating, excessive blow-by, overextended drain intervals, improper oil

Corrosion of metallic components, promotes oxidation, oil degradation, oil thickening, additive depletion

Base number (BN) low

Base number is a measurement of an oil’s ability to neutralize harmful acidic compounds produced during combustion process

Overheating, overextended oil drain, improper oil in service, high sulfur fuel

Accelerated oxidation, acidic byproducts formed, increased cylinder and valve wear, oil thickening, combustion area deposits, increased add number

Overheating, overextended oil drain, improper oil in service, combustion byproducts, blow-by

Shortened equipment life, lacquer deposits, oil filter plugging, increased oil viscosity, corrosion of metal parts, increased operating expenses, increased component wear, decreased equipment performance

High: Contamination soot/solids, incomplete combustion, oxidation degradation, leaking head gasket, extended oil drain, high operating temperatures, improper oil grade

High: Harmful deposits or sludge, restricted oil flow, engine overheating, increased operating costs.

Low: Additive shear, fuel dilution, improper oil grade

Low: Overheating, poor lubrication, metal-to-metal contact, increased operating costs

Oxidation

Viscosity high/low

Oxidation quantification can provide valuable insight into the likelihood of deposit formation from oil breakdown

Viscosity is a measurement of a fluid’s resistance to flow at a given temperature relative to time

Table 2. Common lubricant condition abnormalities and what they may indicate.

Element

Potential Source

Boron (B)

Coolant, possible oil additive

Potassium (K)

Coolant

Sodium (Na)

Coolant, additive

Silicon (Si)

Dirt, dust, sealant, additive, silicone defoamant

Table 3. Common oil contaminants and their possible sources.

platforms that utilize QR-coded labels and mobile and tablet technologies to enable paperless lubricant sampling, thus enhancing process efficiency and the accuracy of results.

This scan-and-go technology helps operators prevent transcription errors by allowing them to enter data directly into an online system. The sample’s data packet is then delivered to the analysis partner’s laboratory, and results are delivered back through an online platform. Through this simplification, the process helps reduce the time it takes to conduct the UOA process.

For example, one alumina production plant used this digital UOA platform to enhance efficiency and productivity. This plant typically obtained more than 150 oil analysis samples per month as part of its preventive maintenance program. Each time, the process took more than 24 labor hours per month, with a significant portion of the time dedicated to paperwork.

In an effort to streamline the sampling and labeling process, the plant converted to prelabeled sample bottles with QR codes and a unique number identifier to eliminate time spent during the sample labeling process. As a result, the plant reduced monthly sample collection time by 66% to 8 hours per month, enabling the plant’s maintenance staff to dedicate a significant portion of their time to other activities and see nearly $10,000 in annual cost savings.

Understanding real-time equipment performance is critical to the success of any industrial plant, and this understanding starts with an effective used oil analysis program that can deliver actionable lubricant performance insights. Lubricant suppliers can also help play a critical role in helping in-house maintenance teams conduct these services and interpret results, so operators should seek to take advantage of those partnership opportunities.

By following these four UOA “musts,” plant operators can help ensure that they are getting the most out of their condition monitoring program.

Alan Suan is an industrial adviser for ExxonMobil Fuels, Lubricants & Specialties Marketing Company (www.exxonmobil.com). He has progressed through several roles with Mobil Oil and has a degree in civil engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic University and an environmental science master’s degree from Drexel University.

WWW.PLANTSERVICES.COM MAY 2017 45

PRODUCT ROUNDUP

ELECTRICAL SYSTEMS Maintain the backbone of your plant and protect your people INTEGRATED DMM / THERMAL CAMERA TEST TOOL

The Fluke 279 FC TRMS Thermal Multimeter is the first test tool to integrate a full-featured true RMS (TRMS) digital multimeter (DMM) with a thermal camera in one device to speed troubleshooting. The 279 FC allows technicians to quickly and safely check for hot spots in fuses, wires, insulators, connectors, splices, and switches with the imager and then troubleshoot and analyze issues with the DMM. The optional iFlex clamp can wrap around conductors and wires in tight, hardto-reach spaces and expands its measurement capabilities to include ac current up to 2500 A. The wireless 279 FC is part of Fluke Connect, allowing technicians to record and share both thermal images and electrical measurements in real time via their smartphones or tablets and automatically upload them to the cloud.

Fluke www.fluke.com ARC-FLASH RELAY WITH TWO INTERNAL TRIP PATHS

The Littelfuse AF0100 is a compact, cost-effective arc-flash protection relay sized to fit tight footprints and budgets. The AF0100 is the third in a series of arc-flash relays and is 30% smaller than previous models. The design includes two internal trip paths for greater reliability: If the first trip path fails, the backup trip path seamlessly takes over and sends an alarm notifying the operator. The backup trip path also initializes quickly upon power-up to ensure protection while the system is energizing and when arc-flash risks are higher. Additionally, sensor health is continuously monitored to ensure fail-safe operation.

Littelfuse www.littelfuse.com FLYWHEEL UPS

The new GE flywheel UPS systems range from 50 to 1,000 kilovolt-amperes and integrate patented flywheel technology from VYCON, a subsidiary of Calnetix Technologies, with GE’s TLE Series and SG Series solutions. Adding flywheel UPS systems to GE’s range of backup power offerings pro46

MAY 2017 WWW.PLANTSERVICES.COM

vides flexibility to meet the needs of mission-critical customers. A flywheel UPS system stores kinetic energy in the form of a spinning disk and is designed for shorttime discharge applications. The benefits of this product are reduced total cost of ownership, reduced maintenance, improved carbon footprint, system flexibility, and real-time monitoring.

GE www.GEenergyconnections.com TEMPERATURE MONITORING FOR HAZARDOUS LOCATIONS

The GraceSense Hot Spot Monitor (HSM) is a continuous temperature monitoring device intended for locations that are difficult and hazardous to access. The HSM utilizes patented fiber-optic technology to provide continuous temperature data from nine or 18 independent sources, depending on the HSM model. The most obvious benefits of the HSM over IR come from the realtime status updates of temperature data at PFPs that are completely inaccessible to IR scanning. In addition, the successfully proven measurement accuracy of the probes is not subject to operator error, as can be the case with IR. Grace Engineered Products www.graceport.com BREAKER RETROFILL SOLUTION

Schneider Electric has introduced the 26-inch Wide DrawOut Breaker Retrofill Solution for 5-kilovolt (kV) vacuum switchgear applications. This smaller cell provides a costeffective solution to address switchgear applications with space restrictions. The 26-inch Wide Retrofill Solution can be applied in any 5kV application, up to 2000 amps/350 mega volt amps (MVA), without the need to replace or change the switchgear lineup. Using this retrofill solution, customers can more rapidly and efficiently upgrade existing electrical equipment without facing the high cost or lengthy downtime of traditional equipment replacement.

Schneider Electric www.schneider-electric.us

PEAK TRANSFORMERS

SPLIT-CORE AC CURRENT TRANSFORMER

Eaton Cooper Power series PEAK transformer technology is designed to provide reliable electric power voltage transformation for industrial applications. It has an overload capacity to at least 112% in smaller, lighter units than comparable fluid-filled transformers. Utilizing an advanced high-temperature insulation system approach — comprising thermally upgraded kraft paper, Envirotemp FR3 dielectric fluid, and an optimized core and coil design — a 75°C Average Winding Rise (AWR) PEAK transformer results in a smaller footprint and a lighter unit capable of the same ratings as a physically larger 65°C AWR-rated unit.

AutomationDirect’s AcuAmp line of power products now includes the CTF series5A secondary current transformers.

Designed for use with ammeters, watt meters, panel meters, instrumentation, or energy management systems, for example, these current transformers offer a compact, costeffective means of measuring primary current. AcuAmp AC transformers feature a larger-than-average sensing window and a split-core case for convenient installation over large wires or bus bars without risk of disconnection; secondary terminals are zinc-plated for added reliability.

Eaton www.eaton.com

AutomationDirect www.automationdirect.com

REDESIGNED, WI-FI ENABLED THERMAL IMAGING CAMERAS

FUSIBLE SHUNT TRIP SWITCH

The redesigned, Wi-Fi-enabled FLIR Exx-Series features intelligent interchangeable lenses, laser-assisted autofocus modes and area measurement functionality, improvements to FLIR’s patented MSX imaging technology, and a larger, more-vibrant 4-inch touchscreen. The camera automatically recognizes the new range of compact intelligent, interchangeable lenses and self-calibrates, eliminating the need for manual calibration. The Exx-Series now also features laser distance measurement that ensures precise autofocus to improve temperature measurement accuracy, and specifically for the FLIR E85 and E95 models, provides the data for on-screen area measurement in square feet or meters.

Mersen’s Fusible Shunt Trip Switch is an all-in-one solution that meets required codes for safety in elevator shafts. This UL-listed control panel offers remote load-break capability and fuse protection for elevator circuits. An array of available options allows for maximum functionality to be built into a single compact panel.

Fusible shunt trip disconnect switches are a required safety feature in many industrial and commercial applications. Main branch-circuit fuses provide overcurrent protection in the event of short circuits, power surges, damage to electrical wiring, etc. by interrupting faulty circuitry and removing it from the electrical system.

FLIR Systems www.flir.com

Mersen www.ep-us.mersen.com

SAFETY SENTRY SAFETY RELAYS

The Jokab Safety Sentry safety relays, new from ABB, simplify troubleshooting and resetting to reduce downtime, are universal for all common applications to reduce stock, and are easily wired and configured to save installation time. The Jokab Safety Sentry family of 15 models includes universal models that reduce stock levels by providing a single safety relay for all common relay applications. Other models are multivoltage, which provides the flexibility to also reduce stock.

ABB www.abb.com

LED SYSTEM LIGHT FOR ENCLOSURES

Rittal Corp. introduces the LED System Light, the first UL-approved lighting system designed specifically for enclosures. The LED technology, with UL E76083 certification, shines into every corner of the industrial enclosure, from the roof to the floor via intelligent lighting tailored to the geometry of the enclosure. Light is dispersed through a special optical cover with Fresnel structure, in two designs for precise lighting, and the cover rotates easily for adaptive light distribution. With enormous intensity, from 900 to 1200 lumens, the light provides brilliant illumination.

Rittal Corp. www.rittalenclosures.com WWW.PLANTSERVICES.COM MAY 2017 47

MRO MARKETPLACE YOUR SAFETY PROGRAM STARTS HERE Occupational Safety and Health provides an overview of potential workplace hazards, necessary safety practices, and how various processes need to be managed in order to maintain a safe workplace.

This reference is designed for use in introductory safety courses and by professionals who want to advance in the field as well as individuals who need to understand and implement safety programs.

708-957-1100 x304 • www.atplearning.com American Technical Publishers

AIR OPERATED CONVEYORS Line Vacô air operated conveyors are the low cost way to transport complex shapes, bulk solids and waste - with no moving parts or electricity. Units eject a small amount of compressed air to produce a vacuum on one end and high output flows on the other with instantaneous response. Large throat diameters maximize throughput capacity. Designed to fit standard hose, tube and pipe. Construction is aluminum or durable, corrosion resistant stainless steel for high temperature and food service applications. 800-903-9247 • www.exair.com/85/164.htm EXAIR Corporation

HIGH-PURITY COMPRESSED AIR By incorporating a charcoal absorption element, this filter offers a standard 0.01 micron rating with flow ranges of 50, 75, or 100 scfm and pressure ratings to 250 psi. The SuperStar 0.01 filter serves an extensive array of applications that require the highest standards of compressed air.

800-348-2463 • www.laman.com La-Man Corp.

OPTIMIZE CLEANING POWER “NLB Corporations Torrent™ tank cleaning heads optimize horsepower and flow for powerful cleaning action.

We offer a complete selection of 3-D heads, telescopic lances, swivel turrets, protective cages and extensions for practically any application. Provides complete 360 degree interior coverage of your tank or reactor.” www.nlbcorp.com/products/accessories/tank-cleaning/ or call (800) 227-7652.

NLB Corp.

HAND HELD VIBRATION FFT VibChecker is a light and compact-sized instrument for vibration measurement in the 10-1000 Hz frequency range. Measurement results are immediately and automatically evaluated against ISO standards. Green - yellow - red LEDs indicate vibration severity and a real time FFT spectrum is produced for easy pattern recognition. Results can be stored for documentation and followup. VibChecker is an all set to go instrument; just point the probe and measure to locate vibration-related problems.

800-505-5636 • www.spminstrument.com SPM Instrument

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MAY 2017 WWW.PLANTSERVICES.COM

OIL MIST & SMOKE IN YOUR SHOP? www.mistcollectors.com Tel: 1-800-645-4174

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1.866.643.1010 ClearSpan.com/ADPS2

WE MANUFACTURE t WE INSTALL WE SAVE YOU MONEY BUILDINGS OF 1,000 USES

Fabric Structures Natural Light & Low Cost Per Sq Ft

Hybrid Buildings Benefits of Metal & Fabric Buildings

Foundation Solutions Build Anywhere & Quick Construction

ZERO PERCENT FINANCING AVAILABLE YOUR DIAMOND DECADE STARTS TODAY As an industry leader in rotary screw design, Sullair offers the market’s most comprehensive warranty on new compressors. The exclusive Diamond Warranty provides – 10 years air end protection, 5 years coverage on key components – main motor, aftercooler, oil cooler, separator vessel and variable speed drive (if equipped). Contact your local Sullair distributor for more information.

218-879-5451 or 1-800-Sullair http://www.sullairinfo.com/diamond/

RESTRICTIONS MAY APPLY

ADVERTISER INDEX

Allied Electronics . . . . . . . . . 14

Life Cycle Engineering . . . . . . . 4

AutomationDirect.com . . . . . . . 2

MW Industries . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Baldor Electric Co. . . . . . . . . . 8

Northeast CAT Dealers* . . . . . 28

CS Unitec . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Quincy Compressor . . . . . . . . . 3

Endress + Hauser . . . . . . . . . 13

Rabalais Instrument & Electrical Constructors . . . . 52

Fluke . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

SCA Tork . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Gorman-Rupp . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Smart Industry . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Industry Dynamics . . . . . . . . 38

SMC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

ITW Vortec . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Steute Wireless. . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Kaeser Compressors . . . . . . . 24

Sullair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Summit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Sullair

Koyo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

*Regional

WWW.PLANTSERVICES.COM MAY 2017

49

BIG PICTURE INTERVIEW

OUT-OF-THIS-WORLD CAREER OPPORTUNITY A “30 Under 30” honoree says he never imagined where welding would take him.

Justin Wenning is a welding engineer at Fabrisonic (www.fabrisonic.com), a Columbus, OH-based specialist in 3D metal printing services. As part of his role, he helps build radiation shielding testing components for satellites – and he’s leading a project for NASA that looks to extend the capabilities of heat exchangers. In January, he was named to Forbes’ 2017 30 Under 30 list in the manufacturing and industry sector. Wenning, 24, spoke with Plant Services recently about what led him to a career in welding and why he’d encourage young people to explore manufacturing technology and engineering careers.

PS With all we hear these days about how young people don’t know much about (and thus aren’t interested in) manufacturing careers, how did you get into the field?

JW I guess from a very young age I knew I was going to go into engineering. I came to Ohio State because they had every kind of engineering. (Wenning graduated from The Ohio State University in 2015 with a B.S. in welding engineering.) I knew I was coming for either material science or mechanical, but when I got here I learned of this fancy-dancy program called welding engineering that allowed me to do the best of both worlds.

PS How did you end up at Fabrisonic? Had you had

exposure to 3D printing while you were in school?

JW I’ve been at Fabrisonic a little over two years now; I

actually started while I was in school. Mark (Norfolk), my boss and Fabrisonic’s CEO, was teaching a class to our welding engineering group, and I just so happened to be sitting in the front row. We did a plant tour to review the equipment, and that’s when me and Mark kind of hit it off.

I hadn’t had personal experience with 3D printing, hands-on-wise, but I was extremely fascinated with it from a technological standpoint, and as a metallurgist, the idea of being able to 3D-print metals is extremely exciting. You’re at the forefront of innovation, really, tackling technological barriers left and right.

PS How did Fabrisonic’s work with NASA come about, and how did you, by 24, come to be leading a project for NASA? JW (The NASA work) came to us through a series of SBIRs (solicitations to work on questions and technologies the agency would like to see investigated).

Most of our work with NASA is space applications. A lot of the tests that we do mimic high pressure in vacuums at 50

MAY 2017 WWW.PLANTSERVICES.COM

elevated temperatures to simulate different environments that these parts might be tested in. In my time at Fabrisonic, I’ve really focused on building internal geometries, in particular heat exchangers. So it’s a very niche skill set that I’ve become good at, so that’s why this project in particular was assigned to me.

We’ve made leaps and bounds in the last two years, and it is extremely exciting to see where we’ve come and the track laid out for where we’re going to go. We’ll see if we can get a heat exchanger out of this world in the next couple of years.

That’s my big goal.

PS What excites you about your work, besides getting to help investigate and develop technologies for NASA? JW Fabrisonic being a startup of less than 10 people, you learn how to wear every single hat and you learn as best you can. On the day-to-day, I go from being an extremely hands-on applications engineer to dealing with customers and sales, all the way around. I have a lot of different exposure than I ever would have dreamed that I’d have at this age.

PS What would you say to kids (and their parents) who might be on the fence about a career in manufacturing generally, or an “old-school” discipline like welding specifically?

JW A lot of kids in high school who are trying to perceive where they want to go, a lot of them aren’t exactly looking for the hands-on portion. But what I have to say to that is getting to tackle the projects and the problems hands-on is extremely rewarding, and it just allows you a whole different kind of thing that you’re not going to learn from sitting in front of a computer, for example.

One of my first projects here at Fabrisonic, even as an intern, allowed me to produce some parts that I can say are not exactly on earth anymore. I never would have guessed I’d be producing parts that are out of this world.

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