|
An effective RCM program will contribute to optimizing equipment performance
Company
The Gladstone alumina refinery operated by Queensland Alumina Limited (QAL) is the largest in the world, with a maximum annual rated capacity of 3.8 million tonnes. The white powder alumina is supplied tosmelters in Australia and overseas.
Challenges
Queensland Alumina had attempted to implement several RCM point solutions and consultants in the past. Previous Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) efforts included a significant amount of work completed to define maintenance strategies from RCM principles, which totalled 611 studies completed and 32,000 recommendations generated. The bulk of their findings were not implemented in SAP Plant maintenance and subsequently the programs and were not sustained. The studies never referred to “real” SAP objects so when it came time for implementation in SAP a retrospective mapping was required. It has been difficult to achieve formal sign off by equipment owners.
Why RCMO?
RCMO provides QAL with an integrated and structured approach to creating equipment maintenance plans. RCMO facilitates the implementation and management process via a direct link with SAP and can report on the progress of the impementation of recommendations from an RCM study. The solution also helps QAL develop equipment care plans with reference directly to real objects in SAP and allows for a sign off and approval process. RCMO is a reference for all future changes in maintenance strategies and provides a tool for evaluating effectiveness of equipment care plans. Another benefit with RCMO is that QAL can reclaim and implement past RCM studies that are not currently actionable with minimal effort. This allows them to use currently implemented equipment care plans as a starting point, thus avoiding a “scrap and rebuild” process and acts as a gap analysis to their current activities. RCMO allows for small targeted studies and even provides several tools to allow for differing levels of study based on criticality or impact.
RCMO Solution
RCMO is an SAP® xApps™ Certified solution. Through tight integration with SAP PM, RCMO:
- provides the framework for defining maintenance strategies based upon SAE JA-1011 RCM and Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) standards.
- integrates recommendations from RCM analyses into Maintenance Plans in SAP.
- drives automated re-evaluation of maintenance strategies to ensure that the impact is constantly measured for continuous improvement.
RCMO is currently enabling the following RCM work process at Queensland Alumina:
Steps Required for Successful Implementation
1. Choose the Area of Interest
2. Design the Program of Care
3. Agree the Program
4. Implement the Program
5. Ensure Compliance to the Program
6. Check that the Program is Successful
Results
RCMO is now the tool QAL uses to ensure that the history of changes and
reasons for changes for an area are recorded and are linked to the technical
objects. RCMO allows them to nominate equipment in SAP as "critical" with
regard to risk, process or dollars and then report on which technical objects
have a RCMO study carried out against them and when.
"Queensland Alumina has chosen RCMO for our reliability centered maintenance
initiative largely due to the integration of the product with our existing SAP
system”. “QAL believes that an effective RCM program will contribute to
optimizing equipment performance, help control risk, and assist in improving the
reliability of our production assets. This tool will be one of the set that we
use to, establish an agreed and signed off strategy, ensure that we do not stray
from that strategy – in essence, to stay in control and to modify strategies
where there is a gap in performance.“
- Colin McDonald, Maintenance Services Manager at QAL
|
Case Studies