The Challenge

The management of the Corrib onshore processing plant, which will be operated by Shell E&P Ireland, were determined to make a success of their drive to achieve a successful Overall Equipment Condition (OEC) programme. The aim was to ensure personnel were able to apply autonomous maintenance in a structured and supported process.

At the time, not all the equipment had been installed or handed over from the construction team so there was the opportunity to apply the autonomous maintenance principles early in the project life cycle.

What we did

Advice

Advice was given to:

• establish a countermeasure process
• design and agree the use of a specific defect tag
• collate and analyse data from the consumables used (the consumables count)
• run a workshop for the operators, their supervisors and selected members of the maintenance team before all the equipment was in place
• consider a generic and site-wide labelling and visual aid programme
• develop a 5S philosophy
• adapt the conventional approach to autonomous care so it included a pre-inspection.

At the core of world class maintenance performance is something called autonomous maintenance. In this context, the term autonomous doesn't mean performing maintenance in a vacuum or solely by the traditional maintenance department. Rather, it means that operators perform certain equipment maintenance activities aligned with the daily operation of equipment.

The focus of the operating team for OEC needs to be on husbandry, cleaning, inspecting, lubricating, monitoring and other such essential daily tasks, e.g. collecting and trending data on equipment performance.

Solution

Designed workshops to cover all aspects of Overall Equipment Condition. It was decided to hold workshops for their Operation Technicians (operators), their supervisors and some maintenance personnel whilst the processing plant was being constructed around them so the staff would have the right skills and approach from the beginning, i.e. using the techniques and an interactive approach.

The workshop consisted of:

• practice of the techniques
• delegate experience
• case studies
• application of techniques and philosophy on 'live' equipment.

The application of countermeasures, use of the 5S philosophy and labelling & visual aids were also included in the workshops.

Implementation

• Produced wall posters for the key themes of the workshop.
• Produced training materials in the form of slides and accompanying script.
• Ran two sets of workshops with operators and supervisors.
• Provided on-going support to SME and/or supervisors for six months.

Each workshop was run for small teams of three or four people. The highly interactive content allowed everyone to practice the principles in the comfort of the training room before the final activity on the actual equipment.

In the two separate 'live applications', attendees were able to spot and raise over 45 different issues with the installed equipment, from the use of labels and visual aids on gauges and meters, location of tools and cleaning materials, changes to the infrastructure to improve HSSE, locating data sheets close to the equipment and overall husbandry of the area.

This pragmatic learning activity has given the operators the confidence to apply the OEC principles to all new equipment whilst they are in the process of being handed over from the construction team and, more importantly, address any issues that need to be resolved before acceptance and operation.