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Integrated CM & Lubrication

Our Client

Global manufacturer of plastic products.

Challenge:The site successfully implemented Condition Monitoring around 2015; largely driven by our client’s own maintenance management team. They outsourced the program to another specialist organisation of good standing. However, after three years of CM they were still experiencing unexpected machine failures. Following discussions with CBM Partners we identified that the failures could probably be addressed by a combination of lubrication related improvements and refining the CM program to identify faults earlier.

Methodology

 

A Lubrication & CM audit was carried out in the summer of 2018 to verify the CM & lubrication opportunities in detail against ICML & ISO best-practice benchmarks.

We presented the findings, including photographic evidence and data, which identified the following top improvement opportunities;

CM:
  • Fitting wired & wireless vibration sensors to critical and hard-to-access machinery
  • Reviewing and refining all alarm levels to improve early fault detection; optimization of the use of sites existing CM data collection system.
  • Allocating a senior analyst to support the decision making and data review process
  • Integrating alternative monitoring techniques for slow-moving equipment (Ultrasound)
  • Putting in place communications and KPIs which moved the previous CM contract from a “post failure RCA” to an “unidentified failure is not an option” mindset.
Lubrication:

An improvement program had already been carried out by our client to some effect, but had slipped mainly due to a lack of clear & specific ownership on the shop floor.

  • Allocate responsibility for lubricant storage & handling
  • Allocate responsibility for carrying out lubrication
  • Have a clear link between the CM program (lubrication related findings) to adopt a reliability-centred lubrication strategy.
Management & Communication:

The technical challenges faced by our client were fairly straight-forward. 

The main improvement opportunity for this site was around robust contract management and communication from the service provider; understanding the site’s needs and business KPIs, aligning the support contract and ensuring a high level of communication following a continuous improvement ethos.

 

Results

CBM Partners were awarded an integrated reliability centered lubrication and condition monitoring contract.  We are responsible for implementing the improvements identified in the CM & Lubrication Audit and continue to work very closely with our client’s maintenance & reliability team to identify faults before they become failures.

 

The CM program is moving away from a “post-failure investigation” mindset and getting “ahead of the curve” quickly. 

 

Our client’s maintenance & reliability management still remain very much in control but we believe that CBM Partners are having a significant positive impact on how maintenance decisions are made.

 

Improved reliability as a result of the lubrication management program should be noticeable within a few month’s time; this project profile will be updated with those results.

Please contact us for an introduction to the site Plant Manager and Maintenance Manager.