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DESIGN MANAGEMENT: RELIABILITY AT THE START
by Dave Abecunas
Originally presented at IMC-2003 the 18th International
Maintenance Conference
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INTRODUCTION
abacunas_3
for installations and modifications to plant systems and
equipment should go beyond engineering calculations,
bids and drawings. While the engineering is important,
items related to reliability and maintainability are
sometimes treated as afterthoughts. To reduce the
chance of premature failure and frustration and reduce
the unexpected, a Design Management Program should be
implemented and enforced. The Design Management Program
should place an emphasis on reliability and
maintainability with participation from all levels of
the plant including engineering, maintenance,
operations, safety, and purchasing. The program should
also establish the review process with an incremental
methodology. All design projects, whether capital or
non-capital require the same methodology for inputs and
review. Of course the larger the project the longer the
process so enough planning time should be allowed, often
a year or more in advance of the actual installation
start date.
DESIGN REVIEW PROCESS
The
design management process is led by a Project Manager
who acts as planner, coordinator, engineer, and team
leader. The selected Project Manager should manage the
project from start to finish. Often Project Managers
are managing several on-going and planned projects at
any given time. Project Managers can be selected from
any area of the organization; however, typically the
plant engineer will manage most large projects.
DESIGN TEAM
The
Design Team is made up of participants from all areas of
the plant’s organization. As stated earlier, this
includes but is not limited to engineering, maintenance,
operations, safety and purchasing. Every team member is
assigned responsibilities by the Project Manager during
the project kick-off meeting. Communications amongst the
members is paramount for success of the project. Table 1
describes a sample Design Team with some general
responsibilities.
Table 1 General Design Team Responsibilities
REVIEW PROCESS FLOW
Design projects generally go through several reviews
prior to issuing a final design package. A conceptual,
several preliminaries and a final review are typically
performed. The conceptual design may be used as a basis
for an idea or in preparation for a capital budget
request. Normally, there is only one conceptual
design. Preliminary designs are the most numerous and
time consuming depending on the complexity of the
project. These preliminary reviews may or may not
include all of the team members depending on the
purpose. For example the reviews may be designated by
discipline such as mechanical, structural or electrical
designs. These reviews are decided at the kick-off
meeting while assigning responsibilities for input.
However, all of the team members shall participate in
the final review process. Figure 1 shows a typical
design review process flow.
Figure 1 Typical Design Review Process Flow
PROJECT TRACKING
Now
that we have established a Design Team we can
concentrate on how to manage the design process. There
are numerous software packages out there for tracking
projects. Most of them require a certain degree of
training in order to be utilized effectively, without
taking up all of your time in setting up each project.
A simpler method is the use of a simple checklist in MS
Excel. The simpler method will be sufficient for large
and small projects without an extensive amount of set-up
time and will be easily understood by all members of the
Design Team. Table 2 shows a sample tracking
spreadsheet. The type of tracking documentation is not
important, but using some form of tracking documentation
is.
Table 2. Sample Tracking Spreadsheet
COMMUNICATIONS
The
importance of Design Team communications cannot be over
emphasized. Regular meetings, phone conferences and
even E-mail can be used for the purpose of requesting
inputs and acceptance of the design elements. A
kick-off meeting scheduled in the beginning of the
design process will be used to define the ground rules
for communications. While face to face meetings are
usually very productive, and provide the Project Manager
with on the spot decision making, they are sometimes
difficult to schedule with a large or geographically
separated Design Team. The use of electronic
documentation makes E-mail a very efficient method of
design review, but does require a very diligent Project
Manager, to follow-up on the information required.
Phone conferences are productive only if everyone has
copies of the documentation to be discussed. This may
require the use of electronic media, fax or express mail
depending on the type and amount of data. Any scheduled
meeting should have an agenda should be provided to each
participant to avoid surprises and delays.
DOCUMENTATION
Whenever you deal with multiple members of any team,
documentation becomes an issue. Everyone has their own
ways of doing things and documentation is no different.
The Project Manager must organize the information being
provided in a way that can be utilized by the whole
team. Setting up a spreadsheet with worksheets for each
of the areas of concern such as engineering, tests and
inspections, maintainability etc. is an easy way to
organize the data and allows electronic distribution as
well. In some cases a notebook will be used with all of
the required documentation kept together. This paper
data can later be scanned and put into files for storage
after the project is complete.
TESTS AND INSPECTIONS
Many
plants insure that adequate testing is accomplished
during the commissioning of a new system or major
equipment installation. While this testing is important,
in-process testing should also be considered. In-process
tests and inspections are performed at various stages of
the project and may also include other locations
including vendor or manufacturer sites. In addition to
the identification of adequate tests and inspections, a
specification and documentation methodology must be
developed and enforced. This planning is done during
the Design Process.
IN-PROCESS TESTS AND INSPECTIONS
In-process tests and inspections, start at the
manufacturer’s site, and may include visual inspections,
measurements, alignment, NDT, pressure testing,
performance tests and others. Typically, in the past,
most plants have relied on the manufacturer or vendor to
specify these QA requirements and accepted results based
on criteria not set by the plant. The Project Manager
with the assistance of the Design Team should specify
all test and inspections required to reduce the chance
of early failure of each new or rebuilt component.
Manufacturing flaws should be identified and corrected
as early as possible, not during the commissioning
testing. In some cases, a representative from the plant
should be at the manufacturer’s site to witness the test
and inspection process to insure compliance with
specifications. Witnessed or not, documentation should
be provided for all of the tests and inspections
performed.
This same theory applies to receipt and installation
testing. When a new component arrives at the site, a
series of inspections should be performed to insure
damage has not occurred in transit. In the case of
rotating equipment, at a minimum, a visual inspection
and free rotation test should be accomplished. During
the installation process, tests and inspections may
include visual inspections, measurements, pressure
testing, NDT, performance tests and others. With the
introduction of predictive maintenance (PdM)
technologies such as vibration analysis, ultrasonic
testing, infrared thermography etc., many tests and
inspections can be accomplished in much shorter time
periods and with more accuracy that in the past. While
these test and inspections are important, the
documentation of results takes center stage.
COMMISSIONING TESTS AND INSPECTIONS
The
commissioning tests and inspection results depend
largely on the in-process test and inspection success.
This is the time for setting up baselines for the PdM
technologies to use as a reference for future monitoring
of performance. In addition, new operating instructions
are evaluated and operations’ training is conducted.
OPERATIONS REVIEWS AND INPUT
The
Operations Department is usually the customer who will
accept the new system, process or component when
installation is complete. Therefore, it is their
responsibility to ensure the desired level of production
will be achieved without compromising safety or
environmental requirements. Operations personnel are an
important part of the Design Team and should be active
in reviews, providing input from the onset of the design
process.
PRODUCTION AND PROCESS REVIEW
Most
new installations or major modifications will effect the
production of product(s) one way or another. This
effect could be a change in process, an increase in
capacity or number of components. When reviewing the
design, operations should be asking several questions.
Will we need more manpower? Will we be producing enough
for future markets? What kind of specialized training
is required? Is quality being compromised? Are the
present operating instructions adequate? This type of
information and more, are important to insure the design
will fulfill the needs of the plant.
SAFETY
How
many times have you seen a poke hole or access opening
with no catwalk or ladder for access? What about
adequate lighting? Do you have enough warning signs?
Many of these types of issues are normally found after
commissioning and are not identified during the design
process. Not only have hazards been created, but the
changes required will probably cost more than if they
were identified and made a part of the design package.
The safety manager or representative should review
whether the new system or equipment can be operated and
maintained safely. In addition, certain situations may
require specialized safety training. Remember:
“SAFETY SHOULD NEVER BE AN AFTERTHOUGHT”
ENVIRONMENTAL
Today’s environmental regulations have multiplied
tenfold over the past few years. Regulatory
requirements and permitting have also increased. Don’t
wait until you are ready to fire up the kiln, or start
up the assembly line, only to find out your permits are
inadequate for a new process. By reviewing the design
throughout the process, time will be available to
investigate any potential environmental issues and
obtain necessary documentation and permits.
As
you can see the Operations Department should be
extremely active in the design management process.
Figure 2 depicts a summary of some Operations Department
responsibilities.
Figure 2. Operations Department responsibilities
MAINTENANCE DEPARTMENT
REVIEWS AND INPUT
Reliability and Maintainability are considerations
undertaken by the Maintenance Department. Reliability
Centered Maintenance (RCM) techniques will limit early
failures often referred to as infant mortality and also
ensure adequate maintenance is scheduled for the future.
Determining Maintainability will ensure the required
maintenance can be scheduled and performed efficiently.
RELIABILITY
Reliability of new equipment and systems should be based
on two basic elements of the RCM process, Mean Time
Between Failures (MTBF) and Failure Modes Effects and
Analysis (FMEA). MTBF is a methodology used to
determine how long a system or component will operate
before incurring a major failure. When specifying new
components, the MTBF should be considered in order for
the vendor to provide a product meeting your
expectations. MTBF is normally based on the component’s
performance history in similar situations. Vendors and
manufacturers will normally provide this information on
request. MTBF should weigh in the procurement process
as much as, or more than initial price.
FMEA is a more complicated RCM methodology used to
determine what can be done to reduce failures of systems
and components. The FMEA starts with defining
criticality levels of the components and creating a
hierarchy depicting interrelationship. The process then
evaluates all of the potential failure modes and how
they affect performance. This data is then used to
determine methods or tasks to reduce these failure
modes. We then develop maintenance and parts strategies
which serve as a basis for Preventive (PM) and
Predictive (PdM) maintenance, and spare parts
identification. The same FMEA methodology is utilized to
define the acceptance tests and inspections described
earlier. Once a failure mode is identified, the
appropriate test or inspection can be performed to
determine if the potential for failure exists.
MAINTAINABILITY
Maintainability is determined to consider if and how
maintenance, as identified using RCM, can be
accomplished. Factors such as location of components as
well as accessibility will be considered. A PM task to
do a visual internal inspection is useless, if the
access door cannot be opened because the unit was
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