Page 415 - Improving Machinery Reliability

Maintenance for Continued Reliability 379

e Independent contractors tend to be more aggressive, and this may give the service
supervisor the idea that the OEM isn’t interested in “winning” his business.
Original Equipment Manufacturer Service Organization
* The OEM designed and built the original equipment; he respects his product and
knows it inside out: in effect, the “pride of authorship” factor.
e The OEM has the comprehensive backup of his entire organization behind him to
solve a problem-his engineering, testing, and manufacturing departments.
e Many of the OEM’s service employees have spent time working for more than one
manufacturer and have detailed knowledge of more than one manufacturers’
equipment.
Further, the OEM has a comprehensive grasp of the entire process, or system,
within which his equipment was engineered to operate. This helps ensure an
understanding and appreciation of all major system components, offering the
added flexibility of being able to service or repair related equipment.
* As the process industries continue to expand around the world, OEMs have been
reacting positively to the challenge of building and improving their global service
organizations. It’s no secret that “the sale of new apparatus tomorrow depends in
great measure on the service you’re giving today, for the equipment you sold yes-
lerday.”

While it is true that the peak shaving maintenance principle is often thought to be
the most logical and practical system to use today in petroleum and petrochemical
plants, there are some pitfalls to consider also. Very often, the OEM’s “Peak Shav-
ing Maintenance Contract Division” will man your turbomachinery turnaround with
one or two qualified service technicians or supervisors; but the millwrights or
machinists making up the bulk of the work force are frequently hired from the avail-
able local labor pool and may not have sufficient familiarity with the OEM’s equip-
ment to work to the equipment owner’s fullest satisfaction.
True, the OEM may have capable personnel at his nearby satellite repair facility;
however, these personnel can hardly be expected to become available to a petro-
chemical plant scheduled to perform turnaround maintenance on five or six major
trains in the span of three or four weeks.
Modified Peak Shaving Maintenance Must be Considered. In view of the stat-
ed inadequacies of OEM-type peak shaving maintenance, a number of U.S. utilities
and European process plants have found significant advantages in forming and main-
taining teams comprised of a number of highly trained machinery technicians or
mechanics at each of their separate affiliate locations. Thorough familiarity with
large turbomachinery trains at their home location and continued exposure to
machinery overhauls, advanced training, and occasional troubleshooting keep these
teams proficient. They are high performers and take pride in their workmanship.
Their work output is in the spotlight and a good job is rewarded accordingly.
The local team travels to an affiliated plant location across country, state, or nation-
al borders when the affiliate embarks on a major turnaround. The team leader-usual-
ly a working foreman-arrives at the affiliate plant location early enough to take an