What Can SAMS Do For You?
Pressure relief valves, control valves, compressors and rotating equipment are constantly subjected to changing operating, process and mechanical conditions that affect performance. Because these assets frequently operate silently over the course of years and help protect millions of dollars worth of energy and process, seemingly minor PM improvements can lead to sizeable savings.
What happens when you don’t know what’s in the plant? At first glance, this may seem a ridiculous question. However, especially in the case of pressure relief devices, lost paperwork, obsolescence issues, undocumented field changes/alterations, unidentifiable parts and misplaced assets all lead to invalid data that can corrupt a database.
Track And Maintain Your Assets With Swan's Asset Management System
Our powerful asset manager system allows you to maintain a complete and historically accurate record of each asset that passes through the shop. Asset testing, printing reports, creating tags and scanning documents are just a small sample of features that can help you to streamline your business.
Pressure relief valves, control valves, compressors and rotating equipment are constantly subjected to changing operating, process and mechanical conditions that affect performance. Because these assets frequently operate silently over the course of years and help protect millions of dollars worth of energy and process, seemingly minor PM improvements can lead to sizeable savings.
What happens when you don’t know what’s in the plant? At first glance, this may seem a ridiculous question. However, especially in the case of pressure relief devices, lost paperwork, obsolescence issues, undocumented field changes/alterations, unidentifiable parts and misplaced assets all lead to invalid data that can corrupt a database.
Determining “what’s out there” for evaluation and tracking is crucial if PRD analysis is to have a positive impact. This requires that plant personnel investigate the root cause of failures and consistantly monitor the condition of PRD’s so that trends can be identified. Unfortunately, many plants have not kept sufficient records to develop a statistical baseline. For these reasons, asset management systems are offering new approaches to determine trends and patterns of asset parameters that can help forecast possible failure.
Valid data acquisition combined with an Asset Management System that also functions as a repository for data allows facilities to adjust maintenance philosophies and frequency in a manner that reduces failure rates and optimizes asset performance. With real-time asset management and continuous monitoring, companies can:
- Build failure analysis data by tracking repair history.
- Extend/adjust repair intervals based on failure analysis.
- Avoid dangerous operating conditions.
- Provide real-time awareness of wear parts, deterioration, corrosion and malfunctions.
- Save time, energy and money through asset optimization.
By gathering valid asset data and loading it into a real time tracking system, plant personnel have the ability to manage proactively rather than reactively. The focus on and importance of information in management, operations, maintenance and repair makes data acquisition the motor that drives the need for processing and distributing information. With a 97% or higher accuracy rate of asset data established (which is achievable), we can create a Preventative / Predictive Maintenance Program based on the current, valid information.
Preventative/Predictive maintenance doesn’t fix anything, it only identifies potential failures or problems early so that right action can be taken. Identifying problems early can increase reliability and runtime at the lowest costs as long as there is follow through on the corrective actions. Plants that tend to lean on reliability instead of maintenance may take corrective actions to another level: The equipment might not be failing; rather, it may not be operating at the standard that it was expected to. Under this scenario, a PM program’s emphesis will shift from maintenance to plant efficiency. The PM program now takes into account equipment reliability and the birth to retirement cost of each asset. If implemented correctly, it’s a never ending story.
The initial challenge that looms largest is the cost to get started. Based on the condition and recent changes in the economy, predictive maintenance and training are usually the first to be cast aside. Those with the ability to look ahead, however, will realize that predictive maintenance plays an even larger role in a recession, based on reliability affecting the bottom line. Optimizing production and reducing the duration and total number of outages through a sound PM program will have a positive influence on revenue and profits. By spending a relatively small amount on the front end to shore up data accuracy and reliability, you can effectively reduce costs in the long run.