In the world of industrial petrochemical maintenance operations, facility upkeep is not just an option –it is a crucial function that protects your facility and enhances efficiency. The petrochemical industry plays a large role in all aspects of everyday life, from the clothes we wear to the fuel we use in our cars. But oftentimes, the importance of the key players within the industry can go unnoticed or unrecognized for their vital role in modern life.
Maintenance is crucial for plants due to the inherent risks associated with working with flammable materials, extreme temperatures, and high levels of pressure. Understanding how petrochemical facilities operate is no small task, and at RUS Industrial, we are proud to say we can offer precise, high-quality maintenance and problem-solving to keep your operation running at top capacity. Our dedication to professional industrial petrochemical maintenance operations ensures that your facility is safe and your productivity goals are met consistently.
Uncovering Risks for Safer Petrochemical Operations
In a petrochemical facility, one small mistake can lead to catastrophic consequences. Because of the high-risk setting, committing to education on the various risks and how routine maintenance can solve them is vastly beneficial for the safety of the plant. A proactive and aggressive approach to risk identification is often the first and most important step in avoiding the slew of possible petrochemical operational incidents.
There are several common risks associated with the petrochemical industry, and identifying them is the first step on your path to responsible risk management for your facility:
- Equipment failure can lead to costly repairs if they are not correctly handled. This is commonly caused by corrosion, incorrect operation, and weakened metal. In many cases, preventative maintenance can be used to spot potential equipment failures before they impact your output.
- Some studies indicate that nearly 90% of petrochemical facility incidents are attributed to human error. Factors that lead to this can include improper operations, poor training, or even fatigue.
- Deviation from pre-determined processes can lead to significant complications, such as excessive temperatures, chemical leaks, or even product contamination.
RUS Industrial can not only help solve problems that you may be facing, but our specialists can also help identify and pinpoint weak spots in your operations that could potentially cause complications down the line.
Crafting a Comprehensive Plan for Industrial Risk Mitigation
Controlling the unavoidable dangers associated with the petrochemical industry demands more than identifying risks and weak spots; it requires a proactive approach to ensure the safety of the plant and its employees. Because of this, creating a detailed, comprehensive plan for your facility’s risk management will be a valuable asset for mitigating risk.
Equipment is the cornerstone of any facility, and enacting routine asset inventory and function checks will help prevent equipment malfunction from impacting safety and productivity. Additionally, scheduling routine maintenance for equipment based on the manufacturer’s recommendations will allow professionals to accurately monitor the condition of your equipment.
Continued education and training will result in fewer frequent incidents due to human error. Dedicated time spent training for specialized procedures, learning new recommendations, and identifying where problems occur most often will allow your team to operate at its fullest capacity while staying safe.
Finally, conducting regular data collection to allow for detailed analysis ensures that you can accurately track productivity, failures, and maintenance frequency. This gives you the power of knowledge and allows you to refine your standard operating procedures to permit prime productivity.
Proactive Strategies for Preventive Petrochemical Equipment Maintenance
Equipment like that can be found in an industrial plant is costly. Because of this, simply reacting to equipment failure as it occurs can be an extremely expensive game. Instead, strategizing with preventative maintenance can use precise planning to keep equipment failures and breakdowns at bay.
All too often, using preventative maintenance planning is what keeps a minor safety hazard from escalating into a devastating emergency. Along with improving safety, by being proactive in your approach to combating system malfunction, you will also improve the reliability of your equipment and the quality of your output.
Key Performance Indicators for Industrial Facilities
At RUS Industrial, we can compile data from several key performance indicators to identify where your weak spots lie and how to accurately combat issues before they arise:
- Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF) – Tracks how long your equipment can run before a malfunction occurs.
- Mean Time for Repair (MTTR) – Indicates the efficiency of your current repair process by noting how long an average repair lasts for your equipment.
- Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) – A metric that measures the availability, performance, and productivity of your equipment.
- Planned Maintenance Percentage (PMP) – This analyzes the percentage of scheduled, preventive maintenance compared to reactive, unplanned maintenance. In many cases, a higher PMP means that your facility has a correct maintenance schedule for optimal function.
- Schedule Compliance – Indicates how accurately your timing procedures are carried out on average. Additionally, this can also reveal how precisely maintenance is scheduled and if there is a trend of improper timing for repairs.
We use these indicators to see where your facility’s biggest problems are and what measures need to be taken in order to solve them with accuracy and efficiency.
Using data like this is just one reason to choose a team like RUS Industrial. As a top 0.25% safest contractor in the area, we have extensive problem-solving experience and are confident we can find the right solution for your petrochemical maintenance needs.
Optimizing Your Petrochemical Facility’s Industrial Output
Once we have collected your data and analyzed the strengths and weaknesses of your facility’s unique process, now is the time to use process improvement techniques to improve your output.
Lean manufacturing techniques can be applied to help cut back on resource waste, poor organization, and unnecessary malfunctions. This task uses value stream mapping to see the big picture of your production process, from start to finish. Through this, you can pinpoint what steps carry less value and can be divided or dissolved into other steps. Perspective can be a powerful tool; oftentimes, being able to visualize a process that you are familiar with from a wider scope can make identifying bottlenecks simple.
Timing is everything. Utilizing root cause analysis and being familiar with manufacturer recommendations can help instill Just-in-Time maintenance procedures in your facility. This means that equipment maintenance is scheduled with complete precision down to the day. This solves both the problem of needing routine, preventive maintenance, but also cuts down on costs by limiting reactive repairs and unnecessary costs associated with unnecessary maintenance.
Encouraging feedback from maintenance technicians and investing in regular program effectiveness reviews can allow for more eyes on your process and a higher chance of missteps being identified.
Last but not least, investing in technology and education on the newest software, machines, and recommended practices can keep your facility from falling behind its competitors.
Keeping Up with the Future of Petrochemical Maintenance
The petrochemical industry is constantly evolving at an increasingly rapid pace. Because of this, the strategies we use to keep equipment running safely and efficiently must also continue to change. RUS Industries has been providing industrial petrochemical maintenance and installation services since 1994, so we are comfortable with the new technology, advancements, and procedures that are being developed every day.
Don’t leave your petrochemical facility’s safety up to chance. Contact us today to learn more!
