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  • 1.  Operator Care / Autonomous Maintenance

    Posted 10-01-2020 07:13 AM
    Hi Folks,
    This is my first post to the forum, so take it easy on me!

    My post is regarding implementing advanced operator care/ autonomous maintenance strategies.
    My company has a relatively robust process for deploying OPC to its basic level. ie Basic cleaning & inspections for operations teams. I am considering moving to the advanced OPC stage and I'm wondering if anyone can share an advanced upskilling OPC deployment plan that they have implemented in their company.
    Thank You in advance
    Brendan Young   ​

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    Kind Regards
    Brendan Young

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  • 2.  RE: Operator Care / Autonomous Maintenance

    Posted 10-01-2020 10:10 AM
    Brendan, welcome to the group.  Great question to start SMRP forum experience.

    I separate operator care and autonomous maintenance in my view.  It can get fuzzy in between.  First past fixes would be the next level of operator maintenance intervention once they complete basic care and find issues.  Easy things such as tightening up something loose, etc.  Even many of these may require maintenance craft followup but at least operators can make some easy adjustments to get going until a more planned time for maintenance to address.  

    While there needs to be some training for operators on basic care (clean and inspect), there must be more rigorous training for operators to do a more advanced maintenance intervention such as a more applied autonomous maintenance. 

    Qualified craft people have a deep background of education and experience that operators do not have.  Some operators have the ability to learn and do maintenance tasks but the majority do not have the training or experience to know how to do very many maintenance tasks at a high level.

    My experience has been way more failures in autonomous maintenance than success.  Good training and good procedures for operators to follow will be critical for a chance at sustained success.  These two existed in the only times I've seen "real" success in operator maintenance.  

    I would also pick a select maintenance tasks that fit what most operators can learn and execute.  Don't ask them to know how to be able to know how to read and change PLC logic or set up a VFD (not all electrical crafts can do that).  I have actually had an operations manager tell me that was his goal on autonomous maintenance.  Keep the autonomous maintenance scope simple and short for your operators.  Due to technology advancements this is getting more challenging.  In some views, all you have to do is create an app to do almost anything today.

    Good luck!

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    Randy Riddell, CMRP, PSAP, CLS
    Reliability Manager
    Essity
    Cherokee AL
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    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: Operator Care / Autonomous Maintenance

    Posted 10-01-2020 11:24 AM
    Brendan, 

    Interesting topic.  It is a bit hard to say what the next steps may be because it depends on where you are now.  But assuming you have operators trained continuously in inspection techniques and that they have inspection checklist to inspect equipment and that they clean equipment.  I would say.
    1.  Train operators how equipment work and inspection techniques (Level 2) introduce an inspection tool kit IR-temp gun, stroboscope, bright flashlight, inspection mirrors, SPM vibration pen.  Make sure results are logged in handheld devices etc.  They would take over the mechanical and some basic electrical basic inspection to a larger degree
    2.  The next step is to make condition monitoring more autonomous, and start looking at machine learning.  Some companies are already deploying this and have come quite far, and claim great success.  

    Best Regards,

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    Torbjorn Idhammar
    President & CEO
    IDCON, Inc.
    http://www.idcon.com
    Raleigh NC
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    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: Operator Care / Autonomous Maintenance

    Posted 10-01-2020 12:07 PM
    Hi Folks,
    Thanks for the replies to date. Interesting journey ahead. Deploying advanced OPC in a regulated industry is always going to be a challenge.
    Initial scoping, Training requirements, Certification, Use of technology, IOT/ Augmented Reality, Data Recording, CMMS interaction, Data Analysis, Metrics.
    How far to go?  Where to stop? 
    ​

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    Regards
    Brendan Young
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    Original Message


  • 5.  RE: Operator Care / Autonomous Maintenance

    Posted 10-02-2020 08:58 AM
    Hi Brendan,

    Another consideration for this initiative could be in reviewing and possibly updating some job descriptions.  Depending on the scale and complexity of the tasks you would develop for your OPC effort, you may consider creating a new position like an "Operator Technician" (or other title of your choosing) that effectively bridges the gap between the operator position (and pay rate) and the maintenance technician (and pay rate).  You could have "Operator Technicians" dedicated to an area (or cell) where they could support other, less experienced and less skilled, operators with problem resolution which could significantly reduce response times and overall workload on your maintenance team for those simple, recurring issues that creep up from time to time (like when you have personnel turnover in operator positions).

    This new position and rating would also provide some incentive for operators to learn and get engaged with the new tasks.  It could also create an opportunity for you to implement a "train the trainer" system to help you with sustaining the program once it's off the ground.

    Good luck.

    Jim

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    James Freaner
    Peoria IL
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    Original Message


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