The investment that pays a cost-savings dividend! (Part 2)

By Shesby Chabaya – head: Operations, WearCheck Zimbabwe

The snowball effect

A snowball rolling down a slope will pick up more snow on its way, thereby growing bigger in size and gaining more momentum, to the point that one may not even be able to stop it. By the same token, a regular study of oil analysis data over two decades has revealed that small, identified problems – if not resolved early – will grow into much larger and more complex challenges over time.

Shesby Chabaya of WearCheck Zimbabwe. Supplied by WearCheck

Continuing from part 1…

The identified problem keeps repeating and getting worse, in most cases to the point of component failure. Therefore, we have seen that the longer one waits or procrastinates addressing a problem, the higher the likelihood that it may not even be addressed, exposing the plant to the risk of component failure, expensive repair costs and lost production.

Is there any correlation between low feedback, fault repeats and component changes?

In the study, we raised further questions to determine if there was a correlation between low feedback levels, fault repeats, component failures and component changes, among other factors. We discovered that there was a link between component changes of oil-wetted components and oil analysis fault repeats. The components that were being repaired had a history of repeated contamination and wear problems.

“Thou shalt not allow a problem to recur more than twice”!

There was also a common pattern noticeable with the third consecutive occurrence of a fault (three counts of a fault repeat). Three out of four components with fault repeats either went through a parts change on the third consecutive occurrence or a complete component change. 

This was the case in areas of high intensity of operation. In areas of low intensity of operation, repeated parts changes were a common phenomenon. Below is a trend for Fleet D01 Transmission showing movement from “Normal” severity status to “Borderline” in month three, then further deterioration in months four and five, with resultant component failure three months after the water-contamination problem was discovered:

This is true to the key phrase “Oil analysis helps the most if you pick up a problem and address it at its onset.” We also noticed that this phenomenon of excessive fault repeats was synonymous with over-expenditure. The phrase “We have overshot our budget” was common during feedback sessions. Components end up running to failure, reminiscent of the “Black Swan Effect” (when unpredictable events are explained in hindsight), with severe consequences, to the extent of affecting a whole production line when a catastrophic breakdown occurs.

Looking at the case of new equipment with purchase cost exceeding USD500 000 and, in some cases, running above USD1-million depending on machine type, brand, size, application and other factors, we realised that by the time it reaches year five, it has undergone substantial component changes – a situation which increases the average cost of equipment ownership. The equipment cannot achieve its full expected life.

Undoubtedly, the above scenario provides a compelling case for every organisation that has decided to embark on an oil analysis programme to put in place and relentlessly enforce systems that enhance effectiveness and efficiency, guided by the vision to achieve cost savings. Poor responsiveness to oil analysis reports creates a huge opportunity cost, as every alarm presents an opportunity to save. It therefore follows that, if an organisation is to reap the benefits of investing in an oil analysis programme, a sound corrective-action strategy must be at the heart of the maintenance system.

What cost savings ARE!

To demonstrate what cost savings are, we will examine a case study from Delta Transport Services, the Transport and Logistics arm of Delta Corporation Limited, a leading beverage-manufacturing company in southern Africa that has been implementing the oil analysis programme for the past twenty-five years:

Forklift differential case:

A scheduled oil sample was extracted from a Forklift Differential (sample 1). The WearCheck laboratory detected and urgently reported critical water contamination at 4.1%. The workshop responded quickly, which allowed the defective breather to be changed. The results of the two subsequent oil tests showed that the issue had vanished, indicating that the problem’s underlying cause had been identified and fixed. The diagram below illustrates the improvement in report-severity status:

Sample 1 showed critical status (Red), 4.1% water detected – immediate attention to the problem required! Following a swift response by the workshop team, the problem was addressed, resulting in improvement of the report-severity status to normal status (Green) for the next two scheduled oil samples.

If the issue hadn’t been resolved on time, the organisation might have suffered a premature differential failure that would have cost it anywhere from USD2 500 to USD9 000 in repairs or component-replacement expenses, not to mention the expense of missed productivity and downtime – imagine if this had been a CAT 797, this could have saved USD100 000 cost of differential overhaul.

Therefore, good responsiveness by the team significantly reduced the risk of failure, thus improving forklift availability and reliability. This approach has been utilised across the entire fleet at Delta Transport Services over time, bringing about a multiplier effect, which has resulted in huge cost savings and forklifts attaining between 18 and 21 operational hours per day.

Delta Transport Services technical manager, Tavonga Gwatidzo, had this to say: “Well done to the team for upholding systems and maintaining a good level of responsiveness to the alerts by WearCheck. The WearCheck tribology programme has assisted Delta Transport to maintain a reliable, healthy and highly productive fleet. We have managed to achieve up to 30 000 forklift operational hours against a target of 18 000 hours. We believe that the effective implementation of the oil analysis and condition monitoring programme is contributing significantly to this level of success. Thank you to Team WearCheck for the partnership.”

Kennedy Kashangura, Delta Transport Services national Operations executive, added: “Our two key KPIs – oil sampling compliance and corrective action response rate – help us to maximise operational cost savings and keep productivity high. The WearCheck oil analysis programme keeps us ahead of the pack. With an average fleet availability of 98.8%, we can move our products on time, ensuring good customer satisfaction. Our systems are standardised throughout all our operations around the country, with WearCheck at the heart of our maintenance systems.”

In reality: time, resources and production pressure are always constraints. From WearCheck’s perspective, feedback is critical – to ensure full team participation in the continuous improvement process and boost cost savings, we encourage the implementation of a four-pronged actions-and-feedback approach as follows:

Gaining maximum return on investment into a good condition monitoring programme requires leadership with a strong business culture, cultivating a positive work ethic and a winning mentality across the team, leading to an ultimate positive cost-savings yield.

Oil analysis is not an event; it is a process involving an accumulation of many tiny actions, which can result in a Domino Effect – where one event triggers a chain of related events. Just as knocking down a single domino can lead to a chain reaction where the rest of the dominoes fall, small and consistent corrective actions in oil analysis will lead to enormous outcomes, encompassing huge cost savings and attainment of full productivity through full utilisation of assets. These wins are noticeable through individual improvements, which are cumulative over time.

Source: Supplied by WearCheck