Processing, April 2020

ASSET MANAGEMENT Engineered asset management a b u s i n e s s or the petrochemical pulp and paper power generation mining and metals manufacturing and other process industries that depend upon engineered assets to create value effective F management of those assets is imperative period When the organizations engineered assets reliably perform as designed and as required good things happen on its dashboard of core performance indicators profitability safety environmental performance quality customer satisfaction and shareholder value Unreliable asset performance however yields quite the opposite results on that same dashboard Sometimes the results of poor asset management result in disastrous results In most instances however poor asset management results in small often unnoticed performance leaks that cumulatively compromise the performance of the organizations dashboard goals In many instances the organization behaves like the proverbial frog in the water accepting substandard engineered asset performance until a crisis demands a response In this article I hope to achieve the following objectives 1 Define engineered assets and differentiate them from other organizational assets 2 Provide a cohesive framework for the management of engineered assets over the span of their lifecycle 3 Provide an example of the value proposition of engineered asset management My supreme objective is to encourage you to view your engineered assets more strategically and inspire you to manage them to your maximum benefit It is also my aim to alert you to many of the most common mistakes and explain why they occur The pathway to reliable performance of engineered assets is fraught with pitfalls I sincerely hope that this article helps you to avoid them What is an engineered asset Organizations possess many different types of assets including Financial or monetary assets Real property assets Inventory assets raw materials work in progress WIP and finished goods Intangible assets such as patents and trade secrets Engineered assets Engineered assets are typically defined as the built environment For organizations in the process and manufacturing industries this usually includes plant buildings infrastructure and equipment Engineered asset management targets the built environment and particularly production assets that are deployed to convert raw materials energy labor and other inputs into finished goods The scope of asset management a framework While it can be broken down further and presented in different ways the lifecycle of an engineered asset has three functional components design operate and maintain Most of the key elements are highlighted in Figure 1 Of course from an environmental perspective we must recycle and or reuse materials as much as possible However the recyclability and reusability of the engineered asset and its components and parts is largely determined during the design phase of the engineered asset lifecycle Lets break these three phases down further then discuss the organizational infrastructure required to support the process in its entirety Design for reliability Design represents the DNA of machine its the genetic code Its difficult to counteract the impact of a poor design once the engineered asset is installed in the plant The design process defines the assets productivity flexibility reliability operability maintainability and other abilities that are required to maximize value creation for the organization Unfortunately in most organizations the design and procurement team typically works in isolation from the production team and they often have no plant experience Additionally their performance metrics and associated reward are typically focused on getting the engineered asset functional fast and cheap As a result reliability operability maintainability and the other abilities are secondary considerations if theyre considered at all In my estimation approximately 60 70 of the performance engineered asset is determined in the design phase Make sure you get your operations and maintenance experts involved and demand that projects are judged on the basis of lifecycle value creation not on getting it functional fast and cheap which sets the stage for poor long term performance Operate for reliability Its always mystified me why our operations and production teams dont take primary responsibility for assuring the reliability of engineered assets They are after all the primary beneficiaries I have a few ideas however that I hope will help you identify ways to better connect your operations team to long term asset performance One of the big challenges that Ive observed with operations teams is short termism The prime objective seems to be achieving this months production numbers and the rewards for operations teams performance is usually closely linked to achieving these short term performance goals Unfortunately to achieve this goal they often must put the pedal to the metal and push the equipment to the brink of its limits or beyond In engineering we have a concept called stress strength interference Its a simple concept Its represented by a bell 46 Processing APRIL 2020 imperat i v e Viewing engineered assets more strategically and managing them to the maximum benefit By Drew D Troyer T A Cook Consultants Inc Figure 1 The framework for effective management of engineered assets All images courtesy of T A Cook