engineering, accounting, industrial re lations, and process safety. At the present time, when a maintenance job is accomplished, there has been a series of integrated actions on the part of many individuals and many groups. Snap decisions for a maintenance job are now seldom made and it becomes necessary to do long-range planning. When a maintenance job is started, the appro priate materials, parts, equipment, and manpower have been efficiently sched uled and appear on the scene of action at the proper time. This time has been selected to coincide with a time on the program of production control, so that there is a minimum loss in the continuous flow of product. Specific jobs which were completed during recent years best illustrate the change to dynamic maintenance pro cedures. In one of the production units, centrifugal pumps of special alloy are used to circulate corrosive fluid through a part of the process. In the early days of this particular process it became customary to have one pump in service, one in reserve, and one in the machine shop being repaired. This situation might not, at first glance, seem to be of consequence, except that the replacement cycle occurred every few days. Production was being maintained at a fair level, but only because both operating men and maintenance men kept very busy. One lathe in the ma chine shop was on continuous duty serv icing pumps there. Analysis of the maintenance or repair charges showed that the average annual bill was $18,000, for a pump that originally cost SI 800. Improvement in this situation resulted from the cooperative study and action of many groups in the Texas City plant as well as in other plants of the com pany. A careful evaluation of shaft deflections, bearing design, modifications of the existing pumps, improvements in repair techniques, etc., brought about such marked improvement that the problem is no longer a serious one. The repair cycle for these acid pumps has been stretched from intervals of days to intervals of months. Another example might be cited. An energetic chemist established and expanded a program of testing samples of alternative materials in the actual plant equipment under operating con ditions. The corrosion results were discussed with the maintenance as well as the operations personnel. Main tenance, as well as operating people, developed confidence in the recom mendations of the corrosion department. Maintenance employees now provide one of the best sources of information re garding incipient corrosive action. Better materials for specific jobs are being utilized in place of mere duplica tion of original materials of construction.
MAINTENANCE AND IMPROVEMENT OF PLANT PROPERTY JOHN F. CONLON and Ε. J. FOX
Carbide & Carbon Chemicals Corp., Texas City, Tex., and New York, Ν. Υ.
Λ. H E concept of maintenance activities has broadened from static maintenance or preservation of the status quota to cover activities that are better described as "dynamic" maintenance. This term includes the work of improvement of plant property. An impressive example of static main tenance is the reserve fleets, now surplus items from recent wars, that are in moth-ball storage, a specialized form of maintenance used to prevent deteriora tion due to weathering and corrosion. Ten years from now in the event of another emergency these ships will still be useful and will be available for use on short notice. However, they will be outdated and outmoded at that time and will be at a disadvantage in competition with the latest designs of marine trans ports. In Carbide and Carbon's plant at Texas City, there is a good example of the dynamic type of maintenance program. The maintenance group originally con sisted of one third of the plant's total employees; it is now almost half. During the past five years or so the percentage has remained at the same approximate level. There has been a marked increase in the proportion of engineers assigned to the maintenance department, roughly marking the change-over from control of mainte nance schedules by craftsmen to a control influenced by engineering principles, and a changing emphasis from static to dynamic maintenance. The nucleus of a new maintenance department has usually been a group of construction supervisors who were intimately familiar with the crafts and their skills as used to build the plant. To keep the plant in good physical condition, the same skills and crafts were utilized. This work was generally limited to close-range action, on-the-spot decisions, and limited planning. As plants grow, the interrelationship of units, people, and procedures be comes complex, calls for higher degrees of organization and planning in the maintenance work. Interferences and delays in production schedules affect a greater number of interdependent pro duction units, involve more people, and multiply the costs. There is a need for supervision that looks ahead and plans to
prevent or at least minimize equipment and machinery failures that seriously decrease production rates, thus increas ing production costs. This sphere of activity calls for people who can not only cope with the immediate problems but also work toward the solution of tomorrow's problems. Here is an op portunity for those with engineering training. The operation of the process units is under the direct control of engineers responsible for the continuity and efficiency of production. The engi neers or technically trained graduates who may be placed in the maintenance department should be, in effect, bilinguists who can clarify communications between the production engineers and the craftsmen who maintain the produc tion equipment. Not all graduates from engineering schools have the ability to perform this function. A brilliant engineer does not necessarily make the best maintenance supervisor. It is important to appreciate the fact that present-day maintenance is cooperation between two levels of formal schooling and education, but not, as is sometimes mistakenly assumed, be tween two levels of intelligence. Cooperation is considered the key to an efficient, economical, and effective maintenance program. Checking with the members of other groups, such as operations, engineering, purchasing, inspection, and accounting, you will find that the biggest change they have noticed in the maintenance de partment is that they are easier to get along with. This change has not come from the maintenance department mem bers alone. It was a cooperative change. A deliberate division has been made in the operations phase of the Texas City plant by dividing the plant into areas of specialization. A parallel division was made, with each area in charge of an assistant plant superintendent. A series division was then made in each opera tional area, setting up area supervisors, department heads, and technical assist ants. A matching organization of non technical employees in the capacity of shift area foremen and chief operators in supervisory capacities paralleled the above. The organization of the plant has been further changed by the growth of staff departments such as purchasing,
VOL. 48, NO. 11
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NOVEMBER 1956
39 A
