Some thoughts on process reliability

Some thoughts on Process Reliability, May 2017 Page 1
Process Reliability:
By: D K Singhal, deveshksinghal@gmail.com
Allow me to ask you a question. Next to next Monday
(or choose any other day, if you like), you are given the
target is to ensure full production without any
breakdown in your machine. Nothing special is allowed
to be done. The raw material will be the same as per
your mill standards, the product grade and quality shall
be the same as per the production plan given by your
management. The only exception is the external factors
like non availability of electricity (in case of grid supply)
etc, which is not in your (mills) control. Now the
question states like this.
“How confident are you that you will be able to achieve
the target?”
For our ease, we have broken the mills management
into different sections. These sections include process,
electrical, mechanical, instrumentation, utility etc. In
case of breakdown in one section, the other section can
just shrug off. Of course, it is the duty of other person to
look into his department. But as a whole, as a part of
the whole mills, have we not failed to move to the
fullest extent possible? Let me give an example.
Around 20-25 years back, if we wanted to go to some
city 250-300 km away, usually, the car was sent to
service center a day earlier. On the journey day, driver
had to come an hour prior to departure time to check
oil level, water level, fuel level, filters etc. Midway, we

encountered a lot of cars standing by the road due to
breakdowns like dynamo got burnt, engine overheat
etc. Today, we just ignite the engine on, change gears
and start journey without any delay even for 600-800
kilometers. Today, there are more than 10 times cars
are operating on the road, and we seldom see any car
by the side of the road due to breakdown. Whenever I
go for a long journey, I often thank carmakers for
creating such reliability in their product. Simultaneously,
I dream of having such reliability in our industry.
Please do not treat the example as a jealous
comparison. We need to get motivation from the
automobile sector. We need our machines to run
trouble free and this needs extra efforts in this area.
How do we begin? The first and most important point is
that we need to sit together and discuss the issue with
experts, machinery suppliers, consultants, our process
engineers or with whom we may find it necessary. Each
and every breakdown, each and every problem –even if
how minute is it- must be studied carefully and we
should together work to overcome this.
Secondly, each and every small incident must be
evaluated in the bigger perspective. For example, failure
of a particular bearing must simultaneously be
evaluated for what can be done to safeguard for other
bearings of similar applications, or the bearings of same
series. For the same, we must ask various questions
regarding our process. Can we identify the locations

where the frequency of breakdown is more? Can we
identify the time when the breakdowns increase? Can
we benchmark our items life, so that a little early
replacement can be tried to ensure a reliable
operation? Furthermore, we must leave the habit of
considering these evaluations purely as technical issue;
we must also look into these issues from management
side also.
Finally, we need to have reliability is our agenda. In the
first phase, can we try to achieve at least 97%-98%
uptime for our machines? We need to study, evaluate,
discuss and share our experiences through some
suitable platforms. Industry associations, research
institutes or even this group; anyone may take an
initiative to develop a platform for this aim. If no
suitable platform appears, we need to start solo and let
the team take up its shape.
Please think.

My e-book, entitled, "Wipe up that Grease" on mechanical
engineering case studies (Many case studies related to Paper
Industry), is published by Pothi.com, and can be obtained
from-
https://shar.es/182p00
About the book-
Case studies are specially helpful when bookish knowledge
fails to combine all the relevant information to come to a
conclusion. This book presents several industrial case studies
of mechanical engineering, specially related to paper mills. In
addition, there are several brainstorming problems discussed
here. Typical cases include- press roll run out, frequent press
roll bearing failure, MG (Yankee) gearbox failure, MG bearing
housing bolt breaking, DG alternator flashing problem and
supercalender uneven loading etc.
Production managers, mechanical engineers and all
concerned with the maintenance of the plant would definitely
find this e-book very useful. The book is in .pdf format and
can be downloaded for future reading.
D K Singhal

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