Implementation of an availability improvement methodology in the seamless tube mini-mill environment : a case study

Abstract

The maintenance management environment of a mini-mill in the steel processing industry, provides unique opportunities for developing and applying methodologies to optimise avail ability of plant equipment for production. Creating an incremental improvement culture within the maintenance department can prove to have a major impact when a focused approach is followed. This dissertation presents a non-traditional, but practical approach to improve the performance of the plant maintenance team. It is complementary to both total productive management (TPM) and reliability centred maintenance (RCM) whilst providing a methodology to apply the data generated by computerised maintenance management systems (CMMS) in a productive manner. The technologically advanced environment of a modern seamless tube mini-mill was used to evaluate the implementation results of the availability improvement drive. This dissertation is limited to the hot-mill section of the plant due to the opportunity for improvement that was identified in this department. A systematic time based delay analysis methodology was applied to identify the subsystems of the major equipment groups responsible for abnormal high downtime contributions. At the time of formulating and applying the methodology, the most recent data from the already established maintenance control system was used to establish the downtime root causes. It was found that the results achieved by applying this approach to improve the plant's availability, were extremely positive. In one case, mechanical availability of a major equipment group was improved by 35% through focused implementation of engineering solutions to the problem areas identified. One important conclusion made by this maintenance team was that " redesign" proved to be the most effective way to improve both availability and reliability.