Automation World: John, this is a tough time for manufacturers. Yet, long before the economy turned down three years ago, you were a pioneer of asset management strategies as a way to achieve manufacturing competitiveness. Were you prescient? Why are you so passionate about this topic?
Berra: I’m not sure I had a crystal ball, but we did see some patterns a few years back that would suggest that asset management was a good place for us to go. The biggest pattern we saw was that a lot of money had been spent on automation and ERP (enterprise resource planning) systems, but people were saying, “I put all this money in, and my plant is not performing much better than it did before. Isn’t there something else you can do?”
Emerson spends a fair amount of time in the instrument and valve world, as well as the systems world. We came to realize that embedding some intelligence in devices to do diagnostics might be a way to provide more value and help customers avoid unplanned shutdowns and save costs through predictive maintenance. By putting diagnostics together with some other emerging technologies, Emerson started on this journey of asset management.
AW: Global competition, production and labor costs, and integrating business and automation systems have emerged as today’s manufacturing challenges. Does asset management play a role to ensure survival?
Berra: To answer that question, perhaps we need to first define asset management. Our customers assemble a collection of assets in order to produce their products. Those assets include the instruments, valves and automation systems. They also include the mechanical rotating equipment (such as motors), the physical equipment (such as heat exchangers) and the electrical equipment. All of these things together must be designed, working and maintained properly in order to get the most out of a plant’s assets.
From the day it’s installed, plant equipment starts to degrade in one way, shape or form. Much of that degradation is generally not known until something serious happens. For example, the lining in a vessel is gone, or you’ve lost 30 percent of your catalyst and now your process is not as effective. So, asset management is about making sure that all of the things you’ve spent money on perform at their best, and you understand what’s going on over time. It’s about heading degradation off at the pass, so serious issues never occur.
Asset management is critical. I know of one refinery where unplanned shutdowns take away 10 percent of the plant’s capacity. If one or two unplanned shutdowns could be eliminated per year, the refinery would gain 5 to 6 percent more capacity.
AW: Emerson Process Management serves customers in a wide variety of industries, from food processing through utilities. Why is asset management important across such a broad spectrum of businesses?
Berra: The first layer of asset management is not industry-specific—a compressor is a compressor, a pump is a pump, a valve is a valve. There are certain diagnostic and analysis tools that can be used on those types of assets that are independent of the industry in which they are used. At this first level, you’re looking at the performance of the asset over time, and perhaps relative to a sophisticated math model.
When you go to the next level and you’re looking at “loops” or aggregations of control strategies, then industry specifics come into play. You have to superimpose, on top of your asset management strategy, the criticality of the asset to the process. Theoretically, you could invest a lot of money and look at the performance of every piece of equipment, for instance, the pump that’s providing the water to the drinking fountains. A better approach is to look at what’s going on in the process and determine what are the critical pieces of equipment. This varies by industry and even from plant to plant. Power plants must stay up and running, no matter what. Pharmaceutical plants are batch oriented, so flexibility and adjustability to change become the critical parameters.
For a customer at the beginning of the asset management process, we recommend doing an audit—typically a paid study—where we “walk the plant.” We look at operating history, how assets are installed and deployed, where measurements are positioned in the control strategy. This usually takes place over several days and results in a prioritized list of suggestions for the customer. In the extreme case, we may recommend a complete overhaul of the plant’s maintenance procedures.
AW: Emerson uses the term “asset optimization.” Can you define this term?
Berra: Asset optimization is about optimizing expertise, optimizing work processes and deploying technology. We have knowledgeable people who go into user plants to do the audit and help the customer structure the work processes. For users, it’s a combination of investing in technology and creating a core team of people within the organization who are dedicated to asset optimization. These individuals are trained to be asset optimization “black belts.” Asset optimization provides a whole layer above and beyond process control, and it can be bigger, richer and more rewarding for the customer.
AW: What are some of the quantifiable benefits from sound asset management?
Berra: Asset management can improve plant output—through better availability, throughput and quality—and lower costs, including maintenance and energy costs.
When you start an asset management project, you need to establish some key performance indicators, many of which are economic in nature, such as cost per unit, throughput over time, or downtime as a percent of total time. When the operator sits down at the control screen, he can determine how the plant should be run, for example, with minimum energy usage or for maximum production of a specific product. Our new Real-Time Optimizer software allows the operator to measure the economic performance of the plant as it’s running.
Emerson has a “Prove-It” program that states if the customer will do a baseline benchmarking study with us, we will guarantee at least a 2 percent efficiency improvement. In most of the applications, the payback is much greater than 2 percent, with typical returns on investment of less than one year.
Here’s an extreme example. ExxonMobil uses a catalyst-type reaction in the production of ethylene. Sometimes there’s a build-up of material, which can cut loose and blow all over the place. The resulting plant shutdown costs ExxonMobil $7 million. We put some software in three or four Rosemount transmitters that have diagnostics to look at line plugging. The frequency of the signal “noise” changes as the line starts to plug. In the past, we would filter out that noise because it interfered with the primary measurement signal. Today, by monitoring the frequency change of the noise, the transmitter gives predictive warning before the line completely plugs and causes an incident and plant shutdown.
Many plants have maintenance costs that run 14 percent of sales. One of our customers did a study of maintenance calls out to the field and analyzed the reasons for the calls. The number one cause—25 percent to 30 percent of the time—was that there was nothing wrong. By remotely monitoring instruments with diagnostic software, you can minimize the need to send a technician out to the field.
AW: What are some of the barriers to implementing an asset management system?
Berra: The first barrier is if you have absolutely no smart instrumentation in your plant, then you have to make a prioritized investment to put in some intelligence. Virtually all of the plants we deal with contain at least some smart instruments, but the applications may not be using the embedded diagnostic information.
The other barrier can be people—the people have to change and the work processes have to be changed. Asset management requires a nucleus of people at the user site to agree that change is important and they are willing to make changes.
Sometimes, we need to overcome defensiveness on the part of the user, when we show them that for a simple change, they could achieve a return of 5 or 6 percent. Often, these are work process changes—tracking, uniformity, data collection and monitoring. There really isn’t a magic bullet or a piece of software that can just be loaded into the system. It’s ground out one step at a time, but for those who are willing to do it, the payback is fantastic.
AW: What one piece of advice would you give to a manufacturer on the cusp of implementing an asset optimization plan?
Berra: You can start small; you don’t need to do the grandiose stuff right away. Perform a benchmarking audit, find the critically deficient areas in your plant, and go to work on those. You don’t have to wholesale change out everything in order to enjoy the benefits.
And, there’s no substitute for talking to someone else who has gone through this process. Emerson has built up a network of customers who are willing to share what they’ve done with other manufacturers. Take advantage of that resource.
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