Microcomputers and Maintenance Management: Do They Mix? (includes associated paper 15841 )
Authors: Norton H.W. , Peters K.E. , Lane J.A. 
Published: December 2007

Microcomputers have been around for several years now. Bringingthis technology to small, sometimes remote operations, however, hasproved to be a formidable task. We decided to apply this technology asa maintenance function-specifically, a pilot test of a small maintenance management system at a remote gas-processing plant.

Introduction

In late 1983, Mobil E and P Services Inc. (MEPSI) becameinvolved in evaluation of maintenance managementsystems based on microcomputers. Continuous feedbackfrom our operating units indicated that such a system would be useful. After several existing packages wereinitially screened, we determined that there probably wasnot a package that met our requirements. We found packagesthat satisfied part, but no single package had all the functions we required. We then requested the help of alarge international consulting organization to develop sucha package. Subsequently, a contract was developed withthat organization.

As part of the contract, we agreed to perform a pilottest at one of our gas plants. The pilot test had two primaryobjectives:determine whether useful hardware andsoftware could be installed and used by regular operating personnel anddetermine whether the system wascost effective.

Background on Pilot Project

The La Gloria gas plant near Falfurrias in south Texaswas chosen as the test site. The primary reasons forchoosing the La Gloria plant were as follows.An existing manual preventive maintenance (PM)program already in place and functioning well allowedthe transfer of existing manual maintenance proceduresto the computerized system with a minimum ofadjustment.A concentration of equipment located within the plantfence eliminated the logistics of coordinating the flow ofinformation over a large regional area.An operating warehouse allowed the testing of theinventory-control functions of the software.Experienced supervisors on site understood theadvantages and benefits of a planned maintenance program.

The plant uses a basic cryogenic process to handleapproximately 115 MMscf/D [3.3x10(6) std m3/d]. Thecritical equipment items that were made a part of thepilot test are shown in Table 1. A simplified schematic ofthe process is shown in Fig.

Implementation

Schedule. A schedule was developed to judge the pilotproject. This schedule also provided the plant supervisorswith an estimated time of personnel commitment. Theproject schedule is shown in Fig.

Personnel. It was necessary to set up a project structurethat would allow sufficient project control but also allowthe other parties to interact. The project structure is shownin Fig.

The database group is an extremely importantpart of the project structure because of the importance ofthe database accuracy. They must be dedicated 100% tothe project. The maintenance supervisor worked closelywith the database group to ensure that valid, up-to-dateinformation was gathered and entered.

Data Bases. The first major task was to organize and totake inventory of the warehouse. Even though the warehousehad been in operation for some time, it had been operatedon an evolved informal system. A coding system andorganizational scheme were set up to identify eachpart and its location within the warehouse. Theidentification and tagging of existing items proved to bedifficult. Some of the equipment, such as the reciprocatingcompressors, had been installed in the late 1940's. Thedata-base group had to rely heavily on the knowledge of thewarehouse operator and the maintenance supervisor toidentify many spare parts correctly. An example of awarehouse database entry is shown in Fig.

At the same time the warehouse was organized, basicequipment data were gathered. Equipment nameplateinformation, along with location and service data, wasentered. The equipment data would eventually form the nucleus for the inventory and work-order parts of thesystem. Once the nameplate data were entered, each pieceof equipment could be subdivided into identifiablecomponents to which individual parts could be assigned. An example of an equipment database entry is shown inFig.

The documentation of the existing maintenance routineswas used to define standard tasks. These tasks werecompiled, coded, and entered into the program. It was thenpossible to set up the various planned and predictive maintenance work orders. Again, the maintenance supervisor's

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