Small defects = HUGE failures.
Erik Hupjé
Escape the vicious cycle of reactive maintenance: less downtime, less work, lower costs and less stress
I came across this interesting proverb the other day:??
“For want of a nail the shoe was lost. ? For want of a shoe the horse was lost.? For want of a horse the rider was lost.? For want of a rider the message was lost.? For want of a message the battle was lost.?
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.?
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.”??
In short, a king lost his kingdom because of a missing nail on a horseshoe.?
Now, that’s a bit of an exaggeration.?
But it reminds us that seemingly unimportant problems like that nail can have grave consequences.?
This is especially true in maintenance and reliability.?
For example:?
Small defects can still cause MAJOR problems.?
And I’ve experienced this myself.??
It was one of the scariest moments in my career.?
Back when I was in charge of maintenance execution in the Philippines…?
We had a MAJOR gas leak on our offshore platform.?
The cause??
A simple valve body plug.?
See, this plug was installed in a large ball valve as a drain point. Never used in normal service and out of sight.?
The problem was… the plug was made of the WRONG material.?
It was made of carbon steel. ? While the ball valve was made of stainless steel.?
And this difference in material caused the plug to corrode.?
A seemingly minor thing.?
But a few ‘coincidences’ made things a WHOLE lot worse.?
First, the equipment was operating in a high-vibration environment which meant that once corrosion started the continuous vibration led to the plug dropping out of the body resulting in that massive leak.??
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Without that vibration, the leak might not have happened (and yes, that vibration was not meant to be there either, as it was the result of vibration issues on some recip compressors...)?
Second, the valve and surrounding piping equipment was fully insulated. So nobody knew the plug was corroding, or even that it was of the wrong material.?
Until eventually, the plug simply dropped out of the valve body!?
These ‘little things’ combined to create a MAJOR problem.?
Luckily, the gas didn’t ignite.?
Luckily, we didn’t lose our ‘kingdom’.?
The moral of this story??
Don’t take your “little defects” for granted.?
Make sure you have a defect elimination program in place.?
Because this helps you resolve all those small, niggly things in your plant.?
If you want to learn more about how to implement an effective defect elimination program in your plant, then check out this in-depth article that I wrote: “Defect Elimination: Why you can’t do without”?
P.S. Whenever you're ready, here are 3 ways we can help you on your Road to Reliability:
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Project Manager-Assets department, at International water partners Company. MOMC services for NWC, NW cluster-Madinah. Previously served as Lead engineer at MASA/MARAFIQ, Yanbu Industrial city. KSA. Exp: 37 Years
10 个月I totally agree
Managing Director /Owner at Blu Sky Engineering & Consulting
10 个月The main question should be is the maintenance inspection team adequately trained in the various equipments technical details and likely condition deterioration trends to be able to see, hear, smell a potential defect??. But long before that - presence of skill, competence and above all the motivation to deliver the right quality output above 80% of the time all the time. The training and coaching to get these aspects right requires the right motivation through all levels of work. One positive experience at a time will deliver the results of change if consistently driven. Over indulgence to try and change to many things at the same tend to have a built in failure mode. ??
CEO and Senior Consultant at Reliability Dude, LLC
11 个月As a result of using improper grease, and more critically, neglecting to remove the zirc fitting and replace the pipe plug in the main hoist motor to gearbox gearbox coupling on a 40 Ton bridge crane, a 27 1/2 Ton coil of steel was dropped about 12 feet down onto a flatbed trailer, seriously damaging it, and literally exploding the load brake drum on the crane, sending shrapnel throughout a shipping/receiving area. The only good thing about this incident was that it happened at 12:30 AM, so very few people were around and no injuries occurred, which likely would not have been the case during the workday.
Sustainability Consultant at EMaintE
11 个月Great lesson to even designers! The two aspects which often get overlooked in design criteria are: 1. Possibility of Defects and Defects Elimination. 2. Protection of system, plant or equipment and facility.
Full Professor, PhD in Technical Sciences (major Metallurgy & Materials Science), Mechanical Engineer.
11 个月Over time, materials microstructure can be changed under different conditions (wear, corrosion, fatigue, creep, etc.) and, consequently, they can be degraded, become less reliable and fail in a catastrophic way. Understanding how materials change during these different circumstances is one of the big challenges of Materials Science & Engineering, as the underlying mechanisms for microstructural modifications often take place at the atomic level. Uncovering how particular microscopic phenomena combine into complex microscopic/macroscopic changes across a component under the different conditions and turn these variations into potential causes of failures, is also crucial for maintenance workers. But unfortunately, fractographic methods and their innovative tools -widely used within the academic sector- are not well-understood within the industrial sector as significant approaches to be used for maintenance purposes (i.e. RCA & FMEA). In many cases, managers focus more on technical causes than scientific roots. Our great challenge should be, also, changing this scenario.