PLANT RELIABILITY AND MAINTENANCE BENCHMARKING

摘要

Beginning in 1995, a group of CMA member companies including Dow, DuPont, Eastman Chemical, Exxon Chemical, Rohm and Haas, Shell Chemical, and Union Carbide, began an ambitious project to identify those plant complexity factors and maintenance practices having a direct impact on reliability and cost effectiveness. The objective of the corporate directors and senior managers of these leading companies is to acquire useable reliability and maintenance cost benchmarks and to quantify the value each practice contributes once complexity has been factored out. Working with Solomon Associates (Dallas), between 1995 and 1997 the group developed a comprehensive questionnaire, collected data on 1996 operations from 63 sites of 34 companies in five countries covering 270 product lines, derived 750 benchmarks and developed a comprehensive report of the findings. An overview of the study and selected excerpts from the 1997 results are presented in the attached graphs. Site-specific reports were also developed and delivered by Solomon Associates through workshops for company management. Participants in the 1997 Study were delighted with the results. One participating site with better than average cost performance reduced maintenance expenditures in excess of $10M. Their use of the CMA study results and data base to guide strategy development and to drive implementation is considered by them to be a cornerstone in their successful efforts to reduce maintenance costs by nearly 25% in the last 2 years. The new 1999 study is expected to further strengthen the benchmarks, identify changes in the industry and establish a basis for analysis of trends. Computer correlation models will also be developed to statistically identify which of the 660 benchmarks of potential causal factors leverage good maintenance cost and plant reliability performance, and to what extent. Preliminary modeling efforts have proved promising. As a result of participant feedback, data for the 1999 study will be collected using a shorter, more user-friendly, and better-targeted questionnaire. Participants will be provided with a data input diskette (including internal checking mechanisms and prompts to facilitate data quality) as well as a paper copy of the questionnaire. In addition, product line data can be submitted either by site or by business unit. Participation is open to any chemical manufacturing operation at any location around the globe. Confidentiality is maintained through a CMA Agreement with Solomon Associates to collect and analyze the data.