Life Cycle Engineering Success Stories
Reducing Asset Life Cycle Cost by Designing for Reliability
How would you react if your equipment was hanging 200 feet in the air, extended over water? For most facility leaders this might make you feel uneasy, but for one international export team this is an everyday experience.
Reliability Fuels Success for Food Manufacturer
Even for a successful food manufacturer, asset maintenance and reliability must be closely monitored to ensure the business is maximizing production capabilities. For one worldwide company, opportunities to improve overall maintenance effectiveness were being missed due in large part to the lack of a planned weekly schedule, a lack of fundamental training, and a breakdown in communication between the operations and maintenance departments.
RBAM Guides Energy Company’s Asset Conundrum
The President and COO of a nationwide energy company was faced with a question that many other manufacturing leaders have: whether to replace two aging assets or to continue investing in their refurbishment. This was not a simple decision because both outcomes would require significant financial investment, so it was imperative for both options to be fully investigated to determine the best solution. The President enlisted Life Cycle Engineering (LCE), experts in reliability engineering, to assist in making a decision that was best for the business.
Carpenter Technology Completes Successful Acquisition with Change Management Strategy
Carpenter Technology Corporation, an international manufacturer and distributor of specialty alloys, finalized their acquisition of Latrobe Specialty Metals, Inc., however the merging of personnel, systems and processes was proving to be a daunting task. Soon after the acquisition was announced, Carpenter’s management team needed to begin focusing their attention on completing a smooth and successful transition.
Life Cycle Engineering Supports Development of New Biofuel Testing Qualifications for U.S. Navy
The Department of Defense (DOD) is the single largest consumer of oil within the United States, constituting roughly 80 percent of the government’s usage profile. With fossil fuel price volatility, “the DOD has had to do significant budget machinations,” said Joelle Simonpietri, U.S. Pacific Command’s operational manager. To counter the reliance on foreign oil, and the associated costs, the DOD has made it a priority to research alternative fuels that will reduce total cost, while also reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Minnkota Improves with LCE
Minnkota Power’s Milton R. Young Station began commercial operation in 1970 with one generating unit, adding a second generating unit in 1977. In 2012, Life Cycle Engineering (LCE), an industry expert in reliability engineering, was asked to conduct a business assessment of the Young Station. After speaking with several Minnkota employees, it was evident maintenance best practices had slipped over the years, resulting in a shift toward a more reactive maintenance philosophy.
Grain Export Facilities Improve Reliability
A global corporation with two large-scale grain export facilities in North America unloads river barges and trains with grain and then redistributes into the worldwide commodities market on container ships. Both export sites, each consisting of roughly 150 employees, transfer grain consisting mostly of corn, soybeans and wheat.
Global Chemical Leader Uses Risk-Based Asset Management to Improve Maintenance and Reliability Performance
A worldwide leader in global science recognized that their maintenance and reliability programs were performing significantly below world-class standards. To understand where the issues were occurring, the company conducted a maintenance and reliability assessment. The findings highlighted the four areas within the business that showed gaps in production efficiency: equipment and spare parts, data, workforce skills and capabilities, and their asset management system
Achieving Reliability Excellence through Customized Training: Bristol-Myers Squibb’s Journey
Bristol-Myers Squibb (B-MS) is on a four-year Reliability Excellence® journey that requires changes in business processes, systems, tools, skills, and culture. B-MS began by engaging leaders in supporting and promoting reliability best practices. They also sought to build competency in the application of standard processes and best practices in reliability. This was a multi-site initiative that required buy-in training for employees from site leaders to technicians across 12 plants located in the United States, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Italy and Ireland.
World Leader in Chemical Treatment Improves Production Unit Performance with Reliability Engineering
One of the world’s leading chemical treatment companies, specializing in industrial applications, recently installed a new production unit within their chemical plant. The unit was designed to propel the supplier into their market as the
low-cost leader.
