The plant engineer hired you a week ago; she’s been with the company three months. The plant has high equipment failure rates generally, which is why the previous plant engineer was replaced. Line 3’s rates are especially bad, and electronic components fare the worst. Unfortunately, Line 3 is responsible for most of the plant’s revenue. She wants the Line 3 failure rates slashed in half and says there is a root cause or two that will do the job. Finding it is your task.
What should your first steps be?
A maxim of troubleshooting is, “Start with the power supply.” Most likely, all the branch circuits for this line run off the same transformer. Is it overloaded? If it is also supplying other loads, said loads may be introducing power anomalies.
Electronics are failing, so suspect transient power spikes. Do those motors start across the line? Because failure rates are high throughout the plant, look at the transient voltage surge suppression (TVSS) system. Does it provide progressive layers of protection, each for a particular energy level?
Also suspect grounding and bonding errors. Start with the supply transformer [e.g., is the “grounding” (bonding) strap connected?].
