How To Save Money With Baseline Data

To many decision-makers, it’s an obvious waste of money to perform full diagnostics and the full preventive maintenance procedure on new equipment at the time of installation. And those decision-makers are wrong. Let’s look at some of the points and counterpoints.

Decision-makers like to point out that the equipment is new and under warranty. True, but the equipment can be damaged during transportation or installation. Equipment warranties do not cover lost production time, late shipment penalties by customers, excess scrap, or physical injury to operators. When this “logic” is applied to cables, which can easily be damaged during installation and have low intrinsic value but very high infrastructure value, it passes the point of absurdity.

Another thing they like to point out is that skipping the first year of testing “saves a lot of time and money,” though the actual cost of testing pales in comparison to the cost of what’s being tested. And if skipping one year of this “unnecessary expense” is good, then skipping two years is even better.

By the third year, some will point out that the equipment “has lasted this long without all that testing” (whatever is recommended by the relevant industry standards and/or the manufacturer) so it clearly isn’t necessary to “go crazy with it.” Which translates into “Do what you can without scheduling downtime,” which really means, “We sure like surprises around here! Nothing like a little smoke to liven things up!”

Fortunately, decision-makers this extreme about cost-cutting are in the minority. Unfortunately, the general mindset that testing needs to be as minimal as you can get by with is fairly prevalent. And this leads to resources not being allocated for baseline testing.

Suppose Aaron gets a work order to determine why a particular motor runs hot. He performs an insulation resistance test on the windings. So what? That test has no meaningful data because there’s no context for the test results. But if Aaron is able to get a report from the CMMS showing the insulation resistance of the windings at the time of installation and for each of the past six years, he now has useful data. Especially if this latest reading significantly differs from the trend created by the previous ones. There is a caveat with this particular test. Anything below 10 Megohms is bad. This does not mean, however, that you’re good at 11 Megohms (see that comment about the trend).

When performing a PM, you should always take before and after readings; these are often called As Found and As Left on test forms. If you take the As Left readings after installation and before operation, you have a baseline from which to judge the As Found on the first PM. If that PM is a year after installation with no baseline data, you have lost a whole year of data and you have lost the context for those readings. At installation, the equipment has not yet been subject to heat, vibration, mechanical force, or general wear. After one year, what do those As Found readings mean? If you have baseline data, they mean you know what has changed over the past year. If you don’t have baseline data, they mean you know where things are now but not if they have changed.

How much baseline data is sufficient? The short answer is “get anything that’s relevant.” Some examples:

• For feeder cables, you want the insulation resistance readings at a minimum. Hi-pot would also be good. Check your cable testing program to see what tests will be performed during a shutdown and perform all of those tests at installation. This will give you context for those future test results.
• For a motor, you want insulation resistance readings and the axial runout number at a minimum. The axial runout measurement is typically skipped but having it can save you a lot of downtime. At a plastics plant in Kentucky, the Plant Electrical Engineer insisted on axial runout measurements for each replacement motor that arrived at the plant. It turned out that one had a slightly bent shaft. It seemed to turn OK by hand, but it wasn’t true and so the vibration while running would have been quite high. The crew saved more than a full shift of labor hours by not installing that motor (which would have been followed by an uninstall plus a an install of a second replacement). That was the benefit in that installation situation; for motor troubleshooting purposes, being able to compare the baseline measurement to the present measurement has great time-saving value. Another vital step is to ensure you have a clear image of the nameplate. This image should always be sent along with the PO for a replacement motor. And it’s useful in maintaining the motor.
• For a motor drive, put it through its diagnostics and record what it finds. Record each setting, both as text in the CMMS and (where possible) as images to be stored in the CMMS. It may also be helpful to make a video where the tech setting up the drive is explaining each setting as he goes. Imagine responding to a trouble call on the third shift and you don’t know drives very well. But you watch that video. This sure beats spending a half hour with the manual and then calling Dave “drive guru” Jones at home anyhow.
• Complex production equipment is often built to purpose and thus is unique. Downtime is usually very expensive. A kitchen range plant in Tennessee puts out just under $1 million worth of ranges per hour. One glitch in a subsystem stops the flow of that $1 million. The settings on the many component pieces of equipment were dialed in during a tedious start-up. The plant has a record of every setting change ever made on every piece of equipment. There’s also baseline data on every PLC, every motor, and every robot. The more revenue you need to protect, the more baseline data collection becomes paramount. That’s going to include photo documentation of whatever can help shorten the troubleshooting process. An image that shows a model number, for example, could cut significant time by putting some steps in parallel. Jim goes off to get the spare component while Abby then removes the old one.

Taking baseline data, including whatever photo and video documentation can aid with future maintenance, troubleshooting, and repair, is part of doing a quality installation job. Spending money here saves far greater sums down the road. Saving money here amounts to a few beans at the time but can be very costly down the road.