Rethink “Standardization”
Rethink “Standardization”
Continuous Improvement in Annual Chiller Maintenance
Continuous Improvement in Annual Chiller Maintenance
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When your facility has three or four Central Utilities Buildings and houses the largest Chilled Water Plant west of the Mississippi, you will find not all chillers are the same. While some new chillers are being commissioned and brought up to production, others have been in operation for ten or fifteen years. Having a single maintenance procedure will not apply “as-is” everywhere and it is our responsibility to ensure procedures remain in touch with reality.
We focused on Annual Maintenance
Our Structured Approach
Relied on Direct Observation to create a Tops-Down map of the Current State.
Facilitated a period of instruction with Technicians and Group Leads, so they would learn how to categorize activities as Value Added, Non-Value-Added, and Necessary Non-Value-Added. We also brought into the session the concept of a Single-Minute Exchange of Die (SMED).
The structure of the Tops-Down Map identified faulty interdependencies, which led to the causes of the broken connections between supporting groups (think about the connection necessary between LSS and the Mechanical discipline for the temporary suppression of Life Safety System alarms when working with refrigerants).
Broke the sequence of the procedure into “invasive” and “non-invasive” to maximize the equipment uptime.
Biggest Wins
A dedicated toolbox for Annual PMs, loaded with consumables, spares, and only the tools that were necessary and sufficient for the PM.
A Design of Experiment showed the optimal distances to set tools, parts, and consumables were between 2 and 15 feet from the point of work. Anything closer was too inconvenient, anything farther away impacted the wastes of Motion and Transport.
Documented the physical preparation of the area.
Adopted Best-Known Methods from a sister discipline to submit requests for the temporal impairment of LSS alarms.
Results by the Numbers
Travel Distance during the PM reduced by 83%
Efficiency gains (in terms of total PM activities) of 50%
The time required to complete the Annual PM was reduced by 30%
Positive impact in the reduction of the seven typical Lean wastes.
Time and Resources Required
One technician from each working shift, plus a Maintenance Planner/Scheduler
The discipline's Group Lead, Front-Line Manager, or Supervisor
One Lean Specialist
Three days of work
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