Andre Jeffries: Driving Out Failure Before It Happens

Being able to predict mechanical failure in a factory operating hundreds of machines 24/7 can mean the difference between hours of costly downtime and increased productivity and earnings.

With that in mind, Imperial Sugar Company has embarked on a mission to make sure each moving part in its arsenal of equipment doesn’t miss a beat.

Reliability engineering team leader Andre Jeffries, equipped with specialized equipment, is on a mission to find problems before they happen at Imperial's plants.

Companies intent on modernizing machine-centric operations look to reliability engineering as a key enabler for business results. To help bring its operations into the 21st century, Imperial has hired Andre Jeffries to implement a reliability program for its plants in Port Wentworth, Ga., and Gramercy, La.

Jeffries, who is Imperial’s reliability engineering team leader, brings years of experience to the job. Prior to joining Imperial, he worked in maintenance and reliability at such industry leaders as Alcan, Alcoa and Bechtel.

As Jeffries defines it, “Reliability is an investment in the long-term performance of the company’s physical assets. At Imperial, that means ensuring we operate our refineries and packaging houses the way our equipment was designed to operate over a given period of time. And we do that best by driving out failure.”

Two major components of the program are reliability centered maintenance (RCM) and total productive maintenance (TPM).
RCM is an engineering framework that helps companies monitor, assess, predict and better understand the working of their physical assets and includes the establishment of a complete maintenance plan.

Central to RCM is the ability to predict when equipment is going to fail and to head off failure – and the resulting downtime – before it happens.

Various techniques are being used at the Imperial plants as part of its predictive maintenance program, including ultra sound, infrared and vibration analysis.

Infrared Thermographic Scan used in finding a potential problem.

Jeffries explains the concept behind vibration analysis: “Each piece of equipment has a vibration signature. Each bearing, for example, emits a noise. Vibration analysis tells you when the signature is changing and when failure is likely.”
Newly recorded vibration signatures are compared against baseline signatures and added to the company’s database for future trending. Reports are generated indicating the condition of bearings, rotors and other parts.

“Without these techniques, you’re operating in the dark, in a purely reactive mode,” said Jeffries.

He explained that if a bearing goes out, for example, it might take four hours of downtime to make the repair. And depending on where that machine is located in the plant, it could easily take a total of eight hours to get the plant back into full production mode.

TPM is about the actual maintenance of equipment, with the goal of significantly increasing production while increasing machine operator ownership.

One of the strategies here is to shut down operations periodically for routine maintenance to reduce the likelihood of emergency repairs. The Gramercy and Port Wentworth plants are currently being shut down twice a month to repair equipment and replace worn parts.

Controlled shutdowns ensure all maintenance jobs are thoroughly planned and understood beforehand by those who will execute them and that all the needed parts will be available.

“When we shut the plants down, we’re able to get more maintenance work done more efficiently,” said Jeffries. “The end result is that it makes our equipment and processes that much more reliable and increases production run time.”

Jeffries initially developed a three-year reliability implementation plan that includes new job descriptions for recruiting predictive maintenance technicians and other skilled workers.

He is now fast tracking that plan to capture more immediate results. To help speed things up, he has brought in outside contractors to do predictive maintenance, revamp the lubrication process and conduct failure mode and effect analysis.

“We are making good progress, big strides in reliability improvement. We’ve seen an uptick in performance. The whole key is to be proactive and get ahead of any potential failures.”

Jeffries said that in the next six months the team should be wrapping up the initial phase, which includes inspection and repairs of all equipment at both plants.