ARTICLE
April 25, 1995
Well-planned, scheduled
shut-downs enhances plant operations

A shut-down of an process industry plant, especially a pulp and paper production unit, is in many aspects a major project. With good planning, the time for shut-downs shortens, and the plant availability after a shut-down will remain on a high level.
According to Ramse-Synton Oy, a Finnish company specialised on industrial maintenance, a modern pulp and paper industry plant can shorten the time for shut-downs with approximately 10 percent with better planning of the shut-down operations. Especially in times with steadily growing markets, efficient scheduled shutdowns increase the plant profitability remarkably.

Scheduled shut-downs are an important part of the overall maintenance system in industrial production plants and should be given appropriate priority. Maintenance consultants Juha Lamberg and Jukka Aalto at Ramse-Synton point out that a company, which has adopted a maintenance strategy with scheduled shut-downs, has a competitive advantage on today’s demanding markets. Stiff competition requires maximum high-quality production and punctual deliveries.
“Our experience, since 1980, shows that the pulp and paper industry can shorten their scheduled shut-downs by up to ten percent. The normal time saving for an ordinary well-managed plant is some 6-7 percent. That means much in terms of production output and profit which is usually achieved by marginal tons,” says Juha Lamberg.
“It is the responsibility of the top management to pay attention to all sides of plant maintenance, including the planning of scheduled shut-downs. Even if there is hardly any plant without some kind of scheduled shut-downs, there is always room for improvements,” he adds.
Modern pulp and paper plant management must note the importance of a functioning maintenance strategy. Only the fact that a normal sized production facility has a spare parts storage worth some US two million, should be a reason for paying more attention to maintenance questions, among them scheduled shut-downs.

Planning reduces costs
Every industrial plant continuously seeks means to reduce costs, which in practise has resulted in a wide use of subcontractors. For the pulp and paper industry, the use of subcontractors for maintenance could be fatal without good planning. “Experience shows that the lack of a strong maintenance strategy is one of the main reasons behind unplanned shut-downs, and overdue in the question of scheduled shut-downs”, says Jukka Aalto.
According to Ramse-Synton expertise, annual and other scheduled shut-downs must be part of the total maintenance system. The timing of shut-downs is especially important and must be connected to the overall maintenance program with all what it states for example about spare parts storage and preventive maintenance.
“Planning a shut-down means above all that the work which must be done, have the right schedule. It is easy to say, but not so easy to implement, as a shut-down includes both own personnel and specialised external expertise,” says Jukka Aalto.
The overall maintenance program supplemented with a strategy plan for shut-downs will significantly reduce costs. For the first, the storage of spare parts can be optimised without jeopardising the plant functionality. The other major cost reducing factor is the, above mentioned, time saving for a well-planned scheduled shut-down.

All parts are involved
A parameter of paramount importance is the plant’s degree of automation, because it sets limits to what the personnel can do economically by themselves. Ramse-Synton’s Juha Lamberg says that there, first of all, should be a meeting with representatives for both the production side and the maintenance side. With a clearly formulated and implemented program for maintenance, the meeting can decide about, for example, “last-minutes duties”, and thereby avoid reparations or service that would affect the full-scale production later on.
In many cases a highly-automated plant has no multi-skilled personnel to take the responsibility for all the various tasks involved with modern industrial maintenance. The majority of the employees is specialised within very narrow occupational barriers.
“Maintenance and scheduled shut-downs must therefore include representatives for all specialised groups, such as mechanical engineers, electricians and automation specialists. We have seen many examples, where a scheduled shut-down does not reach its major goal, i.e. to make the time for the shut-down as short as possible and to avoid unplanned shut-downs later on”, says Juha Lamberg. “It is important that all special duties, even simple tasks such as replacing a strap, are defined.”

Routines for
documentation and reporting
A major problem with maintenance in general and especially scheduled shut-downs is that the weak link in the process is seldom the expected one. Juha Lamberg stresses that co-operation between own personnel – and contractors – must be clearly documented and that every scheduled shut-down task should be listed in order to avoid mistakes made earlier.
“From the written shut-down report with repair or service times clearly stated, it is much more easier to plan the next obligatory shut-down. The quality of maintenance, in terms of overall maintenance costs, can by the aid of complete documentation and commitment, be increased with up to 50 percent. Even in well-managed plants you can enhance the maintenance quality by some 15 percent.
In a newly completed shut-down planning work for a pulp and paper plant in South-Africa, the Ramse-Synton experts managed to shorten the shut-down time with approximately seven percent, when compared to the scheduled. In terms of production output, such a time saving of this size can be worth millions.
From its establishment in 1980, experts at Ramse-Synton have assisted more than 400 plants world-wide in improving their maintenance functions. As a Finland-based company, clients are most often found in the pulp and paper industry (about 60 per cent). Other sectors are energy production, marine industry, metallurgy, chemical and foodstuff industry.
Besides Finland, clients in the Nordic countries, Central Europe, UK, North and South America, Africa, Australia and the Far East are also gaining benefits from better maintenance and shut-down strategies.

----

Caption:
Well-planned and realised shut-downs are key factors for high availability and operation performace.


For further information, please contact:
Ramse-Synton Oy
Mr. Juha Lamberg
P.O.Box 17
FIN-01621 VANTAA
Tel. +358 0 894 732
Fax. +358 0 8947 3901