24/7 Systems

To extend the life of industrial equipment, the plant must understand the root cause of failure and systematically remove these failure causes.

Repair documentation prepared by repair shops is not standardized and can be as simple as the line items on an invoice or may provide more detail such as the line items on an invoice or may provide more detail such as inspection reports, photographs of the failed component repair details, test reports and root causes of failure.

Repair Shop Data Entry

As equipment repair facility is usually in the best position to capture design details and failure root causes. When a failed piece of equipment is sent to the repair shop, the first step is disassembly and inspection. At this point, the shop knows basic design and failure information about the equipment. Once a repair has been approved and performed by the shop, the shop also knows the cost of repair and warranty period. The types of information a repair ship may enter include:

Root Cause of Failure: Typically, the plant will see the equipment failure as why it stopped functioning, which is either "winding failure" or "bearing failure." This level of information is not helpful for the plant in understanding how to make the equipment perform longer because these symptoms are usually the result of some other root cause. A shop can determine the root causes of failure and the plant may then take action to eliminate the root cause and obtain longer motor life.

Repair Tracker Entry

As an example, a motor was removed from service with shortened windings and a costly replacement or rewind will be necessary. At the repair shop, the motor is inspected and the inspector finds that the motor windings are full of grease. The root cause of failure is excessive lubrication. the shop's cause of failure analysis, including photos of the failure and inspection summary document are stored for future reference.