For about as far back as I can remember I’ve had some form of an annual physical. In my youth each year a sports physical was required prior to try outs, and an annual physical was required for scout camp; which meant a doctor’s visit once a year. As an adult most of my employers required a physical, if not every year, every other year. While the extent of the physicals vary somewhat, some are simple visual and diagnostic exams: checking pulse and blood pressure, check your ears, throat, etc., while others may require lab work and additional tests.
Why do we do it? We subject ourselves to annual checkups to ensure we stay healthy and operating at peak performance. We take our automobiles in for an annual inspection, oil change, new tires, and routine maintenance at regular mileage thresholds for the same reason. Yet every day I encounter plant and facilities departments that shun performing preventative maintenance and seemingly ignore regular testing. “We don’t have it in our budget.” “We can’t afford to schedule an outage.” “It’s too risky to shut down.”
Plant and facilities professionals are responsible for millions of dollars of capital equipment and critical production; where an hour of down time can be measured in hundreds of thousands of dollars and yet often a simple "check-up” is ignored. Highly sensitive equipment is routinely subjected to poor power quality due to an increasingly stressed infrastructure, harmonics, sags, swells, brownouts, and aging equipment. Maintenance budgets are limited, and resources are stretched. We’re all asked to do more with less and that’s been the industry mantra for decades. Every year unplanned outages, industrial accidents, and failures are the result of a lack of maintenance and sadly, preventable.
Today’s technology allows for a myriad of testing options. Infrared testing, as one example, can be performed without a shut down. In fact, it requires the equipment be operating to detect loose connections, overheating, bad terminations, imbalanced heating between phases, failing contacts, and other impending failures. Yet many firms continue to ignore this time proven testing technology. There’s a host of testing options ranging from insulation resistance, to dielectric breakdown, from low resistance, to Very Low Frequency (VLF) testing, partial discharge, ground resistance, and many others. How do you identify which tests and technologies are right for your operation and your specific site? How do you interpret the results of those test? What’s a good reading and what’s a bad reading?
Start by contacting a qualified testing company, an engineering or electrical firm that specializes in testing and maintenance. They can advise you on what testing is available and help customize a testing program to meet your needs and resources. One readily available source is to find an InterNational Electrical Testing Association (NETA) accredited company. These firms are independent third-party testing companies with trained and certified technicians who test to established standards. Once you have a program in place, follow through with it and you’ll see more uptime, fewer unplanned interruptions and a healthier bottom line.
Who knows, in the end, you may even see better results on your annual checkup as well; in terms of lower blood pressure and less stress!
Kevin J Matthews, PE, PMP earned his BSEE from Penn State University and an MBA in Technology Management from the University of Phoenix. In his 35+ years post graduate career he has worked in construction, plant and facilities operations, project management, engineering and technology management, and the field as a Plant Engineer, Field Service Engineer, Facilities Engineer, Project Manager, Chief Engineer, Senior Engineer, Service Manager, Engineering Manager, and Senior Service Manager in the service, construction, facilities, and critical environment management field.