The Case for Condition-Based Maintenance

Executive Summary

Keeping physical assets in proper working order is essential to any organization. Today, most maintenance is still performed either to a

set calendar schedule or to that most ancient of operating procedures: “if it breaks, fix it.” But in a modern, data-intensive industrial

environment we can do much better, and take plant performance to the next level with Condition-Based Maintenance (CBM).

The Perils of Old-School Maintenance

The drawbacks of a reactive, “break-and-fix” maintenance policy should be obvious. Unplanned downtime kills capacity and bleeds

money, emergency parts and labor incur premium costs, and major failures present substantial health, safety and environmental risks.

Clearly we ought to fix assets before they break down, and scheduled maintenance can facilitate this. The drawbacks to this strategy

are less spectacular, but no less real, than those of simply waiting for things to start smoking. First, the frequency of scheduled

maintenance must necessarily be based on worst-case projections of time to failure, but not all assets will be wearing at worst

case rates. Thus, scheduled maintenance results in over-maintenance: wasting downtime, parts and people on unnecessary repairs

and replacements. And without attention to actual operating asset status, even the most diligent maintenance calendar will be unable to

account for abnormal conditions that fall outside its projections – and maintenance is back in reactive mode with a smoking heat

exchanger on their hands.

The Case for Condition-Based Maintenance 2

Table of Contents

Executive Summary ................................................................................................................................................................... 1

The Perils of Old-School Maintenance ..................................................................................................................................... 3

An Intelligent Approach ............................................................................................................................................................. 3

Your Plant is Ready for CBM ..................................................................................................................................................... 3

The Case for Condition-Based Maintenance 3

For more information:

For more information about Control

Performance Monitor visit our website

www.honeywell.com/ps or contact your

Honeywell account manager.

www.matrikon.com

cpm@matrikon.com

Honeywell Process Solutions

1250 West Sam Houston Parkway South

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www.honeywell.com/ps

An Intelligent Approach

Condition-based maintenance is maintenance based on an asset’s actual condition – a philosophy that entails performing maintenance

only when there is an impending fault or failure condition. The objectives of condition-based maintenance are prevention of unplanned

downtime, making optimal use of maintenance resources, and maximizing the operational life of plant assets. An online, integrated

CBM program first takes real-time data on plant performance (such as from sensors and alarms) and compares that data to engineered

or defined parameters to determine the condition of the equipment. By analyzing historized real-time data, an accurate prediction of

upcoming failure is possible, and maintenance schedules can be adjusted based on these predictions.

The benefits of condition-based maintenance are potentially enormous. First, by making real asset health data and solid fault-or-failure

predictions available, intelligent plans can be made to proactively head off unplanned shutdowns. Second, with the same intelligence,

healthy assets that are running well can be left to run when they might otherwise have been unnecessarily taken offline for scheduled

maintenance. A third benefit also presents itself, as the data-gathering and analysis tools that make a CBM program possible can

provide the basis for many other plant optimization efforts.

Your Plant is Ready for CBM

The most exciting thing about condition-based maintenance is that, in any modern facility, the key resource needed by a CBM program

– namely, real-time asset data – is already present in abundance, flowing untapped through your control room. The information critical

to the operation of your mill – temperature, vibration and airflow data, etc. – could become critical to its maintenance. A condition-based

maintenance program takes this data and unlocks its predictive power to add capacity, reliability and profitability to your operation.

WP 577

August 2011

© 2011 Honeywell International Inc.