| |APRIL 202191. Machine And Operator SafetyIn industrial environments, despite taking precautions, accidents are a grim realityduring maintenance operations. Unplanned maintenance increases this danger since the maintenance person needs to get the plant back in the process as soon as possible. Monitoring critical plant and equipment performance enables a reduction in unplanned maintenance events, thereby reducing the associated safety risks to maintenance personnel. Remote monitoring reduces the need for manual inspection and automatic lubrication systems eliminate the need for manual lubrication. Such solutions significantly reduce the risk to personnel, especially when the lubrication points are at heights or remote locations and exposed to adverse weather conditions.2. Energy EfficiencyA bearing's primary function is to reduce friction. The right bearing selection along with the correct seals and lubricant and ensuring proper alignment will ensure reduced energy consumption of the equipment. Remember, in a plant with hundreds of equipment, every bit counts!Most equipment also hasmany ancillary systems having fans, motors, pumps, etc. that keep running irrespective of whether the leading equipment is working or not. By increasing availability and eliminating unplanned stoppages, the overall energy consumption per unit of output is reduced.3. Material Consumption Efficiency Monitoring of equipment helps us know the health of the equipment, thereby eliminating the need for many "time based" repairs and replacement activities. Automatic lubrication systems ensure that the right quantity of lubricant is delivered to the rotating equipment eliminating over lubrication, prevalent across the industry. An optimum sealing and housing solution can enable significantly increased MTBF.Reducing the consumption of spares and lubricants leads to an overall reduction in the cost of operations and contributes to lower environmental impact.4. Improved Production Output And Waste ReductionREP enables higher equipment output and increased efficiencies. Also, surprise failures are reduced, ensuring reduced rejections. We are currently working on an exciting new offering called Recondoil. Recondoil uses proprietary technology,enabling the used oil to be restored to its original level of cleanliness. This will eliminate or significantly reduce the need to dispose of the spent oil, which is the current industry practice and has a significant environmental impact. Similarly, remanufacturing of large bearings significantly increase the useful life of a bearing, which will help cut on the carbon emissions and costs of a new bearing. Remanufacturing is regularly used in safety critical industries such as aviation and railways.HOW DOES SKF'S ROTATING EQUIPMENT PERFORMANCE (REP) WORK?The unique aspect of SKF's REP offering is that they do not just provide advice and sell the products. They stand by their solutions and have its skin in the game.In a typical REP offering, the customer does not need to invest in any components, monitoring hardware, or services upfront. SKF will enter into a fee-based performance contract with clearly defined KPI's. These contracts will be tailored to each customer's individual needs and may be at a single equipment level as detailed in the cement company example above or at a whole plant level as they have done for a rolling mill with a steel major in east India where we are paid based on per ton of steel produced, where we seek to increase the utilization rate from below 60 percent to above 90 percent over three years.To summarise, the benefits of REP offerings are:1. No upfront investment in CAPEX or MRO spares costs2. Monthly and KPI based fees3. Payout based on actual performanceSolution is tailormade to your needsLOOKING AHEADPerformance demands are different for every business. But, with rotating equipment the ultimate objective is to maximise the reliability and output from your machinery and your production process, whilst driving down the total cost of ownership over the life cycle. With experience from almost every industrial sector and machine type, SKF intends to work closely with the customer throughout a machine's complete life cycle, using our knowledge, experience and insight to provide improved equipment design speciications, as well as the high quality products, services, and advice required to help you meet your business objectives.Looking ahead, we at SKF believe we will experience a sea change in the area of plant reliability. The advent of digitalization and AI will change the way we monitor our assets and plan their repairs and maintenance. The trend of the product as a service will accelerate. Companies will need to deliver to the customer by partnering with them for their plant reliability requirements and continuously providing value.The future is reliable, digital, and sustainable.At SKF we would like to summarise what we can do for our customers in just three simple words ­ ZERO SURPRISE FAILURES.
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