Three tips to asset longevity and production confidence

When planning a driving holiday, would you trust your car without a thorough assessment by an experienced mechanic with the latest testing equipment?

Similarly, as an asset manager or maintenance engineer, you are faced with the responsibility of ensuring the optimal condition of critical assets year-round, not just for the holidays.

Are you striving for asset longevity?

Our field engineers and experts know that for productivity and budget, asset owners and managers like you are striving to extend the life of your assets beyond their intended design. At the same time, you’re trying to maximise productivity and minimise or eliminate unplanned outages.

However, your pivotal question across all high voltage assets, from motors, generators, transformers, cables and switchgear, now rests on whether you’re confident that your engineers possess the requisite knowledge and experience to make these critical assessments.

Challenges in workplace skills and experience

In an era of evolving workplace dynamics, where professionals switch between roles and organisations, accumulating expertise for confident decision-making becomes a challenge. Unlike the past, where a mechanic's decades-long experience instilled trust, today's engineers find themselves flexible but potentially less able to confidently make critical asset decisions.

This lack of confidence becomes particularly significant when determining the operational viability of assets. In a rapidly advancing technological landscape, engineers can gather an unprecedented amount of data on asset conditions, ranging from insulation resistance to complex factors like vibration and partial discharge.

New opportunities and concerns with increased data

However, the dilemma lies in interpreting this vast data. Are engineers equipped to confidently decipher the information gathered? What if the operator lacks a comprehensive understanding of the technology used during testing? The issue extends beyond field engineers to service companies.

Catastrophic consequences loom if a failure occurs despite having a wealth of data. Justifying decisions becomes daunting without the confidence needed for a detailed explanation. Blaming data providers is futile, as they merely furnish what is requested.

Addressing this challenge requires concerted efforts in several areas:

1. Organise Information: Systematically manage information and data related to critical assets.
2. Retain Expertise: Document and preserve the history of condition assessment decisions, including consequences, to pass on expertise to future generations.
3. Implement Continuous Monitoring: Utilize continuous monitoring to gather real-time benchmarks for critical failure modes, instilling confidence in the current asset condition.

While there's no easy solution, focusing on these areas can lead to improvements and instill the confidence needed to make informed decisions about critical assets.

To find out more, join us for a limited seating Free Webinar to explore the latest options in condition monitoring and reliability.