Congratulation to the Emerson Exchange Reliability Program of the Year Winner and Finalists
Saudi Aramco wins 'Reliability Program of the Year'
In 2013, Saudi Aramco Ras Tanura Refinery in Saudi Arabia set out to instill a new culture at its facilities and improve rotating equipment reliability. "Our responsibility is to supply the demand of the kingdom,” said Saudi Aramco Reliability Section Head Eyad Al-Basrawi, “so 24/7 operations are critical.” He added, "Our results went from very good to excellent when we implemented our reliability program."
That move won them the Emerson 2015 Reliability Program of the Year and helped Saudi Aramco save more than $10 million dollars annually. Also, the plant reduced rotating equipment maintenance and failures and eliminated 50,000 man-hours of preventive maintenance activities.
Saudi Aramco dubbed its fast-track program “Reliability Accelerated Culture Enhancement” (RACE) to instill a reliability mindset at its facilities and improve rotating equipment health. Saudi Aramco was one of four finalists that presented reliability programs to conference attendees in October at the Emerson Global Users Exchange.
"Major accomplishments related to our operational Key Performance Indicators, and included improving the mean time between failures for our 48 compressors by 153%, for our 116 turbines by 167%, and for our 1,653 pumps by 53%," Al-Basrawi said. "We created a reliability team and a reliability boot camp program. The attendees spent five days talking about reliability, which accelerated the development of the workforce and supported transfer of critical knowledge and skills."
Also, the refinery saw 180% increase in defect identification; restructured its vibration monitoring program for a $1.1M cost saving; improved air system efficiency by 20% – eliminating $850K of wasted energy; and boosted steam turbine performance – eliminating $7M in wasted energy.
The two program-of-the-year runner-ups were CMC Steel South Carolina and Corbion in Blair, Nebraska, with second place going to Exelon’s LaSalle County Nuclear Generating Station southwest of Chicago.
During their Global Users Exchange sessions, the four companies presented best-in-class reliability programs, highlighted the effective use of reliability-based technologies, showed effective work processes, highlighted integrated maintenance best practices, commented on leadership commitment, and showed how return-on-investment turned reliability programs into a necessary part of every plant’s machinery health.
Stay tuned for additional information on how your company can apply to be considered for the 2016 Reliability Program of the Year.
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