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SKF boosts maintenance model at Chinese combined heating and power plant

SKF’s knowledge is being used by Chinese combined heating and power (CHP) generators to ensure maintenance efficiency.

Located in the Zhejiang province southwest of Shanghai, the Jiaxing New Jies plant supplies approximately 112,000 KWh/hour of electricity into the national electricity grid.

It also provides 400 tons/hour of steam for central heating to local community houses, a hospital, a government building and factories in a 15 km radius.

Maintenance efficiency is a large contributor to operational cost efficiency, safety, energy efficiency, to ensure a reduced environmental impact from CHP operations. However, it remains a relatively young area, and China poses many opportunities where increased maintenance efficiency can yield ample results.

The Jiaxing New Jies Plant sought out SKF to install a new approach to maintenance strategy, operations and training. The company was chosen because it could handle the management objectives from a single perspective with regard to the total plant assets and a total advanced maintenance approach.

In traditional maintenance models, long-serving people were the knowledge sources for maintenance.

However, SKF transforms this philosophy into one where processes, new maintenance practices, benchmark comparisons, well documented data, knowledge sharing etc provide the basis for progress.

SKF set up a fully computerised Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) system, implementing data gathering methods and routines, training and supporting the New Jies personnel in the use of the new system, reviewing and updating the maintenance strategy to improve work efficiency, defining damage and failure levels of all assets, defining spare parts and inventory needs, and developing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

All machinery and equipment requiring maintenance, including linear assets such as steam transmission piping, were identified and tagged according to the Power Plant Industry standard KKS coding, and entered into a new computerized maintenance management system (CMMS).

The electronic storing of data and the coding structure allows faster and consistent access and tracking of all maintainable plant assets and their maintenance history, by any authorised personnel at the New Jies plant.

Compared to the previous paper-based, manual system, this increased the speed of maintenance operations and give much greater guarantee of always having the latest information available on any asset, leading to better decision making in regards to maintenance.

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