Becht Engineering Blog

One of the major issues we see when we go into some plants to do a maintenance or reliability assessment Is that the plant is an isolated island even in a multi plant enterprise. Sharing of ideas across sites is discouraged or forbidden by corporate culture or site management and there are no enterprise scorecards comparing site to site KPI’s. These sites rarely participate in external industry organizations, take external training courses or collaborate with personnel at other sites. One might ask how these organizations keep up with best practice, solve problems common to most refiners and train their staff. The simple answer is they don’t. Without some level of benchmarking and external communication it is very difficult to determine where you are relative to industry peers and how to improve. This blog discusses how one organization developed programs to reach out internally and externally - even extending beyond our industry...

Good training is something that we know is necessary. In light of Industry’s aging demographics and retiring experience, we need good training to carry us successfully into the future. As technology evolves more quickly and changes almost daily, we need good training to help us to wring the last dollar out of our constant upgrades and investments. And as reliability improves and minimizes our employees’ opportunities to observe “a blip”, we need good training to substitute for on-the-job learning.But the best-designed training program in the world will fail miserably in its delivery if conditions at your site are not supportive of the effort. If a seed is planted, receives no sunshine, no water, and is allowed to be choked off by weeds – do you REALLY think it has a chance to root and bear fruit? You’re right – training isn’t farming – but let’s look at the five things most...

or  "Kidnapped By My Own Business Team"A number of years ago I worked closely with an Operating Company Business Team and Mergers and Acquisitions group performing due diligence assessments. I often led these assessments and my input on reliability, maintenance, mechanical integrity and inspection was incorporated into a multi discipline team of legal, environmental, finance and operational experts. These assessments could be as long as six weeks to thoroughly evaluate an asset. The adventure I am about to describe was a lot different.My boss called me and asked me to come to his office right away. This was quite unusual for him unless my number came up for a random drug test. I went to his office immediately, closed the door and we started our meeting. He said, “I need you to be in front of the corporate office at 6 AM tomorrow. Hopefully you will return tomorrow night. Don’t mention...

This blog outlines ways to think about reliability to help drive a culture of continuous improvement.  It is the fourth in a series of Blogs on improving plant reliability performance through changes in culture, programs, equipment design, maintenance and operation.The principles we applied in implementing successful reliability programs in a number of operating plants included the following:Treat Reliability like SafetyTreat Reliability like FootballTreat Reliability like AthleticsTreat Reliability like FumigationTreat Reliability like Hard, Dirty WorkTreat Reliability Like SafetyIn most operating plants, there is a reasonable safety culture and program. This is driven by regulatory requirements and also a desire to have a safe, injury free workplace. The safety program includes management reporting at a high level in the plant structure, a well written manual describing hazards and procedures, tests and inspections to be done prior to executing work, a well-defined incident investigation process and metrics to report performance. There is generally a...