Resource industries are some of the most difficult to achieve operational excellence in. From underground mines to oil rigs to above-ground chemical plants, resource industry companies experience pressures like no other.
The stakes of equipment failure in resource industries are worlds apart from most. An equipment failure doesn’t just mean that shipments might not go out, and customers might be unhappy; it could mean environmental disasters, injuries, and hundreds of thousands of dollars in production outages.
It is no surprise, then, that resource industry companies made strides in sophistication in their operational excellence playbook.
The Fundamentals: Equipment Performance and Reliability
The most critical pillar of operational excellence in resource industries is the reliability of equipment. Equipment is the business in resource industries. If equipment such as pumps or rotating equipment fail at an oil processing plant, the plant is done for.
This means that making decisions about the type of equipment used is a core business activity. Companies operating successfully in this space know that selecting appropriate equipment for the job saves you from headaches down the line. When it comes to pumps, compressors, and rotating equipment, hire a knowledgeable rotating equipment provider who knows how to get equipment that consistently performs under the demand of these industries.
The best companies don’t just pick equipment and move on. They create a resilient program surrounding the reliability of the equipment they use. This includes replacement protocols, inspections, and reliable predictive maintenance protocols. While they might seem like tedious, expensive undertakings, reliability programs save you from outages that would cripple huge parts of your operation.
Resilient Maintenance Models
One of the most reliable pathways to operational excellence in resource industries is through resilient maintenance models. Treating rotating devices and equipment in this industry by a “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” philosophy might work wonders for other industries. Still, when a device’s failure could cripple the company’s efforts, this model is a recipe for disaster.
Achieving operational excellence in resource industries means embracing predictive and preventive maintenance models. Maintenance models to achieve operational excellence in these industries allow companies to predict faults ahead of time and plan for the appropriate adjustments rather than being forced to react to faults.
Resource industry companies can save money on being forced to shut down production by getting ahead of times when equipment might experience faulting due to wear and tear. Vibration assessment and thermal imaging are tools that can help you assess equipment before it reaches a faulting stage. Other options include oil sampling assessment or ultrasonic inspection.
Resource industries also incorporate effectively keeping records of these assessments within maintenance models. Companies build their company’s knowledge with what they keep record of over time, and this might help with predicting faults.
Operational Excellence in Process Optimization
Operational excellence is about finding areas of a company where optimizing or adjusting a part of its approach can improve its operational performance and output. In resource industries, process optimization is an area of concern.
Resource industry companies are always looking to optimize the amount that they produce. Waste is another process that offers great opportunities for optimization in the quest for operational excellence. Most waste occurs pre-and post-production. However, this industry knows how to improve their model by finding the bottleneck in the process.
If the product that is produced needs to be processed elsewhere, the bottleneck might occur in various locations other than the point of creation. The transportation network might experience bottlenecks as they transport ore from mines to processing plants.
If they are able to get around this, they will achieve huge leaps in improvement in productivity without needing any additional implements.
Resource companies also know that by slightly improving their energy consumption models, they can make massive energy gains. They often look for ways to save as much energy as possible in their production process. This could mean looking for better engines, pumps, etc.
Automation and Intelligent Choices
Resource industry companies are experiencing greater competition than ever before. Operational excellence is the best way for companies to get ahead of their competition. Companies must not rely on old models of production line management.
Technological integration can lead to intelligent decisions around streamlining and optimizing company resources and processes. Many organizations have proven that implementing technology into their production line processes opens up remarkable opportunities to gather data.
Organizations can no longer shy away from technology. It has become easier than ever for even the oldest and most cumbersome manufacturers to implement technology. Companies that successfully implement technology into their equipment keep a close eye on how much of the data gathered on the machines they use and other points on their sites.
Sensors on equipment provide incredible insights into what is happening on industrial floors. Managers can use this data intelligently to make decisions on how to save equipment, along with how production volume varies at specific times of day or week.
Resource industry managers can also make mistakes smarter by using the data sensors provided to avoid making the same mistakes over time. These sensors make for smarter decisions around automated controls on site.
Smart Employees that are Consistently Trained
The most important aspect of ensuring operational excellence remains the same over time and that is training. Employees are the lifeblood of organizations in any industry. They need to understand how their role as part of the organization achieves operational excellence.
Resource industry organizations have this challenge covered. It is often operational staff that works with machinery closest to the machines and understands how they work outside of ideal conditions.
Smartly trained employees become the organization’s greatest assets. The employees know how specific components should perform versus how they must perform out in the field and report their findings within established systems. They measure efficiency and find improvements over time compared to last season’s performance.
Over time, operational excellence in resource industries will be a blend of intelligently designed machinery and smartly trained operators that identify inefficiencies every time they use them.
An excellent, all-rounded approach ensures that companies using machinery still achieve operational excellence despite being at the mercy of their equipment. Resource industries require reliable equipment, smart maintenance processes, optimized production processes, intelligent technological integration, and finely tuned training programs for their teams.