Lesson 6 - Maintenance

After our studies on the execution of maintenance along with its legal and compliance standards, you may feel a strong desire to positively influence the maintenance programme within your brewery. Fortunately, we have that ability through careful and thoughtful design and planning.

The ultimate form of Preventative Maintenance is to design in the most robust and easiest to service systems available to increase a plant or equipment’s reliability (also known as inherent reliability). Better yet, what if there were a way, through new technology or clever system engineering, to design out a challenging or problematic process before it was ever installed?

Serviceability can be defined as the ability to diagnose, remove, replace, replenish, adjust, or repair any component or subsystem, to optimum specification with relative ease. These are some of the advantages of partnering with design and engineering at the start of any new project or as new equipment and expansions are being discussed.

Often, maintenance inherits an existing facility, systems, and procedures – the sum of years of past decisions, possible financial constraints, and brewery growth. Equally as common is the maintenance department being left out of new equipment selection, design, layout, and commissioning. Essentially, brewing and maintenance get what we get and are tasked with making and improving upon the baseline infrastructure.

That aside, those in maintenance roles can provide a great deal of insight and guidance into creating a brewery that not only meets all the operational needs but can be done so with an eye to serviceability, equipment efficiency, and Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).

Design for Serviceability (DFS)

To highlight the benefits of designing for maintenance, let us look at the following example.

In general, a typical oil change for your daily driver may cost US$30–100. High-performance cars with specific requirements for specialised oils or filters can cost more. That need is taken to an extreme by the Bugatti Veyron.

The Veyron, once the world’s fastest production car, commands a price tag in excess of US$1.5 million. Before going out and purchasing one, you should strongly consider saving a bit more for its upkeep. Maintenance for such a piece of automotive technology does not come cheap. An oil change is currently fetching US$21,000. The reasoning behind the cost, however, is not without merit.

For starters, the entire oil change takes approximately 27 hours to complete and is quite involved. reached only after removing elements of the vehicle’s under body. Refilling the oil system and checking the condition of the air filters also requires removal of the car’s rear fender liners and its rear deck.

Keep the Veyron in mind when you are next involved in scheduling or performing routine maintenance. It will make you appreciate the benefits of designing for serviceability.

Now, think of your facility – is this example relatable? If so, is there a design means that could improve or altogether eliminate the issues being experienced?