Most utilities know that investing in maintenance is vital. Conducting a unit overhaul at your utility can increase reliability, efficiency, and longevity. It can also enhance employee wellbeing by creating a less stressful and safer environment.
While the benefits are numerous, the process can be overwhelming. I have assisted numerous utilities through this process and can share some lessons learned through this experience. If you are wondering how to conduct a successful unit overhaul, following these six guidelines can help.
Six Steps for Utility Maintenance Success
- Respect Equipment Life Cycles: Maintenance costs and risk of catastrophic failure increases with age. Owners should plan on a one- to two-year process, including budgetary approval. The budget should be set one year prior to the outage.
- Define Your Scope of Work: Project managers need to understand the extent of the work, including realistic long lead times for some components. Overhaul planners also need original equipment manufacturer (OEM) specifications. Component inspections must be thorough and comprehensive. Managers must also apply industry standards. Project managers need to regularly consult with their team.
- Prequalify Your Contractor: Prequalification elements include the contractor’s safety record, relevant experience including technical experience, competency, and shop capabilities, an industry reputation for quality, engineering resources and support, workforce sourcing including level of experience, and the proposed schedule.
- Stay Engaged: It’s important to stay engaged throughout the project. Recommended activities include weekly update meetings, project site visits, vendor/supplier selection, timely decisions on post discovery, and shop visits.
- Manage Discovery: During the project discovery phase, which includes collecting and analyzing information, you should set realistic expectations and budget accordingly. You should also hold a review after the initial disassembly and inspection is complete, and be sure to keep moving after the discovery phase.
- Initiate Future Planning: As part of the overall project, the team needs to evaluate and apply lessons learned. Reviewing the discovery/cost schedule and reviewing future steps to minimize vendor lead times are especially important steps. This is long-term thinking that promotes future success.
These guidelines serve to make the utility maintenance process more manageable so that your utility can reap the benefits. Overall, being proactive with maintenance needs means that your utility and employees will operate more efficiently and safely.
