World-class maintenance at G-P's Old Town mill: reliability-based maintenance is the key to a smooth-running plant.

True to its name, Georgia-Pacific's Old Town mill in Maine has a long history, dating back nearly 100 years. However, the mill has a decidedly new approach to maintenance. Old Town has fully adopted reliability based maintenance and, as a result, has dramatically improved its productivity and reliability. Instead of waiting for maintenance issues to develop, the mill now anticipates what might go wrong--and stops potential problems in their tracks.

The former James River mill became part of Georgia-Pacific (G-P) in December 2000. More specifically, it is part of G-P's Consumer Products Division. The mill produces 650 tons/day of bleached kraft pulp, all from hardwood chips. Some of the pulp is sold as market pulp, with the remainder being used as part of the furnish for the two tissue machines. These machines collectively produce approximately 250 tons/day of napkin, toweling, and tissue. These operations are supported by two continuous digesters, with capacities of 425 and 125 tons/day respectively; a 2.3 million-lb black liquor solids recovery boiler; two oil-fired power boilers; and three steam powered turbine generators. Power generated represents about 50% of the mill's needs. Effluent treatment facilities include primary and secondary clarification, aerated lagoons, and sludge dewatering.

Evolution of the maintenance program

Old Town's world-class maintenance program is designated as RBM, or reliability-based maintenance. There are four components to RBM:

* Planning and scheduling

* Predictive maintenance

* Preventive maintenance

* Proactive maintenance.

Old Town's departure from the "fire-fighting, get back on line as quickly as possible" approach began to change in the late 1980s with the help of Rick Wheaton (now deceased), who was a leader in the efforts to improve maintenance performance. His spearheading efforts formalized the planning and predictive maintenance activities. In the latter area, Wheaton developed the department's capabilities in vibration analysis, laser technology for shaft alignments, and other diagnostic tools. Predictive maintenance is characterized by replacing components on a condition-type approach. Change-outs are based on equipment condition and not necessarily the past history of the item in question.

In 1992, a new mill manager, Joe Broz, came to Old Town. It quickly became apparent to him that the mill was not proficient in carrying out shutdowns and the subsequent startups. Consequently, Broz had every department executing shutdowns on a frequent basis, every 2-3 weeks. Gradually, as the various departments became more proficient, this frequency was decreased. Today, for example, each tissue machine runs 7-8 weeks between shutdowns. Proficiency gains came not only in operations but also in the planning and scheduling activities. These gains fostered a greater degree of coordination and cooperation between operations and maintenance. No longer were these departments operating solo, but rather were a team with common goals. The current mill manager, Ted Kennedy, has strongly continued senior management support of RBM (TED KENNEDY, MILL MANAGER).

Dana Seekins, the current manager of maintenance, has been in this department since 1988. He has organized his department into three groups: mechanical, led by Steve Griffith; electrical and instrumentation (E&I), led by Mark O'Brien; and reliability maintenance, led by Lee St. John. The department currently totals some 112 people. Each mechanical and E&I area supervisor (seven mechanical and four E&I) has a planner, which is representative of the emphasis that Dana places on scheduling and planning. An unusual aspect of this organization is that the planners are hourly mechanic and technicians, not salaried personnel. These individuals posses extensive mill maintenance experience.

The current leadership has further developed the preventive maintenance and predictive maintenance RBM components. Preventive maintenance of rotating equipment begins with a daily routine inspection by the mechanical group, whose duties include lubrication. These individuals are equipped with stethoscopes, strobe lights, and mechanical thermometers. Any unusual noise, vibration, or temperature is reported for further analysis. More detailed analysis is performed by the reliability maintenance group. Techniques used include vibration analysis (see photo B) for all pumps and fans, infrared analysis for thermal testing (mostly for wiring connections), and ultrasonic evaluation for material thickness Figure 1 is an example of thermal testing in which one of the connections on a 3-phase motor has an abnormally high reading compared to the other two leads, indicating a faulty connection.

[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]

Predictive maintenance has, in many cases, replaced time-base maintenance in determining when a bearing, lubricant, or other item must be replaced. This has reduced both material and labor costs. A good example of predictive maintenance is the replacement of pump oil, which used to occur every 6 months per the manufacturers' recommendations. Now, with standard monitoring techniques in place, pump oil changes have been extended to 18 months.

An example of predictive maintenance in the E&I area is the surge testing of electrical motors to determine insulation quality and life expectancy. Motors (600-volt) are stressed with approximately 1400 volts, or 2.3 times their normal rating. Amperage analysis under these conditions can indicate the quality of the motor's insulation and its life expectancy. Inspection and analysis of transformer oil is another example of predictive maintenance practiced by the E&I group.

However, there are still instances when time-based maintenance governs. This can be when the risk is great, when the item in question is inaccessible to facilitate monitoring, or when insurance company requirements dictate, such as the annual inspection of recovery boilers.

Proactive maintenance mainly addresses standardizing maintenance procedures to ensure uniformity. For example, all shaft alignments (which are now done exclusively with laser technology) must meet a specified degree of accuracy, and all balancing must meet the ISO G 1.0 standard. Balancing is a good example of Old Town's philosophy of doing the job as close to perfection as possible. The normal industrial standard for balancing is ISO G 3.0, but Old Town uses the tighter 1.0 standard. The results of these tight standards are illustrated in Fig. 2.

Another tool used in proactive maintenance is ATS, or analytical troubleshooting. This is a structured procedure for determining the root cause of a failure. One such procedure is the Kepner-Trego[R] method. Trained facilitators lead knowledgeable individuals in formalized brainstorming sessions to determine the root cause of a failure or other maintenance issue. By determining the root cause, repeat failures can be eliminated.

Dana Seekins points out that Old Town was very fortunate to have had maintenance leaders such as Rick Wheaton and Seekins' predecessor, Terry Trickett. These individuals had the vision and tenacity to promote good maintenance practices, and they successfully enlisted the support of senior management. The mill, says Seekins, "is also blessed with some of the finest mechanics and technicians in the paper industry." However, until the mid-1990s, there was still a tendency among some people to continue to perform maintenance as they had in the past.

Improvements in maintenance procedures gained momentum in 1996, when the Maintenance Change Process was instituted. This program rewards maintenance personnel who understand the elements of RBM, appreciate the function and purpose of the equipment they are maintaining, and perform their tasks accordingly. The continually updated program has convinced the majority of maintenance personnel of the benefits of RBM. This gain is illustrated in Fig. 3, which shows the progression of millwide availability, or uptime, during the last decade. Mill availability is calculated by averaging the uptime of the nine operating departments. The availability figures are based on the principle of 7/24/365, or being operational 7 days a week, 24 hours per day, 365 days a year. In 2000, seven of the nine departments set record availability rates. The nine operating departments are as follows:

* Recovery

* No. 1 digester

* No. 2 digester

* Bleach plant

* No. 1 tissue machine

* No. 2 tissue machine

* No. 1 pulp machine

* No. 4 turbine generator

* No. 5 power boiler.

Operational improvements

Operations has also had a major impact on mill availability rates. The number of shutdowns due to process or operational upsets has steadily declined during the last decade. These upsets include sheet breaks on the tissue machines and pulp dryer, blade changes, problems with inventory management, and pipeline plugging. By reducing shutdowns and improving operational stability, equipment life and reliability have improved.

Old Town has found that there are production-related benefits to a world-class maintenance program. They have seen improvements in both safety and quality. Jack Healy, consumer products production manager, feels that this is because "we can better focus on producing a quality product in a safe manner, and not worry about having an unexpected shutdown." Recently, the mill achieved 1 million worker-hours without a lost-time injury, a feat it had never previously achieved.

Summary

A world-class maintenance program can be characterized by the following attributes:

* Precision maintenance: Do the repair as near to perfection as possible.

* Design maintenance to determine the root cause and a cost-effective cure.

* Ensure that housekeeping and safety become an engrained way of life.

* Plan shutdowns in advance, and be sure that all affected personnel are informed.

* Foster close cooperation between maintenance and operations.

* Maintain a highly skilled and motivated workforce.

* Enlist senior management support; maintenance should be regarded as an investment, not an expense.

* Enlist support from all areas of the mill, maintenance, production, and administration.

The RBM program at Old Town certainly exhibits all of these qualities. However, mill personnel are not content to merely maintain the status quo; they seek continued improvements to RBM to meet the future goals of the Old Town mill.

Figure  2: Tighter standards have reduced pump and motor failures

        Bearing Defects
           in Pumps       Motor Failures

CY 95         79                71
CY 96         54                46
CY 97         44                25
CY 98         37                17
CY 99         32                21
CY 00         37                10

Note: Table made from bar graph.

Figure 3: Uptime has steadily increased, thanks to the mill's
maintenance efforts

CY91   82.3%
CY92   83.3%
CY93   86.7%
CY94   86.8%
CY95   89.4%
CY96   91.4%
CY97   91.5%
CY98   91.7%
CY99   91.2%
CY00   94.0%

Note: Table made from bar graph.

RELATED ARTICLE: Ted Kennedy, mill manager.

Ted Kennedy has been mill manager at Old Town since March 1999. A third-generation "papermaker," he grew up in Livermore Falls, ME, where his father was a plant engineer at the nearby Androscoggin mill of International Paper. During his college days at the University of Maine (Orono, ME), where he received his bachelor's degree in chemical engineering in 1982, Kennedy became directly involved with the paper industry by interning at the Androscoggin mill. Following graduation, he joined Diamond International (as it was then known) at Old Town as an environmental engineer.

Subsequently, Kennedy held various management positions in the environmental, technical, and production areas at Old Town before being transferred to the James River mill (James River purchased the Old Town mill shortly after Kennedy joined the company) in Naheola, AL. Kennedy ran the "board business" at Naheola, which included supervising two board machines producing 900 tons/day and a staff of approximately 150 people. (The plant also produces consumer products.) Kennedy valued his time at Naheola because it gave him "a strong appreciation for customer relations, as there was a close interface with those who were buying our board products."

After 2 1/2 years in the South, Kennedy was transferred back to Old Town as mill manager. He is a manager who believes in systems that produce results. While giving his managers "enough rope to develop their own managing processes," he holds them accountable to attain the desired results. The current 4 Tens program (maintenance works four 10-hour days, Monday-Thursday, with only a skeleton crew Friday-Sunday) is witness to his approach. While initially leery of this scheduling approach, Kennedy supported it as long as the availability and cost goals were met--and they have been since the program's inception 6 years ago.

Kennedy feels strongly about the RBM program. "Without high millwide availability, it is difficult to have safe production, quality operations, and cost effectiveness. Reliability is the foundation for capital-intensive manufacturing."

For 2001, Kennedy wants Old Town to become much more energy efficient. He feels that the mill is "middle of the pack" in this area. Given the relatively high cost of energy in the Northeast, Kennedy states, "This isn't good enough; we need to be at the head of the pack to effectively compete on a global basis." Given the strong morale and leadership at Old Town, it would appear that this goal will be attained.

Note: In June 2001, Kennedy was promoted to resident manager of G-P's Palatka, FL Pulp and Paper Operations.

About the author: Art Boniface is a freelance writer. He can be contacted at 1 Dartmouth Lane, Woodstock, VT 05091-1279, or by email at [e-mail].