In May 2016, I had the opportunity to attend TRUC conference (Tiara Reliability User Conference). TRUC Conference is a regular conference held almost every year for discussion and knowledge sharing for fellow practitioners in asset management, reliability, and maintenance sectors. A requirement to follow this conference is to make a paper on best practices in reliability (predictive maintenance or asset management). At TRUC conference, participants with the best papers have the opportunity to present their papers at the event.
The 9th TRUC event was held in Bandung for three days with the theme of “Optimization of Technology, Human Skill & Process to Improve Asset Management.” Fifty participants from various companies including state and private generation companies, electricity, chemical, and oil and gas companies, and cement companies joined the conference. On the first and second day, the event opened with the keynote speaker followed by the presentation of the best speakers. On the third day, the participants were asked to compose a best practice from the paper presented in the hope that it can be implemented in their workplace or company.
On the first day, Mr. Norman Lee, a consultant Actsys Process Management, acted as the keynote speaker. He is a senior consultant who has extensive experience in various companies. He specializes in thermodynamic performance monitoring of power plants and industrial process for energy efficiency. The material he presented was the case study of multi-stage compressor performance. After discussion and question and answer session finished, the event continued with the presentation from the participants. Here are the title of the papers presented at the TRUC event:
- Improvement of Performance Monitoring System for Reciprocating Compressor, Badak NGL
- Weibull Analisis dan Failure Base strategy untuk meningkatkan kehandalan Kompressor, Pertamina Plaju Refinery Unit 3
- Analisa, Evaluasi dan Improvement Hasil Pengukuran Predictive Partial Discharge, PT IP UPJP Priok
- Optimalisasi PdM Untuk Mendukung Reverse Engineering, PT PLN SPS Bukit Tinggi
- Improve Asset Performance Pada Dryer 22 M 362, Petrokimia Gresik
- Implementasi CBM UJP BSR, PT IP Banten 1 Suralaya 8
- Balancing Rotor Generator PLTU BUKIT ASAM, PT. PLN (Persero) Pembangkitan Sumbagsel Sektor Pengendalian Pembangkitan Bukit Asam
- RAM Model Development to Evaluate Future Reliability, Overhaul Interval, and Maintenance Cost, PT. Star Energy
On the second day, the event began with Mr. Irwan Lubis as the main speaker. He is President Director of PT Pertadaya Gas who previously served as Head of Division at PT Indonesia Power. The material he presented was Sharing Experience Optimization Technology, Human Skill, & Process to Improve Asset Management of PT Indonesia Power. After discussion and question and answer session, the event was followed by the presentation of papers from participants.
On the third day of TRUC events, the participants organized the best practices from the previously presented papers. One best practice was selected with hope that it could be implemented in each company. Best practice was arranged with the following steps:
Team forming The first step was to form a team consisting of the leader and his deputy to lead the discussion. This election was through direct appointment by the facilitator or being agreed on the forum
Best practice harvesting In this step, the facilitator presented a list of best practices from each presentation of each paper. The participants were able to give suggestions for the conclusions presented by the facilitator
Best practice prioritization Participants were asked to list priorities for each best practice. The goal was simply to sort out which best practice to be discussed first based on a main priority,
Best practice Formulation In this step, every best practice was discussed from the applied technology needs, the business processes, the required competence for the application of technology, and the solutions from the application of this technology.
Here is a simple example of a best practice formulation:
- Description: Improvement regreasing methode to improve lifetime bearing.
- Technology: grease gun, ultrasonic tool, automatic regreaser.
- Business process: procedure review and strategy maintenance periodically with engineer, maintenance, operation and procurement.
- Competency: machinery lubrication technician.
Best practice formulations from the discussion results of each group were then presented by the group leader.
Reliability, Availability, and Maintainability became the concerns of each company. It is necessary to have proper technique and maintenance technology in order to support it. One of the supporting factors and become one of the current concerns is the predictive maintenance supported by appropriate technology and readiness/competence in the company.
From the TRUC event, the participants apprehended the main priorities and concerns in the maintenance process, how to solve the problem, and the right technology to be used in order to solve the problems. At TRUC event, the participants could get to know each other and add networking between companies with the same sector so that they could share knowledge with the aim to help each other in solving the current problems. It was hoped that the knowledge sharing ease the achievement of performance targets in each company.