Predictive technologies reducing costs at Eastman Chemical

Eastman Chemicals' reliability-based maintenance" program has driven the manufacturer to develop some 40 predictive technologies during the past several years, including expertise in vibration analysis, gamma scan, and other technologies.

The company also is stepping into the field bus arena by pilot testing a field server, still in the development stage, which hopefully can integrate its maintenance databases while also being compatible with DCS systems from multiple vendors, including Fisher-Rosemount and Honeywell.

Of the 40 predictive technologies used by Eastman, Charles Bailey, vice president, manufacturing, said some of the most useful include:

Vibration analysis, where Eastman has developed a database of more than 6,000 pieces of rotating equipment, measuring characteristics such as shaft flexing and internal component performance

Gamma scans, scanning, for example, distillation columns from top to bottom

Lubrication analysis, including lube sampling

Metals analysis, such as for determining shaft wear

Instrument calibration, such as for transmitters

Infrared technologies, ranging from routine checks of transformers to looking for hot spots on boilers

Four different laser groups, including a plantwide laser alignment index

Video inspection, including probing up to 100 feet into a pipe or tube as small as 1 inch in diameter, saving equipment disassembly costs

"One of the opportunities we now have is to take different databases where we've had individual success stories and integrate those into a solution where we can look at that database, always predict a failure, and eliminate defects in the system," Bailey said.

Lowering labor costs is an important component of Bailey's stated goal of reducing by 25% Eastman Chemicals' current $200 million annual main tenance budget by the year 2000. The executive expects an attrition of about 400 mechanics/technicians between now and 2000, but plans to hire only about 50 replacements during that period-thanks in large part to smarter instruments and integrated database technologies.

The company is also launching an extensive maintenance retraining program, using intranet-based, self-paced multimedia technology. All 40 predictive maintenance technologies will be explained in the multimedia program, he said, as well as maintenance repair procedures, where, for example, a pump or valve can be viewed in three dimensions "and disassembled before your eyes."

"We developed some excellent technologies, and we're now trying to make them pay off," Bailey said.

Copyright Instrument Society of America Jan 1997
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