A New Approach to Electrical Equipment Testing and Maintenance
By: RJ Nicolosi

The majority of operations managers realize that to maintain the expected 24/7 availability of electrical power to all areas of a facility  that certain Preventive and Predictive Maintenance activities must be performed and they also understand all of the consequences associated with unscheduled electrical system outages. Unfortunately, they have also learned how difficult it has become to plan, schedule, and perform the necessary activities and then make the required repairs or upgrades.  The key issue seems to no longer be funding, the key issue is scheduling access to the equipment.

In an economic era of decreased capital spending, it is important for heavy users to supplement historically low maintenance budgets with Predictive and Preventive Maintenance solutions to reduce the unscheduled down time of production equipment. Recently, we have started to see a new Relationship approach to testing services in the marketplace that leads to long-term mutually beneficial relationships between customers and contractors.

Outsourced Maintenance Past, Present and Future

Historically, it has been our experience that large industrial facilities keep one to three electrical contractors onsite to facilitate the installation of new machinery, replace outdated parts and ramp up to meet the needs of the annual shutdowns to work on high priority projects to improve the physical plant’s aging structure. After twenty five years in the business, at some complexes, we have installed or replaced every wire in the main production facility. We pride ourselves on our commitment to safety and productivity and have used these values to build strong working relationships.

As the economic spending decreased across the country after the most recent recession, large-scaled plant shutdowns have become less and less frequent. Companies are being more strategic with maintenance expenditures and searching for the highest return on investment projects.

Predictive and Preventive Maintenance are not new concepts. Both practices have been around for a few decades, but a high cost of entry limited this option to larger manufacturing facilities and limited the number of service providers in the market. Over the last several years, as a variety of thermal cameras have come to market and prices have begun to drop, many plants have launched in-house programs to image both electrical and mechanical systems. Meanwhile, Preventive Maintenance options have been fairly consistent with manufacturers of electrical components such as breakers, relays and switchgear offering services to test their own equipment and a few large providers offering testing services in a geographic focused area. The result is small and medium sized manufacturers must either accept the cost and schedule that meets the needs of the larger service providers or do without a Preventive Maintenance program.

In response the reduced focused spending on annual shutdowns, electrical contractors have begun evaluating enhancing their service offerings to meet the demands of the new economy.

Traditional v. Relationship Approach to Testing Services

The greatest disparity between traditional maintenance programs and outsourced testing services such as Predictive and Preventive Maintenance is in the procurement process. Typically, engineering and maintenance managers at a facility have a few, select electrical contractors they are comfortable with performing maintenance and construction services at their facility. Purchase orders are generally cut on a smaller scale and there are no large projects that need to go out to bid with a wider selection of service providers. This has led to industrial electrical services becoming more of a “doctor-patient” relationship.   Preventive Maintenance, unlike everyday electrical services, is typically bid out on a two or three year service contract with procurement agents have difficulty finding enough “qualified” vendors to meet the needs of corporate purchasing rules.

Traditional Preventive Maintenance testing services typically involve an army of testers converging on a facility for a short holiday shutdown. Many of these skilled individuals have never met anyone at their customer and potentially are at the facility for the first time. The goal of the engagement is to pack as many tests into the time allowed while the tester finds their way around the plant and then they leave for the next customer. In three to four months, a report is received by the customer that outlines the findings from the previous visit. When the next holiday shutdown comes around, it is more than likely there will be a new group of testers onsite and the cycle begins anew.

In the last year, Midwest Electric has come across a new approach in the market which we feel could be beneficial for many manufacturers. We were introduced to this concept by Dan DiThomas who has over 30 years of experience working for companies such as Wheeling Pittsburgh Steel, ABB Service Company and Worthington Industries, in electrical equipment maintenance, project management and testing services.

For the last several years, Dan has been providing Predictive and Preventive Maintenance using a Relationship Model. He spends roughly 400 hours per year onsite at a manufacturing facility in Columbus interacting with plant management, operations management and the testing personnel in the field.

“I put the discipline in the program for the customer,” says DiThomas.

His onsite time has allowed DiThomas to better understand the critical systems in the plant, and thus allows him to layout a schedule prioritizing the testing appropriately. Dan’s ability to gain the trust of production staff and engineers as the project manager has allowed him to utilize rolling-blackouts to test equipment over several shifts throughout the year rather than the typical holiday shutdowns.

As a maintenance and construction service provider, we are excited about the Relationship approach to testing electrical equipment. We believe this approach aligns the goals of customers and the contractors to provide the highest value on the testing services. Unfortunately for Midwest Electric and our customers, Dan DiThomas is semi-retired. We have been fortunate to work with him on a few small projects and have learned a great deal through those experiences in the past year.

With manufacturing being outsourced to foreign soil, and the depletion of capital and maintenance budgets, industrial facilities across the country are at a crossroads. Industry experts agree that Predictive and Preventive Maintenance are less expensive than unplanned shutdowns and the repair of broken components. Some companies have begun implementing in-house Predictive Maintenance services, while others have not begun to test their electrical equipment. We believe that if we or our customers can find the right people to perform on-site long term Predictive and Preventive Maintenance that this Relationship model will lead to long term benefits for the plant.

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