Prioritizing Power Plant

Maintenance Work
03/01/2008

By Anthony V. Covato, PE, Reliability Management

Group Inc.
Maintenance work in a power plant is prioritized to ensure that the right work is performed at the
right time, resulting in the minimum impact to plant operation. When determining how to use
existing resources to perform maintenance work activities, power plant personnel should follow a
formal process based on the work’s priority. Anyone tasked with designing an effective
prioritization process must understand that, like all work management processes, the
prioritization process should be based on a system of accountability.
Planned maintenance work performed during outages does not affect the plant’s output, but
some routine maintenance work must be performed while the plant is operating. This means the
personnel prioritizing routine maintenance work are not necessarily driven by the same criteria as
when they are planning outage maintenance work.
Routine Non-outage Maintenance Work
Given that the objective of prioritizing routine non-outage maintenance work is to minimize any
negative impact to the plant’s output, one could argue that the plant’s operations group should
have the largest role in determining work priorities. In reality, many things other than operation
issues affect when work can be executed. Work prioritization begins with categorizing the work
into one of two types—corrective or proactive.
utage work management planning process should include an internal staffing plan.
Click here to enlarge image

Corrective work is typically identified by the operators and is directly related to a functional
equipment failure. To determine this work’s priority (in other words, when the work should be
started) personnel must know how large an effect the equipment’s functional failure will have on
the plant’s output and operation. To make this determination more objective and to ensure
consistency, plant personnel should develop and utilize a “critical equipment” list.
Equally important is determining when corrective work can begin. To determine this, the
scheduler must know the availability of the required resources, labor, parts and material, as well
as when the equipment needing repair can be made available.
Personnel must also consider the most effective way to accomplish the work. In most cases,
executing planned work is more efficient than executing unplanned work. Of course, this
depends on how much planning actually goes into the work. This depends upon several factors:
the work’s complexity, the resource required to complete the work, and the time available to plan
the work. This last factor is directly related to the work’s priority.
Proactive work is defined as work that is required to prevent an equipment functional failure. This
would include work related to preventive and predictive maintenance. Proactive work is typically
identified by maintenance and engineering organizations and is often planned based on results
from various analyses that identify ways to improve equipment reliability. Because proactive work
is usually reoccurring, it is typically well planned. “Well planned” means that plant personnel have
identified all required resources needed to perform the work and those resources are available
when needed to execute the work. One caution is that proactive and corrective work typically
compete for the same labor resources.
Maintenance and operations organizations should work together to prioritize routine non-planned
outage maintenance work. A well-designed prioritization process must address each
organization’s roles and responsibilities.
Once corrective work has been identified, personnel must determine whether the work is an
emergency or not. Emergency work includes work required to correct a condition that will
immediately result in loss of a unit or significant impact to the unit’s capacity; injury or illness; or
violation of a regulation or guideline
Plant personnel should give emergency work the highest priority and should carry it out as soon
as it is identified. In some cases, this may require operations personnel to make a verbal, rather
than a written, request to the maintenance organization. The maintenance organization is
ultimately responsible for providing the labor resources required to perform the emergency work.
Plant personnel should prioritize all other routine maintenance work based on the required start
date. The work should be conducted within a time frame that assures it will be completed before
it becomes an emergency. The plant’s maintenance organization is usually responsible for
planning the required work.
For activities that can rise to become an emergency in a relatively short time, (say, within seven
days), plant personnel should assign the next level of priority—high—and the work should be
scheduled accordingly. Because the objective of proactive work is to improve equipment
reliability and avoid operating conditions that could create emergencies, most proactive work
should be high priority.
Plant personnel should reserve the third priority level for those work activities that, although they
may change how the equipment is operated, will likely not cause emergency conditions if not
performed within a given time period. The time this work commences is directly related to the
maintenance organization’s ability to plan the work and execute it with its current resources and
work load.
The final priority level is reserved for those work activities not directly related to maintaining the
designed capacity level, but would improve equipment operation or plant conditions in some way.
As stated previously, any change in the way non-outage maintenance work is handled should
address establishing key performance indicators that measure the effectiveness of the new
process and also the performance of those responsible for executing the process. This will
ensure a system of accountability and also continuous improvement.
Planned Outage Work
The major difference between planned outage work and non-outage maintenance work is that all
planned outage work occurs within a defined time period when the unit’s output is not an issue.
An exception would be those plants with multiple units where the same internal resources are
used both for simultaneous routine and outage work.
In many power plants, scheduling personnel are prioritizing planned outage work while
operations and engineering personnel are developing the outage scope. Once the outage scope
has been developed, the maintenance organization typically develops the work list required to
complete that scope. Using outage work management tools and processes (like those used by
planning and scheduling personnel) the priority in which the work activities are executed will
ensure the work is completed within the defined outage period.
-planned work includes identifying all required resources.
Click here to enlarge image

An outage work management planning process should include an internal staffing plan. This plan
should determine the requirements for any internal labor resources that will be needed to
execute planned outage work activities. Once developed, all key individuals responsible for
directing resources should review the plan and either commit to providing the resources or
identify other sources for the required resources.
Where a facility has multiple units and competition for internal resources exists between outage
work and routine work, outage work should have the same level of priority as proactive work. In
effect, most outage work is proactive work. If appropriate plant personnel prepare, review and
approve an internal staffing plan, the internal labor resource requirements for outage work should
be acceptable and should not create unworkable requirements.
Prioritizing work in a power generation facility should be directed by a formal documented
process that:

 Is objective and ensures work is scheduled based on equipment criticality,

resource availability and the time required to plan the work.
 Is a collaborative and joint process between the plant’s operations and
maintenance organizations
 Delivers the right work at the right time.

Because work management processes are interrelated and support each other, a work
prioritization process can only be successful if processes are in place to support work
management.
Terjemahan

Pekerjaan pemeliharaan di pembangkit listrik diprioritaskan untuk memastikan bahwa pekerjaan

yang benar dilakukan pada waktu yang tepat, sehingga berdampak minimum terhadap operasi
pabrik. Saat menentukan bagaimana menggunakan sumber daya yang ada untuk melakukan
kegiatan pemeliharaan, tenaga pembangkit harus mengikuti proses formal berdasarkan prioritas
pekerjaan. Siapa pun yang bertugas merancang proses prioritas yang efektif harus memahami
bahwa, seperti semua proses manajemen pekerjaan, proses prioritas harus didasarkan pada sistem
akuntabilitas.

Pekerjaan pemeliharaan terencana yang dilakukan selama pemadaman tidak mempengaruhi output
pabrik, namun beberapa pekerjaan pemeliharaan rutin harus dilakukan saat pabrik beroperasi. Ini
berarti personil yang memprioritaskan pekerjaan pemeliharaan rutin tidak harus didorong oleh
kriteria yang sama seperti saat mereka merencanakan pekerjaan pemeliharaan yang buruk.

Pekerjaan korektif biasanya diidentifikasi oleh operator dan berhubungan langsung dengan
kegagalan peralatan fungsional. Untuk menentukan prioritas pekerjaan ini (dengan kata lain, kapan
pekerjaan harus dimulai), personil harus mengetahui seberapa besar dampak kegagalan fungsional
peralatan terhadap keluaran dan operasi pabrik. Agar penentuan ini lebih objektif dan untuk
memastikan konsistensi, personil pabrik harus mengembangkan dan menggunakan daftar "peralatan
kritis".

Yang tidak kalah penting adalah menentukan kapan pekerjaan perbaikan bisa dimulai. Untuk
mengetahui hal ini, penjadwal harus mengetahui ketersediaan sumber daya, tenaga kerja,
komponen dan material yang diperlukan, serta kapan peralatan yang membutuhkan perbaikan
dapat disediakan.

Personil juga harus mempertimbangkan cara yang paling efektif untuk menyelesaikan pekerjaan.
Dalam kebanyakan kasus, melaksanakan pekerjaan yang direncanakan lebih efisien daripada
melaksanakan pekerjaan yang tidak direncanakan. Tentu saja, ini tergantung pada seberapa banyak
perencanaan benar-benar masuk ke pekerjaan. Hal ini tergantung pada beberapa faktor:
kompleksitas kerja, sumber daya yang dibutuhkan untuk menyelesaikan pekerjaan, dan waktu yang
tersedia untuk merencanakan pekerjaan. Faktor terakhir ini berhubungan langsung dengan prioritas
pekerjaan.

Pekerjaan proaktif didefinisikan sebagai pekerjaan yang diperlukan untuk mencegah kegagalan
fungsional peralatan. Ini termasuk pekerjaan yang berkaitan dengan pemeliharaan preventif dan
prediktif. Pekerjaan proaktif biasanya diidentifikasi oleh organisasi pemeliharaan dan rekayasa dan
sering direncanakan berdasarkan hasil dari berbagai analisis yang mengidentifikasi cara untuk
memperbaiki keandalan peralatan. Karena pekerjaan proaktif biasanya terulang kembali, biasanya
direncanakan dengan baik. "Terencana dengan baik" berarti bahwa personil pabrik telah
mengidentifikasi semua sumber daya yang dibutuhkan untuk melakukan pekerjaan dan sumber daya
tersebut tersedia bila diperlukan untuk melaksanakan pekerjaan. Satu hati-hati adalah bahwa
pekerjaan proaktif dan korektif biasanya bersaing untuk mendapatkan sumber tenaga kerja yang
sama.
Organisasi pemeliharaan dan operasi harus bekerja sama untuk memprioritaskan pekerjaan
pemeliharaan rutin yang tidak direncanakan. Proses prioritas yang dirancang dengan baik harus
menangani peran dan tanggung jawab masing-masing organisasi.

Begitu pekerjaan korektif telah diidentifikasi, personel harus menentukan apakah pekerjaan itu
darurat atau tidak. Pekerjaan darurat mencakup pekerjaan yang diperlukan untuk memperbaiki
suatu kondisi yang akan segera mengakibatkan hilangnya unit atau dampak signifikan terhadap
kapasitas unit; luka atau sakit; atau pelanggaran peraturan atau pedoman

Petugas instalasi harus memberikan pekerjaan darurat prioritas tertinggi dan harus
melaksanakannya segera setelah diidentifikasi. Dalam beberapa kasus, ini mungkin memerlukan
personil operasi untuk mengajukan permintaan verbal, bukan tertulis, ke organisasi pemeliharaan.
Organisasi pemeliharaan pada akhirnya bertanggung jawab untuk menyediakan sumber tenaga kerja
yang dibutuhkan untuk melakukan pekerjaan darurat.

Petugas pabrik harus memprioritaskan semua pekerjaan pemeliharaan rutin lainnya berdasarkan
tanggal mulai yang dipersyaratkan. Pekerjaan harus dilakukan dalam kerangka waktu yang
menjaminnya akan selesai sebelum menjadi keadaan darurat. Organisasi pemeliharaan pabrik
biasanya bertanggung jawab untuk merencanakan pekerjaan yang dibutuhkan.

Untuk kegiatan yang dapat meningkat menjadi keadaan darurat dalam waktu yang relatif singkat,
(katakanlah, dalam tujuh hari), petugas pabrik harus menetapkan tingkat prioritas tertinggi-dan
pekerjaan harus dijadwalkan sesuai dengan itu. Karena tujuan kerja proaktif adalah untuk
meningkatkan keandalan peralatan dan menghindari kondisi operasi yang dapat menciptakan
keadaan darurat, pekerjaan yang paling proaktif harus diprioritaskan tinggi.

Petugas pabrik harus mencadangkan tingkat prioritas ketiga untuk kegiatan kerja tersebut, walaupun
mungkin mereka mengubah cara peralatan dioperasikan, kemungkinan tidak akan menyebabkan
kondisi darurat jika tidak dilakukan dalam jangka waktu tertentu. Waktu kerja ini dimulai
berhubungan langsung dengan kemampuan organisasi pemeliharaan untuk merencanakan
pekerjaan dan melaksanakannya dengan sumber daya dan beban kerja saat ini.

Tingkat prioritas terakhir dicadangkan untuk kegiatan kerja yang tidak terkait langsung dengan
mempertahankan tingkat kemampuan yang dirancang, namun akan memperbaiki operasi peralatan
atau kondisi pabrik dengan cara tertentu.

Seperti yang dinyatakan sebelumnya, setiap perubahan dalam cara kerja pemeliharaan non-outage
ditangani harus menjawab penetapan indikator kinerja utama yang mengukur keefektifan proses
baru dan juga kinerja dari mereka yang bertanggung jawab untuk melaksanakan proses tersebut. Ini
akan memastikan sistem pertanggungjawaban dan juga perbaikan terus-menerus.