Chapter 5 - Procurement Practices

Abstract

This chapter presents various aspects of procurement practices at Beta International. The company's Goose Creek plant was generally operating at a more advanced level of performance than most other of its plants, though not world class. Vendors were encouraged to look at current operating and maintenance practices for the pumps, and offer any improvement suggestions in the short term. At the Goose Creek plant a pump improvement team was established, consisting of specialists from the supplier, two senior operators, the plant engineer, the machine shop supervisor, two senior mechanics, and a condition monitoring specialist. The group met to review best practices for pump operation, repair, and to develop an improvement plan that they would lead in their areas. Operator tours were established for each shift to check items such as pump suction and discharge pressures, leaks, lubrication levels, unusual noises such as cavitation. An in-line spares policy was developed, which, for each application, included consideration of issues such as potential effects on production downtime, effect of buffer stocks, ease of changeover, ease of detecting developing problems, historical pump reliability, and fitness for purpose. It is suggested to define schedule improvement in performance, including any lead times and forecasts.