Using Reliability-Centred Maintenance to Reduce Process Loss in Valves System: A Case Study

This study considered the application of reliabilitycentred maintenance methodology to reduce process loss in a butterfly Valve system. Failure mode and effects analysis were adopted for this study as the preferred reliability centred maintenance tool. This involved studying each component of an equipment to ascertain its failure mode, the root cause of each failure, and the effect of each failure mode. Mean time between Failure, Mean time to repair, and availability of sub-components were calculated. The results showed three components with the lowest percentage availability. These components are the bearing, the flange, and the stem with their percentage availability as 99.04%, 99.38%, and 99.58% respectively. This implies that these subcomponents fail more often compared to others. Using the result for the mean time between failure, the risk priority number was calculated and showed components with the highest initial risk priority number, namely: seals, flange, seats, and bolts. These have risk priority numbers of 540, 450, 450, and 432 respectively. After failure mode and effect analysis were carried out, a revised risk priority number was obtained for the four components as 180, 90, 180, and 144 respectively. The reduction in risk priority number implies a reduction in component failure of the Butterfly valves.