Abstract
The chemical industry requires high levels of operational efficiency, where equipment reliability and the overall plant performance are critical to meet production targets as well as sustaining profitability while ensuring regulatory compliance and maintaining safety standards. The plant discussed in this study faces major challenges due to recurring equipment failures, which end up affecting production, customer trust, investors’ confidence, and increasing financial losses.
This study investigated whether plant X had sufficient controls and regulators to mitigate the challenges that are experienced. The study also evaluated how the current maintenance practices and standards align with international principles. The study focused on asset maintenance strategies to improve plant performance and overall equipment effectiveness (OEE).
A mixed-method approach was used in this study, where a combination of 24 months of operational and failure data analysis, with interviews conducted with experienced maintenance respondents. The results from mixed method approach indicates that the dependence on reactive maintenance contributes to plant X’s major recurring failures and extended downtimes. The results also prove that inadequate root cause analysis contributes to recurring equipment failures in plant X.
The study concluded by recommending the best practices to strengthen maintenance frameworks, by highlighting preventive maintenance, predictive maintenance, and continuous monitoring. The insights also provided realistic guidance on how to effectively reduce plant losses and enhance competitiveness in chemical manufacturing or similar sector while improving OEE as a driver of operational resilience.