PLANT AND FACILITIES ENGINEERING WITH WASTE AND ENERGY MANAGEMENT:INTEGRATING INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERS INTO PLANT AND FACILITIES ENGINEERING

1. INTEGRATING INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERS INTO PLANT AND FACILITIES ENGINEERING

1.1. Why Industrial Engineers Make Good Plant Engineers

An industrial engineer is an excellent choice to be a plant or facilities engineer. By definition, an industrial engineer is a systems designer who integrates materials, machines, people, technology, and energy to produce goods or services in a productive manner. IE’s possess a wealth of analytical tools that can be creatively focused on plant engineering problems. The academic course known as facilities planning and design is fundamental for an industrial engineer becoming a plant engineer. The IE plant engineer can overcome a lack of specific knowledge about technical aspects of plant engineering by keeping many details in clear focus simultaneously and by applying good reasoning, system- integration abilities, creativity, judgment, communication skills, flexibility, adaptability, and quality consciousness, excellent human relations skills, and the principles of industrial engineering.

1.2. Problems That May Face an Industrial Engineer as Plant Engineer

Although an industrial engineer brings an impressive array of skills to the job as a plant engineer, long-time employees, for example, may not readily accept a person who has not previously held a plant engineering position. Selling oneself to the existing workforce should take high priority. The new plant engineer must also be a fast learner, and take steps to become familiar with details of the facility itself, in addition to the engineering, business, and human resource aspects of the new job. Seldom is time available to step back and reflect on these issues, as plant engineering, by design, is a pressure job in which the incumbent must take charge immediately.

1.3. Facilities Management as a Resource-Utilization Issue

As the manager responsible for a multimillion-dollar facility, the plant engineer is accountable for utilization of all resources, under the command of the enterprise manager. When the facility is available for use, people, machines, equipment, and the facility itself are well utilized. If the facility fails, all resources are underutilized and materials can be wasted as well. The plant engineer must also be cognizant of energy use at all times and optimize its use.

1.4. Training Needed by Industrial Engineers to Become Good Plant Engineers

1.4.1. Knowledge Needed in Other Engineering Disciplines

The many technological, analytical, and managerial changes that have occurred concurrently both complicate and simplify the work of a plant engineer. An industrial engineer functioning as plant or facilities engineer must acquire knowledge outside of industrial engineering. Some examples of tech- nologies and equipment related to mechanical, electrical, and civil engineering with which the in- dustrial engineer may be unfamiliar include, but are not limited to, the following:

In a large organization, specialists in each of these areas may be available, but in a small orga- nization, the plant engineer may be required, without prior training, to address the above issues plus many more. To achieve a level of competence and expand his or her knowledge base, the engineer can acquire additional skills and knowledge through intensive independent study, academic courses, focused short courses, retraining with outside experts, courses sponsored by equipment vendors, or in some cases, conversation with vendors.

1.4.2. New Skill Requirements for Plant and Facility Engineers In addition to the above, successful plant engineers will be required to be skilled in the following technologies and techniques:

1.4.2.1. Management Skills Classical management skills of planning, organizing, motivating, controlling, and communicating will continue to be essential, but knowledge of emerging managerial techniques will be the key to future success. Team management in many different forms is growing rapidly, and hence it behooves the plant engineer to become skilled in that managerial style. Au- thoritarian leaders may survive in some organizations if that is the prevailing managerial style, but with changing workforce attitudes, a more democratic / participative managerial style using team ap- proaches is likely to emerge in the future. A description of team management appears in Chapter 37.

1.4.2.2. Project Management Plant engineers are often called upon to manage major construc- tion or installation projects plus innumerable repair projects. While the level of formality differs from large to small projects, the methodologies of concurrent activity, prioritization, and cost control remain the same. Project-management software is available to optimize utilization of resources as well as remove some routine charting and computational work associated with managing projects. See Chap- ter 46.

1.4.2.3. Training Skills As the plant engineering field becomes more complex and the availa- bility of trained people diminishes, the need for training increases. Training of engineers and hourly employees in everything from basic maintenance techniques to computer building-control systems will help maintain productivity. The topic of training is addressed in detail later in this chapter due to its current and future importance.

1.4.2.4. Computers Applications for computers in plant engineering organizations are almost endless. As industry becomes more computerized, plant engineers must learn computer skills to compete. A few computer systems applicable to plant engineering are:

Computerized maintenance management systems Management information systems Computer-automated facilities management systems Computer-aided design Computer-assisted manufacturing Computer numerical control (CNC) Programmable logic controllers (PLCs) Machine-specific computer controls

See Chapters 46, 59, and 72 for more details on the above.

1.4.2.5. ISO 9000 In recent years, the use of ISO 9000 has proliferated. ISO 9000 is often mistaken for a quality system, but it is in fact an organized way to document procedures used in managing an enterprise or department, including quality. Plant engineers are often involved in doc- umenting maintenance procedures and systems, such as work order processing, equipment inspec- tions, predictive or preventive maintenance, and data collection using the documentation discipline

of ISO 9000. If a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) is available, converting data to ISO 9000 requirements should be relatively easy. Although the benefits of documenting procedures can be significant, conversion to ISO 9000 is very time consuming and expensive, and records must be open to auditors who verify that documented procedures are actually followed. See Chapter 74.

1.4.2.6. Quality The need for continuous improvement through application of statistical tech- niques and the permeation of quality thinking into all aspects of plant and facilities engineering are now a reality. It is no longer possible to accept ‘‘pretty good’‘’quality of workmanship or to solve problems by guesswork. The only acceptable approach is to identify the problem, find the root cause, and eliminate the cause. An attitude of quality must permeate every aspect of organization, including plant and facilities engineering. See Chapters 66, 67, and 73.

1.4.2.7. Energy Plant engineers are often responsible for energy within a facility. With dereg- ulation of energy, great opportunities for cost reduction exist. Energy conservation must also have a high priority to improve profits. A section of this chapter is devoted to energy management and conservation.

1.4.2.8. Telecommunications Many plants and office buildings have telecommunications sys- tems to support electronic commerce, voice and data transmission, computer networking, and many emerging technologies. Transmission may be by wire, cellular, radio, or satellite. Because technology in this field requires frequent upgrading of equipment and supporting software, a successful plant engineer must work closely with information systems engineers and equipment vendors to maintain the state of the art in telecommunications.

1.4.2.9. Environment More stringent environmental laws and regulations continue to force plant engineers to spend massive amounts of time and money to avoid legal penalties for failure to comply with the laws. Despite this, reduction of hazardous waste, solid waste, air pollution, and water pol- lution offers significant cost-saving opportunities for industrial, plant, and facilities engineers whose key function is the effective utilization of all enterprise resources. More details on waste reduction appear later in this chapter and in Chapters 16 and 19 of this Handbook.

A new tool to ensure environmental compliance and waste reduction is ISO 14000, in which environmental procedures are documented. The documentation and auditing requirements to maintain ISO 14000 certification, although somewhat cumbersome and time consuming, tend to pressure or- ganizations to comply with their own procedures. Environment must be a consideration in every management and engineering decision.

1.4.2.10. New Maintenance Techniques Advances continue in maintenance technology, includ- ing more sophisticated techniques of vibration-signature analysis, tribology, motor meggering, oil and wear particle analysis, laser alignment, infrared thermography, acoustic leak detection, and nonde- structive testing. These techniques give plant engineers tools to diagnose and predict and / or prevent equipment failures. The concepts of equipment durability, availability, maintainability, and reliability- centered (or based) maintenance are converting maintenance from a reactive to proactive mode. Concurrently, the emphasis has shifted from a power organization to an empowered organization, a shift largely brought about by total productive maintenance. Successful plant engineers must have the vision to utilize all available techniques and technologies to improve maintenance in a new, more demanding environment.

1.4.2.11. New Problem-Solving and Analysis Techniques For many years, the typical five-step problem-solving technique seemed adequate, but new problem-solving techniques seem to appear almost weekly. These techniques center around finding the real problem and the root causes of the problem, leading to a more effective solution. There is seldom a shortage of problems to be solved by a plant engineer, but how the engineering handles those problems can make the difference between success or failure. New problem-solving techniques such as kaizen, 5 ws, 8d, 5s, and others are described in other chapters in this Handbook and in supplemental books and training programs.

1.4.3. Training as a Motivator

Training is intended to develop and enhance employee understanding of current or new responsibil- ities and skills, help employees keep abreast of new technologies, and improve employee morale, performance, and productivity. It can also be a motivator and reward to employees. Training should also be regarded as an investment in the future of the company by helping management retain valuable employees. It is usually more cost effective to retrain an employee than to hire someone new.

1.4.4. Assessing Training Needs for Plant Engineering Employees

To determine training needs, the plant engineer may ask questions including the following to make an initial assessment:

Are some plant engineering services lacking? Is quality of work and service substandard?

Are primitive work methods instead of modern techniques being used? Is there dependence on one individual for certain essential services? Are some people failing to reach their full potential?

Are some skills lacking or in short supply?

Are new skills needed for plant expansion or new processes? Are excessive accidents occurring?

Is labor turnover abnormally high?

Is downtime on equipment excessive?

Do some people lack training in teamwork?

Do people have problems in using computers and technology?

A ‘‘yes’’ answer to the above questions can verify the need for training.

A skills inventory that lists each piece of equipment or operation and the skills required for

operating or maintaining that equipment can indicate the need for training to fill voids in available

skills (Peele and Chapman 1989).

1.4.5. Types of Training

The plant engineer must determine the type, level, method, material, and media to be used in the program. A blend of the following types of training will normally be required for a comprehensive training effort:

1.4.5.1. Orientation An orientation program gives basic information about the organization, its history, mission, organization, benefits, policies, products or services, and mode of operation. Time spent in orientation is well worth the cost because it makes the employee feel part of the organization. Omission of this step may lead to labor turnover and low productivity.

1.4.5.2. On-the-Job Training While employees may learn the job themselves, monitored on- the-job training administered by supervisors can save months of unlearning bad habits acquired from self-instruction. The job instruction training (J.I.T. or show and tell) technique, with adequate expla- nation, is effective for training in manual skills and repetitive or semirepetitive operations. The J.I.T. method is as follows:

1. Prepare for training: Learn the job, write the method if possible, see what the employee already knows, explain value of training, establish rapport with the trainee.

2. Present training: Demonstrate and explain each step in the job, point out quality and safety expectations, trouble spots, shortcuts, specifications, and other key points, repeat process as required to ensure understanding.

3. Practice training: Let employee do the job while explaining to the supervisor the steps just learned, make corrections as necessary.

4. Pursue: Follow up to make frequent checks to ensure training has been absorbed, retrain as required, compliment trainee on progress.

Typical plant engineering tasks suitable for this training approach include scheduled lubrication, boiler water testing and blowdown, lift truck battery filling, belt tightness testing, sprinkler system testing, recurring parts replacement, setup and changeover, and repetitive preventive maintenance activities. If a video camcorder is available, a training tape can be recorded to explain the task, for use when new employees are being trained.

1.4.5.3. Internal or External Training The decision on where to obtain training depends on in- house training skills, organizational needs, educational level of trainees, and expected quality of training. Commercial self-study training programs can be integrated into an in-house program to save development time. External training can be cost effective if new skills must be learned quickly. Equipment suppliers may offer training on equipment-specific topics (boilers, air conditioning, com- puters). Packaged courses on maintenance and plant engineering, in programmed instruction and / or interactive video or computer, can reduce course training development and presentation time (Phelps 1988).

Apprentice training for machinists , electricians, boiler operators, mechanics, or other jobs re- quiring exceptional skill levels is one solution for skill deficiencies. An apprentice program may be established by assessing the need for such training, determining interest of employees in becoming certified in their job disciplines, designing the work processes and training sessions, obtaining ap- proval for the Department of Labor or other accrediting agency, presenting the program, and re- warding employees who complete the program.

Training of the new plant engineer and all plant engineering personnel is an excellent investment that deserves high priority for the benefit of the organization.