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n I ~r y . ~,., . phil C0nfidentia/ ~ C L O S E O II T R E PW ~O*1S v A8C Problem DMT # 64-- Cost of maintaining the Bird Assigned centrifuges under current operating conditions is too high. Start Date Sep. 1, 1992 Assigned Reduce Lines 1 & 2 Bird centrifuges maintenance Problem Solving repair cost. Objective Team D.C. Saunders (DMT accountable) S.Z. Shakeri (Team Leader) D.R. Donaher D.J. Evers Solutions N/A Implemented/ Date Given Labor and material charges from Permac against Evidence centrifuges on lines 1,2 and 3 using data from Jan. 1991 thru Oct. 1992 has resulted in an average annual maintenance repair cost of: Line 1 $ 201,000. (BIRD)~ Line 2 $ 315,000. (BIRD) Line T $ 88,000. (ALFA-LAVAL) Approach Review of repair data indicated that the majority of the centrifuge maintenance repair cost is due to rebuilds of the units. Data gathered from Permac, maintenance report and stock inventory report did not fully match. it was the team's goal to quantify the actual rebuild cost. In an attempt to provide the actual repair cost, several resources were considered. Data from purchasing and finance was compared with the permac, maintenance and stock room information, and an approximate maintenance cost to P500 was calculated.

Approach (continued) The cost are summarized below: C t fi ar~~ntla/, Line 1 $ 87,000. ph~ ~ Line 2 $ 120, 000. (BfnS V 8 Line 3 $ 20,000. (ALFA-LAVAL~ C The actual repair cost is considerably lower than the cost in the original data. The primary difference between the original evidence and the actual cost is caused by accounting procedures for three different methods of rebuilds, which are: 1. In-house rebuild with immediate replacement which means a broken centrifuge is taken out, repaired and put back on the floor. 2. In-house rebuild with different unit taken out from stock Room and put up. 3. External Repair For methods 2 and 3 production is charged approximately $ 130,000. per centrifuge. Plant is credited that same approximate amount minus the actual cost. The credits made to machine parts by accounting were not taken into account in the permac cost summary. The result is that the total repair cost for centrifuges is much lower than we originally thought. The project ROI of 7% for direct replacement of Bird with Alfa-Laval centrifuges is not justified. While gathering data from permac it was apparent that frequency of shear pin failure increases just prior to or right after a rebuild. We discussed this with P500 maintenance and also the Bird representative. It is their opinion that this is a sympt=of not dynamically balancing the conveyor and the bowl. Currently this job task is only performed by the vendor when the unit is sent out for rebuilds. Close Out Based upon given evidence, this team is Date recommending not to pursue this objective any longer.

Recommendation r-- /~ Coht;;'. 1. Consider alternative accounting p. "s'VIfial for return repairable items. .ABC 2. Inspect and rebuild each centrifuge once per year. Currently, a projected maintenance schedule for inspecting and rebuilding the centrifuges is being developed. Centrifuges are generally rebuilt only as they fail to operate efficiently. It is the vendor's opinion, if the recommended inspection is performed, then the useful life of the centrifuges should not be a concern. 3. All centrifuges to be sent to original manufacturer for inspection and rebuilds. Comparing the completeness of rebuilds performed internally vs. externally has revealed that all rebuilds performed by the vendor include a dynamic balancing of the bowl and conveyor. Balancing the conveyors should prevent the frequent sheared pin problem from reoccurring. 4. In the future, when purchasing a new centrifuge, consider purchasing an improved unit vs. buying the same unit.