A Regular Equipment Maintenance Manager Who Is Always on the Go: Summary of 2016 and Outlook for 2017 — Li Lixu Tao

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Part 1: Work experience in 2016. In 2016, all the maintenance staff, under the leadership of the company’s management at all levels, strictly adhered to various rules and regulations and set high standards for themselves in every aspect. The workshop has always adhered to taking the actual situation as a starting point, ensuring the proper operation of equipment as a prerequisite, and aiming to reduce maintenance costs and shorten repair times. It moves forward by continuously learning and drawing lessons from past experience. The working environment for maintenance workers is complex, with high safety risks and high levels of physical strain. Yet every employee in the workshop is diligent and hardworking, demonstrating a spirit of not fearing hardship, being willing to strive hard, and prioritizing production needs. They continuously improve their professional ethics and skill levels, which enables them to successfully complete various tasks despite the challenges they face. This lays a solid foundation for the workshop to fulfill all maintenance tasks on time and to high quality, while also providing strong support for the company’s continuous and stable operations. The summary of work done over this year is as follows: I. Safety Management Throughout the year, given the special conditions of high temperature, high pressure, and flammability/explosiveness in chemical production, as well as the complexity of safety issues related to inspection and maintenance tasks, the workshop has always given top priority to safety prevention and safety education. The workshop places strong emphasis on fostering employees’ safety awareness, requiring that everyone from workshop managers to maintenance staff constantly remind others about safety and stress its importance at all times, so that employees naturally adopt a safety-conscious mindset as the guiding principle in their daily work. Based on the various safety regulations and management systems issued by the company and the Safety and Environmental Management Department, the workshop continues to improve its own safety management systems by taking into account the actual conditions encountered during maintenance work. It also focuses on enhancing employees’ awareness of self-protection in terms of safety, as well as their ability to identify risks and analyze hazards. Every morning, the workshop supervisor, safety officer, and team leaders conduct a pre-shift meeting to analyze and assess potential safety issues that may arise during the day’s maintenance work. Before starting the maintenance tasks, the team leaders reiterate specific safety precautions based on the actual conditions of the work to be carried out. During the maintenance process, dedicated personnel are assigned to handle any sudden safety problems that may occur. Once the maintenance is completed, a detailed review of the safety issues that arose is conducted, and discussions are held to learn from these experiences. In this way, 365 days a year, safety is discussed, emphasized, and reviewed on a daily basis. In its daily operations, the workshop not only formulates and implements the \"Safety Management Regulations for Maintenance Workshops 2016\", but also strictly enforces standards to regulate employees’ safe maintenance practices. Safety work hinges on implementation; the weakness in safety is talking without taking action. Workshop managers conduct irregular supervision and inspections during maintenance activities; they promptly correct any unsafe practices observed among employees and explain the reasons for such corrections through discussions, rather than resorting to strict rules or fines. This approach further enhances the maintenance workers’ awareness of the importance of adhering to safety standards, ensuring that maintenance tasks are carried out safely. Over the past year, there has been not a single major safety incident related to production in my workshop, nor any serious equipment-related injury accidents; thus, the company’s and the workshop’s annual goal of achieving \"zero accidents\" was successfully met. This also fully demonstrates the effectiveness of workshop safety management, laying a solid foundation for future safety maintenance work. II. Daily Management: The workshop continues to rely on the company’s various rules and management systems as a foundation, and has further implemented and improved a series of daily management regulations tailored to its actual operations, including the \"2016 Daily Management Regulations for the Repair Workshop\", the \"2016 Leave Application Regulations for the Repair Workshop\", the \"2016 Overtime Management Regulations for the Repair Workshop\", and the \"2016 (Revised) Overtime Management Regulations for the Repair Workshop\". The workshop emphasizes a people-oriented approach; in management practices, it is necessary to align with the company’s management philosophy and shift management thinking, progressing gradually from \"managing people by humans\" to \"managing people through systems\". By December, 146 persons were evaluated within the workshop and 168 persons received rewards; 21 persons were assessed by the Equipment Management Department and 32 persons received rewards. Additionally, 3 persons received monthly awards from the Production Management Department, for a total of 4 points. Each assessment and reward reflects a new starting point and direction for the daily management of the workshop, and the overall mindset and professional competence of the employees have also seen significant improvement. At the same time, the workshop has been continuously working to develop a set of established reward and punishment mechanisms suitable for its actual management needs. First, for those employees who possess strong independent capabilities, outstanding technical skills, or are tasked with complex repairs that involve high risks, a corresponding coefficient is applied to their original working hours during such repairs in order to motivate them. Secondly, when there are many maintenance tasks to be carried out on a given day, employees can return to their work teams in the workshop after completing their original maintenance tasks to take on more maintenance orders. For those who are efficient at performing maintenance tasks and receive numerous additional orders, an appropriate increase in working hours can be granted on top of their regular hours. Third, for tasks such as the disassembly and assembly of the FY cover and discharge holes, the disassembly, assembly, and restoration of high-pressure flanges, as well as the inspection and maintenance of the moving parts of the compressor, high standards are required regarding the quality of maintenance work, and high time requirements are associated with these tasks; therefore, a contract-based system for carrying out such maintenance work is being tried out. Similarly, the workshop also maintains strict discipline at the maintenance sites, **improving the morale of employees during on-site work and fostering a positive image. Every maintenance task tests the management level of the workshop as well as the overall competence of its employees. In February this year, the first online maintenance and cleaning of a heat exchanger was carried out; the workshop completed this task successfully in accordance with the planned schedule and ensured high quality, thereby avoiding economic losses for the company resulting from the shutdown of Unit F ； In June, the Production Management Department inspected the records related to flood control supplies in the summer workshops: the inventory records of these supplies, the records of regular inspections, and the records of charging flood control flashlights. It was confirmed that the records matched the actual conditions, that the supplies were neatly arranged, and that they were all in good condition and ready for use ； During the commissioning of a unit in October, the buried circulating water pipes leaked; after the workshop organized 18 hours of continuous emergency repair and welding work, the unit was able to operate successfully. It is precisely because of these management systems carefully developed in the workshop, as well as these fair, transparent, and impartial reward and punishment measures, that the workshop employees maintain a positive work attitude, are eager to meet production demands, complete tasks on time, and exhibit perseverance and determination in their efforts. III. Business Management: The workshop has established a comprehensive system for equipment inspections as well as a system for assigning equipment to specific personnel; regular inspections are carried out to identify potential problems, thereby preventing equipment failures from escalating ； Regarding the rectification work during production operations, it is necessary to strictly follow the company’s and the Equipment Management Department’s regulations for defect resolution, respond promptly to all defects, and conduct objective analyses ； Adhering to the principle of \"saving maintenance costs and ensuring safe production,\" we avoid waste, perfunctoriness, and shirking responsibilities. During equipment inspection and maintenance activities, the workshop successfully carried out routine equipment maintenance, technical upgrades, and emergency repairs, ensuring the smooth and efficient operation of the units and production processes. In January, the workshop worked together with the DY workshop to modify the operation mode and functions of the pneumatic control butterfly valve for the secondary vent DN250 of the flare system. After three days of modification and testing, it was successfully transformed into a pneumatic control valve suitable for use in the flare (process requirements) system, which also helped the company save on maintenance costs ； After the technical renovation of a certain RJ device was completed, one afternoon in April, just before closing time, the workshop received an urgent request for additional technical modifications. Given the tight deadline and the scale of the work, whether it could be completed successfully as planned was crucial for ensuring that the entire plant system could operate on schedule. Upon receiving the task, the workshop assigned maintenance personnel appropriately and worked round the clock to successfully complete the technical upgrade, finishing 6 hours ahead of the planned deadline and thus securing valuable time for the smooth commissioning of the facility ； In November, abnormal noises were detected in the east cylinder of Stage 1 of a compressor in ZQ Workshop. Upon receiving information about the equipment malfunction, the workshop promptly made a judgment, initially concluding that the guide ring grooves in the piston body were severely worn (with upward bevels). As a result, the guide rings slipped out of these grooves along the beveled surfaces during operation, causing collisions with the cylinder and resulting in the abnormal noises. Immediate repairs were organized; upon inspection, it was confirmed that the initial assessment was correct. After replacing the faulty parts, the machine was brought back online at 2:30 a.m. the following day. While working proactively to meet production demands, the workshop has also been gradually improving its electronic records for equipment maintenance. It persists in providing professional technical training, thereby continuously enhancing the management of specialized equipment as well as the technical skills of its employees. Due to the wide range of equipment under its jurisdiction and the diversity of equipment in each workshop, these workshops are involved in various professional tasks throughout the year. In daily operations, on-site training is carried out using the equipment to address any issues that arise; meanwhile, organized specialized training sessions are held within the work teams during free time. These sessions cover topics such as mechanical seal maintenance for chemical centrifugal pumps – as outlined in the practical examination questions for advanced technicians – training materials on reciprocating piston compressors (focusing on air valves), scientific and systematic methods for equipment maintenance, identification and analysis of common faults in centrifugal pumps along with solutions for them, as well as procedures and precautions related to hot work. The workshop also identifies potential hazards detected during the operation of key units, formulates comprehensive maintenance plans and implementation strategies prior to scheduled shutdowns, and makes full use of every opportunity for maintenance to thoroughly inspect and rectify the equipment ； At the same time, ideas were pooled to test and implement proposals for technical upgrades, thereby continuously improving the equipment and systems, enhancing their safety and cost-effectiveness, and reducing the workload of operators. IV. Precise Management: In response to the company’s call for 2016 to be a year of achieving full production capacity and efficiency, the workshop continued to delve deeper into the principles of precise management established in 2015. It implemented processes for quality control and cost reduction, made use of its initiative, and carried out a range of activities aimed at achieving greater precision in operations. In terms of maintenance quality, the workshop assigns a project leader for each task involved in the maintenance work; this leader is responsible for the entire process of that task and acts as the ultimate accountable party for safety, quality, and progress. The workshop assigns dedicated personnel to oversee the progress and quality of projects, ensuring that process quality control is maintained for all projects. Once a project experiences delays or quality issues, the workshop must assess it. At the same time, the workshop requires that work tickets be returned to it in order to facilitate subsequent issue tracking and quality accountability. The implementation of a maintenance accountability mechanism also plays a crucial role in ensuring that all projects are completed to high standards on schedule. Employees are organized to use the spare time they have during work hours to repair used valves, flanges, and pipe fittings, and to pre-make asbestos sheet gaskets as a substitute for the more expensive metal wound gaskets. Repair parts that have value for restoration and reuse. For example, grinding and repair of the compressor valve seat, as well as grinding and repair of the check valves at the inlet and outlet of piston pumps. Since the initiative to recycle and reuse existing parts was launched this year, the repair workshop has repaired various types of compressor valves on over 80 occasions, saving approximately 160,000 yuan in spare parts costs. Excluding the costs associated with repairing valves, flanges, and pipe fittings during routine maintenance, cost savings resulting from reusing existing materials throughout the year amounted to approximately 272,000 yuan. V. Major Overhaul Management: From the start of the major overhaul on a certain date in October until a certain system was fully restored on another date in October, during those 15 days dedicated to repairs, the maintenance workshop successfully completed all the tasks assigned by the company. It not only ensured that the systems could operate as scheduled but also worked in coordination with various workshops and departments to advance the overall schedule for resuming production after the annual overhauls by 3.5 days. During this annual maintenance period, our workshop completed a total of 272 projects related to the workshop itself and various chemical processing workshops. Faced with such a large number of challenging tasks, and considering the high turnover of staff in the workshop along with the inability to recruit new members, as well as issues such as injuries and resignations as the major repair work neared, the workshop actually had 22 fitters and 10 electricians and welders available during that time. With such limited maintenance capabilities, our workshop did not back down at all; instead, it faced the challenges head-on and worked overtime within the limited time available for maintenance (totaling over 1,860 hours of overtime, equivalent to more than 233 person-days, with approximately 16 person-days allocated per day) to ensure safety, maintain quality, and meet deadlines in completing every maintenance task. Among these tasks, the fitter is primarily responsible for assisting with the replacement of catalysts in conjunction with FY, carrying out maintenance and cleaning of the FY air cooler, and helping to replace the adsorbent in the molecular sieve used by a certain unit. Throughout the maintenance process, over 620 blind flanges were removed and installed per session; more than 41 sets of high-pressure flanges were removed and installed (with no leaks during operation); 156 manholes were removed and installed per session; over 238 valves were pressurized; and more than 254 valves were removed, replaced, or installed. The technical upgrades carried out in electrical and welding operations mainly included the renovation of the circulating water system in a certain station in ZQ Workshop (for emergency repairs), the renovation of oil tanks in certain stations, the installation of DN400 butterfly valves for on-site venting at the top of the B# primary cooler in one station, the renovation of 10 various venting systems, the heating system upgrades for certain installations, the renovation of the circulating lines in F Workshop, the heating system upgrades for flares, the addition of high-level extraction outlets to large tanks, and the preparation of temporary pipelines to assist in coking removal. At the same time, the boiler shutdown and maintenance project was successfully completed. Tasks such as assisting Workshop DY with the maintenance of programmable control valves, the maintenance of motors for certain multi-stage high-pressure pumps, the maintenance of motors for FY air-cooled fans, and the installation of heating systems for instruments were also carried out. During the maintenance period, extra hours were worked at night to assist the Equipment Management Department in disassembling, inspecting, calibrating, and reinstalling more than 150 safety valves. Under the unified leadership of the company’s management, with the guidance of the relevant functional departments and the cooperation of various workshops, my workshop overcame difficulties such as tight deadlines, heavy workload, and a limited number of staff. It completed all maintenance tasks safely, to high quality, and on time. This not only ensured success in the company’s annual maintenance campaign but also helped to fulfill the company’s operational plans ahead of schedule, thereby laying a solid foundation for achieving the company’s production and business goals for 2017. Part Two: Shortcomings in Work in 2016 While summarizing the good experiences from the past year, through self-examination and corrective actions, our workshop has gained a clearer understanding of the problems and shortcomings that were identified or occurred over that period. The workshop has come to realize, through these issues, that there are still many areas in our work that need improvement: 1. Further strengthen safety management, raise safety awareness, and implement safety measures. Although no safety accidents have occurred in the workshop since 2016, there were two instances of violations reported, such as performing gas cutting on a heat exchanger shell without conducting a risk analysis, and failing to connect the grounding wire of the welding machine during operations in the refined oil tank area. There were also two incidents of minor injuries: one where a maintenance worker suffered mild carbon monoxide poisoning while repairing a gas valve on the south side of a compressor, and another where a maintenance worker was injured in an accident while working on a heat exchanger. The occurrence of these violations not only reflects employees’ insufficient awareness of operational risk factors and their consequences, as well as their incomplete understanding of personal safety precautions, but it also indicates that the safety management in the workshop is not thorough or solid enough. Safety is always a top priority in workshop inspection, maintenance, and repair work. Whether it comes to equipment or personnel, it is essential to adhere to safety guidelines, raise the safety awareness of all staff, effectively implement safety responsibilities, and put safety into practice in every action taken. 2. Further improve the equipment maintenance mechanism and continuously explore the potential for planned maintenance. During the past year of operational activities, our workshop has not experienced any equipment failures or production interruptions due to maintenance work on the rotating equipment under its responsibility. However, the basic management of equipment maintenance remains relatively weak; the awareness of carrying out autonomous equipment maintenance needs to be improved. This reflects a situation in which the concept of equipment management has not been fully implemented, and the workshops also bear some responsibility for this aspect of management. Based on the \"Maintenance Procedures for Reciprocating Piston Compressors\" established by the workshops, and by analyzing the frequency of maintenance and the specific tasks involved for compressors in each workshop, it is still the case that some equipment does not meet the requirements for scheduled maintenance. This requires us to avoid repairs due to failures during production as much as possible, overcome the problems associated with reactive maintenance, and ensure that equipment maintenance, inspection, and repairs are carried out in a planned and systematic manner. The workshop should make further efforts in \"planned maintenance,\" striving to reduce or even eliminate the bottleneck of carrying out maintenance only after equipment failures occur. The goal is to achieve high standards, strict requirements, rapid response, and excellent quality in maintenance work. 3. Further improve communication and coordination channels to enhance the overall sense of responsibility among all employees. Maintenance work relies on the collective effort of everyone, and how to make full use of the entire company’s resources has always been a challenge for us. Faced with the interdependencies existing between ticket processing and the delivery of processes, as well as changes and rework that occur during the implementation of technical improvement plans in the field, from carrying out certain technical upgrades or project adjustments during annual overhauls to organizing and prioritizing boiler shutdown maintenance tasks, our workshop has come to realize the need to continue to strengthen communication and cooperation with other departments and workshops. Especially when process delivery is not properly ensured or the preliminary planning for technical improvements is inadequate, it is even more important to enhance coordination with various departments and workshops, improve overall awareness of the situation as a whole, and on this basis establish a collaborative platform across the entire company. We must follow the arrangements set by company leadership, comply with the requirements of relevant functional departments, work in conjunction with other workshops, and strive to complete every maintenance task successfully. Part Three: Work Plan for 2017 1. Taking into account the shortcomings in workshop safety management during 2016 as well as the characteristics of various safety incidents, special efforts will be made to ensure that employees avoid habitual violations of safety rules, improve their ability to identify risks, and enhance their personal safety awareness. Commit to actively participating in the company’s and department’s safety activities; adhere to discussing safety matters before starting work, checking for safety issues during work, and summarizing safety aspects after work. Also, make sure to identify potential hazards, examine people’s attitudes, oversee compliance with discipline rules, and review existing systems. Through a series of effectively implemented safety management measures and methods, the workshop’s safety performance was lifted to a new level in 2017. 2. Continue to transform training approaches, break down the boundaries of specialized charter roles, and implement cross-role learning, cross-role maintenance, and cross-role chartering. Through some adjustments to the crew assignments in 2016, all maintenance personnel were able to see the company’s and the workshop’s commitment to improving the overall technical skills of the maintenance staff. In 2017, the workshop should build on this by starting with changes in crew assignments, thereby continuously enhancing the comprehensive professional capabilities of the maintenance staff so as to better support the stable operation of production processes. 3. Continuously improve the reward and punishment system in the workshop, as well as further refine and strengthen the competitive incentive mechanism. Based on reward and punishment systems that are closely related to each employee’s interests, such as fixed working hours, a ranking of employees based on their monthly working hours, individual **assessments**, and the selection of outstanding employees within teams on a monthly basis, these mechanisms help to establish a strong connection between an individual’s interests and those of the company. This in turn fosters a sense of awareness regarding safety issues, encourages a competitive spirit with the goal of excellence, and enhances employees’ overall capabilities, enabling them to serve maintenance work and the company’s development better. 4. Equipment and technology are evolving rapidly, and the company has added many new devices and facilities to its production processes. However, at present, equipment maintenance is handled through internal training within the workshops, as well as by learning from practical experience; there is a lack of necessary technical exchanges with manufacturers or opportunities for external training. It is hoped that, if the company has the means, it will arrange for specialized equipment technicians to undergo training with the manufacturers on relevant issues, as well as to visit other coal chemical enterprises in order to learn from their advanced maintenance practices and exchange technical knowledge. 5. Continue to work on the key maintenance technologies that are not yet fully understood, such as the relationship between changes in balance pressure during the operation of certain multi-stage high-pressure pumps and the wear of balance drums and balance disks. By leveraging collective wisdom and initiative, practical preventive measures should be developed for the major technical risks associated with maintenance, thereby ensuring process quality control in maintenance activities. 6. Fully implement the company’s strategies for energy conservation and cost reduction, and continue to work on controlling costs and expenses, ensuring that efforts to manage maintenance costs are put into practice: starting with the substitution of spare parts, strive to switch from imported parts to domestic ones, and from those with low cost-performance ratios to those with higher ones, thereby reducing the expenses associated with spare parts ； While ensuring an appropriate level of inventory, actively monitor the company’s spare parts stock levels in order to further reduce them, so that there are sufficient spare parts to support production operations ； Actively responding to the company’s call to \"repair and reuse existing materials,\" we carry out the recycling and reutilization of waste materials, as well as the machining of related components. In short, 2016 was a busy and fulfilling year, as well as a challenging one, for the repair shop. Over the past year, through our maintenance and repair activities, we have experienced the benefits that come from striving for excellence and meticulous management, as well as learned from the mistakes caused by carelessness and neglect of details. Yet, we are even more eager to see the work plans for the new year brought to fruition as soon as possible. As 2017 arrives, all the employees in my workshop pledge not to disappoint the high expectations of our leadership, the proper guidance of the department, or the full cooperation of the workshop. We will carry out our duties diligently, while also seeking new perspectives in terms of management and technology, adopting new methods and techniques to keep innovating and making progress. We aim to make 2017 a year of significant achievements, striving to ensure the stable operation of our production facilities!