Case Study: Root Cause on Seal Failure in Refinery

I use the term RCPE because it is a waste of good initiatives and time to only find the root cause of a problem, but not fixing it. I like to use the word problem; a more common terminology is Root Cause Failure Analysis (RCFA), instead of failure because the word failure often leads to a focus on equipment and maintenance. The word problem includes all operational, quality, speed, high costs and other losses. To eliminate problems is a joint responsibility between operations, maintenance and engineering. 

What Causes Fatigue Failure? Metal fatigue is caused by repeated cycling of the load. It is a progressive localized damage due to fluctuating stresses and strains on the material. Metal fatigue cracks initiate and propagate in regions where the strain is most severe. The process of fatigue consists of three stages.

So, the root cause problem elimination. It's really just a structured approach to eliminate problems...that's all it is. It's what usually happens when people say they do root cause, in my experience, this is the morning meeting and someone says motor tripped-out costing production loss. So, what happens in the morning meeting, now I haven't been to yours, but somewhere, the first thing people say is this a maintenance problem or is this an operations problem.

Martin Sprocket & Gear Inc's Maintenance and Troubleshooting Guide. This guide covers chain drives, gear drives, chain couplings, jaw couplings, quadra-flex couplings, synchronous drives, v-belt drives, and screw conveyors.

Root Cause Analysis (RCA) is a useful tool for trouble shooting breakdowns and efficiently coming to a solution. I propose the following seven points for successful implementation of RCA that will naturally result in increased profits.

The power industry’s operating and maintenance practices were held up to intense regulator and public scrutiny when on November 6, 2007, a Massachusetts power plant’s steam-generating boiler exploded and three men died. The Department of Public Safety’s Incident Report investigation determined that the primary cause of the Dominion Energy New England’s Salem Harbor Generating Station Unit 3 explosion was extensive corrosion of boiler tubes