CALGARY – Teck Coal with six mines in British Columbia and Alberta takes the maintenance and reliability of its heavy equipment seriously. The company has teamed up with Dingo Mining, the lubricated asset experts, of Denver to make sure its programs and practices are world class.
The latest issue of the GoodOil Newsletter includes an interview with Teck Coal’s reliability lead, Jeff Smith, who had years of experience as a heavy mechanic and equipment operator before becoming a Certified Maintenance and Reliability Professional.
GoodOil asked him what lessons about maintenance and reliability he has learned.
Smith replied: “The biggest gap in maintenance and reliability lies in decision support – giving the day-to-day decision makers access to key information to both effectively and efficiently manage the company's assets. The decision support process has to be developed so the automation of the human interface is engaged through asset data integrity, asset health management, enterprise asset management and computerized maintenance management systems. Information to knowledge; knowledge to action.”
What tools does Teck Coal use to set it apart in the world of maintenance and reliability?
“What has set us apart from many industries is our intent to develop programs and processes that are fully integrated as living programs,” said Smith.
He went on to explain the need for a failure/incident from which statistics can be derived to manage accurate and genuine reliability, safety, and production data. “The data can then be then fed back to the supporting software to identify gaps and optimization opportunities. The resolutions to the gaps and opportunities redefine our maintenance and operational strategies and result in sustainable continuous improvement.”
The interview with Smith can be read in its entirety at store.Dingo.com/Teck-Coal-maintenance-practices
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