The Process Plant

Mark Banus relates a story about an operator named Dave at a process plant who was frustrated by the "home-grown" system for locking and tagging equipment before it could be worked on.

When the #3 bearing would go out of alignment, as it did frequently, the line would have to be shut down and the plant was in effect "out of business". Locking and tagging the system to make adjustments would typically take 3 people 4 hours, or a total of 12 man-hours, to complete. Following the tagout, the technician would be called on site to make the adjustment which normally required 15 minutes.

Following the adjustment, the locks and tags could be removed, the system brought back online and the mill could be "back in business".

Dave, who learned about TagLink from the web site, asked for information and went through a demonstration of TagLink's capabilities. Management did not want to listen or change from "business as usual", but Dave was persistent. Finally, management agreed to "pilot" TagLink.

Over the next weekend, Dave created some templates for tagouts that were needed on a regular basis and saved the information on the locks and tags required as well as the procedures for isolating hazardous energy in TagLink. His idea was to prove that this change was good, not just for the operators, but for the business as well.

On Monday, the #3 bearing went out of alignment again. Since this tagout event was covered by one of the templates that Dave created over the previous weekend, he created a new tagout from the template and printed all of the required paperwork and tags in less than 5 minutes. Within 15 minutes, all of the controls had the appropriate locks and tags installed and the system was ready to be worked on.

The technician was called, and he told the people in the control room to let him know when the system was tagged out and he'd make his way to the mill. He was quite surprised when the person on the phone said the system was already tagged out and they were ready for him.

The technician arrived shortly thereafter, made the required adjustments, and wondered how the people at the mill were able to be ready so quickly.

Dave called Mark after the system was brought back online and very enthusiastically said that, "TagLink more than paid for itself in just one use. Typically, this type of event would cost the company upwards of $50,000, but by using TagLink the plant was only down for 1 hour instead of 5 hours or more. Using TagLink this one time saved us at least $40,000."

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