Polinter Reduces Corrective Maintenance by 14%, Increases Preventative Maintenance by 25% with APM

Polinter is a Venezuelan-based petrochemical company, producing high, medium, low, and linear density polyethylene, as well as polyethylene blends. It has three production lines of polyethylene, with a capacity of 430,000t/y, located in the Zulia El Tablazo petrochemical complex in Miranda municipality, Zulia state.

The company’s mission is to produce and commercialize in a sustainable way polyethylenes and high-quality polymer blends, to contribute to the success of its clients and boost development in Venezeula.

Looking to reduce costs, improve operational excellence, and remain competitive

Polinter was looking for a way to streamline various data sources in order to reduce costs, improve operational excellence, and remain competitive. After the implementation of ISO 9000 for quality management, which calls for optimally and sustainably managing assets and asset systems, their associated performance, risk, and expenditures over their life cycles, Polinter also sought to drive continuous improvement. It had been certified with ISO 9000 for more than 21 years, and recognized the need to adapt its quality management program into an asset performance management (APM) solution.

Transforming operations and culture with APM

In order to address these challenges, Polinter reviewed and adopted best practices from international standards and reliability methodologies to improve asset performance and availability. The team documented its transformation through the creation, modification, and elimination of asset-related work processes.

The company also recognized the importance of the human factor and workplace culture in its transition to an APM-driven organization. For each process that the team implemented, Polinter included training in all methodologies and involved end-users in every step of the project. The organization’s full participation helped to guarantee the success of the project.

One critical part of merging Polinter’s quality management and APM programs together included incorporating a reliability process into existing quality management processes. It required input from the production, maintenance, technical, and reliability teams about recommendations for improvement. As a result, Polinter developed four sub-processes:

• Asset definition and classification
• Asset strategy management
• Asset performance evaluation
• Recommendation management

These processes are driven by Asset Performance Management from GE Digital (formerly Meridium Enterprise APM) and support a continuous loop of improvement.

As a result of developing a single APM program incorporating both quality and asset management, Polinter improved the mechanical availability in two out of three of its plants.

Additionally, between 2012 and 2015, Polinter reduced corrective maintenance actions by 14%  and increased preventative maintenance by 25%.

Additional benefits of implementing an APM solution, include:

• Increased client satisfaction
• Increased motivation of personnel
• Efficient use of resources
• Increased capacity to focus efforts on key improvement opportunities