Maintenance Improvement Plan for a Diesel Engine Power Generator

Livhuwani Donald Ramulongo

(Student number: 499404)

School of Mechanical Industrial and Aeronautical Engineering

University of the Witwatersrand

Johannesburg, South Africa.

Supervisor: Ray Sibanda

A maintenance improvement plan for a diesel generator was submitted to the Faculty of Engineering and the
Built Environment, University of the Witwatersrand, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of
Masters in Engineering.

5th May 2023

 UNIVERSITY OF THE WITWATERSRAND, JOHANNESBURG

SCHOOL OF MECHANICAL, INDUSTRIAL & AERONAUTICAL ENGINEERING

Declaration

I, the undersigned, am registered for the course MECN7024 –Maintenance Engineering in the year
2023. I herewith submit the following task “Maintenance Improvement Plan for a Diesel
Powered Generator” in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the above course.

I hereby declare the following:

 I am aware that plagiarism (the use of someone else’s work without their permission and / or
without acknowledging the original source) is wrong;
 I confirm that the work submitted herewith for assessment in the above course is my own
unaided work except where I have explicitly stated otherwise;
 This task has not been submitted before. either individually or jointly, for any course
requirement, examination or degree at this or any other tertiary educational institution;
 I have followed the required conventions in referencing the thoughts and ideas of others;
 I understand that the University of the Witwatersrand may take disciplinary action against me if
it can be shown that this task is not my own unaided work or that I failed to acknowledge the
sources of the ideas or words in my writing in this task.

Signed this 04th day May 2023

L.D. Ramulongo 499404

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Abstract

As the demand of having backup generators is rapidly increasing and it is becoming more and more
critical to conduct business in South Africa. To get the most out of these assets, requires taking
control and proactively managing them to relieve the strain experience by the power industry. This
paper discusses maintenance methods and procedures under the wing of maintenance engineering to
chart an improvement maintenance plan a diesel generator of choice (Cummins 200kVA diesel
generator for a local municipality). After deployment of the maintenance procedures it was evident
that frequent maintenance works and plans have to be carried out on time, and develop a proper
management of scheduled tasks to mitigate risk of failure and high cost implications. The
municipality reported that they experience financial crisis due to the diesel costs, unplanned
maintenance, and generator reliability issues, with an average expenditure of about R150 million just
to keep the generators up and running.

The improvement maintenance plan suggested when adhered to will save the municipality about
45% of the expenses experienced. The plan aggressively charts methods to be followed to manage
remedial work effectively, reduce the high cost of reactive maintenance, and enhance maintenance
work quality by tracking and managing warranties. Furthermore, it offers controlled and prioritised
risk assessment to improve enhance generator life and reliability by means proactive maintenance.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Declaration ....................................................................................................................................................... 1

Abstract ............................................................................................................................................................ 2

LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................................................... 3

LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................................................... 4

1. Problem Statement/Motivation................................................................................................................. 5

2. Literature Review ..................................................................................................................................... 5

2.1. Maintenance Engineering ................................................................................................................. 5

2.2. Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) .............................................................................................. 7

3.2.1. Basic Elements of TPM...................................................................................................................... 7

3.2.2 TPM Implementation .......................................................................................................................... 8

3.2.3. Benefits of TPM [2] ........................................................................................................................... 9

2.3. Reliability Based Maintenance (RCM) ............................................................................................ 9

2.3.1. The Basic Steps of RCM ............................................................................................................ 10

2.3.2. RCM Components ...................................................................................................................... 10

2.4. Reliability Engineering (RE) .......................................................................................................... 12

2.5. Maintenance Planning (MP) ........................................................................................................... 12

2.6. Tools and software for MP ............................................................................................................. 12

3. Maintenance plan for the diesel generator system of choice .................................................................. 13

This section details the chosen (Cummins 200 kVA) .................................................................................... 13

The sought problems of this asset, include: ................................................................................................... 13

4. References. ............................................................................................................................................. 16

LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1: Classification of maintenance categories [2] ............................................................................... 6

Figure 2: TPM initiatives with various pillars [3] ....................................................................................... 8

Figure 3: TPM Framework [3] ..................................................................................................................... 9

Figure 4: RCM Components ....................................................................................................................... 11

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Figure 7: Proactive Maintenance plan for diesel generators.................................................................... 15

Figure 6: Preventive Maintenance plan for diesel generators.................................................................. 15

LIST OF TABLES

Table 3: Maintenance tools and techniques [2] ......................................................................................... 12

Table 1: Electrical Condition Monitoring Methods for Diesel Generators ............................................ 14

Table 2: Mechanical Condition Monitoring Methods for Diesel Generators ......................................... 14

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 1. Problem Statement/Motivation

The power industry is strained because of power cuts, and shortages. It relies on constant reliable
power year in, and year out, and businesses on the other hand, fail to keep up and close shop because
of the failure of getting unlimited access to sustainable power and this results in huge financial losses.
Diesel generators are a critical investment with a hefty price tag and require professional
maintenance and repair to ensure healthy operation. This project looks to provide and detail an
improvement maintenance plan for a diesel generator of choice. High level of maintenance
procedures need to be adopted to save unnecessary downtime and improve generator reliability.
Challenges that the industry faces are generator reliability issues, the high cost of reactive
maintenance, not conducting regular inspections and maintenance procedures on time, and the hefty
price tag on maintenance output.

The value-add that the maintenance should provide is developing methods solely aimed at improving
cost transparency, prioritized risk management and obviating high levels of generator breakdowns.

2. Literature Review

This section considers theoretical aspects of maintenance engineering and procedures and the general
benefits thereof in maintenance planning.

2.1. Maintenance Engineering

Maintenance engineering can be defined as an activity whose prime responsibility is to ensure that
maintenance techniques are effective, equipment is designed and modified to improve
maintainability, ongoing maintenance technical problems are investigated, and appropriate
corrective and improvement actions are taken [1]. There are traditional categories that maintenance
can be split into which are briefly shown in Figure 1.

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 Figure 1: Classification of maintenance categories [2]
Reactive or Unplanned maintenance: maintenance only after the manifestation of the defect,
breakdown, or interruption. It is well fit for facilities where the plant is independent of the reliability
of the individual machinery and there is also minimal installed machinery. It is also appropriate when
failure that not result in serious downtime or safety consequences [1].

 Corrective maintenance, involves the determination of the causes of repeated breakdowns

and eliminating the cause by relevant design modifications.
 Emergency maintenance, the immediate response process of repairing following a reported
failure.

Proactive or planned maintenance can be classified as preventive and predictive maintenance:

 Preventive maintenance (PrM), involves planning of work in advance.

 Predictive maintenance, involves a planned shutdown of the plant to minimize unplanned
shutdowns.

Condition-based Maintenance (CBM): a decision-making strategy where the decision reached is

pertinent to observe the ‘condition’, of the system and/or its components. The condition of the system
is calibrated by continuous monitoring of parameters that are system or application specific. For
instance, in diesel generators fuel consumption, index is an appropriate choice.

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The following sections give a high-level explanation of Reliability centered maintenance (RCM),
and Total Productive Maintenance (TPM),

2.2. Total Productive Maintenance (TPM)

TPM is a combination of preventative maintenance (PM), total quality management, and total
employee involvement [2]. Its prime responsibility is improving the synergistic relationship between
maintenance and production by elevating manufacturing reliability and continuously improving
productivity, product quality, safety, and operational efficiency. TPM is key in meeting customers’
demands on price, lead times, and quality [2]. From a lean manufacturing perspective, improved
efficiency and profitability can be achieved by increasing value within an organization through the
elimination of waste. TPM systematically identifies and eliminates waste, inefficient operation cycle
time, and quality defects in manufacturing and processes [4]. TPM is teamwork based and sets up a
method to achieve world-class levels of overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) not through
technology or systems alone, but also through people [4]. TPM is an approach to equip employees
from both production and maintenance departments through cross-functional teams. TPM cannot be
deemed as a maintenance-specific policy; but a culture, an ethos, and a new attitude towards
maintenance. Effective TPM programs can facilitate improved organizational capabilities across a
variety of dimensions [5]. Strategic TPM implementation initiatives contribute immensely towards
effecting significant improvements in manufacturing performance [3].

3.2.1. Basic Elements of TPM

As mentioned above, TPM strives to maintain the optimum condition of equipment to prevent
unexpected breakdowns, speed losses, and quality defects occurring from process activities. TPM
has three ultimate goals: zero defects, zero accidents, and zero breakdowns. In addition to these,
TPM comprises strategic elements that include cross-functional teams to obviate barriers to machine
uptime, rigorous preventative maintenance programs, improved maintenance operations
management efficiency, equipment maintenance training to the lowest level, and information
systems to support the development of imported equipment with lower cost and higher reliability
[2].

There is an eight (8) element or pillar methodology that TPM employs, in achieving excellent
planning, monitoring, and organizing practices and includes focused improvement; autonomous
maintenance; planned maintenance; quality maintenance; education and training; safety,
environment, and health; office TPM; and development management [3]. Figure 2 provides more
detail on the 8-pillar methodology.

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 Figure 2: TPM initiatives with various pillars [3]

3.2.2 TPM Implementation

The following aspects necessitate the need to implement TPM:

 To regulate inventory levels and production lead times to realize optimum up-time and/or
available time for equipment;
 Obviate high production system losses;
 To improve the work culture and mind-set;
 To compete and gain a competitive edge in the diesel generator industry;
 Need to monitor critically and regulate work-in-progress (WIP) out of ‘Lean’ production
processes owing to synchronization of manufacturing processes;
 Minimizing investments in new technologies and maximizing return on investment (ROI);
 To liquidate product defects, breakdown, and unresolved tasks;
 More effective use of human resources, supporting personal growth and garnering human
resource competencies through adequate training and multi-skilling.

Figure 3 shows the framework of TPM implementation and depicts the tools used in the TPM
implementation program with potential benefits accrued and targets sought [3].

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 Figure 3: TPM Framework [3]

3.2.3. Benefits of TPM [2]

The benefits of employing TPM in your maintenance planning include Productivity (P); Quality (Q);
Cost (C); Delivery (D); Safety (S); and Morale (M). Benchmarking these benefits will lead to the
management of remedial work, reduce the high cost of reactive maintenance, and enhance
maintenance work quality by tracking and managing warranties.

2.3. Reliability Based Maintenance (RCM)

RCM is an approach that uses reliability estimates of the system to formulate a cost-effective
schedule for maintenance to balance safety and availability to reduce costs and downtime while
eliminating any chances of failure [2]. RCM comprises two tasks, one analyses and categorizes
failure modes based on the effects of failure endured by the system and the other assesses the impact
of maintenance plans on reliability [2]. RCM aims to develop design-related priorities that can
facilitate PrM, obtain data useful for improving the design of products with unsatisfactory inherent
reliability, and develop PrM-associated tasks that can restore reliability and safety to their inherent
levels in the event of equipment and/or system degradation.

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 2.3.1. The Basic Steps of RCM

RCM is more concerned with maintaining system function as opposed to maintaining individual
component function [2]. RCM processes are applied to determine particular maintenance tasks to be
performed, as well as to influence item reliability and maintainability during the design stages [5].
Initially, this is applied during the design and development stage and reapplied, as appropriate,
during the operational stage to sustain an effective maintenance program based on experience in the
field [5]. The basic RCM process comprises the following steps [5]:

a. Identifying important items with respect to maintenance. Normally, maintenance-important

items are identified using methods such as failure, mode, effects, and criticality analysis
(FMECA) and fault tree analysis (FTA).
b. Obtain adequate and relevant failure data. To assess failure criticality and determine its
occurrence probability, data on part failure rate data needs to be available.
c. Develop fault tree analysis data. This helps to categorize probabilities of occurrence of fault
events as basic, intermediate, and top events.
d. Apply decision logic to critical failure modes. Design a decision logic by asking standard
assessment questions and couple this with desirable preventative maintenance task
combinations.
e. Classify maintenance requirements. Ranks maintenance requirements into three
classifications: on-condition maintenance requirements, condition-monitoring maintenance
requirements, and hard-time maintenance requirements.
f. Implement RCM decisions. Set out task frequencies and intervals as part of the total
maintenance plan.

2.3.2. RCM Components

There are four major components of RCM which include: reactive maintenance (RM),
preventive maintenance (PrM), predictive testing and inspection (PTI), and proactive
maintenance (PoM) as shown in Figure 4 [5].

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 Figure 4: RCM Components
RM also known as the breakdown, fix-when-fail, or repair maintenance, this maintenance
approach is applicable when equipment repair and maintenance take place when the
condition of the item/equipment has degraded, causing its functionality to fail. Practicing this
approach solely, will lead high replacement of part inventories and yield higher a percentage
of unplanned maintenance activities. The approach is effective only if it is taken as a
conscious decision, based on conclusions gathered from RCM analysis that compares risk
and failure cost versus the cost of maintenance needed to obviate that risk and failure cost
[5].

PrM also known as time-driven maintenance, is performed disregarding the item/equipment

condition. It normally has scheduled periodic inspections, parts replacement, and repair of
components, calibration, and cleaning. This approach can be costly if practiced solely, on the
other hand, it can aid in reducing the unplanned failure frequency and severity [5]. PoM, This
type of maintenance aims to improve maintenance through actions such as better design,
good workmanship, and maintenance procedures amongst others. It features the practice of
continuous improvements (CI), the practice of root-cause failure analysis (RCA), and
predictive analysis to improve maintenance performance and effectiveness by conducting
periodic evaluations of the technical content and maintenance task performance [5].

PTI assesses item/equipment condition, it makes use of performance data and visual
inspection. The collected data is then used to create failure trend analysis and failure pattern
recognition. This type of maintenance should not be practiced alone, because it does not lend
itself to all kinds of items or possible failure frequencies [5].
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 2.4. Reliability Engineering (RE)

RE in conjunction with other proactive maintenance approaches, it is responsible for providing long-
term strategies that ensure product quality, production capacity, risk management, and best life cycle
cost. It involves redesign, modification, or improvement of parts or their replacement with better
parts [1]. There are two vastly employed RE techniques in the industry namely, failure modes and
effect analysis (FMEA) and fault tree analysis (FTA) [5].

2.5. Maintenance Planning (MP)

Future decisions and actions necessary to meet intended objectives, and targets are accomplished
through sound maintenance planning and this planning process comes in handy in minimizing idle
time and maximizing the use of work time, material, and resources effectively and efficiently. It is
for this reason that a proper maintenance plan should be put forth to help maintain the operating
equipment at a level that is responsive to the need of production in terms of quality and delivery
times. Maintenance planning typically involves the maintenance categories mentioned in Section 1.
Amongst others, MP involves maintenance scheduling (MS) which is discussed further in the
following section.

2.6. Tools and software for MP

Maintaining healthy systems requires an in-depth analysis of the target system, principles involved,
and their applicability and implementation strategies. This section and Table 1 contain the tools and
software typically used in executing healthy, effective, and efficient maintenance.

Maintenance scheduling, this process set tasks of the plan into timelines that consider the intended
goals, the interrelations between the different planned tasks, resource availability, and any other
limitations. The quality of the resulting schedule is measured by a performance measure about the
intended goal of the task(s). The performance measures can be related to different costs through
meeting deadlines, task completion time, and/or resource utilization. This is achieved in the form of
Gantt charts. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), this software integrates required maintenance
work with human resources and available equipment.

Table 1: Maintenance tools and techniques [2]

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Model-based Approach to FDI is a model-based approach to failure detection, isolation, and
identification (FDI) based on analytical redundancy or functional redundancy, where a comparison
between dissimilar signals is made to identify existing system faults or their components [2]. This
comparison is between the measured signal and the estimated values generated by the mathematical
model (algorithm) of the system [2]. Signal-based FDI, approaches focus on detecting the changes
or variations in a signal, subsequently diagnosing the change. System change detection has been
explored immensely in literature and there are techniques as a result, that have effectively integrated
various ideas from parametric modelling principles (in statistics) with signal-based principles such
as spectral analysis [2]. Statistical FDI/Maintenance, here statistical and numerical methods are used
to estimate the system failure modes, develop algorithms to optimize system maintenance
performance, and synthesize data to build trend patterns with failure modes [2].

3. Maintenance plan for the diesel generator system of choice

This section details the chosen (Cummins 200 kVA)

The sought problems of this asset, include:

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  Poor fuel management
 Frequent unplanned maintenance schedules
 Poor battery life, and theft
 Bad generator operating conditions
 Emergency stop always de-activated
 No clear records of operational hours

These problems lead to a loss of R150 million for municipality, and a clear plan is obviously needed
to optimise generator lowering the expenditures and improve generator reliability by 45%. The
methods and procedures discussed from the preceding sections are grouped and deployed to chart an
improvement plan to meet requirements of the municipality.

Table 2 and Table 3 below respectively highlight the electrical monitoring methods and mechanical
monitoring methods on the diesel generator.

Table 2: Electrical Condition Monitoring Methods for Diesel Generators

Equipment/Item Condition to be monitored

Generator operating conditions Radio frequency monitoring

Megohmmeter testing (voltage and current per phase)

Table 3: Mechanical Condition Monitoring Methods for Diesel Generators

Equipment/Item Condition to be monitored

Engine operating conditions Oil temperature, oil pressure, and engine speed

Fuel management Fuel level, and consumption

Coolant Pressure, temperature, and coolant levels.

Figure 7 shows the maintenance procedures that accompany the PoM for a diesel generator.

Item/Equipment Pro-action

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 Alternator Apply alternator checks.

Lubrication system Check for leaks and contamination.

Cooling system Check for obstruction on the radiator, loose bolts, and others.

Exhaust system Check smoke leaks on the manifold or rattle noise if any.

Engine electrical system Always ensure that electrical cables that are loose and are not in contact
with any liquid matter.

Figure 5: Proactive Maintenance plan for diesel generators

Figure 6 below shows the PrM plan for diesel generators to improve generator reliability and
the preventive methods.

Item/Equipment Prevention

Battery failure Apply a periodic fully saturated charge. Weak or undercharged batteries
contribute to generator failure because there is a buildup of sulfation
when the lead battery is deprived of full charge.

Low coolant level Check the coolant in the radiator weekly and top up with OEM-specified
coolant. This helps to avoid overheating and failure.

Load bank testing Perform annual load bank testing to determine the potential for failure

Fuel contamination Perform regular fuel maintenance to do away with the buildup of debris
and stagnant matter within the fuel tank

Switches and circuit breakers Always the output breaker and control panel

Figure 6: Preventive Maintenance plan for diesel generators

The above suggested methods can be coupled with the following to yield better maintenance
performance:

 Conduct proactive inspections

 Perform warranty management
 Plan and schedule maintenance
 Monitor and record readings and alarms
 Close control of reactive maintenance

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  Initiate re-fuelling when the fuel trigger  Close control of reactive maintenance
level is reached

4. References.

[1] Maintenance Engineering Handbook 7th Edition, R. Keith Mobley 2007.

[2] Handbook of Maintenance Management and Engineering, Springer, Ahmed E. Haroun et al,
page 342

[3] Rodrigues M and Hatakeyama K (2006), Analysis of the fall of TPM in companies. J of

Mate Process Technol 179(1–3): pages 276–279.

[4] McCarthy D (2004), Lean TPM, Butterworth Heinemann, U.K.

[5] B.S. Dhillon, Engineering Maintenance_ A modern approach CRC Press 2002

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