Predictive
Maintenance
Case Story
Summary
Case story of setting up and operating a cost-effective predictive
maintenance program at Champion Paper Company.

MB02006
SKF
4 pages
April 2002
SKF Reliability Systems
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San Diego, CA 92123
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Predictive Maintenance

The Case Story
“This plant is only two years old, and we’re
fortunate that our upper management decided
to go with a predictive maintenance program

from the very beginning,” advised John
Daniels, predictive maintenance specialist at
the Champion Paper Company plant in
Quinnesec, Michigan. “We have two people
assigned full-time for vibration analysis …
plus two SKF Condition Monitoring Microlog
portable data collectors, an IBM PC computer
with a Bernoulli box, a real time analyzer and
plotter, and a printer.”

Microlog system developed by SKF Condition
Monitoring, of San Diego, California. “At the
time we selected SKF Condition Monitoring,
their system offered some of the most
enhanced features available,” he added. “In
fact, we were a beta test site for them, and
were able to work closely with them on any
questions, concerns or problems that came
up.”

The predictive maintenance program
currently monitors approximately 6,600
points. For each unit they take vertical,
horizontal and axial readings … so that one
motor and pump represents 12 monitoring
points. There is one weekly data collection
route which is run each Thursday, and consists
of critical equipment that affects production
throughout the entire plant. In addition, there
are 29 monthly routes and two quarterly routes

… with each route including approximately
250 points and taking 2-3 hours to collect.
“At first, we listed every piece of equipment
in the plant that we wanted to monitor, and
divided those into four areas; the pulp
machine, the pulp mills, the boilers and the
wood yard area,” he continued. “We had
approximately 1,000 machines that we wanted
to look at, and thought that a monthly
schedule would be the most efficient for the
majority of the points.”
“In fact, after we set up the data collection
routes we found that we could conveniently
include less critical points that were in the
same area, and monitor them on a monthly
rather than quarterly basis."
When the program was started two years ago,
they looked at a variety of vibration
monitoring equipment and selected the

Figure 1. SKF Condition Monitoring’s Microlog
Portable Data Collector

“One of the most important considerations
that we found in integrating this technology
into our plant was educating our people. We
developed one program that allows our
mechanics the opportunity to spend 2-3 days
working with the system … outlining what
we’re trying to accomplish, and providing

basic information about how the system
works. We let them load the Microlog with the
computer, go out and take a route, then dump
the data back into the computer.”
“This experience is important for two reasons;
first, it helps them understand what we’re
trying to do in this department and how it
relates to their job and second, if a problem
develops during the second or third shifts

© 2004 SKF Reliability Systems All Rights Reserved

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Predictive Maintenance
when our people are not here, one of these
mechanics can come to our office, pick up one
of the Micrologs and use it to record critical
information. They might not understand all of
the details of the program, but they can be
very helpful in an emergency.”
“We’re also in the process of developing a
similar program for all of our managers and
production people. One that provides an
overview of what we’re doing and the type of
information that we collect and process.
We’ve found that some managers who were
not aware of vibration analysis have been
amazed at what we have been able to do …

they too have become believers.”
Even though the plant is relatively new, there
have already been a number of situations
where the predictive maintenance program has
been particularly cost-effective.

“One of the systems is a 1,250-hp primary
cleaner pump motor which we monitor on a
monthly basis,” he continued. “We noticed
that the system had a high axial vibration
reading, and by trending the data we found
that it was consistently climbing each month.
We scheduled to replace it during the next
scheduled downtime, and when we got it into
the shop we found that the motor had a 0.050”
differential in the air gap fitting. That is
something that you can’t see, feel or hear …
and without the analysis we would have run
the motor until it had failed … probably when
we could least afford it; at 3 a.m. some
morning.”
“Production downtime represents a
significant cost for us, in addition to the cost
of parts and labor to repair a piece of
equipment. That experience alone saved us
thousands of dollars.”

Figure 2. “By trending vibration readings they can identify developing problems that otherwise would go
undetected.”


© 2004 SKF Reliability Systems All Rights Reserved

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Predictive Maintenance
“We make a point of documenting each of
these instances where the predictive
maintenance program has made a difference,
and we present the data in a variety of reports
and graphs. We keep educating our
management on the problems that we control
or prevent, and then put these abilities into the
financial and production terms; terms that they
more easily understand. As a result, our
management usually supports our annual
budget requests, as well as requests for special
project funding.”
“We’re also constantly working to improve
the efficiency of the program. We’re currently
re-evaluating which pieces of equipment are
included in the program, and we’re trying to
determine if we can reduce the number of
points that we monitor on each machine … for
example, from 12 points to 8 points. If we can
reduce the number of points that we monitor

in the current program, we’ll be able to add
more of the less critical points to the schedule,
and expand our information data base even

more.”
“The best advice for someone who is
considering starting up a predictive
maintenance program is to sit down and
identify what equipment you have, and what
you want to accomplish,” he concluded. “Over
the last three years a lot of new diagnostic
equipment has been developed, and you can
accomplish just about anything that you might
want with one form of the technology or
another.”
“However, if you don’t have a clear idea of
what you want, you may end up with state-ofthe-art technology that sits on the shelf … or
that provides information that really isn’t
useful.

© 2004 SKF Reliability Systems All Rights Reserved

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