MA Martínez1, JC Urango1 and GA Coloma2
1IDC Ingeniería de Confiabilidad SAS, AV 35A #19-61, Tuluá, Valle del Cauca, Colombia
2Corporación San Diego – Ingenio Trinidad, Km 70.5 Masagua, Escuintla, Guatemala
In the context of market globalization and growing economic challenges competitiveness in the sugarcane industry increasingly demands operational excellence; this was the case for Ingenio Trinidad in Guatemala. High maintenance costs, low equipment availability, especially at the beginning of the harvesting season (Zafra), and low productivity due to unexpected downtime, attributed to the lack of a maintenance strategy, resulted in low competitiveness and placed the company at the bottom of the profitability benchmark in Guatemala. In response, a Reliability and Asset Management Dream was defined to drive industrial processes towards operational excellence, with consulting guidance and collaboration at various levels of the organization. Firstly, a maintenance policy and strategies were developed, including condition monitoring, commissioning, and lubrication strategies, complemented by essential personnel training. Next, the reliability strategies were defined, leading to the creation of the Reliability Department, responsible for ensuring the sustainability of the progress. Finally, Asset Management strategies were developed, such as policy definitions, asset taxonomy and criticality, root cause analysis, statistics for decision making, life cycle calculation, and more; ultimately supporting the development of the Strategic Asset Management Plan. The results allowed for a remarkable growth in Asset Management maturity, resulting in a sustained 26% reduction in maintenance costs year by year, a 44% reduction in downtime, and outstanding indicators in personnel development, taking the organization from the bottom to the top of the profitability benchmark in Guatemala. This study shows that Reliability and Asset Management are not just technical tools, but are invisible pillars that support the longevity of industries, that every decision taken with precision today is another grain of sand in the construction of sustainable industries, and that the sugar industry should be aware of this reliable journey.