Simple Solutions That Work! Issue 12

25 BACK TO BASICS Our experience shows us that to stray from the basic principal of pipe layout regularly causes issues over time. In these cases the issue is usually corrected at a higher cost some time after installation and commissioning. Having years of combined experience and historical job references, we often review past installations and can remember numerous installations where at the time of design and installation it was decided by the customer that, based on current cost and schedule, instead of moving a piece of equipment or creating a better pipe route the addition of a pipe bend at the end of a new run would be in their opinion acceptable. The customer truly believes they can take care of any future Contact: JIM GAULDIN [email protected] maintenance concerns without issue as maintenance cost is generally identified as overhead already calculated into operation of their company. They in essence deem that last fitting to be a calculated consumable item and the customer feels that this will be acceptable. None of this thinking is completely wrong. Many customers are willing to accept this calculated consumable fitting because for them at the time the initial cost is an acceptable “means to an ends.” Our historical experience finds us back at that same customer’s facility a few years later when replacement of that same customer designated consumable fitting is no longer an acceptable practice for the company. At this point, the customer is faced with rerouting a convey pipe run, moving machinery or purchasing a special fitting. To relocate the convey line could have easily been accomplished during initial installation often for less total cost and a resultant increase in convey rate. This goal of this article of course is not to chastise a customer’s decision as the customer knows best how their individual company needs to run. In turn, this article is a reminder that sometimes not adding that last fitting in an attempt to “just get it done” is a complication to a project that only needs another pass of observation where defining questions are asked as we go back to the basics for simple solutions that work.