by Clair D. Urbain

In 1987, you were hard-pressed to find a parking spot at Inland Steel. At its East Chicago, Ind., facility on the banks of Lake Michigan, more than 15,500 workers produced 5.5 million tons of steel that year.

Today, with a workforce of 8,500, you can park almost anywhere you want, but the facility continues to produce 5.5 million tons of steel annually. The steel maker continues to improve production processes, recently setting a North American record of producing 10,682 tons of iron a day at its No. 7 blast furnace.

With fewer people and more production, the best way to make productivity gains is to plan for uptime and partner with experts who can help execute that plan, says Craig Orcutt, maintenance analyst for Inland Steel’s No. 7 furnace.

"The No. 7 furnace is the largest furnace in the Western Hemisphere. It has a 45-foot hearth and supplies 65 percent of the plant’s molten iron production here. If it goes down, the production chain is interrupted and our customers who expect their steel just-in-time suffer. So we don’t measure downtime in repair costs; we measure it in lost productivity," he says.

It’s not just product cost
"So if a salesman comes in and says he can save us $2,000 or $3,000 on some MRO component, he will get our attention, but it’s not just the cost of the product; it’s also the technical expertise and ability to get us the product when we need it to keep from interrupting the production process that concerns us," he says.

Orcutt has worked in several areas of Inland Steel, and pegs the No. 7 furnace operation as one of the best-run from a preventive maintenance standpoint.

"This furnace was built 16 years ago and from the first day, it has been operated with a preventive maintenance philosophy. We have data on parts replacement since day one. That helps us better plan when to make repairs. The first data is on paper, but we have adapted it over to our Computerized Maintenance Management Software (CMMS) system that has been in place for three years. We are now much better decision-makers for when and how to replace components. This is evolving into other areas of the plant," he says.

Expanding the uptime window
The record system is paying off. In 1997, the time between shutdowns was every 12 weeks and given the track record, that may stretch to 16 weeks in 1998.

"When you have that much time between shutdowns, it’s extremely important to repair as much as possible when you are down. We must also account that as we increase production, components wear out faster. Replacement schedules must be driven by production, not time," he says.

"In the last three years we have been focusing on the reliability of the plant. We have inspectors who are constantly monitoring components and they feed their findings into the CMMS system, which in turn drives our work order system."

As Inland Steel refined its maintenance process, it also looked at its MRO procurement process for ways to gain efficiency. Vendor performance heads the list of accomplishments, followed closely by its commitment to get suppliers to provide value-added services, Orcutt says.

To further streamline acquisition processes, Inland Steel has set up automatic ordering systems on several high-consumption/low-cost items.

For example, Columbia Pipe and Supply has 39 bin locations throughout the plant for pipe and fitting supplies; Mighty Mill has similar locations in the plant for fasteners. Mobil supplies lubricants and fluids; S&K/Air Power Tool and Supply provides consumable tool supplies and also offers a rental program for items needed on an occasional basis. Graybar supplies electrical components in similar bin-fill arrangements; AETS handles all used oil, barrel, bladder and battery disposal.

"Once a week, these distributors come into the plant and monitor use. With a bar-code reader, they check stocking levels and produce an order for parts. They put together pick lists and delivery slips for each area and fill the order. Then they submit an electronic purchase order to the originating department. That’s the first time we touch the order," Orcutt says.

When a shutdown nears, the maintenance and tool room personnel work directly with the selected distributors to get components. During this time they coordinate increasing bin-fill levels 10 or 15 percent for the higher maintenance activity and work to obtain special items.

"They work with the distributor directly. Purchasing doesn’t get involved and it’s something I don’t have to worry about," he says. "I only get involved to assign account numbers to the releases as they come in."

Full service, full-time
For seamless product availability, preferred suppliers must be able to interact with Inland Steel’s computer system. They must also be on-call 24 hours a day, and assure quick response time to emergency orders.

"We are continually looking to drive down our inventories and are working with distributors who can keep parts and materials at their facilities and provide it on an on-call basis. We were able to get a 4" diameter valve in here in less than four hours because our supplier had a plan for such a need. We need more suppliers to develop such good systems for assuring parts availability," Orcutt says.

Technical knowledge from suppliers mirrors Inland Steel’s commitment to supplying technical information to its customers.

"Inland Steel worked with Ford Motor Company for five years developing the steel used in the Windstar van. That kind of cooperation is what’s needed from our suppliers. It helps us both be successful," Orcutt says.

(To learn more about Inland Steel, read "Measuring supplier performance".)

This article appeared in the February/March 1998 issue of MRO Today magazine. Copyright 1998.

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