Monitor and maintain treatment processing plant and equipment at optimum performance

Overview

This Standard is about setting operational objectives and parameters for treatment processing plant and equipment and monitoring them to ensure they are maintained at maximum efficiency throughout the processing cycle.

This Standard is suitable for operators working in water, waste water or sludge treatment processing plants.

Performance Criteria

You must be able to:

  1. set the parameters for plant efficiency, financial performance, and breakdown occurrence
  2. evaluate the operational and maintenance objectives and parameters and make adjustments when necessary to ensure optimal efficiency of plant output
  3. take readings from instruments and compare against plant output requirements
  4. analyse plant records and maintenance schedules to decide which equipment and instrumentation require maintenance
  5.  incorporate information from inspections and investigations within the maintenance schedule
  6. assess plant priorities, problems and hazards arising from out of service equipment to inform the maintenance plans
  7. produce a maintenance schedule which is
    7.1 accurate and meets the specification and plant operating instructions
    7.2 reflects safe working practices
    7.3 takes account of scheduled outages of other in-company plants
    7.4 makes effective use of physical labour availability
  8. monitor data from schedules and specifications
  9. compile operational maintenance schedules using monitoring data
  10. reconcile progress of the maintenance against other plant priorities
  11. arrange for investigations to be carried out where problems arise in the timescale required
  12. rectify maintenance deficiencies identified during monitoriing  
  13. provide the designated people with the maintenance schedule, risk assessments, permits to work and other documentation and instructions
  14. make details of planned equipment shut down available to workers on site
  15. ensure discrepancies arising from investigations are recorded in the timescale required, according to the organisation’s guidelines and by the methods laid down in the plant operating instructions
  16. maintain and store up-to-date maintenance data records that are in an auditable format
  17. provide access to maintenance data records on request

Knowledge & Understanding

You need to know and understand:

  1. the organisation’s process for managing statutory inspectorates
  2. the organisation’s process for managing emergency situations
  3. the organisation’s process for safe working practices when dealing with equipment, instrumentation and environment
  4. the role and purpose of data audit trails in quality assurance, health and safety and regulatory requirements
  5. how to determine and fulfil the maintenance needs of the process plant, equipment and environment
  6. the organisation’s process for planning and interacting effectively with other sites within the company regarding outages and effects on the site and use of components or the site itself
  7. the organisation’s process for making plant and equipment available for maintenance whilst maintaining the process at the predetermined level of performance
  8. the organisation’s process for assessing the effectiveness of maintenance work carried out
  9. the organisation’s process for assessing the effect of plant and equipment breakdown
  10. why it is important to minimise the effects of broken-down plant and equipment, or plant or equipment that has been taken out of use, on the treatment process
  11. the organisation’s process for monitoring the maintenance activities
  12. the organisation’s process for assessing the implications of non-compliance with regulations and the employer’s specification
  13. why it is important to comply with the organisation’s confidentiality policies and cyber security protocols
  14. the organisation’s process for operating treatment processes when there is a computer system failure
  15. the impact of changes in the catchment or distribution system on treatment process operations
  16. why it is important to maintain site security
  17. mechanical and electrical principles for maintenance of treatment process plant and equipment
  18. when to make details of planned outages available to workers on site
  19. what facilities are required to carry out treatment process work