(May 2, 2022) Morenci’s Reliability Centered Maintenance Department recently amassed 24 years and three quarters of a million combined hours of work without a recordable incident.
For those who don’t want to look that far back in the calendar, it means Morenci’s RCM safety champs have recorded zero recordable safety incidents since 1998.
Reaching that safety record was more difficult than it might seem, considering RCM technicians remotely monitor heavy equipment as opposed to actually working with and on that heavy equipment.
“For techniques like vibration analysis, for example, an RCM technician is remotely monitoring a sensor that’s attached to a bearing housing or motor, so in terms of exposure to the equipment, that’s not super high,” said Jun Montes, Manager Health and Safety-Morenci. “But what people don’t think about is these same technicians having to work from heights or in confined spaces when they install, maintain, update or replace these sensors. So, their exposure to risk is very real.”
Montes speaks from experience. He ran the department from 2007 to 2011.
The job for RCM technicians can be acrobatic at times because they often climb or contort to install and remove sensors from equipment (always with the proper safety equipment). The work also is performed under a tight window, as most of the hands-on work with sensors corresponds to scheduled preventive maintenance at mine sites, when time is of the essence to get equipment back in service to produce copper and moly.
“It wouldn’t be exaggerating to say that every critical asset and infrastructure we have is touched by those guys,” Montes said. “And don’t forget, even with just a small laceration that might require a couple stitches, that safety record goes back to zero, so 24 years is a very impressive record.”
The envy of the industry
So, how did Morenci’s RCM team sail through 24 years without a single recordable miscue?
Organized under Morenci’s Maintenance division and led by Ruben Quintanilla, Senior Supervisor-Maintenance, and Christopher Parkey, Supervisor-RCM, the team spelled it out in a recent PowerPoint slide they created to explain their safety prowess to company leadership:
- Experience - A wealth of institutional knowledge and experience collaborating on the job and in the moment allows the team to better identify risks.
- Detail Oriented People - The team is comprised of people who have an extra level of attention to detail and who perennially “review the controls.”
- Consider Themselves Professionals – Team members stress professionalism, not just in their work but in how they communicate the work plan to coworkers.
- Empowered to Question: This, of course, includes stopping the job.
RCM technicians monitor everything at a mine, from shovels and trucks to mills and crushers. They install sensors that can precisely predict when a particular piece of equipment is going to fail, making it easier to optimize run time and minimize breakdowns.
Morenci RCM’s legacy of excellence stems from the leadership of Mark Gurtler, Manager-Global Maintenance, Phoenix, who built a diverse team of expert thinkers with a level of institutional knowledge that is respected and envied by competitors in the industry, Montes said.
“Freeport-McMoRan has an RCM program because of Mark Gurtler, and it’s a program that many of our competitors know about and respect,” Montes said. “We get audited by a number of outside entities related to safety and risk assurance. These auditors regularly highlight the competitive advantage that Freeport’s RCM program represents and the quality, consistency and strength of the program.”
Gurtler, meanwhile, was quick to acknowledge the contributions of so many over the years who have made reaching this safety milestone possible.
“Going 24 years without a recordable incident is a credit to all those who have come to work each day with safety top of mind,” he said. “There are literally dozens of team members who have made the right decisions and taken the appropriate actions to help ensure they and their colleagues performed their work in the safest manner possible. I am indebted to all of them.”
For Michael Vasquez, a member of the RCM department for almost eight years, it’s a function of getting the right group of people together, collaborating and learning, and then keeping that group together to further the collaboration and learning.
“We’ve been around the block a few times. We know the plan,” said Vasquez, Senior Vibration Technician-Morenci. “We all come from different specialty areas and constantly bounce different knowledge off of each other as one cohesive team, so we collaborate really well, and from a safety standpoint, we’re our brothers’ keepers.”