Maintenance and Reliability Best Practices. Ramesh Gulati
For example, back in its 2006 annual report to investment brokers, the CEO of Eastman Chemical included slides related to maintenance and reliability, stressing the company’s strategy of increasing equipment availability by committing adequate resources for maintenance. More recently, in February 2019, in its Investor’s Day presentation, Jacobs Engineering discussed how it has implemented an “Intelligent Asset Management” process that includes an advanced maintenance reliability, predictive technology program at the company’s various locations to achieve higher availability with a substantial amount of savings. Again, it shows that maintenance reliability is being discussed in the boardroom.
Key Maintenance Practices
Many organizations have many different approaches and practices when it comes to their maintenance programs. All have the basic requirement to keep their facility’s assets at whatever capacity level is necessary for the organization’s current operational needs. Some maintenance programs are more structured than others. Some are based on reliability/RCM (reliability-centered maintenance) analysis. Many organizations even develop an annual or multiyear maintenance program plan to guide their maintenance decisions strategically and tactically. In fact,some organizations have a maintenance program whether they admit it or not; their program will simply be more costly than it has to be because they will live in a reactive maintenance state.
Asset
Something (such as a component or device, software, or system) that has potential or actual value to an organization. The value can be tangible or intangible, financial or nonfinancial, or can be actual physical resources of an organization. In our context, an asset can be equipment, machines, a mobile fleet, or systems, or their parts and components, including software that performs a specific function or provides a service; sometimes also referred to as physical assets.
Backlog Maintenance
Maintenance tasks that are essential to repair or prevent equipment failures that have not been completed yet. Simply, it lists all work waiting to be done.
Capital Project Maintenance (CPM)
Major repairs, e.g., overhauls and turnaround projects valued over a certain threshold, are sometimes treated as capital projects for tax purposes. If projects are essential to restoring the asset to the designed capacity—not to add additional capabilities—they should be treated as maintenance costs.
Component
An item or subassembly of an asset, usually modular and replaceable, sometimes serialized depending on the criticality of its application; interchangeable with other standard components such as the belt of a conveyor, the motor of a pump unit, or a bearing.
Computerized Maintenance Management System/ Enterprise Asset Management (CMMS/EAM)
A software system that keeps a record of and tracks all maintenance activities, e.g., maintenance work orders, PM schedules, PM masters, material parts, work plans, and asset history. Usually, it is integrated with support systems such as inventory control, purchasing, accounting, and manufacturing, and controls maintenance and warehouse activities.
Condition-Based Maintenance (CBM)
Maintenance based on the actual condition (health) of an asset as determined from noninvasive measurements and tests. CBM allows maintenance actions to be optimized by avoiding traditional calendar- or runtime-directed maintenance tasks. The terms condition-based maintenance and predictive maintenance are used interchangeably.
Corrective Maintenance (CM)
Activities undertaken (or repair actions initiated) as a result of observed or measured conditions of an asset after or before the functional failure. These repair actions will restore the asset to normal operating condition.
Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA)
A technique to examine an asset, process, or design to determine potential ways it can fail and the potential effects (consequences) on required functions. FMEA can also identify appropriate mitigation tasks for the highest-priority risks.
Operator-Based Maintenance (OBM)
OBM involves operators performing some basic maintenance activities. Operator-based maintenance is a cost-effective practice to perform minor routine and recurring maintenance tasks by the operators to keep the asset working efficiently for its intended purpose. This is also known as total productive maintenance (TPM) or autonomous maintenance.
Predictive Maintenance (PdM)
A maintenance strategy based on the actual condition (health) of an asset as determined from noninvasive measurements and tests using different predictive technologies such as ultrasonics, infrared thermography, and oil analysis. The terms predictive maintenance and condition-based maintenance are used interchangeably.
Prescriptive Maintenance (PrcM)
Instead of just predicting failures, prescriptive maintenance strives to produce outcome-focused recommendations. These are actions for operations and maintenance, based on IoT (Internet of Things) inputs and data analytics, to minimize failures by taking timely actions by an appropriate person or device.
Preventive Maintenance (PM)
Activities involved in systematic, planned inspection and component replacement, at a fixed interval, regardless of the asset’s condition at the time. Scheduled inspections are usually performed to assess the condition of the asset. A few examples of PM tasks include replacing service items such as filters and oils, belts, and lubricating parts. PM inspection may require another work order to repair other discrepancies found during the PM.
Preventive Maintenance/Failure Finding (PM/FF)
A subset of maintenance, PM/FF is performed to find hidden failures that are not obvious or visible, specifically in safety devices such as relief valves and automobile spare tires.
Proactive (Maintenance) Work
The sum of all maintenance work that is completed to avoid failures or to identify defects that could lead to failures (failure finding). It includes routine preventive and predictive maintenance activities and work tasks identified from them.
Reactive Maintenance (RM)
Maintenance repair work that is done as an immediate response to an asset failure, normally without planning and unscheduled. Synonymous with breakdown and emergency maintenance.
Reliability
The probability that an asset or item will perform its intended functions for a specific period under stated conditions.
Reliability-Centered Maintenance (RCM)
A systematic, disciplined process for establishing the appropriate maintenance plan for an asset or system to minimize the proba bility of failures. The process ensures safety, system function, and mission compliance.
Risk-Based Maintenance (RBM)
A maintenance strategy in which the degree of risk is evaluated and economically appropriate maintenance action is taken for a specific asset. This strategy is usually applied to pressure vessels, piping, or chemical-/energy-intensive assets. Sometimes tasks under this strategy are also called risk-based inspections.
Run-to-Failure Maintenance (RTF)
A maintenance strategy for assets where the cost and impact of failure are less than the cost of preventive actions. It is a deliberate decision, based on economical effectiveness, not to perform any PM, but instead let the asset run to fail and then fix it or replace it.
All assets require some form of care—maintenance, for example. Belts and chains require adjustment, pump-motor and blower-motor shafts need to be aligned, filters need to be changed at regular intervals,proper lubrication