Maintenance and Reliability Best Practices. Ramesh Gulati
eventually may lead to additional failures of the asset on which the maintenance was performed. A maintenance quality program requires trained and motivated maintenance personnel.
Selecting the right performance indicators to measure maintenance performance is critical and is important in implementing best practices. The indicators should encourage the right behavior; they should be difficult to manipulate just to have “feel-good” results. Finally,they should be easy to collect and report.
Maintenance cost and asset availability can be improved by optimizing the maintenance work tasks (content) and by effectively executing tasks through the utilization of tools available to us. Maintenance tasks such as PM/CBM work instructions and repair plans must cover what needs to be done. These tasks can be optimized by using tools and techniques such as RCM, FMEA, predictive technologies, and Six Sigma. These tools and techniques help to optimize the content of the work tasks to be accomplished. The execution of maintenance tasks can also be optimized by using other tools and techniques such as planning and scheduling. These tools and techniques can help to utilize maintenance resources effectively.
Q3.1 Define maintenance and its role.
Q3.2 What are the different categories of maintenance work?
Q3.3 What can equipment operators do to support maintenance?
Q3.4 Why would an organization support operators who get involved in maintenance?
Q3.5 Why would an organization need to have a CMMS? What is the difference between a CMMS and an EAM?
Q3.6 List five maintenance metrics and discuss why they are important.
Q3.7 What new name can be given to the maintenance function? Discuss the benefits.
Q3.8 Name five PdM technologies and discuss how they can help reduce maintenance costs.
Q3.9 Define proactive maintenance.
Q3.10 What basic tools can an operator use to predict failures?
Q3.11 What are the benefits of a structured maintenance program?
Q3.12 Why don’t many CMMS/EAM systems provide projected benefits?
Q3.13 What are the benefits of having a PM program?
Q3.14 What’s the basic function of an RCM program?
Q3.15 What are the quality issues in maintenance? Discuss what we could do to improve.
Q3.16 How can a CMMS/EAM system help improve maintenance productivity?
Q3.17 What’s the future of maintenance? Discuss where it’s heading.
References and Suggested Reading
Bagadia, Kris, David Burger, et al. Miscellaneous technical papers and reviews on CMMS/EAM at Plant Services, Maintenance Technology, and Reliabilityweb.com.
Fortin, John. Why Execution Fails and What to Do about It, 2nd ed. Reliabilityweb.com, 2018.
Levitt, Joel. Handbook of Maintenance Management, 2nd ed. Industrial Press, 2009.
Narayan, V. Effective Maintenance Management. Industrial Press, 2004.
Nyman, Don. Maintenance Management training notes. Seminars, 1994–1996.
Strategic Maintenance Management Series (CMM). Three books—The Business, Enablers, and Processes. Reliabilityweb.com, 2019.
Work Management: Planning andScheduling
A goal without a plan is just a wish.
—ANTOINE DE SAINT-EXUPÉRY
After reading the chapter, you will be able to understand:
• The basic workflow process
• The role of planners, schedulers, and others in managing work
• Work classification and prioritization
• The importance of backlog management
• Why planning is necessary
• The planning process
• Why scheduling is necessary
• The scheduling process
• Turnaround management
Maintenance tasks should be performed efficiently to ensure that factory/plant capacity is sustained cost-effectively. In the previous chapters,we discussed developing the proper maintenance tasks to keep our assets working. In order to reduce overall operations and maintenance costs,these tasks must be executed efficiently and effectively. Basically, this is achieved by eliminating or minimizing avoidable delays and wait time.
Imagine yourself repairing a leaky faucet or dishwasher at home. Your spouse has asked you repeatedly to fix it. Finally, you find the time to take on this assignment. Can you recall the number of times you went back and forth to the garage, to the toolbox, or to the hardware store to acquire the correct-sized tool, washer, or seal? It probably took about 4 or more hours to finish this task.
Imagine again, a couple of months later, a similar type of problem occurred. This time you are not available, and your spouse calls a plumber. The plumber comes in and assesses the problem, goes back to the truck, gets the right tools and parts, corrects the problem, and leaves in 40–45 minutes. Does this sound familiar? Maybe if you had the right tools and right parts and better instructions, your task would have taken less than 2 hours instead of 4 hours or more? The point here is that proper work planning with the right tools, parts, and instructions can save time and avoid wasteful activities.
Figure 4.1 shows a job without planning (sometimes called “on-the-run” planning) and one with proper planning.
FIGURE 4.1 Impact of Good Planning
Figure 4.1a shows a disorganized work activity with frequent work interruptions and restarts, evidence of inadequate planning. The frequent work interruptions encountered could be due to a lack of availability of the right parts or tools or to improper work instructions. A well-planned job with up-front planning and no interruptions is shown in Figure 4.1b. Planned and scheduled jobs take substantially less time than unplanned jobs.
For many years, industry experts have pointed to the low productivity levels in the maintenance departments of many companies around the world. Several studies and survey results reported at major maintenance and reliability conferences such as IMC (International Maintenance Conference) and SMRP have indicated that maintenance craft productivity varies anywhere from 30 to 60%, or 3 to 5 hours of average productive time for an 8-hour shift. Some call this productive time wrench time, during which maintenance craft personnel actually spend their efforts repairing the assets, as opposed to walking to the store to get the right tools, receiving unclear instructions, waiting for other craftworkers to arrive or for release of the asset from operations,and other wasteful activities.
In general, every hour invested in work planning saves 1–3 hours in work execution. Abraham Lincoln once said, “If I had eight hours to cut a tree, I’d spend six hours in sharpening the axe.” What he meant was that he would take more time to prepare and plan for the task; then,less time would be needed to complete the actual task safely.
There are,