Maintenance and Reliability Best Practices. Ramesh Gulati
used to perform maintenance work, capital maintenance, and the cost of all projects to replace worn-out assets.
b. RAV. The replacement asset value typically comes from engineering or the company’s insurance carrier and not from accounting. It is not the book value considered for accounting purposes. Instead, it is the current replacement cost of all assets for an industrial facility. This measure should include both the cost of removing old assets and the cost of installing new ones.
2. Maintenance material cost as a percentage of RAV. This benchmark is very similar to the previous measure. It is calculated simply as maintenance material cost divided by the replacement asset value. In most organizations, the material cost is easiest to obtain from the computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) or the organization’s financial system. To ensure a comparison is accurate, we must ensure that the maintenance cost includes all maintenance material purchased for all assets in a plant, including maintenance storeroom parts and material, parts and material used by contractors on maintenance, and capital maintenance work.
Caution: Organizations need to understand that neither maintenance cost nor maintenance material cost can be reduced in a sustainable manner without the application of best practices. Many organizations attempt to focus solely on maintenance cost reduction, but this approach is usually misdirected until they have reviewed and improved their processes and applied best practices.
3. Schedule compliance. This measure is the ratio of maintenance labor hours consumed for the jobs or tasks completed (which were on an approved schedule) divided by the total maintenance labor hours available during that period. Some organizations also track the number of jobs or tasks completed that were on an approved schedule versus the total jobs or tasks on a schedule.
Maintenance schedule. The maintenance schedule identifies jobs or tasks to be completed and approved in the previous week or at least 3 days in advance. It should cover 100% of maintenance labor.
For example, organization A is typical; its schedule compliance is 40%. Organization B has applied best practices and has a schedule compliance of 80%. This comparison indicates that organization B is actually getting twice as much scheduled work out of its maintenance staff as organization A. When schedule compliance is high, we usually find that organizations also have high uptime and asset utilization rates. There is a direct correlation between them.
4. Percentage of planned work. This measure calculates the percentage of maintenance work orders where all parts, material,specifications, procedures, tools, etc., have been defined prior to scheduling the work. This best practice is a key to the long-term success of any successful maintenance organization.
For example, a typical organization A has a percentage of planned work measured at 30%, whereas organization B has a percentage of planned work measured at 90%. This comparison indicates that organization B is proactively planning three times more work and will typically have high uptime and a high asset utilization rate. Organization B’s maintenance cost is also low because unplanned work costs more to execute.
5. Production/operations breakdowns losses. This number becomes small and insignificant as best practices are applied and become a normal way of life. One important issue that directly impacts this benchmark is that all personnel from executives to production operators must be responsible for the plant’s assets. The organization management must support the journey to excellence in implementing best practices. Operators must see assets as something they own. The only way this transformation can occur is through education and empowerment.
6. Parts stockout rate. This measure is based on the number of times a maintenance employee visits the storeroom to get the parts needed versus how often parts are supposed to be in the storeroom but are not available in stock.
In working with many organizations over the years, we’ve noted that benchmarking is not an easy process, particularly when there are no standard definitions of terms to benchmark. For example, RAV may not have the same meaning to organization A as it does to organization B. They may have different definitions. This problem has been a major challenge in M&R-related benchmarking initiatives. To support standardization of terms, the author has published an Uptime Elements:Dictionary for Reliability Leaders & Asset Managers.
When measuring performance against known benchmarks of best practices, we will find that all benchmarks are interconnected and interdependent. This is why an organization must have a clearly defined group of maintenance and reliability processes to implement best practices. Tailoring a best practice to your work environment is essential to a successful and effective implementation.
Thus far, we have discussed just a few examples of best practices and their benchmarks. Throughout this book, we will be discussing practices that may be standard, good, or best, depending upon where you stand in your journey for excellence in maintenance and reliability.
Basic Test on Maintenance and Reliability Knowledge
Many maintenance and reliability practitioners have not been successful in implementing best practices. It is usually because there is a lack of or limited understanding of the best practices or because management is not getting adequate support. Take the following test to assess your knowledge of M&R best practices. This test will help you understand where you stand in your reliability journey.
Once you complete the test, go to Appendix A and score yourself appropriately. Try not to guess when answering any of the questions. If you are uncertain, skip the question and review the text later; otherwise,your results may give you a false sense of how well you know “best practices” when it comes to maintenance and reliability.
1. Best practices are practices that are defined and applied by an organization to improve its operation. These practices may or may not be proven, but results are found to be acceptable.
a. True
b. False
2. Maintainability is measured by PM schedule compliance.
a. True
b. False
3. All maintenance personnel’s time should be covered by work orders.
a. True
b. False
4. Operations and maintenance must work as a team to achieve improved OEE.
a. True
b. False
5. A best practice is to have 90% or more of all maintenance work planned.
a. True
b. False
6. 100% of PM and PdM tasks should be developed using FMEA/RCM methodology, at least for critical assets.
a. True
b. False
7. Utilization of assets in a world-class facility should be above 85%.
a. True
b. False
8. 100% of maintenance personnel’s (craft/technician) time should be scheduled.
a. True
b. False
9. Time-based PMs should be about 30% of all PMs.
a. True
b. False
10. The 10% rule of PM should be applied on critical assets.
a. True
b. False
11. Most emergency work orders should be written by production/operations.
a. True
b. False
12. It is a common practice for operators to perform PMs.
a. True
b. False
13. The P-F