The maintenance department is one of the greatest levers of
profitability that any capital intensive organisation has.
An average of 40 – 50% of a capital intensive industries operating
budget is consumed by maintenance expenditure. With the advances
today in technology affecting maintenance this figure can be
greatly reduced. As such maintenance is often an organisations
largest single controllable expense.
During the past twenty years the advances in technology available
to the maintenance department to manage its processes has delivered
the situation where it is within the reach of all maintenance
operations to achieve a world class level of maintenance delivery.
Today the standard of tools available to maintenance is staggering.
- Advanced CMMS Systems
There is a staggering array of systems available today
to manage the functions of maintenance. Some even offer
interfaces with the internet and e-commerce functions.
Even to the stage where there are built in modules for
managing equipment maintenance strategies and optimising
stores inventory levels.
- Preventative Maintenance Optimisation
Techniques
Since the inception of the original
RCM methodology this area has also
grown rapidly. There are now a very
large range of company’s and products
for optimising the maintenance strategies
of any industry. Including a wide variety
of software applications designed to
assist in this area.
This extends into specialised areas
such as Root Cause Analysis which is
a becoming more and more refined and
incorporate a variety of reliability
engineering techniques.
- Predictive
Maintenance
Technologies
The
advances in this area are also
vast. There are now a great range
of techniques and applications
for predictive technologies that
were not contemplated twenty
years ago.
- Increased
Knowledge
Base
The
range
of
knowledge
that
maintenance
professional’s
today
posses
far
exceed
that
of
twenty
years
ago.
Tody
there
is
a
wide
understanding
of
all
of
the
fields
of
maintenance
management
as
well
as
the
various
advanced
techniques
and
concepts
that
have
developed.
However,
even
with
all
of
these
technological
advances,
the
majority
of
maintenance
departments
are
still
very
much
stuck
in
the
rut
of
reactive
maintenance.
Why
is
this
so?
Because
the
business
processes
have
failed
to
keep
pace
with
the
rapidly
moving
technologies.
Without
this
focus
the
maintenance
department
is
doomed
to
continue
throwing
good
money
after
bad
in
an
effort
to
try
and
take
control
of
its
business.
The
progression
of
the
maintenance
department
to
a
stage
of
continually
reducing
costs
and
improved
reliability
is
a
basically
progression
through
four
stages
of
growth.
Each
one
with
its
own
indicators
that
make
it
easily
recognisable.
The
first
two
of
these
steps
is
the
progression
from
the
reactive
to
the
planned
state
of
maintenance.
- Reactive
State
- Low
Equipment
Reliability
(MTBF)
When not measured this factor can often be masked by high equipment availabilities.
But on closer analysis it can often be found that equipment with high
availabilities are also breaking down frequently.
- Low
Mean
Time
to
Repair
(MTTR)
This indicator can often be very misleading as to the performance of
the plant equipment as a whole. In a reactive state it is often very
low. This is because the workforce is accustomed to having to repair
equipment and to do so in a very fast manner. Although a positive, in
terms of workforce abilities, it often indicates a situation in which
the plant itself is often failing.
- Inaccurate
Inventory
Planning
One of the lead on effects of low equipment reliability is the inability
of the maintenance store to accurately control the level of inventory
required. When they cannot be sure what will be required tomorrow it
is impossible to construct anything like a long range plan for managing
the inventory levels in a satisfactory manner.
- Many
Uncontrolled
Stores
The flow on from poor inventory planning is the number of uncontrolled
or personal stores that maintenance departments are inclined to keep.
This is due to the fact that maintenance has no confidence in the store
department to adequately maintain the levels of stock required and stems
from the poor equipment reliability.
- Highly
Reactive
Workforce
With the effects of all of the factors above, the workforce in this situation
is generally extremely reactive in nature. When trying to change the
corporate culture of an organisation this can often be one of the most
difficult areas to change. The workforce takes a great deal of pride
in its abilities to keep the plant running. And rightly so. There is
a tendency to want to run off and “save the day”.
- Planned
State
- Control
over
the
Maintenance
Resources
With the advent of correct maintenance planning and scheduling procedures
there is often a vast and rapid change in the understanding of what is
required of the maintenance resources from week to week. This often can
easily extend to monthly planning periods.
- Increased
Inventory
Control
The twin effects of increased equipment reliability and better planning
and scheduling lead directly to increased control over the throughputs
of the maintenance stores.
- Elimination
of
Much
of
the “Waste” of
the
Business
Processes
With accurate planning and scheduling processes much of the waste in
the processes will cease to exist. Waste appears generally in the form
of waiting times for materials, equipment availability and in the provision
of inaccurate information.
- Increased
Accuracy
in
Maintenance
Budgeting
With the increases in equipment reliability large gains in budget accuracy
are immediately possible. The ability to forecast maintenance requirements,
either by equipment or activity, are vastly enhanced when we reach the
planned stage of maintenance.
- Reduced
Maintenance
Costs
In conservative terms a task that has been planned and scheduled is at
least 50% more efficient in terms of both costs and time to complete.
Using this as a standard and applying it to the amount of tasks that
are now executed in an unplanned fashion we can easily see the range
of savings that are possible.
The
further
steps
in
the
progression
of
maintenance
management
encompass
the
stages
of
Optimising
and
that
of
accepted
World
Class
standards.
However
the
task
here
is
to
define
course
from
Reactive
to
Planned
states.
-
The
process
for
an
organisation
to
advance
to
the
planned
stage of
maintenance
consists
of
6
fundamental
steps. All
of
which
are
critical
to
achieving this
goal.
The
steps
below
are
not necessarily
in
a
chronological
order.
Business
Rules
and
Guides
Establishment
of
the
guides
and
rules
by which
maintenance
will
do
business
is
a critical
and
often
overlooked
part
of
maintenance development.
During
this
period
it
is
necessary
to deal
with
all
of
the
major
business decisions
facing
the
department.
Some
of
the items
that
should
be
considered
at
this point:
How
