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Modernizing Maintenance Department

This professional’s guide aims to consolidate my beliefs, thoughts, and ideas for future reference. Please feel free to use it for your own purposes.

Investing in the digitalization of the department for optimum Availability and Reliability of your Assets.

Topics

• Digitalizing Maintenance: Enhancing Efficiency and Reliability
• EAM/CMMS Maintenance Management
• MRO Procurement Management
• Reliability Terminology
• Essential Maintenance KPIs

Digitalizing Maintenance: Enhancing Efficiency and Reliability

In the dynamic world of industrial operations, the digitalization of maintenance and reliability emerges as a crucial strategy. Focused on Availability, Maintainability, and Reliability, this transformation integrates Digital Work Management (DWM) and Predictive Maintenance (PdM), revolutionizing traditional practices.

DWM streamlines the maintenance workflow, optimizing job prioritization, planning, and execution. Successful DWM boosts efficiency, minimizes downtime, and empowers the workforce through upskilling. Improved procurement and inventory management further contribute to operational excellence. PdM takes center stage, allowing proactive interventions before equipment failures occur. From basic sensor-triggered alarms to advanced analytics, PdM minimizes unexpected downtimes, reduces costs, and extends the life of critical components.

DWM and PdM jointly contribute to cost reduction and enhanced safety. Proactive issue identification fosters a safer working environment, mitigating risks associated with unexpected equipment malfunctions. Successful implementation hinges on factors like historical data, sensor deployment, and real-time data streaming. Less data-intensive methods, like anomaly detection, provide pragmatic initial steps toward digitalization.

Digital and analytics in maintenance and reliability present challenges, but the rewards are significant. As industries embrace these technologies, they position themselves for sustained success through increased efficiency, cost reduction, enhanced safety, and the longevity of critical components. The digitalization journey is not just evolution; it’s a revolution shaping a resilient and future-ready industrial landscape.

Article reference from McKinsey

EAM/CMMS Maintenance Management

A Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) was a game-changer for Asset Intensive organizations, providing centralized maintenance information and optimizing the utilization of critical assets.

At the heart of a CMMS lies its database, organizing essential information about assets, equipment, materials, and resources. This dynamic system caters to diverse industries such as manufacturing, oil and gas, power generation, and transportation, ensuring efficient maintenance operations. The functionalities of CMMS are vast, enabling resource and labor management, maintaining a comprehensive asset registry, managing work orders efficiently, automating preventive maintenance, and overseeing materials and inventory. This comprehensive approach streamlines workflows, enhances automation, and improves overall operational efficiency.

While CMMS and Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) share similar functions, they serve distinct purposes. CMMS focuses on optimizing fixed asset availability and uptime, automating work orders, and managing materials. EAM, thanks to greater connectivity, extends beyond, providing a broader business context, integrating with systems like Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), and considering the overall asset lifecycle.

EAM doesn’t merely ensure assets are up and running; it’s a strategic player in their entire lifecycle. From acquisition to disposal, EAM offers insights into financial analysis, procurement, risk and compliance, asset disposal, and more. It’s like extending the CMMS performance beyond the stage, providing a holistic view of assets and their impact on the entire organization.

In conclusion, the synergy between CMMS and EAM creates operational harmony in asset management. CMMS ensures daily efficiency, while EAM extends the narrative to the entire asset lifecycle. EAM’s strategic insights, connectivity, and modern adaptability highlight its pivotal role in optimizing business performance. Together, CMMS and EAM forge a dynamic partnership, strategically contributing to organizational success.

Article reference from IBM

MRO Procurement Management

The effectiveness of maintenance operations hinges on the delicate balance between planned and breakdown maintenance. A target ratio of 80% planned to 20% breakdown, guided by the 80/20 rule, serves as a benchmark for optimal maintenance efficiency. MRO (Maintenance, Repair, and Operations) inventory encompasses critical spare parts and materials crucial for routine maintenance and repair. To optimize MRO inventory effectively, several key considerations need attention to ensure the overall impact on maintenance teams’ planning capabilities.

Critical Steps for MRO Inventory Optimization:

1. Dynamic Criticality Assessment: Dynamically assign criticality assessments to parts based on their importance in the overall maintenance strategy.
2. Where-Use Feature: Implement a “where-use” feature to associate spare parts with their respective assets, ensuring efficient allocation during maintenance activities.
3. Asset Criticality Integration: Consider the criticality of assets when determining the criticality of spare parts, creating a cohesive approach to inventory management.
4. Moving Average Total Lead Time: Calculate a moving average total lead time for spare parts, providing a more accurate reflection of the time required for procurement.
5. Customized Forecasting Algorithms: Utilize forecasting algorithms tailored for maintenance activities, considering asset and work order data along with criticality and business risk factors.
6. Track Spare Parts Purchases: Monitor spare parts purchases against planned and unplanned maintenance to maintain the desired 80% planned work ratio.
7. Supplier Lead Time Consideration: Ensure that the scheduling window accommodates supplier lead time to prevent operational disruptions and depletion of safety stock.
8. Prevent Stockout Events: Prevent stockout events by stocking for unplanned emergent work, avoiding increased stocking levels and the associated negative impacts on budgets and space requirements.

Effective maintenance planning hinges on understanding the total lead time for required parts and optimizing inventory for unplanned work. Choosing an inventory optimization tool tailored for the unique requirements of maintenance activities ensures the implementation of the right measures for success. In the ever-evolving landscape of maintenance, strategic MRO inventory management emerges as a linchpin for operational efficiency and cost-effectiveness.

Article reference from IBM

Reliability Terminology

This section aims to provide a brief overview of key terms in Reliability Engineering, vital for augmenting the efficiency of assets by prolonging their lifespan and minimizing the risk of failures.

MTBF — Mean Time Between Failure:

• Represents the average time between repairable failures.
• Utilized for tracking product availability and reliability.
• Calculated through an arithmetic mean, dividing the total operational time by the number of failures.
• A higher MTBF indicates a more reliable system, focusing on unexpected issues.

MTTR — Mean Time To Repair:

• Signifies the average time taken to repair a system.
• Encompasses repair time and any testing time.
• Calculated by adding up total repair time during a specific period and dividing it by the number of repairs.
• Useful for tracking maintenance staff’s efficiency in resolving issues promptly.

MTTR — Mean Time To Recovery:

• Represents the average time to recover from a system failure.
• Includes the entire downtime, from system failure to full operational restoration.
• Calculated by summing up downtime in a specific period and dividing it by the number of incidents.

MTTR — Mean Time To Resolve:

• Signifies the average time to fully resolve a failure.
• Encompasses detection, diagnosis, repair, and preventive measures.
• Calculated by adding up the full resolution time during the tracked period and dividing by the number of incidents.
• Primarily used for unplanned incidents, not work orders.

MTTR — Mean Time To Respond:

• Represents the average time to recover from the initial alert.
• Calculated by summing up the full response time from alert to full functionality and dividing by the number of incidents.

MTTA — Mean Time To Acknowledge:

• Signifies the average time from alert triggering to when work begins on the issue.
• Calculated by adding up the time between alert and acknowledgment and dividing by the number of incidents.
• Useful for tracking team responsiveness and assessing alert system effectiveness.

MTTF — Mean Time To Failure:

• Represents the average time between non-repairable system failures.
• Utilized to understand the typical lifespan of a system.
• Calculated by adding up the total operating time and dividing by the number of equipment.
• Effective for assessing the average lifetime of products and systems with a short lifespan.

These metrics serve as valuable tools for measuring system performance, availability, and reliability. They also aid in scheduling maintenance, inventory planning, system design, and play a crucial role in forecasting equipment failures based on patterns.

Essential Maintenance KPIs

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) serve as essential metrics for companies, business units, or project teams to gauge their progress in achieving strategic goals. A well-crafted set of KPIs acts as crucial navigation instruments, offering a comprehensive understanding of the current performance levels.

Equipment Downtime:

• This metric refers to any period during which equipment is not operational, impacting productivity and efficiency.
• This KPI is vital for assessing the reliability of equipment and identifying areas for improvement in maintenance practices.

Maintenance Backlog:

• Maintenance backlog represents the time required for pending maintenance activities to be carried out by a specific number of maintenance workers. It highlights the efficiency of the maintenance team and helps in managing workloads, ensuring timely maintenance tasks execution.

Planned Maintenance Percentage:

• This KPI measures the proportion of maintenance activities that were planned in advance versus those that were reactive. A high percentage indicates effective preventive maintenance planning, reducing the likelihood of unplanned downtime.

Schedule Compliance:

• Schedule compliance assesses the degree to which maintenance activities adhere to predefined schedules. A higher compliance percentage indicates effective planning and execution of maintenance tasks, contributing to overall operational efficiency.

Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE):

• OEE is a comprehensive metric that considers availability, performance, and quality to measure the overall efficiency of equipment. It provides insights into how well equipment is utilized and highlights areas for improvement in production processes.

By consistently monitoring and analyzing these KPIs, organizations can make informed decisions, optimize operational processes, and align their efforts with overarching strategic objectives.