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Mitigate Threats to Reliability through Capability, Technology and Action
Transform from Reactive Repair to Proactive Reliability:
Effective maintenance and reliability organizations display and aggressively pursue excellence in key functions. Outlined below are key capabilities (skills and processes) that are second nature to successful organizations. This is an integrated approach combining capabilities, appropriate technologies and action to achieve reliable production capacity to meet business requirements.
However, the implication is NOT that every organization is “world-class” in every aspect, but rather that effective reliability organizations are functional in all and excel in the areas which are vital for their particular circumstance.
NOTE: A basic assumption held throughout this discussion is that safe work practices and conditions are fundamental for reliable operation of any unit, facility or organization. It is understood that all daily tasks that humans undertake carry some component of additional risk. Industrial settings amplify the consequences, so methods must be applied to reduce the probability of unintended outcomes that are harmful to personnel or the surrounding environment.
1. Clearly Define The Role of Maintenance
Clearly define and communicate the role of the maintenance organization e.g. providing reliable productions capacity to meet business requirements. This definition must shift focus from the traditional “too little too late” approach of “quickly” repairing equipment after an unanticipated loss of capacity, to instead emphasizing the importance of detecting threats to reliability and recommending corrective action to facilitate on-time and on-specification production.
2. Reliability Can Be Influenced During the Entire Life Cycle
Determine the necessary level of reliability to meet business requirements. Define which factors can impact the fundamental properties of the unit’s reliability. While reliability of design and assembly (construction) have long-lasting impacts on the observed reliability of any given unit or component, the day-to-day influence of operation, monitoring and repair practices also have large impacts. While the opportunities to revise design and assembly “givens” are generally limited by budget and operating schedules, opportunities to mitigate threats by operating, monitoring and corrective actions are readily available. Evaluate detection, mitigation and observed “best” practices for their impact on safe and reliability operation.
3. Organize the Work
Efficient deployment of resources reduces the cycle time (identification to completion) and cost for all categories of work. Asset owners and maintainers must resolve the real-world conflict between 100% availability and operating expense constraints. While related, job planning and execution scheduling are separate functions. Evaluate the contribution to well organized work to safe execution and the economics of reliability, capacity and operating expense. Effectively coordinate production and repair schedule, develop realistic return to service expectations and prioritization controls.
4. Meticulously Control Outages/Turnaround Events
Outages add intense stresses of scale, schedule and integration to an infrastructure optimized for day-to-day monitoring and repairs. Due to these stresses, risk mitigation analysis for shut down, work execution and start-up must be in the forefront on all planning. Leverage continuous work identification and planning methods to assist in event preparation. Early and aggressive focus on scope, schedule and resource management throughout the planning, mobilization and execution phases must be institutionalized. These management principles are necessarily integrated with projects impacting reliability and operability to achieve the desired interval between outages.
5. Anticipate Threats Through Condition Monitoring
The proper application of non-intrusive condition monitoring techniques is essential to providing adequate warning and evaluation of degrading system performance. Developing a repeatable approach to determination of what, where and how to monitor along with the definition of alert and alarm settings is the basis for effective condition monitoring.
6. Preventive Maintenance Must Be Specific to Failure Mode, Go/No Go, and Interval
Preventive (time based mitigation) measures are applicable to those failure modes with known corrosion, erosion or wear rates. Preventive activities take specific actions at set intervals (days, run hours, etc.,) and generally require some intrusive access to the subject equipment or system. Without a specific failure mode and time basis for action, a “PM” may offer no positive impact on reliability. In frequent instances, poorly conceived PM’s provide access to introduce a failure mechanism into a perfectly healthy machine or system.
7. Document System and Equipment History
Crafts, planners, engineers, operators and procurement personnel all benefit from accessible and accurate documentation of reliability strategies, repair, alterations, hazards and bill of material. Significant productivity gains are achieved by eliminating the need to conduct repetitive research to understand system performance and material requirements. Communicate and adhere to consistent documentation expectations that balance a “just the facts” approach with sufficient detail to answer basic questions that may arise months or years in the future. This information will pay enormous dividends in the analysis of reliability and cost implications of proposed corrective actions, modifications and operational changes.
8. Leverage the Maintenance/Reliability Management Systems
Proficiency in interfacing with the facilities’ computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) provides progressive gains in productivity. The CMMS is a tool just a lathe or torque wrench that presents a wealth of information readily accessible to those closest to the work. As more effective history and material documentation is entered into the system, it become more valuable to the broader workforce.
9. Root Cause Correction Eliminates Work
Straight forward troubleshooting and documentation methods remove much of the mystery from the identification and correction of recurring reliability threats. Much can be gained from using a system vs. equipment approach when evaluating and separating symptoms from root causes. Effective root- cause correction can be leveraged across multiple systems, units or facilities.
10. Technically Correct Solutions Address More Than The Symptom
Even with the most effective reliability strategies will not remove the need for repairs at some point. The goal is to execute the repair correctly the first time and avoid additional hazards, rework or capacity reductions. Methodically applying proper skills, tools and material to each repair is a core competency of any efficient repair organization. The availability of suitable technical expertise (either intrinsic to the organization or external) during the evaluation, planning and repair stages facilitates hazard mitigation, a shorter repair duration and elimination of rework.
11. Integrate functions through Timely and Effective Communication
Any function can become detached or siloed from the remainder of the organization. Frequently the difficulty in managing workload and schedule coordination intensifies the issues e.g. 24/7 rotating operating organization and day shift maintenance organization. Establishing effective face-to-face “briefs” and clear electronic communications are necessary for the coordination and integration of all necessary decision and execution functions.
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