Reliability through operational excellence
The main concern of the maintenance department, whatever the field of activity concerned, is to guarantee an optimum availability rate (Up Time) for the industrial equipment it manages.
This obviously requires the implementation of a maintenance strategy adapted to the requirements of production in terms of quality and quantity. However, it has to be said that, despite a quality maintenance plan and the implementation of a dynamic continuous improvement approach, via the structured analysis of problems encountered and the implementation of action plans, the expected efficiency rate is not always achieved; untimely breakdowns remain a daily occurrence and the bane of maintenance managers.
These unplanned undesirable events disrupt the execution of preventive maintenance to the benefit of corrective interventions (palliative or curative) which are very often carried out in a hurry, with all that this entails in terms of inconvenience and risk.
The various studies and benchmarks carried out on these Schedule Breakers agree that the main source of these problems is linked to the sub-quality of the maintenance acts: poor assembly, approximate lubrication, lack of efficiency of the mechanical links, etc. There are many examples.
These problems can be resolved by implementing an operational excellence plan: doing it right the first time.
It can be deployed on different axes:
- Preparing the work
- The provision of accurate technical data
- Continuous training of technicians
The preparation of maintenance work, whether it is carried out as part of daily preventive maintenance or during larger scheduled shutdowns, remains essential if the desired level of efficiency is to be achieved. It is indeed counterproductive to plan intrusive interventions on the machines if one has not previously ensured the availability of spare parts, the specific tooling required and the availability of the equipment. As a reminder, the availability rate of an asset (Availability Rate = MTBF / MTBF + MTTR (1) ) is a function of the repair time. Efficient preparation of the work guarantees an optimised intervention time and, consequently, improves the availability rate.
In order to approach operational excellence, it is also essential to implement precision maintenance. This means providing technicians with the technical data necessary for quality assembly; we are talking about detail drawings, work instructions, operating procedures including assembly dimensions, tolerance thresholds, quantities and types of lubricant to be used, etc., but also safety recommendations.
The absence of these essential indications will lead to "approximations", which are not compatible with the required and necessary quality.
A poorly executed maintenance action will have a direct effect on the actual life of a maintainable component which will never reach its estimated life. It should be noted that new technologies, via the digital tools available today, facilitate the permanent availability of up-to-date technical documentation; I am thinking in particular of the mobile solutions integrated into current CMMS systems (2).
The last area I will address in this post concerns the ongoing training of maintenance technicians. The constant and rapid evolution of technology, whether applied to machines or tools, requires a continuous updating of the skills of our maintenance technicians. It is also sometimes necessary to remind them of certain skills that are supposed to be known, but which are often forgotten or neglected in practice.
At EQUANS, we have become aware of this problem, which is why we set up the EQUANS Academy two years ago, through which we continuously train our in-house staff in all trades.
To conclude, I would like to emphasise that improving the reliability of your industrial assets requires in-depth work on operational excellence. Of course, this requires energy and resources. However, it should not be seen as a cost, but rather as an investment that will pay for itself very quickly in view of the significant and rapid improvement in the productivity of the assets under your responsibility.
BEMAS Corporate Sponsors
