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Using Condition Monitoring
to Manage Maintenance
Knowing the condition of an asset is essential to predicting the maintenance
requirements for the future. Various scientific methods of management and
computerized maintenance management systems (CMMS) have created many ways to
document the past performance of assets and improve the accuracy of future
condition; however, every company using mechanical assets needs to monitor the
existing condition of the asset while it is working.
I am going to address the most sophisticated asset for monitoring the
condition of an asset in use today. That is the equipment operator. It is
important to track the condition of the operator and how they treat the assets
and understand the condition of the asset. Remember these numbers, I will
address them later.
8% & 60%
This year I turned 65 years of age. I started working in my father's gas
station and garage in 195y. After graduating from the University of Texas in
1966 with an Industrial Management & Marketing Degree I served in the US Marines
as an Aviator, Maintenance Test Pilot, Aircraft Maintenance Officer, and
Aircraft Crash Investigator. I have owned maintenance companies or consulted in
the management of maintenance since 1975. I tell you that so I can tell you
this. The fastest way to reduced downtime, lower maintenance costs, improved
production quality, and better safety records is for the maintenance department
to track the quality of the decisions being made by equipment operators during
production.
I have tracked the costs for what I call Operationally Induced Events
(OIE). These are costs incurred that are charged to the maintenance
department account that the maintenance department cannot control.
There are many categories that constitute OIEs but for this paper I will
discuss the most significant in cost where an operator damages the equipment and
either shortens the asset life or causes the asset to breakdown.
This is not a general catch-all grouping of breakdown events. An OIE has been
confirmed by failure analysis and it has been determined that the equipment
operator has over-sped, over-temped, over-torqued, over-heated, impacted, or in
some other manner caused damage to the asset. These breakdowns and their cost
cannot be controlled by the maintenance department.
The cost numbers I have tracked have indicated
time and
time again that 8% of the equipment
operators are directly
responsible for 60%
of all maintenance costs.
Assume that your company has 100 operators and your maintenance spending is
$1,000,000 per year. That means that eight of your operators are causing $600,000
in damage to the assets per year. By tracking OIEs, you can identify those
operators.
Of those eight operators, four of them do not know they are doing something
wrong to the machines. This is easy to fix with training. Teach them what they
are doing wrong and they will stop doing it. It is just that simple.
The four remaining operators just don't care about the company or the
machines and must be identified. When the four are identified by tracking OIEs
you will find that two of them would rather change their behavior than lose
their job and they will change.
The last two remaining operators simply do not care about the equipment,
their company, their job, or the safety of those around them. These two
operators have to be identified reassigned or disposed of. If not, they will continue to
break the equipment faster than the maintenance department can fix them.
When you track OIEs, you can determine what the operators are doing wrong and
create operating procedures and maintenance training events targeted directly to
the persons needing the training. Identifying specific operators allows the
application of the best possible training - Training on the Job (TOJ).
If you track every maintenance breakdown event and schedule specific training to
improve individual O&M performance you will notice something very quickly. All
of the operators will start being attentive to their machines because they know
they will be held accountable for the way they operate their machines. They will
learn that they will have to answer as to why they damaged the assets and
because of the training they will closely monitor the operating parameters of
the machines and report maintenance needs rather that be held accountable for an
operational disruption.
When the operator knows the operating limits
of their asset, they can become
the most reliable
and efficient Condition Monitoring Asset
in the company.
If you should care to visit as to how tracking OIEs can improve your O&M
position, I am at your service. ~ David Geaslin
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