WHY RELIABILITY AND MAINTENANCE BASICS MATTER?
Globalisation and mega advances in technology have epitomised an era in which we find a plethora of digital tools developed and produced almost daily. It's one of the most fascinating and talked about topics of the fourth industrial revolution with widely heralded benefits. These tools extend from industrial internet of things (IIoT) platforms, connected machine and process sensors, to intelligent analytics based on AI and ML that provide data-based actionable insights. These tools have also seen their application in boosting traditional lengthy reliability processes such as FMEA, to be digitalised to enable early detection of abnormal operating and/or operator-error related failure patterns. The potential benefits of advanced digital tools are very attractive, various sources citing increase in asset availability by 5 to 15% and reductions in maintenance costs by 5 to 25%. However, careful thought and diligence needs to be exercised upfront as these tools are not “a silver bullet” for the several reliability and maintenance challenges prevalent at many organisations.
Driven by a need to follow industry trends and current buzzwords for sake of bragging about digitalised operations, whilst lacking core reliability and maintenance foundations, does not come close to being a solid business case for the investment required. What do we mean by reliability and maintenance foundations? Reliability and maintenance, although interrelated, they are not the same thing. They are characterised by two elements i.e., program, the “what to do”, and execution, the “doing it”. Reliability is focussed on definition of asset strategies, maintenance plans and rooting out defects related to repeated asset failures (program). Maintenance involves identifying, planning, scheduling, and performing of maintenance work (execution). Both are underpinned by key several enablers – people, processes, data, and technologies – to improve asset availability, maintenance cost reduction and productivity, key objectives for business, as show below.
Business is prone to fail in achieving the anticipated benefits and operational excellence from significant investments it made if it ignores embedding or building the core reliability and maintenance fundamentals as its foundation. Consequently, physical asset management can, in executive leadership’s viewpoint, be seen as a wasteful expenditure and a no-value add to the business. Considering this, are your reliability and maintenance basics in place?
WHERE TO START? WHAT TO DO? I NEED HELP.
“It is confusing where to start, what to focus on, whilst there’s fires to be put off and dealings with consistent breakdowns”. We hear this often and understandably it is true.
At Tau SJV, we adopt a simplified approach and collaborate with clients to agree areas that, through a focussed approach and a clear action plan, can deliver tangible results at the earliest possible. Simplicity and value-focus are core to what we do.
