The
Failure Dilemma!
How do I move towards Proaction when I work in such a
Reactive environment?
written by Robert J. Latino, Reliability Center, Inc.
Maintenance Strategies
Break Down Maintenance
The fix controls you, you do not control the fix. The
basic strategy is totally reactive. When things break,
we fix them!
Preventive Maintenance
This is a time-based maintenance strategy. On a
predetermined periodic basis, equipment is taken
off-line, opened up, and inspected. Based on the visual
inspection, necessary repairs are made (if any) and the
equipment is put back on-line. Some preventive
maintenance is necessary. For example, various state
laws require that annual boiler inspections be
conducted. While this is a well-intended strategy, it
can be very expensive as typically 95% of the time
everything was OK.
Predictive Maintenance
This is a condition-based maintenance strategy. This is
where predictive technologies (i.e. - vibration
monitoring, infrared thermography, ultrasonics, etc.)
are utilized to determine condition of equipment, then
decisions are made about necessary repairs. This is a
much more economically feasible strategy as labor,
materials and production schedules are used much more
efficiently.
Precision Approach
This is a concept of the future, though not any
revelation. The concept is that if we did our jobs with
a mastery level of precision, then the only failures we
would have, would be wear-out failures. Maintenance
statistics support that approximately 10% or less of our
industrial equipment ever reached wear-out stage.
Therefore, about 90% of the mechanical failures we
experience are "personnel avoidable events". This means
the human being has intervened in some manner that
prevented the wear-out stage from being attained.
Strategies to Control Failure Rates
Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM)
In its traditional state, as written by John Mobrey, the
goal of RCM is to determine the criticality of equipment
in any process, and based on this information, design a
customized Preventive/Predictive maintenance strategy
for the organization. This is an effort to optimize use
of our maintenance resources.
However, this is an extremely time consuming and
expensive process when done according to the text. The
end result is that we become sharpened responders,
therefore still reactionary. Bottom-line results are
typically incremental and not seen for years.
Root Cause Failure Analysis (RCFA)
RCFA is a strategy that is based on failures that have
occurred in the past, whether chronic or sporadic. Their
impact is determinable because labor, materials and lost
production is now a sunk cost. RCFA focuses on
eliminating the risk of recurrence of the failures by
identifying the physical, human and latent
(organizational) system roots that lead to the failure.
Typically the worst drain on an organization’s
maintenance budget is not the one time occurrences, but
the "cost of doing business" chronic failures that are
accepted.
Generally 20% or less of the failure events in any
organization cause 80% or greater of the losses
experienced. When resources are dedicated to identifying
these 20% of the events, an immediate bottom-line result
can be realized if they are analyzed and corrective
action taken. The accepted chronic failures stop
occurring, therefore labor hours are not assigned to
them, materials are not expended and production
increased because there are no constant stops and starts
of the process. This also increases quality of product
and reduces risk of safety and environmental incidents
because of the smoother running process.
Most costs associated with conducting a RCFA is in
people’s time and resources to verify findings.
Recommendations are generally non-capital expenditures
that correct people’s decision-making skills and the
information they receive. For example, oftentimes people
need to be trained in their craft or a new technology
they are using, or we must correct an obsolete
maintenance procedure or simply provide the correct
tools to do the job right the first time.
Synopsis
RCM coupled with RCFA covers all the bases in moving
towards total Failure Avoidance. RCM may be necessary to
gain control of an operation, however it is time
consuming and expensive up front. RCM’s returns are not
realized quickly.
RCFA is real time. It deals with today’s problems and
eliminates them from being tomorrow’s problems.
Bottom-line results can be immediate if recommendations
are acted on quickly. RCFA can be proactive when
accepted chronic failures that comprise the maintenance
budget are eliminated from recurring.
Robert J. Latino is Vice-president of Strategic
Development and a Senior Consultant for Reliability
Center, Inc. Mr. Latino is a practitioner of root cause
failure analysis in the field with his clientele as well
as an educator. Mr. Latino is an author of RCI's Root
Cause Failure Analysis Methods course and co-author of
Failure Analysis/Problem Solving Methods for Field
Personnel. Mr. Latino has been published in numerous
magazines on the topic of failure analysis as well as a
frequent speaker on the topic at trade conferences. He
can be contacted at 804/458-0645 or
blatino@reliability.com
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