The
Failure Dilemma!
How
do I move towards Proaction when I work in such a Reactive environment?
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Written
by Robert J. Latino Reliability Center, Inc.
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Maintenance
Strategies
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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! |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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Strategies
to Control Failure Rates
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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.
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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Synopsis
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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. |
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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 trade 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. |
RCI Offers the full
range of Reliability Consulting Services and Training Programs for Industry.
We conduct facilitations, reliability assessments, FMEA & Root Cause
Failure Analysis Training - Public & On-Site.
For more information
contact:
Reliability Center, Inc.
P.O. Box 1421
Hopewell, Virginia 23860
Phone: (804) 458-0645
Fax: (804) 452-2119
Website: http://www.reliability.com
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Return
to Failure Analysis Reference Library Index
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© Copyright
2000 Maintenance Resources, Inc.
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Phone: 812.877.7119
- Fax: 812.877.7116 - E-Mail: info@maintenanceresources.com
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Address: 1983 North Hunt
Street - Terre Haute, IN 47805
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