Starting a reliability journey in maintenance is a very common-sense approach to building on the strengths of your maintenance team. Implementing reliability moves the maintenance team away from "firefighting" problems and toward problem prevention. Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) is a global standard process, recognized as the most efficient maintenance strategy, and it is the approach recommended by many industry experts.
Because reliability has an element of statistical application, the team will need to create a reliability engineering role. Organizations typically take one of two approaches to filling this role: a) hire asset management reliability engineers into the maintenance group, or b) leverage the skills in the continuous improvement (CI) group found in the plant and assign them to provide analytical support for maintenance as a priority of their standard work.
The final part of the team is composed of craftspeople with skills unique to the equipment and systems that exist in a given facility. It is this group of specialists that perform the preventive, predictive and corrective work of the maintenance organization.
Skills, training and tools to succeed
The reliability skills needed within maintenance begin with understanding the functions of the production processes. They also include the ability to perform root cause analysis to determine failure mechanisms. This includes the application of life data analysis to failure and wear-out data. In addition, there is a significant need for skills related to scheduling, planning and optimizing the prevention and prediction work, as well as the parts and resources needed to maintain the facilities.
Key software tools and training for this launch point include:
- The RAM for Asset Management course that provides an overview of the ways in which reliability engineering concepts and methods can be applied for repairable systems analysis, maintenance planning, and optimization is crucial in educating team members on the critical items to ensure optimal asset health.
- RAM-based software products are recommended to facilitate this analysis, as they can provide a comprehensive platform for system reliability, availability, maintainability and related analyses in a fraction of the time it takes to do these activities manually. Simulation and modeling functionality also allows for life cycle cost analysis, and critical concerns of downtime, throughput, bottlenecks and spare parts management are all available to the team quickly and easily.
- At this stage, it is also recommended to invest in a Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) solution to better understand the categorized risks and failures that have been identified at both the design and production stages. This FMEA process is best utilized when it’s incorporated into an RCM software product that facilitates the Reliability Centered Maintenance analysis approach for creating scheduled maintenance plans, as RCM and FMEA are incredibly important aspects of an effective asset management program.
- Being trained on the RCM Principles and Applications and how to use RCM software to facilitate maintenance planning can help bolster maintenance practitioners’ expertise and confidence and ultimately free up their valuable time to prioritize and address other operational issues as they arise.
