Most organizations today do a poor job of writing out work orders for tasks being done and then providing the needed data after job completion to build a healthy history base. If you think about how long it would take to build a meaningful database, it would take forever to get a solid initiative in place. This is time that most organizations simply do not have.

I believe the key to getting a reliability program underway is to first determine baseline performance data for your most critical equipment that will be key to determining when an asset is starting to function outside of its acceptable boundaries. There are different processes such as Maintenance Task Analysis (MTA)  that allow you to determine this in a very credible way. Once you know what data needs to be looked at, you can then decide how you want this information collected and processed. It can run from simple check sheets done manually or automated using handheld devices all the way up to online data collection and automated condition based monitoring to capture the necessary readings. The trick then becomes how to best analyze, correlate and act on all of this data, often being summarized from of thousands of data points.  If  you are able to look only at the data that falls out of acceptable limits, then it is a lot easier to manage. This is where technology like Ivara EXP comes into the picture.

EXP filters the data and calls your attention to the readings only when necessary and only to those readings that require attention. This in itself is an amazing aid and can save tons of time and resources. With this kind of information being conveyed close to real time to whomever needs to see it, will allow for proactive steps to be taken prior to failure taking place. Hence you have just caught a potential failure prior to it occurring and causing all the time and heartache  that goes along with unplanned downtime. The key to remember is that all of this can be done on your most critical assets in fairly short order. The recorded information that helps you spot and resolve the potential failure also is applied to that historical database (that we started out talking about wanting at the beginning of this posting).

You can and, in fact, should give serious consideration to this approach if you’re looking for timely improvement without taking forever to get started. Improved RELIABILITY can be yours and the gains it brings shared with everyone in the organization in weeks and months, NOT years.

Good luck and enjoy the journey.

When commissioning a brand new asset, the focus is very strong on getting it installed, debugged and into production. As we all know, these steps almost always require changes to the design, large and small, obvious and not so obvious. The need for making these changes is understood, but it is critical that all changes become incorporated into their respective equipment documentation records so that a clear history is established as to when and what was done relative to change. With the very complex equipment we’re now using to produce our products, these changes are critical when it comes time to troubleshoot issues and problems, no less train new folks on how the asset operates. Imagine trying to find the source of a problem when the very drawings you’re relying on to help you are out of date. Talk about a blind shot at fixing what’s wrong. Not only does this take much more time away from production due to increased troubleshooting time, but think of the unnecessary aggravation your causing your people as a result of making their jobs that much harder than  need be. 

This issue is found not only around the creation of new assets but is just as common and serious when working on existing equipment. We’re always trying to tweak more out of our existing equipment and this requires changes to be made accordingly. If the appropriate document records are not updated properly, we create a nightmare for the folks trying to care for the equipment. In addition, imagine trying to design the change and not have a clear picture of the current design of the area in which you are working.

As much sense as it makes to keep all of our documents current, it’s been a long time since I visited a site where document maintenance was being practiced. The pain is being self inflicted and only we can resolve this important area of neglect.

Are we really saving any money by not maintaining good equipment document records? I believe we all know the answer.

Go for it and good luck!

The Aladon Network is a global network of reliability experts whose members are certified as Practitioners in the delivery, training and coaching of world class asset maintenance and reliability strategy improvement practices.

Aladon has helped organizations in almost every industry, in almost every corner of the world meet and exceed their asset performance targets with solutions tailored to their needs.  Our approach is based on applying proven best practices to meet your unique goals in ways that are practical, attainable and measurable.

In this session we discussed:
• What organization is needed to ensure success?
• This is a change management effort
• Must I have my planning and scheduling fixed first?
• What are the minimum tools needed to make this work?
• Transition and communication plans
• Ownership and active sponsorship
• Measuring progression and success

 Request webinar recording here…

We are proud to present this year’s Keynote speakers:

Martin Sedgwick, Head of Asset Management, ScottishPower
Topic: “The Journey to Operations and Maintenance Excellence at ScottishPower”
Lean how the team integrated a sustainable process for asset management and ensured process safety. Martin will outline the framework for ScottishPower’s Maintenance and Operations Strategy, including a new risk based approach to asset management. He will also discuss the timing and critical success factors to reach PAS 55 compliance.

Mehul Shah, Research Analyst, Aberdeen Group
Topic: “Asset Performance Management: Strategies to Mitigate Risk & Reduce Operating Costs”
Highlighting strategies and business processes established by Best-in-Class companies to proactively manage risk, reduce operating costs and hence maximize Return on Assets in the midst of decreasing operational and capital budgets. It will show how companies are able to translate these savings and operational improvements to increased profitability and shareholder value by the ability to connect asset performance to corporate performance.

Visit our Summit website for complete details and registration http://summit.ivara.com/registration.html

In order to achieve aggressive performance improvement targets set by corporate leadership, you need to instill a reliability approach throughout the organization.  The first step in this effort is to assess your organization and put together a business case. Establish an internal team, trained and coached in the application of reliability practices. Next, you need to ensure that the reliability effort is truly owned by plant personnel –to do this, involve them in the definition of maintenance programs. Participating in work identification activities will also facilitate their reliability education. 

Select an initial plant area. Depending on the size and complexity, it will take 3 – 6 months to develop and implement new reliability programs for an area. Detailed definition and documentation of asset maintenance and reliability processes and procedures became vital to ensuring that new personnel are well equipped to support equipment reliability. 

While developing new maintenance programs, train the maintenance and operations personnel in the area to perform their new roles within the asset care business process including the management of inspection routes, condition data collection using handheld units, acknowledgement of generated equipment condition alarms and the management of corrective maintenance activities.

Once finished the first area, go on to the next… do not delay implementation and roll out by spending month after month analyzing assets. You can expect to exceed your ROI expectations and sustain the improvement because asset care will become a way of doing business.

 For more information on reliability implementation success, go to http://www.ivara.com/index.php/customer-success/case-studies/

• Operators and Trades (Crafts)
• Maintenance and Operations Supervisors
• Engineers and Equipment Specialists

With the combination of these people, you have the right mix of knowledge to define the proper maintenance and operating strategy for an asset. Ultimately, the success of any new program depends on the buy in of those that execute the program.

For more information on how to effectively define a maintenance program, visit this link

http://www.ivara.com/index.php/services/the-services-we-offer/asset-performance-management-cycle/strategy-development-services/

To help formulate your strategy as well as see hands-on experience in how to achieve PAS 55 certification, attend the Ivara Reliability Leadership Summit. Includes full day workshop on The Path to PAS 55 Certification. For more information, visit http://summit.ivara.com or to download Ivara’s webinar on the ScottishPower PAS 55 experience visit http://www.ivara.com/index.php/solution/by-industry/utilities/

The trick continues to be getting senior management to understand what reliability is and what it can do for bottom line corporate performance. Since it’s not easy to get the ear of senior folks much of the time, there is another way to consider going about this…

If you can identlfy an asset or process in your area of responsibility that fails a lot and matters a lot when it fails, that might be a great place to try a pilot. If it is truely a problem area, and given you and the team you work with can make a significant difference in how it’s performing, it’s got to receive serious attention. Once you’ve achieved that, the natural question asked is “what made such a difference”? There lies your opportunity to show how your team made this happen. The fact that it was a team effort, proven successful and not too hard to accomplish has got to start getting the attention of others in your organization. What better way to get a program to take hold then to show success and value for all to see. 

Give it a try, it just might make a ‘big’ difference.

It’s all about teamwork. Reliability simply can’t be improved unless all parties understand the goals and work together to help make it happen.

In my opinion, this starts with leadership from both operations and maintenance being brought together to redefine what the needs of the site are as they relate to future health and success. Once there is agreement on these goals, then they have to lead by example which means ‘show by example’ to the rest of the organization. Jointly convey the agreed to goals to everyone at the site and explain why it’s so very important for everyone to join forces to drive improvement. It should also be made clear that it’s part of everyone’s job to help make this happen. By jointly working on improvement projects impacting asset performance and health, the climate will only get better and the culture stronger in helping form lasting improvements.

 Good luck with this vital initiative.