Greening Maintenance

Five Essential Actions Maintenance Directors Can Take to Support Corporate Sustainability Goals Across Facilities

Marcelo Reyes de Luna

Key Words: Maintenance Management, Sustainability in Maintenance, Proactive Maintenance Strategies, Asset Management, Reliability-Centered Maintenance (RCM), Planned Maintenance Optimization (PMO), FMEA, PFMEA, SIPOC, Energy Efficiency, Resource Optimization, Environmental Impact, Data Management, Cross-Plant Performance Insights, Continuous Improvement, Corporate Sustainability Goals.

Abstract

In today's post-pandemic era, maintenance directors face increasing pressure to meet sustainability and resource efficiency goals. The traditional approach of "if it isn't broken, don't fix it" is no longer sufficient. This article explores five key actions that maintenance directors can implement to align maintenance management with corporate sustainability objectives. Drawing on real-world examples from industrial plants in Reynosa, it addresses issues such as material waste, inefficient compressed air systems, and suboptimal cooling tower operations. By adopting proactive maintenance practices and optimizing business processes, organizations can achieve sustainability targets and adapt to evolving environmental standards.

Industry Drivers

For years, companies have faced growing demands for sustainability and environmental stewardship. A review of the corporate websites of major consortia reveals a strong emphasis on green strategic plans. Commitments made at sustainability summits have pushed large companies to report their achievements in this area.

However, a closer examination of compliance reports shows that many actions, while seemingly significant, often remain confined to "specific projects" rather than being integrated into daily, weekly, and monthly organizational processes. Examples like manually turning off lights, raising air conditioning setpoints, or launching a leak elimination campaign may only serve as temporary measures to showcase efforts rather than systemic, proactive actions.

Introduction

Sustainability in maintenance management goes beyond simply turning off the lights, changing lighting technology, increasing the office air temperature setting, or repairing compressed air leaks. It requires a holistic approach to managing and optimizing resources across all operational aspects. Maintenance directors must tackle several key challenges:

• Sustainability Goals: Achieving CEO-imposed targets in areas such as Fuel usage, Water consumption, Electricity usage, Emissions, Wastewater discharge, and Waste generation.
• Cultural Shift: Moving from reactive to proactive maintenance and integrating sustainability into core operational strategies.

Five Practical Actions for Maintenance Directors

1. Adopt Proactive Maintenance Strategies and Implement Comprehensive Data Management: Proactive Maintenance: Transition from reactive to proactive maintenance to reduce resource waste and improve efficiency. SIPOC Integration: Include sustainability aspects such as energy consumption, water usage, fuel consumption, and waste generation in the SIPOC process map to ensure comprehensive coverage of environmental impacts. PFMEA Integration: Utilize PFMEA to identify and address potential failure modes related to sustainability, ensuring that maintenance strategies address ecological impact and improve overall efficiency. Comprehensive Data Management: Implement a robust Work Order and Notification System Design with categories such as Sustainability-Related WO, Environmental Impact WO, Water Usage Impact WO, Energy Efficiency WO, Scrap Generation WO, and Fuel Usage WO. By doing this the organization can ensure integration with a comprehensive Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) to enhance communication, accountability, and data management.
2. Integrate Sustainability into Asset Design: Apply sustainability principles during the design phase of new assets or systems, using methods like Reliability-Centered Maintenance (RCM).
3. Utilize Cross-Plant Data for Performance Insights: Analyze consolidated data from multiple sites to detect trends and performance deviations in sustainability metrics, enabling early intervention.
4. Optimize Energy and Resource Use: Focus on reducing energy, water, and fuel consumption through targeted maintenance practices and interventions.
5. Enhance Continuous Improvement and Planned Maintenance Optimization (PMO): Apply continuous improvement techniques and Planned Maintenance Optimization (PMO) to evaluate and enhance sustainability practices regularly. Include maintenance tasks associated with identified failure modes or performance deviations, ensuring that corrective actions address both immediate issues and long-term sustainability goals.

Real-World Examples of Optimizable Sustainable Strategies from Reynosa

• Material Waste – Plastic Extrusion Process for the Cosmetics Industry (20 Years in Operation): For a span of two decades, a manufacturing plant in the cosmetics sector has faced a significant issue of material waste, reaching an average historical waste rate of 25% (a conservative figure). This excessive waste is primarily attributed to a reactive maintenance approach, which—despite 20 years of operation—has not addressed the underlying inefficiencies in the extrusion process. This prolonged inefficiency highlights the critical need for proactive maintenance strategies to identify and mitigate material waste early in the process, enhancing overall operational effectiveness and sustainability.

• Electricity Waste - Electronics Manufacturing for the Automotive Industry (20 Years in Operation): The system utilized atmospheric air from the production area for both compression and cooling of the air compressor. This involved using air that had already been conditioned to be clean and cool, which should have been recirculated within the production environment. This practice led to significant inefficiencies, primarily due to the use of "costly" conditioned air and, secondly, because it created an "extraction" effect, causing a pressure imbalance that allowed outdoor ambient air to infiltrate through doors, curtains, and gaps in the building. Likely, this situation may persist today.

• Electricity Waste – Electronics Rework Operations for the Computer Storage Industry (Operations Concluded After Approximately 15 Years): The cooling towers of a 4,000 RT capacity chilled water plant, designed to provide comfort and process cooling, were installed near the building wall. This placement led to the recirculation of warm exhaust air, significantly compromising cooling efficiency. Despite the clear inefficiencies caused by this setup, the issue remained unaddressed for over a decade, illustrating a critical lapse in system design and maintenance oversight. This enduring problem highlights the importance of proper equipment placement and regular system reviews to prevent long-term operational inefficiencies.

• Water Waste – Clean Room Operations for the Computer Storage Industry (Operations Concluded After Approximately 15 Years): An ultrapure water plant engaged in the computer storage industry was observed discarding reject water from the reverse osmosis process directly into the drain. This inefficient practice persisted for over eight years before it was addressed, underscoring the critical need for timely identification and remediation of wasteful processes. The prolonged period of uncorrected waste exemplifies the importance of regular system evaluations and proactive measures to optimize water usage and enhance operational sustainability.

What if this is happening in other plants in Reynosa? Cultural, Organizational, and Resourcing Challenges

• Organizational Challenges: Maintenance teams often operate reactively, leading to inefficiencies and missed opportunities for early intervention.
• Mindset Issues: The belief that "if it hasn’t failed, there’s no problem" persists, along with the notion that preventive maintenance is less crucial than rapid failure response.
• Resource Constraints: There is a widespread perception that preventive maintenance is less strategic compared to addressing immediate failures.

Generic Solution: Integrating Sustainability into Maintenance Management

Design Phase Integration

Develop a maintenance management model that integrates sustainability from the earliest design stages, utilizing methodologies such as Reliability-Centered Maintenance (RCM). Ensure that sustainable maintenance practices are standardized across all facilities to maintain consistency and optimize performance.

Benefits

Aligning maintenance strategies with sustainability objectives not only boosts operational efficiency but also ensures adherence to corporate sustainability mandates, driving both economic and environmental benefits.

Key Considerations

• Sustainability Standards: Apply "Functional Failure: Impact on Sustainability" criteria to key areas: Energy Performance, Water Usage, Fuel Consumption, Atmospheric Emissions, Residual Discharges, and Waste Generation
• Beyond Traditional Approaches: Expand the scope of sustainability efforts beyond Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma, or Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) to encompass all assets within the facility, not just production lines.
• Corporate Strategy: Implement a corporate-level approach to planning and execution, optimizing resource use and facilitating the sharing of best practices across multiple sites.
• CMMS Integration: Ensure that sustainability-related tasks are incorporated into the Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS), enhancing communication and collaboration among Environmental, Health & Safety (EH&S), Maintenance, and Reliability Engineering teams.
• Predictive Analysis: Leverage consolidated data and cross-site trends to forecast significant impacts and detect deviations early in the process.
• Comprehensive Corrective Actions: Guarantee that all corrective actions are fully integrated into the maintenance management framework, leaving no room for overlooked improvements.

Sustainability Across Maintenance Stages

• Holistic Integration: Incorporate sustainability and efficiency considerations into every phase of asset lifecycle management, from design through to operation.
• Failure Mode Management: In work order management, proactively address failure modes that contribute to energy inefficiency or have a negative environmental impact.
• Continuous Improvement: Emphasize the role of continuous improvement as a vital defense against inefficiencies, ensuring that sustainability remains at the forefront of operations.

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Conclusion

Integrating sustainability into maintenance management is essential for meeting today’s environmental and operational demands. By adopting standardized processes and proactive strategies, maintenance directors can enhance efficiency, reduce waste, and support corporate sustainability goals.

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?About the Author

Marcelo Reyes is a professional in maintenance and reliability management with more than 15 years of experience across 2 continents and 7 countries. Bilingual in English and Spanish, he has worked in various sectors, including mining, oil and gas, and manufacturing.

Colleagues and Asset System Users describe him as highly committed and a driver of transformational change from the boardroom to the production floor. Marcelo is praised for quickly understanding business needs, earning trust, and fostering a collaborative work environment. He effectively facilitates change, offering practical solutions and motivating teams to achieve tangible results.

Marcelo specializes in addressing performance issues, both human and technical, and has expertise in maintenance planning, root cause analysis (RCA), and backlog management. He has collaborated with prominent international firms, including As One Consulting, The Highland Group, Jamieson Group, SMEC, Implementation Engineers, and MCSPROInc.