The Danger of Collapsing Domains
What the heck is "Maintenance & Reliability"?
The time spend performing maintenance activities is downtime - the opposite of reliability.
The time spent operating without maintenance or failure is reliability. Every maintenance action reduces reliability.
I rarely visit a facility where they tell me - we are working to increase reliability through decreasing maintenance.
More often I hear - "we are working to improve maintenance and reliability!"
That is the equivalent of stating "we are working to improve hunger and being well fed" or "we are working to improve poverty and wealth" or as one is shivering, "we are working to improve hot and cold".
There is a lot of good intention but like everything these days, there is a lot of bad information easily available.
1) Think for yourself.
2) Stand on your own two feet.
3) Step out of the echo chamber.
Maintenance OR Reliability.
Both are important.
Both Reliability and Maintainability must be specified, designed, sourced, built and installed at the beginning phases of an asset lifecycle to determine the balance in the operation and maintenance phases of the asset lifecycle.
Both increase at the cost of the other.
You pay twice when you use them as synonyms.
Warning: This article is NOT an attempt to "convince" you of anything nor do I have any concern with you "believing" this or not. This article is simply an invitation to "snap out of it", and ask yourself "if THEY have all the right answers, why is maintenance such a mess world wide?" This article requires that you think for yourself, stand on your own two feet and "trust but verify". - Terrence O'Hanlon
Head of Engineering Technical Support & Asset Management at Sanofi
2 年I need to take issue with the use of "maintainability" in the diagram. Maintainability refers to design features and practices that enable maintenance (whether repair or preventive) to be performed safely, quickly, and efficiently. Examples include standardized parts, lift points, clear documentation, 5-S, and accessibility. Maintainability and reliability are both virtues. There is no inverse relationship. Maintainability should reduce total maintenance time and cost. As Ramesh Gulati states in Maintenance and Reliability Best Practices, "Maintainability is another design attribute that goes hand in hand with reliability."
Reliability Engineer at Fonterra
3 年Terrence OHanlon great article which did make me think. To me maintenance is there to maintain and improve the plant, which should lead to increased reliability. With increased reliability we should see an increase in 'uptime' allowing for more production, thereby better returns to the business. So Maintenance and Reliability are intertwined, and need to both work with accuracy to ensure their common goal. The improvement part, which is both a Maintenance and Reliability function, removing bottlenecks and fixing poor design, should also increase production. This is all weighed up against the cost of doing all this work. So for a reliability engineer understanding the risk associated with this work including the cost of 'unplanned downtime', health and safety, environmental factors, reputation etc. are essential to get a balanced approach. Reliability needs to be the goal of everyone one in a business, to have the greatest chance of success.
Reliability Professional Engineer
3 年Its not really a choice between, Maintenance OR Reliability, the scale, the statement merely shows the inverse relationship between the two....
Reliability Professional Engineer
3 年Terry, a great "Mind Jogger" many enjoy the use of the key buzzwords, but lack true understanding.....
Senior Reliability Engineer - Generation and Network at Northpower
3 年This.