Maintenance Plans

Maintenance management is a robust activity for any industry. Poor maintenance will impact business operations. Since resources are limited maintenance planner's role is vital for any industry. Effective distribution of resources and prioritization of schedules as per severity plays a significant role   

Equipment classification :

With the amount of equipment on Industrial sites and the workload involved, it is important to know where to focus the Maintenance effort. A clear understanding of the organization is required to ensure the equipment with the largest potential return is addressed first. Many industries classify by interruption to production, but this method can result in 80% of the equipment is critical. It still does not give the technical teams an accurate understanding of where they should focus their effort. Everything else being equal, some things cause more productivity loss than others.

Classification Recommendation: 

The Classification process is a systematic method designed to give a single classification figure (A - high, B - medium or C - low) to equipment (or units), which considers all factors affecting the impact of failure. The output from this review highlights which equipment needs to be addressed first. This process can be used at any level, depending on the detail required – Departments, Units, equipment or failure modes. This is different to a Criticality Analysis – just because some equipment is critical does not mean it is urgent to be worked on.

The Process:

Seven factors are considered when determining the Classification of an equipment or unit. These factors include. 

?  Safety

?  Environment

?  Quality

?  Working Shift

?  Production impact

?  Frequency

?  Cost

Cost considers the bottom line cost to the company in the event of a failure, including such things as material, labor, production loss, fines etc. Each of these factors are given a 1 – serious impact, 2 – average impact, or 3 – low impact at failure, and the answers follow a logic tree to determine whether the equipment is Class A, B or C.

The output of this process is to highlight the top 20% highest consequence items (Class A) which need to be addressed first, and the lowest 20% items (Class C) which are not urgent.

The Classification is the order in which the equipment is reviewed – the review process is the same regardless of the Classification value. Class B and C equipment can still have significant consequences if ignored.

The Benefits of using the Classification Process

The Classification process gives:

•  A clearer understanding of the equipment on the Site
•  A clearer understanding of the consequences of equipment failure
•  A priority list of equipment on the site to review