The Industrial Revolution brought about a transition from hand production labour to mechanically-assisted equipment. Since there is movement between moving parts, there is resistance leading to friction and wear.
Our body takes care of this by joints formed of fibrous connective tissue and cartilage which serves as the smooth moving surface. In maintenance engineering, wear has been addressed by lubricating movement and maintaining parts.
Machines and equipment have evolved from a simple hand press used to fasten a button or an eyelet to sophisticated machinery, such as planes, trains and ships, as well as nuclear power stations where whole humanities depend on appropriate maintenance of such equipment. Have you ever thought that the right maintenance procedure was in place before flying out on a plane?
Manufacturing and services companies depend on a number of factors on how they run the facility or service. In traditional management structures, maintenance is considered an overhead, a function that drains profits, an unnecessary cost; hence, budgets are kept minimal, further generating problematic machinery. No machinery is yet able to maintain itself. Humans still perform the necessary maintenance and ensure continuous operation of equipment, so operating procedures must be in place.
Equipment functions in different environments and operational conditions, together with high-value products meeting stringent requirements of volumes, quality, reliability, safety, availability and maintainability.
Originally, the maintenance function wasn’t even contemplated by equipment designers because of the uncomplicated and robust nature of the machinery. As sophistication of equipment increased and costs of production rose, requirements for easier maintenance, faster repairs, as well as reduced stoppages became exigent. Therefore, machinery original equipment manufacturers were forced to rethink how equipment was designed. Efforts were made in new design approaches to reflect industries’ requirements to focus on the cost of reliability and sustainment over the entire equipment lifetime and asset value.
Engineered maintenance technology had to become a recognised discipline from design stage through the operational cycle until it is no longer feasible to be operated and upgraded due to new technological advancements. As a result, the machinery is replaced with machines with the latest technology. From a maintenance perspective, this is the real end of life for well-maintained equipment.
In most accounting systems, maintenance is considered an expense
Maintenance is divided into various stages. The lowest level is a ‘do nothing’ approach which leads to breakdowns where a repair is forced. To reduce this, preventive maintenance may be done whereby parts are replaced while still perfectly operational.
An enhancement to this is that parts are monitored during their lifecycle and replaced only when indicators show signs of wear and/or deterioration fast approaching. The latter methodology is predictive maintenance where the equipment is closely monitored through different methods and parameters to detect immediately slight deterioration of optimum operating conditions.
In most accounting systems, maintenance is considered an expense. Management is trained to look into a value-added process where machinery stoppages are considered a loss. Additionally, repairs to the machine necessitate replacing parts, thus increasing further maintenance costs.
Breakdown maintenance is the most expensive since it shuts down operations, bringing about loss of production flow.
Condition-based maintenance reduces costs by replacing parts only when approaching their end of life. A further cost-reduction measure is predictive maintenance wherein appropriate devices, probes and monitors are utilised. Hence, through statistical process control, the reduction of set parameters is detected in advance.
This decreases parts inventory levels (dead stock) by acquiring the part only when its replacement is approaching but before it breaks down. Optimal uptime is dependent on the firm balancing the spend in maintenance versus the cost impact of downtime.
Improvements on how to turn maintenance from a cost overhead to a contributor in the profitability of the company can be investigated. Maintenance engineering professionals should challenge the perception of senior management in considering maintenance engineering as a function that can be value-adding, thus giving financial benefits and returns to stakeholders.
Engineered maintenance must form an integral part of a company’s culture of values in continuous systematic improvement.
Implementation of engineered cost-saving methodologies, together with project training to implement condition-based maintenance at all levels within the company, has become a must in today’s industry.
Pierre Paul Mangion is an engineered maintenance consultant.