05 Maintenance & Reliability Engineering

Picture yourself driving to work on a cold, dark, winter morning. It’s Monday. You pull into the parking lot and note with surprise that the plant is much quieter than it should be on a Monday morning. As you walk inside to your office, your growing apprehension turns into the sudden realization that something serious must have happened over the weekend…Whether you work in a manufacturing facility, a continuous production facility, a hospital or building infrastructure, the need to prevent failures from reoccurring is familiar. So how is this accomplished? By applying root cause analysis methodology. Root Cause Analysis Made Simple covers the four fundamental steps to RCA. Quantify the magnitude of the problem – Why? When? Perform the analysis using the appropriate technique – Who? How? Develop a list of options for solving the problem Document the results and implement recommended actions This book provides an overview of RCA. It is intended to support you in understanding the business impact of preventing reoccurring failures and provide some tried-and-true practical approaches to conducting a root cause analysis.

Reliability Centered Maintenance – Reengineered: Practical Optimization of the RCM Process with RCM-R® provides an optimized approach to a well-established and highly successful method used for determining failure management policies for physical assets. It makes the original method that was developed to enhance flight safety far more useful in a broad range of industries where asset criticality ranges from high to low. RCM-R® is focused on the science of failures and what must be done to enable long-term sustainably reliable operations. If used correctly, RCM-R® is the first step in delivering fewer breakdowns, more productive capacity, lower costs, safer operations and improved environmental performance. Maintenance has a huge impact on most businesses whether its presence is felt or not. RCM-R® ensures that the right work is done to guarantee there are as few nasty surprises as possible that can harm the business in any way.RCM-R® was developed to leverage on RCM’s original success at delivering that effectiveness while addressing the concerns of the industrial market. RCM-R® addresses the RCM method and shortfalls in its application -- It modifies the method to consider asset and even failure mode criticality so that rigor is applied only where it is truly needed. It removes (within reason) the sources of concern about RCM being overly rigorous and too labor intensive without compromising on its ability to deliver a tailored failure management program for physical assets sensitive to their operational context and application. RCM-R® also provides its practitioners with standard based guidance for determining meaningful failure modes and causes facilitating their analysis for optimum outcome.Includes extensive review of the well proven RCM method and what is needed to make it successful in the industrial environmentLinks important elements of the RCM method with relevant International Standards for risk management and failure managementEnhances RCM with increased emphasis on statistical analysis, bringing it squarely into the realm of Evidence Based Asset ManagementIncludes extensive, experience based advice on implementing and sustaining RCM based failure management programs 

Focused on the HR aspect of maintenance management, this presentation will provide insight into how “asset maintenance management is about managing the people who manage assets.”We’ll look at how individuals’ confidence, competence, and validation of skills play a significant role in the overall reliability and costs of the assets we manage.

Not knowing what you do not know can be very dangerous for an organization. With unfortunate events that led to injuries at competitor’s facilities, Skeena Bioenergy activated a safety review of all equipment using bowtie analysis and a risk matrix. Bowtie analysis identifies causes and preventative action to stop a defined event from occurring. Then, looks at loss prevention actions to prevent disastrous consequences that stem for the described event. The risk matrix is a chart that has frequency of occurrence on the vertical plain and the consequence of severity on the horizontal plane. When combined, gives a risk level number, colour coded, that identifies levels of acceptable and unacceptable risk. This application was successful in identifying that the design of the Cooler, one part of the process, does prevent fires and explosions. Further fire control measures identified will be added; 1. to improve containment of a fire so it remains in the Cooler and 2. to prevent a fire event from cascading into an explosion. These continuous improvements in the Cooler reduce the risk level to 3, Skeena Bioenergy’s acceptable level of risk. This abstract demonstrates the application and findings of applying bowtie analysis and a risk matrix to a piece of equipment, the basis of good risk management.

Most asset owning and operating organizations managing maintenance activities use a computer system – either a CMMS, or an EAM, or possibly a module in their ERP. Usually they want to sustain reliable performance of their assets to deliver high availability to their operations or production groups. These systems are often sold under the moniker, “solution”. Implied in that is the solution to some sort of a problem, one might imagine that it will deliver high reliability, or better maintenance practices, yet they don’t and can’t. Many have fallen victim to slick marketing, buzz words, and promises of functionality that are little more than dreams – vapourware. To get those practical business results you need to change what you are doing and how you are doing it, not how you are tracking it and managing the activities. Those systems do provide some help with data storage, reports, keeping organized and work flows, but they don’t help you define what work to do, nor how often, nor who should do it, they don’t do anything to ensure you actually do the work, and then record what you did with any accuracy. The result is often a system that is riddled with inaccurate, incomplete, or otherwise unfit data that can actually make work for, and be misleading to the system’s users. Interestingly, after seeing hundreds of different instances of different systems in a large variety of organizations, there are some common problems. If you are a supplier of these systems, you can probably relax now. Very few of the problems m have anything at all to do with the software itself. This presentation will explore the reasons for those disappointments and some of the possible solutions.

Often organizations order recommended spare parts as part of a capital project. While well-intentioned, organizations often end up with many parts that are not needed, while not having enough of the right parts to support commissioning and operation. So, if organizations can’t rely strictly on recommended spare parts form the vendor, how should the required spare parts be identified? A reliability engineering analysis should be conducted to understand the specific failure modes that the asset will experience during it’s commissioning and during operation. The analysis should also identify the likelihood or frequency in which the failure will occur. This analysis can then be used to specify which parts should be purchased, at which quantities. There are a few different analysis tools that can be used to assist with the decision, such as a Failure Mode Effects Analysis or a Maintenance Task Analysis. A Failure Mode Effect Analysis (FMEA) is the process of reviewing as many components, assemblies, and subsystems as possible to identify potential failure modes in a system and their causes and effects. Using this information, the analyst can recommend the specific parts to stock. A Maintenance Task Analysis (MTA) is the identification of the steps, spares, and materials, tools, support equipment, personnel skill levels, and facility issues that must be considered for a given repair task. Often is completed after the FMEA has been completed, but further refines the ability of the organization to plan for maintenance activities. Once the specific parts needed have been identified with one of the reliability analysis, there is another analysis required to determine the right level of parts to stock. Stocking parts cost money, not having parts costs money, so the analysis of the spare parts enables organizations to find the right balance. This presentation will walk the audience through the process of using the reliability engineering tools to identify the likely failures to evaluating stocking levels of spare parts. This will ensure that the organization can support the asset throughout its life at an optimized cost.Originally presented at MainTrain 2021

The Maintenance management Framework is intended to be used by members of the GFMAM, the Maintenance and Asset Management communities to:   Provide an overview of the discipline of maintenance management;   Provide a structure for the building of a body of knowledge for certification schemes and qualifications in maintenance management;   Provide a structure (and potentially the criteria) for assessing an organization’s maturity in maintenance management;   Provide information for maintenance management knowledge requirements for assessors and auditors;    Provide the capability to compare the products and services of the different GFMAM members related to maintenance management; andProvide a reference for future GFMAM projects.

Reliability keeps things going, Asset management delivers value with managed risksPEMAC Now Magazine Fall 2019

This article will be discussing the issues and some causes of bad parts.

"Reliability Engineering is an established science with rigorous concepts involving mathematical and statistical methods and those can often appear daunting for some Maintenance or Risk Practitioners. It is the role of the Reliability Engineer to master, explain and apply those concepts as well as work with peers to make the correct decision(s) regarding the maintenance of operating assets or future design capabilities. Those decisions are crucial especially when it comes to the safety of frontline workers, capital investments or the preservation of the environment. This presentation essentially defines the role of the Reliability Engineer mainly in an Owner/Operator environment but also helps non-Reliability practitioners understand some of the basic tools used in this field.The term “Reliability” is often generalized and not fully understood so this presentation helps clarify its definition and intent. Misinterpretation or incorrect calculations involving equipment life characteristics such as mean time to failure, bath tub curves or failure probabilities just to name few are covered in the presentation. Also explained, will be some of the most commonly used concepts in Reliability Engineering calculations as well as potential pitfalls encountered such as oversimplification, applying incorrect analytical approaches or mixing terms such as Availability and Reliability. The presentation will also define the “true” and “value-added” role of Reliability Engineering in an industrial environment and how it productively interfaces with other teams involving Maintenance Engineering, Risk Management or Spare Parts Management.       Originally presented at  AB Chapter Online Symposium (Part 2 of 7)    Presented MainTrain 2020  09/15/2020