Like the rest of the world, most of the maintenance industry has been turned upside down by the COVID-19 pandemic. We talked to several maintenance professionals to find out what challenges they’re facing, how they’re meeting them head-on, and how they’re showing incredible resilience while helping provide essential services.
If you’re looking for more resources to help you and your team through these uncertain times, we’ve created a Resource Hub that includes some helpful articles and webinars.
When operations manager Juan Ruiz looks out at the floor of his facility, everything seems normal. A technician talks to an operator before fixing a machine. A critical asset is inspected during a rare break in use. A production line is adjusted to make sure it can fulfill a crucial order.
But this isn’t business as usual for Juan’s team.
The conversation is happening in a designated quiet place so the two employees can stand six feet apart. The critical asset is a sensor used to take the temperature of staff as they enter the building. The crucial order is for millions of boxes that will hold lifesaving N95 masks.
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced Juan and his entire team to change the way they work.
“We are running to failure, and that’s changing our mentality right now,” says Juan.
“We’re surviving. We’re not improving.”
They are far from alone. Maintenance departments everywhere are feeling the impact of COVID-19.
“Maintenance teams are nervous right now,” says Terrence O’Hanlon, the CEO of ReliabilityWeb.
“Even before COVID, there weren’t too many maintenance departments who could say, ‘Yep, we’re fully staffed, fully budgeted, and we have all the resources we need.’…So if that’s the case when things are normal, it’s only going to get tougher in these times.”
Getting processes in place to support people is priority #1
For Tom Dufton, a maintenance and continuous improvement manager, these challenges aren’t just about business–they’re personal too.
“One of our maintenance team members, his wife is a nurse, so he’s taxed very heavily right now,” says Tom.
“He has two young kids. So we have to ask, ‘What can we do to help you out so things are better for you?…The last thing I want to do is to burden anyone down, especially maintenance.”
We’ve reached out to our competitors to get the crucial parts we need for our corrugator…And they’ve reached out to us for some of these consumables…We’re each making sure that we can get business done. We understand that we’re essential businesses and need to keep running.
The biggest hurdle for James Afara, the chief operating officer at a cannabis producer, is balancing the health of staff with the need to do critical maintenance.
“The biggest challenge is getting eyes on the plants to make sure they’re healthy and our process metrics…are being collected properly so we can make our decisions remotely,” says James.
“We have key individuals that go in during off-hours to collect the data, but you try to balance that because you never want to put people at risk.”
Juan’s facility has also struggled to do more with less. Most suppliers (90%) have stopped delivering key parts to the plant. But Juan has found an unlikely ally to help him solve this issue.
“We’ve reached out to our competitors to get the crucial parts we need for our corrugator,” says Juan.
“And they’ve reached out to us for some of these consumables…We’re each making sure that we can get business done. We understand that we’re essential businesses and need to keep running.”
Finding a way to get the job done isn’t the biggest worry for most maintenance teams. Instead, it’s ensuring staff health and safety. This has meant putting a lot of new processes in place.
For example, Tom and his team have increased their use of automation so his staff can run operations remotely.
“Our finger is always on the pulse of the facility,” says Tom, “Even without being there, you still know what’s happening.”
These measures have reduced after-hours call-ins by 42% over the last year, which means fewer risky trips to the plant.
Tom, along with James and Juan, have put several other precautions in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19. They’ve started putting fewer technicians on each shift, taking the temperature of staff, sanitizing all incoming parts, and reducing production so staff can do frequent deep cleans of the facility.
Companies have even mobilized maintenance as a key weapon in the battle against the virus.
“It’s imperative that maintenance ensures the facility is running,” says James, “The last thing you want is staff sitting in the lunchroom and not social distancing because of a breakdown.”
This new way of working is essential, but it also has consequences.
“We are limited because if anyone has any sort of symptom, we are pulling them out of work,” explained James, who says his workforce has been reduced by 15% because of illness.
Juan’s team has had to sacrifice efficiency in the name of health and safety.
“Because the staff have to leave their machines and go to a separate area to discuss things, it creates more downtime,” says Juan.
Although their teams are stretched thin and dealing with more breakdowns, it’s all worth it to keep staff safe and healthy.
“Your employees and their health always comes first. You have to value people over profit,” says James.
“If you’re lowering your production, you still have to remember maintenance”
While increased production has led to challenges for some maintenance teams, others have faced a very different obstacle: Coming to terms with facility shutdowns.
Lines have gone silent at many plants in the face of both the pandemic and a struggling economy. That means an uncertain future for many maintenance teams. But there’s opportunity among the difficulties, says Rob Kalwarowsky, host of the Rob’s Reliability Project podcast.
“If you’re lowering your production, you still have to remember maintenance,” says Rob.
“This would be a great time to work through your backlog…or a great time to do those rebuilds you wanted to do. There’s opportunities here, you just have to look for them.”
Your employees and their health always comes first. You have to value people over profit.
While some maintenance personnel are learning to work remotely or with fewer resources, some are facing more dire circumstances.
There was nothing out of the ordinary about Brandon De Melo’s shift on March 13. Brandon, the CMMS coordinator at a major auto parts manufacturer, helped shut down the facility for the weekend and went home. By the next Friday, he had been laid off.
Although Brandon is temporarily without a job, it hasn’t stopped him from exploring new ways to improve maintenance at his facility for when business starts again.
His top priority is creating a list of crucial maintenance tasks for a successful cold start. He’s also working through several projects that have been on the backburner for his team, like organizing inventory records.
Brandon has also turned his home into a one-man manufacturing facility, where he’s been creating protective masks for healthcare workers with a 3D printer.
Left: Maintenance professional Brandon De Melo standing beside his 3D printer. Brandon has been using his printer to produce protective masks for healthcare workers at home.
Right: Pieces of the protective masks made by Brandon using his 3D printer.
Perseverance and hope are how maintenance teams are winning the day
Brandon’s story isn’t the only message of resilience among maintenance professionals. Hope was the word coming from everyone’s mouths when talking about the future, both on and off the shop floor.
“Don’t give up hope,” says Terrence.
“This is going to be a long battle…but I have huge faith not only in the people of this industry, but for all people to innovate and thrive even in this environment.”
Juan echoed this thought.
“The most important part about facing a situation like the one a lot of us are in now is to stay calm and to understand what is essential,” says Juan.
“What is essential is the safety of our employees. If we keep that in mind, everything else will be all right.”
Everything maintenance teams need to know about OSHA, its regulations, compliance standards and how to avoid OSHA violations.
Here’s a scary stat: 85 health and safety violations were committed every day across the US in 2018. In total, there were more than 31,000 fines doled out for breaking the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) top 10 health and safety violations alone.
Besides the potential for accidents, injury, and death, these fines inflicted a heavy toll on the bottom line, costing businesses over $400 million last year.
Many of the top OSHA violations have a connection to everyday maintenance tasks, especially for those working in manufacturing. Another thing they had in common? They were all preventable.
With solid planning and some helpful technology, it’s easy for maintenance teams to avoid health and safety violations while creating a better health and safety program.
What is OSHA?
OSHA is the government-run organization in charge of assuring safe and healthy working conditions for millions of public and private sector employers and workers across the US. They do this by setting and enforcing standards and by providing training, outreach, education and assistance.
What is the purpose of OSHA?
OSHA is responsible for the hefty price tags attached to noncompliance and is the organization that maintenance teams have to impress most often when it comes to health and safety audits.
OSHA regulations, OSHA compliance, and OSHA penalties
The following is a brief rundown of the rules and responsibilities mandated by OSHA and the impact of breaking these regulations.
What are employers responsible for?
Under OSHA law, employers are responsible for providing a safe and healthy workplace for their workers. Employers must provide workers with a hazard-free workplace and must follow all OSHA standards. Employers must find and correct all safety and health problems, first by changing working conditions, like switching to safer chemicals, and then by providing protective equipment.
Besides the potential for accidents, injury, and death, OSHA violations inflicted a heavy toll on the bottom line, costing businesses over $400 million last year.
Other guidelines that employers must follow include:
Prominently displaying official OSHA requirements, OSHA citations, and injury and illness data.
Informing workers about hazards in a language they can understand through training, labels, alarms, and other methods.
Keeping accurate records of work-related injuries and illnesses.
Performing tests in the workplace, such as air sampling.
Providing the required personal protective equipment at no cost to workers.
Not retaliating against workers for using their rights under the law.
These are some examples of the broad policies employers at production facilities need to follow. However, there are many OSHA regulations that apply to specific industries or in certain regions. Some examples of these standards include providing fall protection, ensuring safety in confined spaces, putting guards on dangerous machines, and providing respirators to employees.
What rights and responsibilities do workers have?
Workers also have a responsibility to attend training, ensure they report unsafe work, and follow guidelines set out by employers and OSHA. In addition to their responsibilities, workers also have several rights under OSHA laws, including:
The right to file a confidential complaint to have their workplace inspected.
The right to receive copies of the results from health and safety tests and monitoring.
The right to participate in an OSHA inspection and speak in private with the inspector.
The right to file a complaint with OSHA if they have been retaliated against by their employer.
The right to file a complaint if punished or retaliated against for acting as a whistleblower.
How are OSHA standards created?
OSHA standards-setting process is a multi-step activity that relies heavily on public engagement. New standards can be recommended either by OSHA itself or through third-party petitions from organizations like the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, state and local governments, and labour representatives.
After deciding to move forward with a new standard, OSHA often asks the public for their feedback and insight. After considering all information and testimonies, OSHA develops and issues a final standard that becomes enforceable.
What happens during an OSHA inspection?
When OSHA finds employers who are in violation of the regulations, inspections are initiated without advance notice by compliance officers. Here’s how the on-site inspections usually happen:
The compliance officer presents their credentials.
They explain why the workplace was selected for inspection and describe the inspection process, including walkaround procedures, employee representation, and employee interviews.
The compliance officer and facility representatives walk through the workplace, inspecting for hazards.
The compliance officer talks with the employer and employee representatives about their findings.
If no hazards or OSHA violations are found, the inspection is over. If an inspector finds violations or serious hazards, they may issue a citation and/or fine. A citation outlines methods that can be used to fix a problem and a deadline for correcting the issue, as well as the date by which the corrective actions must be completed.
What are the fines for OSHA violations?
Fines for non-compliance of OSHA regulations can vary based on the seriousness of the violation and the organization’s record and the industry. However, OSHA has outlined maximum fines, which for 2018 include $13,260 for minor and serious violations and $132,598 for willful or repeat violations.
The most common OSHA violations
Below are the 10 OSHA violations most frequently committed by workplaces in 2018:
Fall Protection – General Requirements (Standard 1926.501)
7,270
Hazard Communication (Standard 1910.200)
4,552
Scaffolds – General Requirements (Standard 1926.451)
3,336
Respiratory Protection (Standard 1910.200)
3,118
Lockout/Tagout (Standard 1910.147)
2,944
Ladders (Standard 1926.1053)
2,812
Powered Industrial Trucks (Standard 1910.178)
2,294
Fall Protection – Training Requirements (Standard 1926.503)
1,982
Machine Guarding (Standard 1910.212)
1,972
Personal Protective and Lifesaving Equipment – Eye and Face Protection (Standard 1926.95)
1,536
How maintenance teams can prevent OSHA violations
Here are a few tools and techniques maintenance teams can use to steer clear of violating some OSHA regulations. Each of these tips can be implemented through maintenance management software, such as a CMMS.
Hazard communication
It’s never easy to tear yourself away from a job when your to-do list is a mile long. Then again, when you don’t make time for health and safety tasks, it can result in a huge fine. Over 4,500 companies faced this exact situation in 2018 after they violating the OSHA’s hazard communication standard by failing to provide proper hazard training and maintain the necessary data sheets.
OSHA is also responsible for the hefty price tags attached to noncompliance, and is the organization maintenance teams have to impress most often when it comes to health and safety audits.
Maintaining records and providing health and safety training is often a hassle, even if it’s extremely important. Having an efficient method for storing employee information can go a long way in saving you time and helping you stay compliant. Create employee profiles for everyone on the maintenance team. On each profile, list the training that person has, the dates they completed training, and the training they still need. Make sure to note deadlines for certification renewals on each profile. Create a notification system so both you and the employee are alerted about any training that is about to expire. Lastly, use these profiles to communicate any hazardous situations or changes in policy to all staff.
Lockout/tagout
Lockout/tagout violations ranked as the fifth-most-common breach of OSHA regulations during 2018, even with it being standard procedure across the maintenance and manufacturing world. Facilities were cited for failing to implement an energy control program and to provide training.
Energy control programs help maintenance staff avoid being injured by the massive amounts of hazardous energy that is often stored by equipment. Although many facilities have an energy control program, they are often not implemented properly.
One of the biggest obstacles to policy implementation is a lack of accessibility. Technicians are extremely busy and are often overwhelmed on a daily basis. If they are working on an asset, need to conduct a lockout/tagout and don’t know the proper procedure, it’s not likely that they will spend valuable time looking for the information. Making an energy control program document available digitally and accessible through a mobile device eliminates this problem, is a factor in the successful implementation and helps facilities avoid a costly OSHA violation.
Fall protection – training and general requirements
Companies were handed over 9,000 fines for inadequate fall protection in 2018, with these violations scoring top spot and eighth place on the OSHA’s list. The most common rules that were broken were failing to provide sufficient training and proper protective equipment.
Training your whole workforce might be the end goal of your fall protection plan, but it might not be realistic in the short term. However, there are a few ways employers can better manage their existing pool of trained maintenance staff to avoid violating OSHA regulations. You must be able to cross-reference work orders with staff who are certified (and who have proof of certification). The best way to do this is through a digitalmaintenance work order system. This system can tell you who is available and the best person to do the job, so no one is working at heights without the proper training.
Equipment for fall protection often includes harnesses, guardrails, anchors, and other, larger pieces. These items need to be maintained and stored properly. That is why a well-built inventory management system is a must for safety and to avoid OSHA violations. The ability to track where parts are stored, their history of use, and how often they’ve been maintained is crucial. It ensures that workers know where to find the proper protective equipment when they need it and that they know it will be in optimal working condition. Having a digital inventory system makes this information more accessible and creates a more efficient process.
Machine guarding
Machine guarding was another common OSHA violation in 2018, averaging 5.5 infractions per day. Inspectors cited companies for point of operation and for guards that were not attached to machines.
It’s easy to assume this violation can be avoided by simply walking around your facility, installing guards where needed and training staff to always use them when necessary. However, this isn’t a set-it-and-forget-it issue. It requires an ongoing effort to ensure guards are installed and maintained properly. A guard may rust over time, diminishing its effectiveness. An employee may remove a guard for a project and not replace it properly or at all. That is why you and your maintenance team must be diligent about machine guarding.
One way to ensure consistency with machine guarding at your facility is through automated work orders and maintenance triggers. Determining a maintenance trigger for each guard will help you plan an inspection, repair, or replacement well ahead of time. For example, a certain guard may be slated for replacement every three months. These maintenance triggers can then be scheduled using an automated work order system to ensure you’ll be alerted of upcoming maintenance or inspection for machine guards so tasks don’t fall through the cracks and leave you vulnerable to citations or fines.
Personal protective and lifesaving equipment
The last entry on the OSHA’s list of top violations is one that can apply to many maintenance activities and can have a huge impact on safety. There were over 1,500 instances of facilities failing to provide personal protection equipment (PPE) and lifesaving equipment or failing to ensure employees used them in the right situation.
PPE can vary from job to job in a facility. One maintenance task may require an individual to wear hearing protection while another may call for a dust-blocking face mask. It can be difficult for staff to remember what PPE is associated with which job, which means tasks are not always completed in the safest way (or in accordance with OSHA regulations).
Solving this problem can be as easy as attaching a checklist to each maintenance task or asset that outlines the required PPE. Not only will this standardize PPE practices at your facility, but it also reminds the staff what they should be doing. If the checklist is available in a digital format, it is even more accessible to staff, which means that the protocols are more likely to be followed.
Maintenance strategy can be complicated. Most people agree on what types of maintenance strategies exist, but that’s where the consensus ends. It’s rare to see eye-to-eye on what those strategies look like in the field. That’s no surprise considering the number of factors that impact the debate: Cost, staff size, geography—the list goes on and on. But figuring out which strategy is best for an asset is not a nice-to-have, it’s essential. So we dove into this tangled mess of strategies to sort it out.
Step 1: Know the different types of maintenance strategies
Finding the right type of maintenance strategy for an asset starts with speaking the same language. We don’t need to agree on every little detail of what each strategy means, but we do need to be starting from the same spot.
Reactive maintenance/No maintenance strategy
Reactive maintenance is the mad scramble to fix a machine after it breaks down. It’s like firefighters rushing to put out a fire, only there’s no truck. Or hose. Or water. It’s also called emergency maintenance, breakdown maintenance or simply, having no maintenance strategy.
Run to fail maintenance
Run to fail maintenance (RTF) is a deliberate choice to let an asset fail before repairing it. A plan is in place ahead of time so the asset can be fixed or replaced without causing extra delays or costs. It’s like letting a light bulb burn out while having a dozen spares and a ladder ready to fix it right away.
Corrective maintenance
Corrective maintenance is any task that corrects a problem with an asset. We’re reserving this type of maintenance for smaller, non-invasive tasks that happen before a machine reaches full failure, like making a fix during a routine inspection. Imagine changing the oil in your car and noticing the tires look a little flat. Pumping up the tires is classic corrective maintenance.
Routine maintenance
Routine maintenance is any task done on a planned and ongoing basis to identify and prevent problems. Routine maintenance rarely requires specialized training, skills, or equipment. The daily safety checklists many machine operators complete is an example of routine maintenance.
Preventive maintenance
Preventive maintenance (PM) is maintenance regularly performed on a piece of equipment in working condition to reduce the risk of it failing. There are two main types of preventive maintenance:
Time-based preventive maintenance is when tasks are scheduled on an asset at a certain time interval, such as the first of every month or every seven days.
Usage-based preventive maintenance is when work is scheduled based on the operation of equipment, such as after 1,000 miles or 10 production cycles.
Condition-based maintenance
In condition-based maintenance (CBM), the performance of an asset is monitored to determine when maintenance needs to be done. CBM uses certain indicators, like increased vibration or heat, to catch the point when failure begins, but before it leads to a breakdown.
Predictive maintenance
Predictive maintenance (PdM) uses condition-monitoring tools and techniques to track the performance of equipment, identify defects, and help you fix them before failure.
The difference between predictive maintenance and condition-based maintenance lies in measurement and timing. CBM uses real-time performancedata to point out a problem after a machine begins to fail. On the other hand, PdM takes all information into account (past, present, and future) and offers an ideal time for maintenance before any failure, however small, occurs.
Prescriptive maintenance
Prescriptive maintenance (RxM) takes predictive maintenance to the next level. It uses condition monitoring and machine learning tools to predict when to do maintenance, but it also lays out exactly what kind of maintenance to do to help that piece of equipment perform better for longer.
Maintenance strategies in action on a variable speed transfer conveyor
Let’s look at run to fail vs. reactive maintenance for an example. In both cases, you don’t know when maintenance is going to happen until a machine breaks down. They’re both unscheduled maintenance. However, RTF is a deliberate choice. You know failure won’t impact production. You’ve assembled the parts, people, and processes to fix the asset quickly and without spending too much. It’s planned. Reactive maintenance has none of that foresight, making it unplanned.
Here’s a handy way of remembering how to classify the types of maintenance strategies:
And here’s how much of each maintenance strategy is planned and how far in advance you can schedule them.
Step 2: Know your variables
Every facility is different, which is why it can be maddening to talk about maintenance strategies so generally. Every asset, technician, and business is unique, and what works for one maintenance team may not work for another. That’s why understanding what makes your facility tick is crucial.
Costs
Before you decide on maintenance strategies, take stock of a few key financial elements:
What are you spending, all-up, on maintenance in general and for each asset?
What’s the biggest maintenance cost for each asset? Is it downtime, parts, labour, or something else?
How much would it cost to change the strategy you’re using on an asset?
Assets
Organizing your asset knowledge means it’s easier to analyze and share. There are a few useful questions that can help you build a 360-degree view of your assets:
How would you rank your assets by criticality?
Which assets are underperforming against key metrics?
Which assets are important to safety and compliance?
People
A good maintenance strategy is only as good as people who execute it, which is why the people factor should be taken into account when building your assetmaintenance strategy. There are a few questions that can help you assess the baseline of your staff:
How can you get your team home safely every day?
How many people do you have on your team and is there room for growth?
What are the strengths and weaknesses of each person, and what training is necessary?
Step 3: Choosing a type of maintenance strategy for your assets
Let’s clear the air right now:
“There’s no single best maintenance strategy,” says Stuart Fergusson, Fiix’s senior manager of sales engineering.
“There is a ‘worst’ strategy and that’s reactive maintenance, but the best strategy is the one that helps equipment function at its best, safely, and without too many costs.”
Of course, that’s easier said than done. There are all those unique, colliding, and constantly changing factors for you to consider. But by looking at some major elements, such as costs, safety, and downtime, we can chart where each maintenance strategy falls and give you some tools for assessing the best maintenance strategy for each of your assets.
Cost to implement and manage vs. Instances of downtime
Every minute of uptime gained comes at a cost. The question is whether that cost is worth it. Our first chart can be a starting point for answering that question. It helps you measure your uptime goals against your budget and identify where resources can be used for better returns.
Cost to implement and manage vs. Asset criticality
A good dose of prescriptive or predictive maintenance is often enough to cure unnecessary downtime. But you know the catch: Those strategies require expensive training and technology to do well. That’s where asset criticality comes in. This chart helps visualize where to dedicate your time and money to ensure the most important machines are also the most reliable.
Planned percentage vs. Data requirements
Planned maintenance is like sleep to exhausted parents with a newborn: You can never have enough. But planning takes data to be effective and efficient. The chart below is a run-down of how much data is necessary for each maintenance strategy to be successful.
Planned percentage vs. Safety and compliance
Increased safety is often tied to planned work, because the more you know, the better you can avoid risks. This chart is all about how each strategy allows you to plan and identify risks early so you can reduce the likelihood of accidents or increase compliance on a group of assets.
Getting the right combination of maintenance strategies takes time. No one gets it perfect on the first try. No one goes from reactive to prescriptive maintenance in a single leap. Finding a formula that works is a journey. It could start with doing PMs on a handful of critical assets and lead to a well-balanced strategy that touches every machine. The in-between can last years. What will get you there are data-driven decisions. The result is a facility that runs with fewer interruptions, a healthier bottom line, and a more efficient maintenance team.
Technology often gets all the credit when it comes to predictive maintenance. That’s unfair. Technology is important, but it’s only a small piece of a great predictive maintenance program.
In short, the journey to predictive maintenance is slow, but worth it if it’s done right.
This article is all about building a predictive maintenance program that will last. We explore the six pillars of a strong predictive maintenance program, how you can develop each area, and how to use them to achieve predictive maintenance.
A short refresher on predictive maintenance
Predictive maintenance (PdM) lives in the same family as preventive maintenance. They’re both proactive types of maintenance—work is done on an asset before something bad happens to it, not after a failure has shut it down.
The difference between preventive maintenance and predictive maintenance lies in the methods used, the amount of lead-time you have for a task, and the precision of scheduling. PdM uses condition-monitoring tools and techniques and asset information to track the real-time and historical equipment performance so you can anticipate failure before it happens.
Since predictive maintenance aims to give you an ideal window for proactive maintenance tasks, it can help minimize the time equipment is being maintained, the production hours lost to maintenance, and the cost of spare parts and supplies. We outline maintenance-strategies/”>where predictive maintenance fits in your overall maintenance strategy here.
The six pillars of a predictive maintenance program
A sturdy predictive maintenance program is built on six pillars: People, data, processes, tools and parts, equipment, and technology. If one pillar is not stable or is left to rot, your whole program can crumble.
People: Culture eats strategy for breakfast
The long journey to predictive maintenance always starts with people.
“It doesn’t matter if your predictive maintenance plan looks good on paper if you don’t have buy-in from the people who are doing the work,” says Fiix’s solutions engineer Jason Afara.
“In other words, culture eats strategy for breakfast.”
Every other pillar of a predictive maintenance program needs people to build and maintain it. Data needs interpreting. Technology needs setting up and managing. That’s why everyone in your organization should understand how PdM works, why it’s important and what they can do to make it successful.
Getting people at your facility onboard with the (many) changes that come with predictive maintenance is absolutely essential, but not always easy. This article from Software Advice offers some great tips on change management, getting buy-in from your maintenance team, and creating a great culture at your facility.
Technology is like a dash of salt in a predictive maintenance program—it ties the other ingredients together and makes them shine.
“Without the data, you can’t predict anything. If you don’t have a baseline about what’s normal for a pump or a conveyor, you can’t identify or predict anomalies,” says Bryan Sapot, CEO of SensrTrx.
But with quantity also comes the need for quality.
“If you don’t have good information coming from the plant floor, it won’t matter how good your algorithms are, you won’t be able to make good decisions with it,” says Jared Evans, the chief operating officer at MAJiK Systems.
Data is the link between current assetperformance and the future state of the asset. That’s why everything, from throughput to failure modes and beyond, must be constantly updated. These numbers also have to be accurate everywhere. If they’re different from system to system, it’ll throw your whole program into disarray.
Or as Jason puts it, “If you have bad data coming from your machines and software, it’s like the weatherperson telling you it’s sunny out when it’s actually raining. You’ll step into the rain and get soaked.”
Processes: A steady hand on the predictive maintenance ship
Simply put, your processes are the way you work your plans and does the things it needs to do every day to be successful. An effective predictive maintenance program helps make your whole operation predictable so it can maximize everything from working hours to assetperformance.
Processes in a predictive maintenance program are people-driven and equipment-driven.
People processes involve the way your maintenance team goes about their work. They outline how staff interact with machines, data, each other, and everything else.
“You need to understand who is responsible for what, how frequently you review data and tasks, how you communicate, and how you plan, escalate, and complete tasks,” says Jason.
When it comes to equipment processes, Jared says it’s crucial to know what processes your equipment completes, how to capture assetdata, and how the data maps to future performance.
If you have bad data coming from your machines and software, it’s like the weatherperson telling you it’s sunny out when it’s actually raining. You’ll step into the rain and get soaked.
Tools and parts: Trusty sidekicks ready for the spotlight
Tools and parts play a huge role in allowing predictive maintenance to go from a far-away dream to a realistic goal.
“Predictive maintenance isn’t new,” says Jason. “The difference between 20 or 30 years ago and now is that we have the tools and understanding of parts to do it better and with fewer costs.”
Tools are the instruments used to measure the condition of assets, like infrared cameras, and the tools needed to inspect or repair equipment. Parts are the different components of equipment, but not just any old parts will do for predictive maintenance, as we’ll see below.
Equipment: Not all machines were made for predictive maintenance
Anyone who says reactive maintenance can be totally eliminated has never had their windshield cracked by a stray pebble. While this isn’t exactly an on-the-job example, the lesson still applies to the shop floor: You can’t anticipate everything.
It’s important to know which of your equipment allows you to anticipate failure on it when setting up a predictive maintenance program
“The assets that fit into a predictive maintenance program are the ones that provide good condition data with enough lead-time to catch problems before total failure,” says Jason.
Jason also recommends applying predictive maintenance to your most critical assets with the most observable failure modes because of the time and money needed to build a PdM program.
If you’re looking for information on choosing the best equipment for your predictive maintenance program, check out this starter pack of resources (PF track with balanced maintenance strategies, P-F curve, condition-based maintenance blogs)
Technology: The glue that keeps the other elements together
Technology is like a dash of salt in a predictive maintenance program—it ties the other ingredients together and makes them shine. It helps you manage, facilitate, and optimize the other pillars of predictive maintenance.
“Technology gives you an extra set of eyes,” says Bryan, “so you can collect real-time data without having someone on your team constantly looking at the information.”
This is a big job, one that can’t be done by a single piece of technology.
“Predictive maintenance requires you to pull together so many different data sources,” says Jared.
“You need to know what products are being run and when, the cost of all your activities, when maintenance was last done. The list goes on. You need several pieces of technology to capture all this data, store it, and make sense of it.”
There are lots of different technologies that can be used to manage a predictive maintenance program, from ERPs to MES systems and CMMS software. We explored the most common of these technologies here.
How to build a predictive maintenance program
Predictive maintenance: Part of a balanced strategy
The best way to think of predictive maintenance is like a bowl of cereal in an old TV commercial: It’s part of a balanced breakfast (or maintenance strategy). Predictive maintenance isn’t the only strategy to strive for. Instead, it should supplement your overall maintenance program.
“Predictive maintenance will never replace all other forms of maintenance,” says Jason.
“Creating a predictive maintenance program isn’t about making a checklist. You can’t just tick off a bunch of tasks, flip a few switches and be completely predictive. It’s a journey. It might take 10 years to go 10% predictive.”
A predictive maintenance program won’t solve all your problems. But there are some serious benefits to having one, like a more reliable operation that allows everyone at your organization to grow and be more efficient.
Taking advantage of those benefits relies on building on key maintenance fundamentals. When those fundamentals are strong, you’ll have a strategy that’ll weather any challenge thrown at it.
We believe that your work request process should not only enable anyone in your organization to communicate issues to the maintenance team clearly and with ease, it should act as a catalyst for other departments to support the maintenance function.
That’s why we’ve specifically designed the Fiix work request portal to enable anyone within your organization to participate in maintenance in two key ways – without needing a login:
Enhanced visibility. By giving guests enhanced visibility to all work requests and allowing them to search and track work requests, they have an increased sense of ownership in the process, assisting you in achieving a total productive maintenance (TPM) culture.
Providing additional context. Through customization of the request form, guests can provide additional context based on their area of expertise. This will move you closer towards a reliability-centered maintenance reality by prompting guests to pause and think about why a defect or failure occurred when submitting a work request.
When other roles are encouraged to work in conjunction with the maintenance team through your work request portal, there are productivity gains for the maintenance team as well, including:
Fewer status updates. When guest users are able to search, sort, and track their own and other peoples’ requests, it means less time spent responding to status updates from other departments.
Fewer submitted requests. When guest users can see other submitted work requests, they avoid creating duplicate tickets and can select multiple assets on the same work request.
Increased clarity of requests. The maintenance team can customize the fields on your work request form and set mandatory fields to ensure you have the critical information you need without a lot of back and forth.
For information on configuring and launching your work request portal, please visit the help center. Or keep reading to learn how this simple update to your work request process can enable TPM and play a critical role in FMEA.
Enhanced visibility enabling everyone to keep maintenance at the forefront
This philosophy, that everyone in your facility should contribute to maintenance, is called total productive maintenance or TPM. This approach is proven to lead to fewer breakdowns, a safer workplace, and better overall performance.
So, if the concept is so widely accepted, why are more facilities not practicing TPM? There are two big barriers that many organizations struggle with when it comes to TPM:
Most organizations struggle with cross-functional empathy and the communication that is required to achieve a TPM culture.
Different departments working in silos means critical information gets lost at shift change.
This is where you can take advantage of the work request portal to encourage everyone to have a shared responsibility for maintenance.
For example, equipment operators know exactly how their equipment ticks, so they are often in the best position to identify leading-edge issues before they become failures. The Fiix work request portal makes it easy for operators to submit a work request, track the status of their request, and view all other submitted work requests without requiring a CMMS login.
Autonomous maintenance in conjunction with the work request portal can facilitate cross-functional communication that actually leads to improved productivity, safer work environments, and fewer stoppages or breakdowns.
Capturing failure codes on your way towards reliability-centered maintenance
Your work request process can also play a critical role in your broader failure modes effects analysis (FMEA) process. The work request portal allows you to design and customize how you want stakeholders to be involved in the capturing and analysis of failure modes. This information can optimize your preventative maintenance methods by adjusting intervals or tasks, eliminating unnecessary PMs, or adding new ones.
A failure code is a shorthand that can be cross-referenced to better understand why an asset failed during production. The benefits of adding a failure code field to your work request form are two-fold.
Immediate benefit: In order to assign a failure code, we must pause and think about why a defect or failure occurred before jumping right to fixing the issue and missing out on this critical opportunity for improvement.
Future benefit: Your CMMS will hold valuable data that can unlock identification and prioritization of failures modes to move you closer towards a reliability-centered maintenance strategy.
Improved understanding and transparency of failure modes across the organization can lead to better work practices, training opportunities, and expedited troubleshooting.
Summary
Through your CMMS there is an opportunity for your work request process to be more than just a ticket system. The Fiix work request portal can assist you in getting to your best maintenance strategy by enabling a TPM culture and playing a critical role in your FMEA process.
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