1) Maintenance is considered as a cost center rather than a cost-saving mechanism.
One major obstacle is the view that money not spent on maintenance issues is money saved. Maintenance costs are only considered as a detriment to the bottom line while the reality remains that PdM programs are a cost saving mechanism. Well executed predictive maintenance strategies along with necessary preventative activities will insure the safe and successful operation of the facility.
2) Maintenance takes a back seat to production.
Far too often planned maintenance activities are delayed and even scheduled outages are cut short or cancelled driven by production demands.
3) Maintenance personnel are spread too thin.
Most facilities have innumerable minor issues that take up the technician’s time. Changing light bulbs, cleaning up spills and addressing warning lights consume the techs day and major issues get postponed are left undone entirely. Little things such as replacing filters, checking oil levels and finding the root-cause of those annoying warning lights never get performed.
4) Maintenance personnel are inexperienced.
Making reliable and reasonable repairs and adjustments requires not only mechanical knowledge but years of experience. In many major facilities and factories personnel are constantly being moved from one job to another. Sometimes the move is initiated by the employee wanting to move up; sometimes it is side effect of production adjustments or the loss of older employees who are retiring. Whatever the reason, inexperience leads to improper repairs and adjustments which can hasten failures and lead to unplanned downtime and lost production.
5) Some failures are random.
6) All of the above!
Summary:
There is basically no relationship between how long an asset has been in service and when it might fail. Planned Preventive Maintenance costs and the lost production associated with outages consume a great deal of any operation’s budget. Add to that the fact that maintenance based on time in service usually means that an asset gets removed and “repaired” even though it may be in perfect operating condition. And, preventive repair procedures may introduce faults that did not exist. Each time an asset is removed or even disassembled on site; there is a chance that something may go wrong. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it instead of its not broken but let’s fix it anyway. A well organized and executed Predictive/Proactive Maintenance Program is by far the most cost effective strategy to insure continued safe, efficient operation.
How do we overcome these issues?
1) Convince management of the facts regarding PdM strategies.
Until, in the minds of management, maintenance moves from the purgatory of the cost column to the value realization and profit optimization column this unfortunate challenge will likely continue.
2) Outsource all or part of the PdM activities.
It is impractical for most plants and factories to employ highly skilled mechanical and electrical technicians who will have the time, the expertise and the proper equipment to perform adequate predictive maintenance testing and trending. Working with a qualified service provider and sharing PdM activities is almost always the surest method of maintaining a successful PdM program. A top performing service provider will employ highly skilled technicians, both electrical and mechanical. They will perform the predictive testing with state of the art equipment and have diagnostic personnel who have many years of experience in deciphering the collected data. Periodic, routine electrical and mechanical data collection and trending provides the technicians with sufficient information to make highly educated estimates of when an asset will need attention.
When required, the service provider works with the facility personnel to perform the needed repairs.
Summary:
Plants, factories and manufacturing facilities are very good at what they are designed to do. Their personnel are trained to make the best widgets, build better cars or keep the lights on. Let them do what they do best and let a qualified service provider share in the responsibility of keeping those plants, factories and facilities operating safely, efficiently and continuously.