Strategies and management of equipment maintenance and repair

Reliable and safe operation and use of various systems, buildings, equipment, structures – all this is connected with the regular activities of enterprises. This problem never goes away and is one of the most difficult to solve. Issues related to the efficient organization of equipment maintenance and repairs. The difficulty of running an enterprise planning system arises because management often does not know how to approach it. What works well in one firm may not apply to another.

Each of the companies is looking for a way to manage the service in the best and fastest way. The importance of the issue is that simple equipment and unplanned repairs cost. So, maintenance planning is important.

What is Asset Maintenance Planning?

This is a set of measures to maintain the performance of the equipment. Efficient planning management results in a 25 per cent increase in overall equipment efficiency and a 45 per cent reduction in downtime on average.

Common repair planning errors

The main errors of repair planning include:

• Human error: Service provided by low-skilled staff , or not motivated by job quality
• System errors: These are not consistent maintanance checklists. For example, equipment or units did not pass the proper test load after maintenance.
• Design flaws: One of the components of the unit was replaced with one similar to the original, but much lower in quality. Sometimes this can be found when trying to save supplies on consumables. In practice, such replacement of original parts by their cheap counterparts results in budget overruns due to the need to re-service out of schedule

Practice and research show that replacement at fixed intervals is not the best solution. Repair management is a process that requires careful planning and calculation of all components.

What is the maintenance and repair system?

The maintenance planning system consists of three elements:

• planning;
• preparation;
• Implementation of maintenance with clear maintenance deadlines.

Among the criteria for indicators are::

• system economic performance;
• technical evaluation indicators;
• organizational performance.

Internal and external factors should also be identified.

At the first level, indicators such as the number of planned and completed works on time, the percentage of execution of planned works on time, the number of urgent requests for repairs are identified.

At the next level of the indicator analysis, indicators related to the control of materials and spare parts, the availability of labour for the work and qualifications are identified.

The upper level of the analysis of the operation of the maintenance system should allow to collect data on the statistics of defects, failures of equipment, the time required to eliminate defects.

All indicators that are formed and collected in software products can be divided into two groups: the leading and the lagging. Leading indicators track whether the fulfillment of the planned tasks leads to ensuring the necessary quality and volume of output or reliable operation of systems. Lagging indicators make it possible to analyse the facts that have already occurred.

Main purpose of maintenance and preventive repairs system

The maintenance itself fulfils one simple goal – to meet the needs of the enterprise and company, to reduce the risk of failure.

Among the goals that should be taken into account when designing events:

• Creating such a state for equipment that works more reliably and safely;
• Elimination of risks of unplanned downtime due to equipment failure or failure;
• Recording and prevention of possible accidents;
• Recording of statistics on frequent problems and equipment failures, in order to assess the overall technical condition;
• Correct assessment of priorities for the purpose depending on technical condition and general situation;
• Analysis and segmentation of development of all equipment, materials according to criticality and general condition to understand priorities and queue
• Minimization of costs taking into account the main and secondary.

How to prevent problems?

Among the tasks of the planned repairs:

• Continuous maintenance process;
• Performance management of various equipment;
• Continuous maintenance based on schedule;
• Control of various safety requirements of all work (contained more in maintenance maps).

Types of maintenance and repair

Among the types of maintenance, there are:

• Maintenance during use, storage or also shipment;
• Seasonal (related to the season of the year);
• Periodic (from time to time);
• Partial periodic monitoring;
• Under constant control.

Planning is required to:

• ensure correct operation;
• Bring the equipment to the desired parameters and criteria, standards;
• reduce the cost
• Ensure communication with those responsible for different parts of the repair, improve coordination and mobility;
• Perform all the work in compliance with security measures and on time.

Maintenance strategies: work system and organization

The Maintenance Planning System is a generalizing model of the actions needed to achieve reliable operation of the equipment. There are some approaches to classification, for example:

• corrective feedback after fault detection;
• preventive (to make equpment reliable);
• delayed maintenance.

Strategies are divided into two large groups: reactive and preventive.

Reactive – repair activities that have already happened and have led to equipment shutdown, production of inadequate quality or the shutdown of important supply systems.

At the same time, preventive ones are aimed at preventing the occurrence of breakage, a critical event. At the same time, there is also a proactive strategy. It combines the previous two.

How to select a strategy of maintenance for your company?

Finding the right strategy is a big problem and a topical issue that helps to make the company successful and break even. The search for the right strategies is often carried out by the management of the team of works, as well as by leading engineers and talented performers.

If we consider in detail the main maintenance strategies of the equipment, among them, first of all, all enterprises use standard (preventive) scheduled repair. The choice of maintenance strategy depends on the cycle. The cycle is generally understood as a predefined sequence of repairs of the desired type. If the planned one is the service accumulation planning, the time for it is not determined calendar, but depending on the number of starts or hours of operation. With this strategy, repairs are made before something breaks. Work takes place in advance, thus eliminating problems with downtime. Planned is cheaper than waiting for a breakdown.

Often also used in standard situations repair on failure (or emergency work). If the equipment needs to be replaced due to its failure or malfunction – this is a reaction to the failure of the equipment. It is impossible to use further. There are kinds of equipment when parts fail accidentally and it is impossible to foresee it. In this case, various preventive measures are more expensive than the node itself. It is when there is evidence of a decrease in the performance of the node or part (it may be some leak oil or vibration, something else) choose exactly such repair as the defect occurs. This may sound strange, but this is not the worst strategy that exists.

Consider also the following strategies:

• Predictive Service. In this type of strategy, the work on the equipment is carried out on the basis of special precise information about the specific equipment, which is the precursor of the inevitable failure in work. As for the example, here is a good sample with heating of parts of the mechanism or unnecessary vibration.
• By condition (sometimes considered synonymous with planned equipment, but these are different things). Thus, the difference between the planned repair and the status in the first case, the periodicity of the working procedures is set in advance, this is done according to plan. In the second case, depending on what data on equipment is provided by the data collection systems at present. These are sensors, other precise sensors with parameters. The data system clearly compares them with information and data about the accident status.
• By reliability. This is a special engineering approach. It is a generalizing kind of strategy that often includes some available others. This is a kind of process of determining the minimum safety.

Features of emergency maintenance

Emergency maintenance in the maintenance planning system is antipodes of planning and preventive works, which is carried out after the fact of the accident, unplanned emergency failure of systems and aggregates , requiring immediate intervention of specialists for repair. 
If the equipment is not expensive and simple in its device, it may be repaired by the specialist working on this machine, assembly or machine. The main thing to document the fact of the accident through its management, so that the repair service carried out preventive work on this equipment in the first place.

Features of emergency maintenance

Condition maintenance consists of the repair of equipment and its mechanisms with the highest hazard due to increased wear and tear. The state of repair makes it possible to carry out maintenance in volumes and terms , objectively suitable for this. The maintenance system is often used because of the digital control elements already built into the equipment.
Thanks to the assessments and warnings of these elements, the maintenance workers are drawing up a schedule of preventive work.

Conclusion

Maintenance and repair is an integral part of the work of absolutely any enterprise, regardless of its size and direction of activity. This process requires a high level of responsible personnel and appropriate logistical equipment.
Often, the maintenance system is sidelined because of its complexity, resulting in unnecessary losses to the enterprise.

In order to avoid mistakes in this direction, save effort, money, time and improve the quality of work of the specialists involved, it is better to resort to automation tools.
Our specialists have developed a software application: «QR-Inventory». It will facilitate the planning and implementation of maintenance and repair of working equipment. With the help of the program you will be able to get rid of the excessive document circulation, inventories and technical documentation required by specialists. All characteristics, list of components and date of the last working equipment THAT can be entered into the program and read, simply scanning the QR code.