Asset Management - Plant Maintenance Resource Center

More documents

Recommendations

Info

[assets]. The specifications developed during this stage relate to the physical characteristics and capabilities of the required assets. Operation and Maintenance Phase: Business goals also define the requirements of how the assets will be operated. A known range of raw material will be processed into products and offered into the market place. Thus the business goals define the operating environment for the assets and the performance goals needed. The ability to deliver products to an eager market at lowest possible unit cost of production is the ultimate goal. Operational performance is defined as a combination of production rate, quality and yield targets. Asset dependability is defined in terms of reliability and availability targets. Disposal Phase: The end of the asset life cycle is reached when the asset is no longer capable of delivering the required operational performance, or cannot be cost effectively maintained to achieve the required levels of dependability. The options are either modification or disposal and replacement of the asset. Optimising the Operation and Maintenance Phase Optimal performance during this phase of the asset life cycle is only achieved by organisations that embrace a holistic approach. This encourages a close working link between the production and maintenance areas. They are jointly responsible for achieving business plan requirements. There are many definitions of maintenance, however it must be defined and managed as a “process”, in order to achieve optimum pay back from expenditure. Hence the need to identify a maintenance management system as an integral part of the asset life cycle management model shown in Figure 1. During the operation and maintenance phases of the asset life cycle there are three critical factors needed to realise optimal performance. 1. Plant [assets] must be managed to achieve the required dependability goals in the most cost effective way. To do this, a strategy is developed for maintaining assets with a focus on the asset’s function. The asset function defines what is needed to achieve operating performance targets. Thus, effective maintenance is about preservation of asset function to deliver the required operating performance, rather than just preservation of the asset itself. The development of a strategy in this way provides the method for defining and managing an accurate and realistic maintenance budget. This is basically a technical matter that has been done effectively by application of processes such as PM Optimisation (Visit www.pmoptimisation.com.au for additional information.) 2. Processes need to be established in order to efficiently manage maintenance activity, evaluate performance against targets, and initiate any required improvement actions. The processes should reflect the “plan, do, check and act” cycle of continuous improvement. The improvement actions that will be taken are determined by the prevailing business needs at that stage of the asset’s life. This is also a technical matter but is not usually addressed within an organisation unless an asset life cycle management model similar to that depicted in Figure 1 is adopted. Without such a model, it is difficult to gain acceptance and management commitment to the concept of maintenance as a process that plays an important role in achieving business profitability. My experience shows that this is most easily done if the business employs a systems approach to organising itself, and quality management principals have been deployed within the organisation. 3. People need to be effectively engaged to realise the potential of the plant by using established management processes. People need to understand their role, responsibility and goals in terms of the maintenance management processes. This helps people understand how to achieve their performance goals and will ultimately lead to the achievement of business goals. People are the means of achieving performance and dependability targets that assure the achievement of business goals. This is not a technical matter, and so, is often not perceived as an integral part of asset and maintenance management. Maintenance management personnel are usually managed according to a prescribed HR doctrine within the organisation. It would be far more
effective if HR policies for these people were tailored to suit the “Plant , Process and People” approach to maintenance management. Twenty years of experience working in manufacturing and process industry has shown me that these factors are usually dealt with in isolation. There are many organisations that have spent millions of dollars on maintenance software, reliability analysis programs and forming self managed work teams, but still have not achieved the required business results. The poor results are caused by a failure to successfully link all three of these critical factors to address asset life cycle management. Failures of this kind, only reinforces the workforce perception that they are experiencing another one of those “flavour of the month” management fads. Addressing all three factors, delivers synergetic asset management to your business. When this happens: • Business goals drive decisions for the use and care of assets. • Production and maintenance work together as manufacturing teams to develop mutual targets. • Performance and dependability targets become drivers for business profitability. • All resources are optimised, not just maintenance resources. Results achieved by an organisation that has been successful in integrating these factors as part of their asset management system include: • Profit increases of 25-60% • Productivity increases of 20-50% • Machine downtime reduced by up to 98% • Maintenance cost reductions up to 30% Asset management needs to be considered as a holistic management system. This will ensure that good decisions for the use and care of equipment are consistently made and implemented – decisions, which constitute the best business value. The purpose of such a management system is to ensure assets remain capable of delivering the performance required by the business, over the asset life cycle. There is huge untapped potential for Australian industry to improve performance and profitability. Effectively deploying asset and maintenance management practices will guarantee that your business goals are realised. Every business needs to manage assets for their entire life cycle. Angelo Agresti is principal of Asset Capability Management.
Page 1: Asset Management - a source of addi

Asset Management - Plant Maintenance Resource Center

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?