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incompatibilities with R&D: when maintenance and upgrades affect several fields of expertise, it is difficult to guarantee that the results will comply with specifications (and be on schedule and within budget). With more recent technologies, preventive maintenance is necessarily limited and dependent on experts. Maintenance at CERN: On the brink of a new maintenance project (G. Perinić) Goran Perinić briefly presented the LHC and detectors. He emphasized the fact that even a minor incident on a device during operation can require the entire accelerator to be shut down, and cited examples where this has occurred. Accordingly, preventive maintenance activities are given increasing importance. Emergency repairs must therefore be distinguished from maintenance operations, and the latter must be taken into account properly to improve operation. He also explained the link between the maintenance tool, INFORM EAM, and the EDMS technical documentation system. CERN is currently setting up a new cross-department maintenance project, with the aim of reducing the frequency of scheduled technical downtime from once every six weeks to once every twelve weeks. With this in mind, an audit was conducted (based on a questionnaire sent to support groups in order to assess their approach to maintenance), which showed the diversity of maintenance methods and tools used by support groups. The aim is now to define a modus operandi (methods, tools, indicators) common to all these groups. A dedicated organization and staff have been set up to complete this project within two years. A CMMS working group has been formed to define the common modus operandi, which an expert group will help to transpose into operational procedures. 2. Round tables FIRST ROUND TABLE: What are the necessary resources and organization for an effective maintenance management system? First discussion on this topic: “centralised” or “distributed” maintenance? If maintenance is distributed between several groups or departments, there is a risk of diluting responsibilities, duplicate work, different methodologies and tools, resulting in lower efficiency. Centralised maintenance appears preferable, but should be considered as a process in its own right Second discussion on this topic: who is responsible for maintenance? For the majority of participants, the owner of the equipment is responsible for the function that it provides and should therefore bear responsibility for maintaining it. The maintenance team, in turn, is responsible for performing the maintenance requested by the person responsible for the equipment. It is also the maintenance team’s responsibility to propose equipment improvements to the development department. Third discussion on the topic of common tools. Some participants believe there is no need to use the same tool in all areas of activity. CERN, on the other hand, is working to enhance the reliability of its facilities, and is moving to a single common tool for all tracking. Fourth discussion on the topic of rights management Most participants feel that topology management rights (creation / deletion) should be restricted in order to minimise accidental errors and ensure consistency. CERN does not restrict user rights to any great extent and counts on training and understanding of the system.
SECOND ROUND TABLE: What common indicators could research infrastructures set up and share? First discussion: motivation of teams involved in maintenance (who are also involved in R&D work which is generally felt to be more rewarding). • Remark on financial aspects: it is possible to have two separate teams (R&D and maintenance) provided sufficient resources are available. • For complex equipment, the teams must have well-honed skills Accordingly it is important to involve them in development as well as maintenance. • Training and educational aspects are important: the value of maintenance work must be highlighted to show that it contributes to enhancing reliability. • Senior management support is essential. The participants noted that defining indicators is a way of providing recognition that maintenance has an important role to play in a facility’s performance. Indicators such as those set up by CERN are a motivating factor for staff. The bonus/penalty system set up by ESRF was mentioned again, though it was pointed out that the system is difficult to implement on an in-house basis. Second discussion: what should be the ratio of preventive maintenance to corrective maintenance? This ratio has consequences on the financial cost and the cost in terms of resources. How can this be quantified? The question remains open. Third discussion on this topic: Indicators The participants noted that a number of indicators are defined by standards (MTBF, equipment availability, EN 15341, EN 1306, etc). While it is easy to implement such Indicators in some fields (infrastructure, accelerators, etc.), they are not easily accepted by scientists for whom publications are the key indicator. 3. Miscellaneous ESRF proposes to make its technical documentation relating to maintenance contracts available to the participants. DESY would like feedback about the CMMS software used by the various institutes. CERN proposes to share its indicators. 4. Conclusions The workshop has highlighted the importance of maintenance, although there are still many open issues. Various points have been revealed: • CMMS software is relatively widely used in departments which outsource part of their activities and which have contractual relations with subcontractors; however, it is much harder to impose the use of a CMMS “internally” (within a department or a research body, for example). • Senior management commitment is essential to ensuring CMMS use. • Most of the organizations in attendance have IT support personnel dedicated to setting up the CMMS (and responsible in particular for defining and administering user access rights to topologies) • The participants proposed to review in a year’s time all the questions that arose; • CERN is volunteer for hosting the next workshop in 2012; The intention is to hold more round table sessions in parallel next year, so that all issues can be discussed
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