Maintworld 2/2018

ASSET MANAGEMENT
The criticality spectrum:
a means to focus our attention
where it is warranted
Developing an asset criticality
ranking (ACR) is an
important part of any reliability
and performance
improvement initiative.
The criticality ranking
enables an organization
to prioritize and justify a
wide range of activities
and investments.
JASON TRANTER,
CMRP, Mobius Institute,
jason@mobiusinstitute.com
6 maintworld 2/2018
UNFORTUNATELY, it is all too common to
perform a very basic criticality analysis
that does not allow decisions to be made
(and has very little buy-in). And in the
author’s opinion, it is also too common
for people to perform an analysis that is
far too detailed, in the form of RCM or
FMECA.
The aim of this article is to propose a
graduated approach to assessing criticality
which makes best use of your time
while providing the decision-making
information you need.
The criticality spectrum
The basic idea of the criticality spectrum
is that we perform more and more
detailed analysis based on criticality. At
one end we have very little information
to go on, i.e., a system criticality analysis.
At the other end we have a great deal of
information to go on, i.e., a detailed (but
expensive) reliability centered maintenance
(RCM) or failure modes, effects,
and criticality analysis (FMECA).
We could start with the system criticality
ranking and then perform more
detailed analysis on the assets within a
critical system. As you will soon read, we
can perform a more and more detailed
asset criticality analysis, and then a component
criticality analysis on the critical
assets, and finally the far more detailed
RCM or FMECA analysis on the most
critical assets or components. As we
move from left to right on the spectrum
we will determine which assets warrant
a more detailed analysis, thus saving
time and providing focus where it is necessary.
Let’s take a closer look.