Maintworld Magazine 3/2021

PARTNER ARTICLE
the calculation indicates that using
the same amount of resources with
improved OEE will decrease cost per
unit, since fixed cost will be spread over
more units. Increasing OEE strategically
points to improving maintenance
work, specifically decreasing corrective
maintenance and breakdowns. It is best
if we can set up work processes to prevent
repairs altogether. We can prevent
failures with good lubrication, correct
installation, cleaning, good operating
practices and correct design of equipment.
To enable Planning and Scheduling
of maintenance work (in addition
to coordination with the production
plan) there must be good Condition
Monitoring (inspections) of equipment.
Condition Monitoring provides
lead time for Planning and Scheduling
by finding failures early before they
develop into breakdowns. The failures
found by Condition Monitoring should
be prioritized according to defined priority
rules.
There is now a project to utilize
machine learning that installs sensors
and downloads software for some of
the manufacturing equipment. Craftspeople
and Reliability Engineers have
already started to use that information
to improve their PM programs
by identifying and correcting conditions
that eventually lead to failure of
components. In fact, the maintenance
organization has direct access to the
machine learning database while they
are inspecting, troubleshooting, or trying
to find the root cause of a failure on
their tablets and laptops.
Technical Database:
In an effort to improve OEE, Maintenance
realized that there must be a
good technical database and stores to
enable effective planning. The technical
database that includes OEM helps
the planner find instructions, materials,
spares, and technical specifications.
Information such as clearances, set
points, torque specs, etc. needs to be
included in the work order packages.
Stores must be well organized to protect
the condition of parts. The Bill of
Materials, as part of a technical database,
must be complete and up to date
to ensure that information is known,
and correct parts are allocated to the
job. This process will decrease the
amount of time spent tracking down
manuals, ordering parts and executing
corrective maintenance work, allowing
us to focus on improving OEE.
Do:
Once the job is planned and scheduled,
the repair is executed at high quality.
The craftspeople meet with the supervisor
for 15 minutes in the morning
to see if there are any changes to the
schedule. The schedule is posted in the
maintenance shop, but all the craftspeople
have the schedule up on their
tablets. The schedule shows start and
stop times of each job and downtime
of equipment coordinated with Operations
and agreed upon by the Operations
and Maintenance Coordinator
(OMC). The OMC is the one point of
contact between Maintenance and Operations.
Record:
After the work is completed, the job
history is recorded in the CMMS. Recording
work order history will answer:
What was the problem? What was done
to repair the problem? How can it be
prevented in the future? The craftsperson
has the flexibility to do this though
their tablet, phone, or laptop. Since
craftspeople update the work order history
daily, the maintenance schedule is
up to date in real time. This helps the
Figure 1: IDCON's Circle of
Continuous Improvement
44 maintworld 3/2021