Maintworld Magazine 4/2021

PARTNER ARTICLE
to compare between plants. Some
have even claimed that 2 percent is
“best practice”, or “world-class”. The
2 percent is often used regardless of
what industry that is being benchmarked.
Referring to the variance
in the numerator (if a/b=c, then a is
the numerator i.e., the maintenance
cost) that we have extensively covered
above, we know that the maintenance
cost varies greatly. Trying
to benchmark the MC/ERV between
industries is preposterous and incompetent.
Take a simple example of a conveyor
belt that transports iron ore
outside in a hot, humid environment
to a similar belt that transports wood
chips indoors in a northern paper
mill. The wear of the belt that carries
rock in the sun will be more than the
one that carries wood chips indoors.
Therefore, the maintenance cost will
be higher. A pump that pumps room
temperature water wears differently
compared to one that pumps bitumen
in the oil sands.
Adding to the uncertainty of Maintenance
Cost/ Estimated Replacement
Value, is the ERV itself. Few
plants have a correct number for the
estimated replacement value since
the actual depreciation of the assets
hasn’t been kept up correctly.
Is Maintenance Cost
Useless to Benchmark?
No, it is not useless to benchmark
maintenance cost. Maintenance
cost is an important indicator
for a plant’s performance.
But, the maintenance cost must
be put in perspective with all factors
described above. The age,
past maintenance performed,
the initial investment quality
(Life Cycle Costing), and all other
factors must be analyzed. It
would be impossible to make an
analysis that encompasses all the
important factors that include
maintenance cost. Therefore, the
number shouldn’t be analyzed as
a “stand-alone” number.
What should, and can, be
analyzed is the maintenance
cost performance over time in a
specific plant without comparing
it to other plants. The cost
should be analyzed together with
a set of additional “balancing”
KPIs such as Overall Production
Efficiency (OPE), total cost, revenue,
etc.
WHAT SHOULD BE THE MAIN
GOAL FOR A MAINTENANCE
MANAGEMENT IF IT’S NOT REDUCING
MAINTENANCE COST?
Let’s look at the maintenance cost from
one more angle. If reducing maintenance
cost is the key goal for a maintenance
department, it is a very easy goal to
achieve. Simply stop doing any maintenance
work and your cost will be zero,
goal achieved! Some may say that the
idea above is silly, no mine, plant or mill
would do that. Of course not, but why
wouldn’t they?
If you stop doing maintenance work,
the equipment and the plant stops running,
and your revenue will go to nil.
Plants should define what the outcome
of the maintenance department should be.
It is a critical discussion to have because
it changes the whole approach to maintenance
in an organization. The product of
maintenance work should not be service, it
is not repair, it is not cost. The outcome of
maintenance work is equipment reliability.
If the goal for maintenance is to deliver
equipment reliability instead of reduction
of maintenance cost, high reliability will
reduce the cost over time, and you will get
the best of both worlds.
40 maintworld 4/2021