MechChem Africa February 2017

MechChem Africa

•

February 2017

he correct implementation of hard-

ware and software will assist com-

panies in realising a return on their

investment by reducing mean time

between failures (MTBF), extending equip-

ment life, improving uptime, plant availability,

production and profitability.

It is essential for companies to identify

key business goals and set associated perfor-

mance targets in order to remain competitive

and profitable. “The overall objective in this

effort shouldbe tocreatea strategyaligned to

business goals and then followawell-defined

process to drive down total costs of owner-

ship whilst maintaining or even increasing

production time,” suggests Sassen.

Maintenance is usually seenas anecessary

cost of doing business. “Neglecting mainte-

nance results inequipment failure, unplanned

downtime and a drop in production levels,”

Maintenance as a key part of overall strategy can improve profits by reducing the costly effects of

machine downtime. “Indeed, maintenance should be seen as a profit centre,” according to Greg

Sassen, SKF asset reliability consultant. In this article he talks about SKF asset efficiency optimisation

(AEO), combined with proactive reliability maintenance (PRM) hardware and software.

Asset efficiency optimisation, combined with proactive reliability maintenance, can help maintenance to

be seen as a profit generating activity.

Reliability-focused maintenance

as a profit centre

continues Sassen. “However, one train of

thought suggests that manufacturers could

make a return on their investment in mainte-

nance and even that maintenance should be

seen as a profit centre.”

Implementing maintenance as a key part

of overall strategy can improve profits by

reducing the scourge of machine downtime.

For maximum effect, maintenance should

work in partnership with other elements of

the business including engineering and pro-

duction, to pinpoint howa reliability-focused

maintenance process can deliver specific

business goals.

Sassen recommends an integrated strat-

egy and technology approach. “A strategywill

ensure these programmes are implemented

cohesively throughout a plant. SKF offers a

newgenerationof integratedapproaches that

take the needs of the entire organisation into

account. Once implemented, these strategies

enablemaintenance requirements to be ana-

lysed, assessed andmanaged simultaneously,

raisinguptimeandproductivityandimproving

the bottom line.”

“Investigationofmaintenance procedures

is a good starting point,” recommends Sassen.

“Factory maintenance has historically been

done reactively, linked to set time intervals

and machine or component failure. This

results in poor control of production assets

(people and machines) and drags productiv-

ity down.”

Amore proactive, holistic approach offers

better asset control, minimised unexpected

downtime and boosted productivity. This

is the basis of SKF’s AEO plan, a work man-

agement process structure that delivers

maximum efficiency and effectiveness from

activities focused on the overall business aim

of the plant. The plan takes account of top-

level business forecasting and system-wide

analysis. It is a shift away from the reactive

approach, toa selectivemixof scheduled, pro-

active, predictiveand reactivemaintenance. It

has in-built sustainability and provides rapid

results and payback on investment.

A strategic tool such as AEO helps a com-

pany to manage its assets more effectively

– ensuring smooth running and minimum

downtime across the entire plant. It boosts

profitability by increasing output for the

same cost, ormaintaining output for less cost.

There are four integratedelements toanAEO

programme:maintenancestrategy,workiden-

tification, work control, and work execution.

The maintenance strategy sets business

goals and objectives, assesses plant critical-

ity and risk, and defines the most important

issues and priorities to ensure an effective

maintenance plan that is tailored to the needs

of the business and can be easily communi-

cated throughout the organisation.

The second element is the identification

of work, where critical plant information is

gathered by relevant CBM equipment and

analysed, allowing informed decisions to be

made and the correctivemaintenance opera-

tions to be carried out.

The third element, work control, involves

detailed planning and scheduling of mainte-

nance activity, taking into account timescales,